The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Category: Bag Making

Weekend Sewing/Quilting Projects

Hi, I hope everyone had a great week. I have a couple things to share with you today that I am working on as projects this weekend.

I have my Zen Gardens Bento Box quilt basted and have it half quilted or the length of the quilt top. I have decided to do some straight line stitching in a plaid type pattern. I am sure there are numerous ways to quilt this kind of top. I needed something that would be fairly quick to accomplish as I am on a short undetermined schedule. Our friend who will receive the quilt is moving out of state at the end of the month and I was not given a definite time she would be able to visit to receive her quilt. I did not want to mail it to her. I also decided to go with a lighter alternative to batting since she is moving from Iowa to Arizona. I am using a cotton sheet as batting. It is stitching up nicely with a 100/16 needle. I generally sew and quilt with a 90/14 but since I am stitching through 3 layers of cotton I decided to go up a size. The walking foot is working nicely over all the seams this quilt has.

Quilting Design Mockup using Paint program

I am quilting top and bottom with gray thread and the pattern is showing nicely on the black backing fabric. I took extra care to attempt to make sure my red crosses I pieced ended up in straight rows across the back. So far it looks good.

I am looking at starting a new quilt project. My friend Jan over at The Colorful Fabriholic posted a tutorial on how to make a neat plus quilt. It uses 3.5 inch squares and that really caught my attention since I recently came into 150 red 3.5 inch squares when I accidentally cut my strips into squares instead of the long rectangles needed for the Midnight Mystery Quiltalong that Meadow Mist Designs is currently holding. I have had numerous squares and strips of black and white print fabrics leftover from making my Charming quilt top and my Broken Frames finished quilt.

Future Plus quilt project

My print strips are leftover from fat eighths and I will have just enough width to get my 3.5 inch squares. I have thirty prints and should be able to cut 6 squares from each strip. So that gives me 180 print squares and 150 red solid squares. Jan used 437 squares in her quilt. I have a stack of 157 5 inch squares that are in the same prints plus some extras that were also in my two previous quilts. I had originally wanted to keep them for another quilt, but my strips here will only make 30 print pluses. Hopefully there are multiples of some prints so I can make additional print pluses.

Black and White prints by Moda

White and Black prints by Moda

Gray and White prints by Moda

I am going to finally get my design wall made and put up so that I can utilize it to arrange all the squares to build the various plus blocks.

I have one non quilting sewing project that I want to get started on this weekend. I have been wanting a new purse to carry and I really prefer the cross body style of bags. I have seen numerous versions and have not been able to decide on just one pattern so I hope to combine the ideas of a couple I like to make a bag that will work for me.

Crossbody Purse project supplies

I have a remnant of a soft brushed canvas that has been in my stash many years. It is 30 by 60 inches. I have three colors of webbing as possible straps, and three shades of leather remnants. I bought a 3 pound package of leather remnants at Hobby Lobby. They are nice sized pieces and all seemed to be light enough weight that I will be able to sew on them with my domestic home machine with a leather needle of course.

Vintage print brushed denim/ painters canvas cloth

I am thinking of adding some of the painters canvas tarp cloth I found at Walmart as a coordinating fabric. I have two shades of denim blue thread that I could do some free motion quilting on for detail.

Gray, dark navy and creamy butter colored leather remnants from Hobby Lobby

I bought two of the 3 pound bags of leather remnants and got many pieces of black, gray, navy, cream and maroon leather. The bag sells for $8.95 and I used the 40% off coupon for a better deal. Many leather projects will be in the future for my daughter and myself.

Purse strap choices

My purse strap choices in tan twill and brown and bright blue nylon webbing.

I should be able to complete my Zen Gardens quilt tomorrow. I am going to be binding it in red. I am looking forward to seeing it finished. I will begin cutting fabrics for the plus quilt top and work out some purse ideas.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

July 24, 2015
Friday Projects Update

Hi, I hope everyone has had a good week. I thought I would share a Friday Projects Update.

I have been slowly but surely working away on my half square triangles for my Sea Stars quilt pattern testing. I should put the emphasis on slowly. The sewing part is no problem, it is getting them all pressed and squared up that is so time-consuming.

(The pile of trimmings make pretty confetti. See my pretty new rotary cutter. Zebra striped. )

I have tried a couple different techniques for squaring up the half square triangles. One is to press open first and then square up on all four sides, if needed. Then I tried where you trim before pressing open and it trims off the little ears in one swoop. I am not going to say yet, which one was better for me.

Has anyone tried this specialty ruler for creating Half Square Triangles? It’s by June Tailor and there is a video online how to use it. I bought it with a 40% off coupon at JoAnn’s. I have been using the 4 1/2 inch square ruler with pink Post-It tabs taped to where I need to cut my HSTs. I used the full size on the Mod Gears quilt blocks, and will move it smaller and smaller to make the sizes need for Sea Stars and WoW-E quilt blocks.

I always like to have a non quilting sewing project to work on for some down time. I have been wanting a new purse to carry and I like the cross body styles of bags as they cause less stress on my shoulders.

I am looking at Noodlehead’s Trail Tote or Swoon’s Ramona Mini Hipster bag. They both are free patterns that you can download. The Trail Tote closes with a magnet, and Ramona closes with a recessed zipper. I really am more comfortable using a zippered purse. So I am thinking of applying the recessed zipper technique to the Trail Tote???

I love this text and postage stamp canvas print. It has ridges or ripples in it. It is a remnant left of the fabric my Mom made a purse out of. It was the purse she carried up until the day she passed away in June 2013.

This is a very intricate machine embroidery of the Eiffel Tower that my Mom made as a sample. It is on a piece of white cotton that measures 6 by 11 inches, and the embroidery is 2 by 5 inches. I have had this set aside for something special and thought I could use it on an inside pocket of a purse so I would have a daily reminder of my Mom with me.

I have also come across another free pattern for an awesome tote bag that I would like to make. It is the Day At the Beach Bag with Rope Handles at Sew 4 Home website.

These are two gorgeous quality canvas fabrics that were some of the last fabrics I knew my Mom purchased. She had purchased them online. My Mom loved to make all kinds of bags and purses. And she loved France and everything French. It was her dream to travel to France. I took three years of French classes in high school many moons ago. It has not been used much after marrying into a German speaking family. lol

I have numerous bag making supplies. I have some painters canvas tarp material left over from other projects that can be used for the plain top portions of the Day at the Beach bags. I all ready have grommets and roping in the supplies as well, so it is a sign that I need to make these bags.

Hope all the Moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I had a great day with my husband and kids. My kids went all together with my husband and got me a new camera for Mother’s Day. I have not had a chance to truly play with it yet this week. It’s Wi-Fi enabled so it is supposed to upload my photos to my email or possibly Facebook accounts.

It is a Samsung WB380F camera. It has white simulated leather finish, so it should be interesting to keep it clean??

I hope to make some more progress sewing up all the blocks and pieces to make Sea Stars and Mod Gears quilt tops this weekend. I have not touched WoW-E yet, other than cut out all the pieces and bag them up in a ziploc. I am redressing which way I want to make my HSTs since the little ones in WoW-E finish at 1.5 inches (you want them accurate on the first try.)

I will be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 15, 2015
Sewn Christmas Gifts

Hi Everyone, Hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday spent with family and lots of good food. I would like to share some items that I sewed up as gifts for this Christmas. I wanted to finish quilting Plus Dash and Boxed In and Out as gifts but it just did not work out for me. I tend to over do it, but since part of our Christmas will continue on into possibly the middle of January, my quilts will get extra care and be completed at a later date.

Our two Grandsons and their Great Grandma all got Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 tablets for Christmas. I decided to make up sturdy cases for them that stand up by themselves when you want to watch long videos. The boys love Netflix.

I used a pattern that I found on Etsy. The pattern was originally able to be purchased and the designer could draw you up one to fit your tablet computer. Our grandson had an off brand tablet that was larger than these Samsung ones. I see that the designer Sew Spoiled has updated her pattern for 2014 and sells them for Ipads. We had purchased the original pattern back in 2012 and his tablet was a good inch wider and close to 2 inches taller than what his new one is. I had my outer cases made before I realized that there was a difference in size of tablets. Luckily I could just move the corner tabs and elastics to fit the smaller tablets.

I made this one for Grandma Beckie. I used some fabrics from my stash that I had made her a tote bag for her knitting two Christmases ago. The fabric was called Heart and Soul by Whimsicals for Red Rooster Fabrics. I had three of the prints left and I added solid brown and bound the edge of my pieced tablet top.

I used the third print as the lining of the case. I fused the lining with a medium weight iron on interfacing. The outside of the case had a firm interfacing Pellon Peltex or Timtex applied to it. Once I sewed the two top layers together, I slipped another piece of really heavy fiberous stablizer product into the case before I sewed the channels for the tile pieces. I cut a couple linoleum tiles instead of masonite boards.

Here is the tablet case standing up.

Here is Shaderek’s case. I made his out of a fun Transformers cotton print I found on sale at Walmart.

Yellow for the inside of his case, since BumbleBee is his favorite Transformers character.

Sawyer likes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He calls them the Monster Turtles.

I pulled red cotton from my stash. I know one of the turtles wears it as a mask color.

I purchased the Ninja Turtles and Transformers fabrics to make the boys quilts. I purchased 3 yards of each, and cut off 1/2 yard to make the cases. I have enough of the half yard of fabric left that I am making padded cases for storing or traveling with the tablets. I do have some scraps left of the Heart and Soul prints that I have a case cut out for Grandma as well. I have some neoprene type rubber that I have rectangles cut out that will help pad the front and back of the tablets. I have not decided yet if I want to make the cases zippered or make them closed with a flap that slids behind an elastic strap. (I made myself a case with the elastic band for my Kindle and like that style of case.) Future quilts made from the Turtles and Transformers fabrics can stay at our house for when they visit, especially since I put all that work into making the Scooby Doo quilts for the boys.

I made a special pillow for the boy’s Great Grandpa. It is color striped like the Italian Flag. It was one of my first flanged pillows.

Our daughter cut out of black vinyl, their family name Lasorella in a really neat script font and added a black outline of the Italian map under it and fused it on to the pillow with her heat press. (I unfortunately do not have a photo of it.) I made my own pillow form from upcycling a pillow top mattress pad. The wife of one of my husband’s coworkers works at a large name mattress factory and apparently employees are allowed to have the defective tops. Two king size mattress tops were given to my husband as they knew that we made furniture and did our own upholstery at times. It was not what my husband thought it was going to be, but when cut up and sewn together, it makes wonderful pillow forms. It is five different layers of foam and tuffed together with large circles and awesome machine quilting.

And the last gift I presented on Christmas Day was my finished High Tea batik quilt to Grandma Beckie. She loved it and was shocked that I would give her such a gift. Her birthday is January 1st so it made it better that I said it was a joint birthday/Christmas gift.

I will be sharing these finished items with various linky parties. Many thanks for the continued support of my blog readers. I hope you all have a healthy and safe New Years. I have many new quilty projects to share in the upcoming year.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

December 27, 2014
Iowa State/U of I Tailgating Bag Trio

This Summer I was picked to participate in pattern testing for a new tote bag pattern designed by Sara Curtis of Radiant Home Studio. Sara chose a dozen crafters to make up her tote bag pattern and send her photos of our completed bag with any and all feedback. Sara wrote The Coastal Tote pattern with clear and precise instructions, lots of great photos and diagrams, and well researched sources on where to purchase the rope she used to make handles for her original tote bag. Many of my fellow pattern testers suggested adding a zippered pocket to the front of the bag. Sara rewrote her tote pattern to include this great suggestion and she generously sent us all a finished copy of the completed pattern for our help in this project. Sara has also designed a free tutorial for a simplified version of The Coastal Tote that she calls Cactus Beach Tote that can be found over at Spoonflower, the wonderful company that you can design your own fabric and have it printed.

For my Coastal Tote I chose to use an Iowa State collegiate team logo cotton fabric. It was in my stash since I had made some other bags that will end up as part of this trio and I also had made my husband a quilt. I chose to use muslin as my lining. I know that probably was not a very interesting choice of fabric, but it allows the decorative features show up inside the bag. It also coordinated with canvas I used in my other bags. For the time frame we were given to complete our totes, I did not think I had time to order the suggested rope the pattern called for. I looked all over the local JoAnn Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics and Walmart for a similar rope and was not able to find the size or style Sara used. I ended up using a black and red twisted nylon rope that my husband had spool of on hand. I hoped he would not miss 9 foot of rope. I liked how the red color in the rope went well with my red fabrics.

This pattern has some wonderful full size pockets inside the tote. They have divisions which were created when you sew the channels for inserting the rope handles. With how I cut my fabric initially, I ended up with an extra rectangle of ISU fabric so I decided to add the same style pocket to the other side of bag. Original instructions had only called for the one side of pockets. This bag was finished off on the inside with French Seams. I had not used them in quite a few years, so I read over the instructions a couple extra times to make sure I was starting my sewing with the needed side of fabric up on top. The tote instructions also call for making a zippered pocket pouch that is sewn into the side seam. This is great for carrying a small wallet and your keys. I used a small scrap of a coordinating ISU print that was left over from my other bags.

The Coastal Tote is a very versatile bag. I thought it would be wonderful to hold extra food items when going to tailgates or family reunions. Lots of room for plates, bags of chips, and liters of pop and stack of cups ( or one’s favorite adult beverage makers if tailgating.) The pockets are great for holding silverware and other utensils.

The other bags in my tailgating bag trio are my two Iowa State casserole carriers. I made them out of the Iowa State fabric print that is shown as zippered pocket in above tote bag. I researched various casserole carrier tutorials after seeing many on Pinterest. I chose to use the Casserole Carrier tutorial by 2 little Hooligans.

I used an Iowa State University collegiate cotton print for the main body of my casserole carriers. I used cotton canvas that I upcycled from a cotton painters tarp that I purchased from Walmart. It was 9 x 12 foot and I threw it in the washing machine and dryer and it came out wonderfully soft. It was alot of good useable fabric for under $10. I used the Insul-Bright thermal lining as suggested in the tutorial. It is wonderful for making pot holders and other items you need to insulate from the heat or cold. It is a product that does what it says it does. My Mom always had always suggested keeping it in my sewing supplies.

This weekend is very important in Iowa. It is time for Iowa State University versus University of Iowa football. It is a very important part of the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series which is an annual sports competition that involves all sports and academics between the two state schools since 2004. The two schools play each other in 13 sports with the winner receiving two points except in football, which is worth three. Iowa State currently leads the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series by a score of 2-0. Our family of course is big Iowa State Cyclones fans. My husband and many of family members are all alumnus of Iowa State. A new generation of our family are currently attending ISU including two Nieces and a Nephew. We are a farm family that is preparing for fall harvest. So we will be unfortunately missing attending this game rivalry live in person. We will be anxiously listening to the outcome of this game on our radios. My tailgating trio of bags will get good use at upcoming family reunions and holiday get togethers.

I will leave you with GO STATE! BEAT THEM HAWKS! LOYAL SONS FOREVER TRUE!!

If you like what you are reading on my blog, please consider subscribing to my posts by Bloglovin or email. I also have a Facebook page that links to my blog. You can find links to everything on my main blog pages. Thanks for reading.

I will be linking up with various linky parties this week.

Linky Party Tuesday , Sew Cute Tuesday , And Sew We Craft’s Sew- Together Linky Party

September 9, 2014
Found on Pinterest: My Take on the Big Blue Ikea Bag sewing tutorial

I Love, Love Pinterest and all the cool things you can find on there to make. I find wonderful ideas for future quilting projects, ideas for clothes to make for myself, daughters and grandkids to the most wonderful fattening recipes.

I come across the Pin for the Big Blue Ikea Bag which has a tutorial made by Miss Make. I thought these bags were really cool. I may be one of the few people left on this Earth that has never stepped a foot into an actual IKEA store yet. I see all kinds of lovely items online so I hope to visit some day just to look at their wonderful fabrics alone.

I made two of these bags with red and green nylon fabric that has been in my fabric stash from many moons ago from sewing for my kids. I thought the bags would be great to hold clothes and laundry for my son and his girlfriend who have to use a laundromat in their college town.

The instructions are pretty straight forward. I decided to finish off my bags with French seams even the gusseted bottom of the bag. It makes it so clean and finished. I chose to only add the 29 inch webbing handles to my bags instead of the double 14 inch and 29 inch handles. I was not sure what the purpose of the double handle was. I did add in to the side seam a tube of the nylon cloth that was 3 inches by 15 inches folded, sewn and turn right side out on each side of center to use as ties to help hold items into the bag. As an extra step to finish off the top hem of the bag, I added a coordinating color of double fold bias tape that I just happened to have in my sewing supplies. I just love projects that I can make in entirety with materials I have had lying around for “too long”.

I am linking up with Sew Can She Show Off Saturday.

August 31, 2014
Prop-Up Kindle Tablet Case

Sew Can She is one of my favorite crafting blogs that shares wonderful tutorials of every type of craft you could want. I subscribe to her daily newsletters emails and there is something inspiring every day. One of my favorite features of her blog is the Show Off Saturday Linky party, where crafters can link up and share their latest craft finishes and works in progress.

Recently I discovered a tutorial for a Kindle case that would fold up and prop your Kindle up for hands free reading. Both my daughter and I had pinned this tutorial to our Pinterest boards, so I thought it had to be a good project to try out.

I used the Prop-Up Kindle Table Case tutorial by The Inspired Wren blog. I chose a turquoise multi-colored chevron print and turquoise solid cotton fabrics from my stash. This was a winning combination since my daughter loves turquoise and chevrons. She has used both in decorating much of her house.

The tutorial’s instructions were very well written. I chose to add a layer of fusible batting to the lining fabric while constructing the case. I thought it would provide some extra protection to her Kindle and it helped make the fabric just a little bit more sturdy feeling. It has been a while since I have had to make any button holes so I was thankful I decided to make a test button hole on scrap material. I forgot that the button hole sewing sequence starts with zigzagging in reverse, so my test button hole ended up on the other side of my markings. After learning that, my button hole on the Kindle case ended up a success the first time on my actual fabric. I found a fun gold metal button that seemed to coordinate nicely with the fabrics also in my sewing supplies stash. The tutorial called for using cardboard strips to make the boards that are inserted in the case to help hold up the Kindle. I happened to find some old linoleum type tiles in my sewing room that I used previously to make a case for my grandson’s tablet. I was lucky the tile pieces were pretty close to the size I needed for this project. I took an old rotary cutter and scored the tile to correct size and was very lucky that they snapped off exactly on the line where I wanted them to.

I really liked how the Kindle case turned out and it does function well as a way to prop and hold the Kindle for hands free reading.

I am linking up my post with SewCanShe Showoff Saturday.

August 30, 2014
My Open Wide Pouch…Nailed it!

I love everything to do with sewing and quilting. I have been sewing on and off for close to 30 years. I have sewn a little of everything, but quilting has become my passion.

I recently tried my hand at some non quilt sewing after a long hiatus. I made two custom zippered cosmetic cases for a friend. I used the Open Wide Zippered Pouch tutorial by Noodlehead. I used Alexander Henry’s Tattoo fabric. It’s been awhile since I put in a zipper but it went in fairly easy. I used Pellon 809, a firm iron on interfacing and love how well the boxed bottom allows the bag to stand up. This has been a very popular pattern to make bags. I have seen numerous versions of this bag on Pinterest, made from this tutorial. I do not know why it took me so long to try it out. The pattern lends itself to so many ways to personalize the design and make it your own. I really like how the bag turns out and plan on making more, especially when I master the embroidering capabilities of my new machine.

July 31, 2014