The Sewing Mom

I am very excited, I stopped in at the Viking Sewing center today and found out that they’re having a great class coming up in August.  They have a guest instructor coming (I can’t recall her name) and it’s a full day class.  I signed up!

For $40 I get a full day of sewing, all supplies included.  I also get to use one of the stores high end embroidery machines to make my project.  Lunch is also included.  The project will be to create a small lap quilt that includes machine embroidery and the binding.  I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m a beginning quilter, so this class will be fun for me.  I just hope I can keep up!

Tags: machine embroidery, quilting, sewing

Okay, it only took me two weeks, but I’ve completed this project and I have to say, I’m very happy with it. The only reason it took me so long was that I kept procrastinating when it came to the quilting part of it. You see, I’m a sewer, but I’m not a fan of quilting, at least not when I’m the one that has to do it. I love quilts, and my mom is an expert quilter.  I’m just not comfortable with. And, because I expect all of my bags to end up perfectly, quilting can be frustrating for me. I just haven’t done enough of it to be good at it.

However, in the end, and with a lot of moral support from my mom, the quilting came out just fine. I love this bag!

This is a “medium” sized tote, approximately 8″x10″x13″. The entire bag is made from 100% quilters cotton, except for the backing of the main tote fabric which is a muslin. The muslin was only used as a quilt backing and is not visible in the bag as it is covered by the interior lining. This bag is padded with an all natural cotton batting. The larger pockets are supported with a fusible interfacing, as are the straps.

This bag is so nice and roomy inside. Besides the two exterior pockets, it also has 4 interior pockets. It is deep and wide and will carry many, many things. It’s even large enough for a laptop. I’ve added a magnetic snap closure to the top for security.

Due to the amount of fabric (almost 4 yards) and the time involved (even ignoring my procrastination), I will have to charge $48 for this beautiful tote bag.

Tags: cotton, fabric tote, quilting, sewing, tote bag

I am very pleased with myself. I have only ever made one quilt before in my life and it was a very simple baby quilt that I made last summer under the very watchful eye of my mom, an expert quilter. While I’ve never made any other quilts, I do love them and my house is full of them, all made by the hands of my mom or sister.

I do however shop at quilt shops. I love their fabrics and some shops also carry a few other items such as fabric bag patterns, something I do make. Recently, while at my local quilt shop buying fabric to craft more bags from, I saw a quilt that I adored hanging on their wall. It was comprised of 12 different quilt blocks surrounded by a border and was called the “Be Attitudes” quilt. The shop was offering it as a quilt block of the month club and I just couldn’t resist.

The blocks themselves are fairly simple, crafted from rectangles, all with straight seams, no curves. So, yesterday, I sewed my first block together.

I then cut out the pieces to create the snowman applique and placed it on top of the block.

This morning, I used a machine button stitch to stitch around each piece to give it a hand sewn look. I still have more applique to add and there is some embroidery to do on this block before it’s done. I was just so excited about it that I wanted to share!

Tags: block of the month, fabrics, quilting

This is a first for me, I’m actually working on two projects at the same time. I’m in the middle of sewing another “jelly” bag, similar to the one I have up for auction (see my auction box in my sidebar), but this morning, I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to open up the package for block #1 of the Be Attitudes quilt that I bought. It’s a block of the month club and I’m sort of excited about it.

Now, I’ve mentioned before that I am not a quilter. So, why did I join a block of the month club? I fell in love with the finished quilt I saw at the local quilt shop! So, I am going to put my best sewing foot forward and attempt to sew these blocks together. If I can accomplish putting the blocks together, I will then ask my mom (the primary quilter in this family) to put it all together and quilt it for me. Sssshhhhh, don’t tell her! There are 12 blocks total, I currently have the first two and have not yet begun to sew. So, it will be at least December before I will be giving it to her for completing it.

This is my Sew Crafty Friday and even as I type this, my laptop is sitting on top of my cutting mat. I can’t wait to move it and get started!

Tags: block of the month, quilting

This is my first time to join Sew Crafty Friday and Shereen, who has a beautiful blog, Waiting For Him, has made it so easy to participate.

My goal for 2008 is to work on creating enough bags and crafts to be able to start selling them. As much as I love to sew, sometimes I need some motivation to get into my sewing room and get busy. Once I’m there, I tend to work like crazy, it’s just getting started that I have a hard time with. So, now that I can report my progress weekly, I feel more motivated to keep it up.

So, here is one of the bags I made last week and finished on Saturday.

First I laid out the fabric charms, not an easy task for me because I am such a perfectionist, I can never decide on the best color placement.  I sewed on this off and on over the course of a few days.    

Tags: quilting, sewing

I really wanted to watch football yesterday, no really! I did! I just couldn’t seem to make myself sit still in front of the t.v., so I went into my sewingroom instead. I could still hear the game, I just couldn’t see it.

Believe it or not, I didn’t even have a project in the works, so I decided to make something new. I hadn’t made this particular bag before, but I liked the picture of it that came in the pattern. I had purchased this pattern back in December and it came with 6 or so different bag patterns. The instructions for all of the bags are horrid, but once I figured out how to do the first bag, which I’ve now made two of, I have a better idea of what the pattern is trying to say and so I sort of wing it.

For some reason, my bags come out quite a bit larger than what the pattern says they will. That’s okay, I like them bigger. None of these bags have pockets in them, so I plan to add that to future bags or will make a pocket organizer insert to go with them.

I was able to make this bag, start to finish, in about 3 hours. I did simple in the ditch quilting which resulted in the back having quilted blocks. I added batting into the handles to make them more comfortable and used a decorative stitch on the handles. I’m thinking about adding buttons for decoration where the handles are attached to the bag. I just don’t have any buttons on hand that will match.

Tags: quilting, sewing

I wrote a post the other day about a quilted bag that my sister had made. I posted a picture of it and my sister informed me that I posted a picture of the back of the back only, so, I am now posting a picture of the front of the bag.

This bag has a zipper in the front, a pocket on the back and an over the shoulder strap making it a great bag for traveling. These are fairly simple to make and it’s the easiest zipper installation I’ve ever done.

Tags: quilting