A New Book Bag

This is my latest project.  It is made with a "Color Me Happy" candy and yardage.  It is much like the purses I've made recently, but this one is designed to be a book bag.  It doesn't have the closure at the top and it doesn't have the d-ring to hook keys to.

It also has shorter handles and a slightly narrower bottom.  The narrower bottom was unintentional.  After I had cut out the pieces, I realized that I would need to cut the piece of fabric for the bottom of the bag in half.  Since the fabric is directional, if I hadn't cut it in half, it would have been upside down on one side or the other. 

Update: It is actually a birthday present for my youngest step-daughter, but I didn't want to say so until after I gave it to her.

July Mini Project

Our mini quilt project this month at Moda Friendship was Charm Pack Stones by It's Sew Emma from Cut Loose Press.  I decided to do mine in Folklore fabric by Lily Ashbury for Moda.  I used Bella Solid yellow for my background fabric.  I still need to quilt and bind it.

July Moda blocks

These are my blocks from the instructions we got at Moda Friendship this month.  There were only two this time.  I did one as a 6-inch block and one as a 12-inch block.  Below is all of the blocks so far for this sampler.  There will be 27 blocks in total.

July Guild Block

This is my rendition of the block we got in July for the guild Christmas sampler quilt.  The original block was green where mine is red and only one white fabric where mine is two cream prints.  The original had appliqued holly leaves and a candy cane on the white side.  I decided that I didn't want to do any applique on the block, so I used print fabrics instead.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here is a picture of all the blocks so far.

There will be 16 blocks in total.

Extra Guild Block

Today I worked on the "extra block" for the guild sampler quilt.  Last month, the instructions that we got for the snowman block also had the instructions for this block.  At our meeting last week, several people had done the other block (this block), too.  So we decided that everyone should do the extra block.

I haven't started yet on my July block.  It is a log cabin block with applique on the light side of the log cabin.  I don't enjoy applique, so I'm considering doing print fabric on the light side and skipping the applique.  I'm still waffling on it. . .

Story Book Star quilt

At our June meeting of Moda Friendship, the mini project that we were given was Story Book Star Quilt from Moda Bake Shop.  The "original recipe" has some mistakes in its cutting directions.  If you cut everything exactly like it says in the directions, it won't fit together right.  But Carol, the leader of our Moda group, gave us the corrections at the meeting so it wasn't too bad.  This is my finished quilt top. It measures 41 inches square. 

The charm pack that I used was not a Moda fabric.  It is a "Fresh" charm pack by Another Point of View for Windham fabrics.  The star points are Moda fabric.  It is from the Fleurologie collection by Stephanie Ryan.  The solid green border is also from Moda, a Bella solid.  I was amazed at how well the colors matches since they weren't from the same designer or even from the same fabric manufacturer.

I chose this charm pack because when I ordered it (from Missouri Star) it said that it had only 36 charm squares and the pattern only called for 36 charms.  However, once I opened it and started using it, I realized that it did actually have 42 charms, like a normal charm pack.  I think it looks really nice, and I guess it's no big deal to have some charms left over, but I picked it for this project because I thought I wouldn't have charms left over.  I guess now I need to come up with another little something to use the left over charms.

Even thought it is only a baby quilt, and I usually quilt those myself, I think I'm going to have this one long arm quilted.  It just seems to me that the large, white, open spaces (8-1/2 inch squares) need more fancy quilting than I feel comfortable doing on my home machine.

Christmas Kittens

 This is my newest completed project.  It is throw/sofa size quilt for Christmas time.  It has Christmas present blocks set alternately with squares of fabric that has kittens in Santa hats and Christmas stockings.  The backing fabric is beige with white snowflakes.  The machine quilting is also a snowflake design.

I sent this one off to be machine quilted at the Missouri Star Quilt Company.   I wish that the top and the backing had been stretched equally when they were quilting it.  The back of the quilt is nice and smooth, but the top is not smooth at all, really.  Basically the top side looks like I've washed it even though I haven't.  Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be that a big of a deal. In this case, it is disappointing because I had wanted to be able to let my kids write their names on the present "tags" after it was quilted, but I'm afraid it will be too poofy for people to be able to write on it.  I know, I should have done that first, but if the top were as smooth as the backing it wouldn't have been a problem.  We've done it with quilts quilted at my local quilt shop before with no problem.  I guess you live and learn.

This is a close up of the label on the back.