Amazing Grace Bag

 

 

I decided to make a tote bag for my mother for Mother's Day this year.  The main fabric of the bag features angels and the words to the song "Amazing Grace".  The accent fabric, which makes up the bottom, top rim, and handles of the bag, reminded me of stained glass windows like you might see in a church.  I liked how they looked together.

The bag is approximately 15 inches tall and 15 inches wide, with a 5 in bottom.  The handles were cut at 23 inches long, and were set in 4 inches from the side seams.  The size of the bag is patterned after a tote bag that I use regularly when traveling, so hopefully she will get good use out of it.

Rainbow purse

 

 

I made this rainbow colored bag for my oldest granddaughter's 7th birthday, which is coming up later this month. It is a highly modified version of a Japanese Twist bag that was patterned in Quiltmaker magazine a few decades ago.  The outer shell of the bag is machine quilted.  The shoulder strap was cut at 28 inches long and is padded with quilt batting.  The little flap has sew on Velcro for the closure.  I think it turned out really cute.  I hope she likes it.

Now I just need to buy some stickers and gel pens to go with the rainbow journal I made for her, and I'll be all set for her birthday.

Small Purple Journal

 

For some reason I'm finding it easier to make journals than to sew right now.  My youngest son's birthday is the end of this month and his favorite color right now is purple, so I decided to make him a small journal.  This one is made from copy paper that has been cut in half and then folded in half, so it's smaller than the ones for my granddaughter.

It is composed of 4 signatures with 4 sheets in each signature.  The end pages are purple 24# paper.  The book cloth is made from left over quilting fabric bonded to tissue paper with sewable heat 'n' bond.  The book board is made from two layers of cardboard (brownie mix boxes) glued together, and the spine board is a single thickness of the same cardboard.

Rainbow Journal

 

My oldest granddaughter will turn 7 in a little less than a month, and I've decided to make her some rainbow themed birthday presents this year.  The first is this rainbow journal.  It has bold rainbow colored pages, and rainbow themed end-pages.  I'm planning to buy some gel pens and stickers to go with it.

The journal is made with 4 sheets each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple copy paper (24# weight) sewn together into one signature per color.  The end pages are cut from scrap-booking paper that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  The book board is cereal box cardboard pieces, two thicknesses glued together.  The book cloth is left-over quilting fabric with tissue paper adhered to it with heat-n-bond.  

I think it turned out pretty nice, but I'm still nervous about the whole process - especially gluing the text block and cover together.

Patriotic Lap Quilt

 

I finished the binding on this quilt last night.  This is one of the UFOs that I've been trying to finish this year.  I finished the quilt top back in 2016.  I decided to free-motion quilt this one myself.  It is quilted in a star and swirl motif in a light gold colored thread.  It is far from perfect - the stitch length is all over the place, the tension is a little off in places on the back, and there are a few pucker in the backing fabric - but overall not too bad for a beginner free-motion quilter.  I enjoyed doing it.  The binding is hand turned.  It still needs a name and a label.

I would really like to donate this one to be used as a wheelchair lap quilt.  My first thought was a VA hospital, but I'm not sure where the nearest one is or if they take donations.  Another option is to check with one of the nursing homes here in town.  Chances are good that there is a veteran there who uses a wheelchair.  I'll have to check around and see.

Halloween Journal

 

I know it's really early, but I wanted to make a Halloween themed journal for my oldest granddaughter.  She really likes Halloween and spooky things, and since she's in school now I thought she might enjoy having a little journal.  By the time Halloween comes around she'll be in second grade, so I think she'll be a reasonable age for a little journal.

The cover is made from an old cereal box.  I used cotton fabric, heat 'n' bond, and tissue paper (the kind for gift giving, not for nose blowing) to make the book cloth.  On the last one (my husband's journal) I used featherweight interfacing on cotton cloth and I didn't like the results as well.  It was a bit harder to work with and didn't bond as well.  I like this method better.

The end pages are made from scrapbook paper I bought at Hobby Lobby.  They don't do "Halloween" but the orange and black circles give a nice Halloween look anyway.

The text block is made from 12 sheets of orange printer paper that I had on hand.  It was constructed as 4 signatures of 3 sheets each. I sewed them together using thin yellow crochet twine and a curved upholstery needle.  I trimmed the text block using an old rotary cutter that I only use for paper.  It worked better than I thought it would, actually.

It's a thin little journal, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I hope that she will like it.  I don't plan to give it to her until October.

Four Corners

One of my oldest friends is going to be a grandmother for the first time, and this quilt is for her soon-to-be-born granddaughter.  I finished the binding about 10 days ago, but I just got the label on it today.  I'm thinking that I might pre-wash it before I give it to them.  All the wrinkles from the folds bother me a bit and pre-washing baby items seems like a good idea, so that new parents have one less thing to worry about.

This quilt is made from a quilt top that I made back in 2020.  It is one of the UFOs that I wanted to get finished this year. The finished quilt is 40 inches square.  I machine quilted it echoing the seam lines around all the concentric squares.  It is a pattern that I designed myself and have used for a little quilt for one of my grandsons, too.

Old Journal New Cover

 

When my husband was in high school, his girlfriend at the time gave him a journal.  She gave it to him with the idea that he would write his poetry in it, but he never did.  Once he was in graduate school he decided to use it as a reading journal, where he wrote down his thought on the books that he was reading.  This was just the first of many reading journals.  

However, with time and use the text block broke (It has "perfect binding") and the outside of the cover was looking much worse for wear, so I decided to mend it for him.  It now has a repaired perfect binding, new end pages, and a completely new cover. 

I re-glued the text block and reinforced it with some cheesecloth, to try to make sure it stayed together. The book cloth is made from leftover cotton quilting fabric with featherweight interfacing fused to it.  The cover boards are cut from Canson art board that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  It was thicker than the chip board they had and I wanted to make sure it was nice and sturdy. The end pages are scrap-booking paper from Hobby Lobby.

I'm still very new to book binding, but I like the idea of it.  I guess with time we'll see if I like the reality of it.

January Wind

 

Today I finished the little quilt for the back of my living room chair.  It measures 24 inches square and is free motion quilted in snowflakes and swirls.  I drew the snowflakes on with a Frixion marker and then free-handed the swirls in-between.  I took it really slow doing the snowflakes, but got a little fast on the swirls.  For me, it seems easier to make smooth swirls when I move a little faster, but I ended up with some kinda big stitches in places.  I'm still learning free-motion, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Below is a close-up of one of the larger snowflakes.

This little project gives me the idea that if I can draw a motif, then I can probably quilt it.  That's an exciting idea.  The larger the project, the harder it will be quilt, I know that. But taking it slow and steady really works well.  I'm looking forward to trying some new and slightly larger things.

Snowman Snowflake

 

I've had a mini charm pack (2-1/2 inch squares) of Snowman Gathering fabric ever since sometime in 2013.  My original intention for it was to make a purse out of it, but then I mostly stopped carrying a purse, so I decided against it.  I had made a sofa-sized quilt out of that same fabric line and I use it on the back of my couch in January, so I decided to use the mini charm pack to make a small quilt for the back of the chair.  The idea for the design was to be something like a snowflake.  I'm not sure that it reads very snowflake but then again the fabric doesn't read very snowman either.

The quilt top is 24-1/2 inches square.  I'm thinking that I will free-motion quilt it, possibly with a light blue thread.  Not sure if I'll just meander quilt it or try to do something snowflake-like.  We'll see how brave I feel.

Thoughts for 2024

 For a couple of years now I haven't been doing much sewing.  I've made a few things for my grandchildren, but not much beyond that.  This year I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things when it comes to sewing.

At the beginning of the year I had 14 finished quilt tops that need to be quilted.  I hope to work on reducing that number.  In fact, I've already quilted one of them, but it still needs to be bound.  My goal is to finish at least 6 of them.  Mostly I want to quilt them myself, although I am considering sending one of them off to be long-arm quilted.

I also hope to start some new quilts, and I want to try to see them through to the end and not add to my UFO collection.  

I'm also considering trying to sell some quilts and quilted items.  I've generally shied away from that sort of thing, because I don't want to turn it into "work" instead of something I enjoy and I'm not sure of the best way to go about selling things.  However, I also don't like having things just pile up and collect dust.  There is a limit to the amount of quilts that my family members want, and I don't want to force things on them.  Donating quilts works as an outlet for extra things, too, but it would be nice to at least get my money back out of some quilts, if possible.  I don't know if it will happen or not.  I've considered it before and not followed through.  I'm considering both Etsy and local craft shows, but I don't have a lot of faith in my ability to actually sell anything.

Shadow box Bee quilt

 My first finished quilt of the year!  I'm hoping to be a little more productive this year than I have been in the past couple of years.  Ultimately I decided to quilt this one just on one diagonal.  The  quilting was done with a yellow thread that matched the yellow fabric in the top and I didn't want it to cross the gray fabric, so I quilted in the ditch following the diagonal lines in the piecing.  Also it took less effort - less marking and less quilting.  As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm not super thrilled with how this one turned out, so I just wanted it finished.  I actually enjoy the back of the quilt more than the front.  I like the little bee fabric on the back best of all the fabric in the quilt.

I haven't labeled this one, and I probably won't.  When I donate quilts I often don't label them and I'm feeling like this one will end up donated somewhere.  I'm not sure where yet, but that is where my head is at on this one at the moment.

Update: I did not label this one, and I donated it to the Pike Regional Child Advocacy Center on April 24, 2024.