Sewing Small Stuff

It's been lovely and warm.   Not much sewing going on this week, but I had some batik scraps and thought I would make a few little bag kits to have ready to sew if I had a rainy morning at the cottage.

Well, last week, we did have a rainy morning, so my plan worked out well.   I pulled out 3 of my 6 kits sewed them up. I'll add bling, then put them in my cupboard..  They are handy to have.. I gave two out this week as gifts...  

And then I was browsing through my pattern stash, and thought I might finally try this pattern that I bought a few years ago but never tried.  It's the Classmate pattern by Atkinson Designs...   It calls for 3 fabrics.  I'll paw through my stash to see what I come up with finally give it a try.

Stay tuned...

All Sewn Up Sewing kit

Do you like making small projects.   Pat from Heartfelt Quilt Shop in Winter Haven Florida knows that's me through and through.   I led a few classes at her shop while in Florida this past winter and saw that some of her regular sewers like small  projects too.    Anyway, Pat sent me home to Canada with some fabric and a pattern to try.    It's such a cute pattern by May Chapelle.  It's called all Sewn Up...    I made a prototype with 3 of my own fat quarters just to see what it would look like.  It's so darn cute.    

When you unfold it, this kit has a pocket for a small pad of paper, and another pocket, a generous pin holder, a couple of slots for seam ripper, pens etc... and a nice see-thru zippered section.  I love that it closes with trendy clip hardware.      The zipper is applied in a way that I had never used before.   I love learning new zip techniques....

Here is the finished kit.  All finished.

And it all closes with a trendy swivel clip...    For a prototype, it came out pretty nice... I'm glad I used cute fabric.  It's a keeper.  
Now, I wonder if this will make a fun 1 day project class.   I'll make another and see where I might make improvements and check how long it will take to make it..

Maybe I will get together with a focus group (say..my coffee buddies) and see what suggestions they might have...  

Stay tuned...

I found a place on this prototype to
put my little homemade stamped
label.  So cute..but next time, I'll
use a smaller label..

An Irish Chain distraction

The last few days have been overcast, if not rainy..   

I hadn't planned on doing this until next month, but I decided to cut out a kit for an Irish chain quilt for the St. Anthony's Quilters.  They need a quilt to start up in September, and they decided an Irish chain would be a nice change.   I cut out the kit for the large lap size quilt.   I had been wondering if I'd have enough fabric in my stash.   I did.   

With a little rain the forecast earlier this week, I decided maybe I would just sew some of the strip sets together.   Well, I had forgotten how quick strip piecing is.   The sets were sewn up quickly....   

Well, you know where this is going...

It wasn't long before I had the 18 25-patch blocks done, and the 17 alternate blocks.    It's a grayish Saturday today and I laid out the quilt on the spare bed to see what it will look like.   I like it.    I picked them up using my favorite Eleanor Burns method.    

I know that I'll probably get them sewn today.  But I've decided that will be enough of the green for me, and will save the borders, and binding for another rainy week...     

 

What will I work on Tomorrow?

I'm loving this warm weather.  But it does limit my sewing.  I love being outside on days like this and my sewing room is too warm to sew in.     Lately I'm lucky if I get half an hour in the sewing room.  

One thing I try to do is to set my sewing up so that when I walk in tomorrow, I know exactly what I'm going to work on.   So you see from this picture,  I've left the room, my machine is off, but I have work pinned, and ready to stitch when I go back in tomorrow morning.

In this case, I'm working on three of the little quilted as you go bags.   They are just the nicest little gifts.   I've given out a few and I have none left.

For example, last week, one of my quilter friends, Kaye, from way back, transported my sewing machine back from being serviced by the dealer in Moncton.  I was thrilled that she did that for me.   It totally saved me a 2 hour trip there and 2 hours back.   When I met up with her to get my machine,  I gave her one of these as bags a little thank you....  She loved it.  

So, it's good to have a few on hand just in case another small thank you gift is needed quickly.