It's finished!!!

Can you believe it??? Two posts from me in one day! I just didn't feel like ironing and neither did I feel like cleaning. Maybe it is because we have gone from 55 degrees F outside at 6am to 18 degrees and blizzard like conditions at noon. Since it is awful out.....I decided to sew on my bag and finish it.

Here's what my lining looked like before I put it in the bag. I used the bits and pieces I had left from the outside.
And this is how it looks inside the bag. See the little blue square. That's a little pocket I added to hold my cellphone or keys.
I hope you can see the handles in this photo. My handles are only 20 1/2 inches long. That length was determined by the length of my fabric strips. I made them as long as I could by piecing 2 strips together for each handle.
And here's another shot of the bag.

This was not hard to make with Andrea's wonderful instructions. I now have a nice bag and I used up some scraps. I will make more of these. Think I will make one for DD as a gift for next Christmas! I plan to use my bag when I go to the library. It is large enough to hold several books.

Thanks again to the Welsh Quilter for posting her wonderful tutorial. If you are interested, you can find it on her blog. I am not good enough with the computer to link you to the particular post, but if you look in June 2007, you will find her 4 Part tutorial.

Is this what you thought???

Ok.....here's what I'm making.
Yes, that's right.....a bucket bag. Andrea, the Welsh Quilter, shared a wonderful tutorial back in June 2007. I've had that bag in my mind since she posted it and when I was cleaning scraps and came across this little collection of small pieces....I thought they would make a cute bag. None of my pieces are large enough to cut the lining and the handles, so I will be piecing them from smaller pieces. I'll share the completed bag when I get it done. It may be next week before I get it finished as I have some mad cleaning to complete before the end of the week! I've also got a ton of ironing to do. Anyone want to come help with that chore????

I had to get out and run a few errands yesterday. My local store probably knows I'm a sucker for plants and that's why they put them right by the door where I have to walk in! Yesterday they had African violets. I have several of those already, but I didn't have this particular color.


This little plant just said, "Take me home.....please!!!!". .........so I did. I thought the measly $2.47 wouldn't break the budget, and it would bring lots of bright moments to the dreary, wintery days we are having. Ahhhh! Dreaming of spring here....with temps dropping outside and snow in the forecast for afternoon.

Do you know what I'm making??

Yesterday I had good intentions of cleaning up some more scraps...cutting them into squares and strips and putting them into bins. I ran across a scrap bag I had picked up a long time ago at LQS. The pieces range from 10 inches x 12 inches up to 15 x 18 and there were 9 pieces in the bag. Hmmm...there's enough to make something here if I do lots of piecing...so I started cutting. I made 4 of these. Do you know what I'm making? You'll have to check back to see. I'm putting them together today and will post a picture tomorrow. The picture may not be a finished item, but you will know from it what I'm making.

I should be cleaning....or appliqueing. I did get 7 berries appliqued on my center medallion. Slow progress, but at least it is progress.

I've been shopping...

Lately I've complained a lot about the cold weather....so let me say that today is to be a beautiful day in my area. Abundant sunshine and temperatures in the 50's. I must say that isn't too bad for the KC metro area in the winter! Not to worry though, the weather man assures us winter will revisit us about mid-week.

I went to my favorite LQS on Friday. I needed to buy a few items to complete a birthday gift for a quilting friend who lives in Ohio. It was so much fun to fondle fabric and search for something to send to my friend.....especially since I have been out of the house very little since the first week of January. I finally decided on some fat quarters, thread, and a small apron pattern to complete the gift I'm sending. Here's a look at what I bought.
All of the brown and tan prints were from the same fabric line, but I thought it needed a pink and found one that I thought would work. What do you think? The thread is Precensia 100% cotton. I have not tried that brand of thread yet, but my LQS is carrying a large selection of it now. I bought the apron pattern because my friend is a long arm quilter. I thought she might like to make an apron like that to keep her tools at hand when she works.

Of course, I had to do a little shopping for me too!!! I didn't buy fabric though....and I'm so proud of me for that! I did buy two stitchery patterns that I thought were just wonderful.

I won't be starting them soon, but my philosophy is if you don't buy it when you see it.....it will be gone when you go back to get it! I plan to make the Bareroots pattern from stash scraps to hang in my sewing room. I don't have anything hanging on the walls in that room! We have lived in this house for 6 years. It was new when we bought it and for some reason....I have a real problem putting holes in the wall to hang things. Maybe it is because I know this is not the house we will always live in. Am I weird or what???

I bought the redwork pattern because I have been collecting Christmas print fabric for a long time. I am thinking of using those stitcheries as the center of the blocks and then doing something patchwork around them using the fabrics I've collected. This will be a project for another year, but at least I have the pattern bought. I'm going to put it in the box with my fabric.

Thread...

Since I showed my sewing kit, I thought I would also show how I store and carry my threads that I use for applique. If I am hand piecing with a cotton thread, I always just toss the spool in my little clear sewing box that I showed in my previous post. It's no problem putting one spool in my little box! But when I am working with applique, that's a different matter.

Applique usually requires me to carry a variety of colors. In some of my earlier posts, I've shown you this applique medallion I have been working on. You can see I have several different colors in this piece.









I carry the thread I'm working with in a little plastic pencil box I got for $0.25. There is also a white marking pencil in there.









I can slide it closed and there is a snap to keep it shut.




I keep the rest of the threads that I use for applique in a clear bag that one of my friends gave me. Here's that bag. I use ziploc snack bags inside this to put the various colors in. Putting them in those little bags keeps them nice and neat.









I know there is lots of controversy about what type of thread one should use to do applique. Some people say they would only use cotton, while others say they would only use silk. They each justify why they think their chosen thread is the best. I say, use what works for you and what you like. That's what I do.

I'm going to tell you about my preferences. I don't want anyone to think they have to like what I do. After all, we are different individuals; therefore we may like different things! :-)

I use mostly 50wt. machine embroidery cotton. I have Mettler, Gutterman, and DMC in my cotton collection. I like the DMC best, but it is hard to find and the color selection is limited. I prefer cotton because I personally do not like the slipperiness of silk thread. I find I can make my stitches just as invisible with cotton as I can with silk. However, I do have a few spools of YLI 100wt. silk thread in neutral colors. If I do not have a close color match in cotton thread, then I use silk in one of the neutral colors. I find the color I use most frequently in silk thread is... taupe.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at how I store some of my supplies. I like looking at what others use....and I'm always willing to try something new that may be better than what I currently do.

What' in my sewing kit?

When I did the cleaning of my sewing room the other day, I also cleaned and organized my sewing box. Today I was thinking about how nice it is to have a clean box....without all the snipped threads sticking to everything.

I've used various bags and boxes to keep my sewing kit in over the years. I have found that I like a rigid box best. I like for it to be seperate from the bag I carry my blocks, threads, and fabric in, and I like for it to be fairly small. Picky little somebody....aren't I??? I thought I would share a few pictures of my sewing box.

I found this neat, clear box in the makeup area of a local store. I thought it would be the perfect size.....and it has proven to be just that.









It is 7.5" wide, 4.5" deep, and 4.5" tall. That's a good size for me to carry along to the sewing groups I attend. As you can see, I keep several small containers inside this box.









I unpacked all of it just so you can see all what I can fit in it.









Now, let's take a look at the things I like to use as I work on my stitching.









I carry 2 small pair of scissors. These are specifically geared toward my applique. I use the sharp pointed pair with extra large finger holes for clipping and very close trimming. The other pair I use when I am cutting a piece for applique out of a larger piece of fabric. This pair has one blunt tip and one sharp tip. I keep the sharp pointed tweezers because I had been told they were handy to have when doing applique, but guess what....the only time I have used them was to pick a splinter out of my friends finger. She couldn't get it out at home, so she asked for help when she got to group and I was able to help! They are so compact...I just leave them in there.

I do needleturn applique and most of the time my size 11 straw needle is the tool I use to turn under the seam allowances. Occassionally I will work with a stubborn fabric that does not want to turn under with the needle, so I use a dampened toothpick. You can see my toothpick with the gold button on top. It keeps the toothpick from rolling around and from getting lost. I learned that little trick from Linda Franz. I prefer toothpicks from Crackerbarrel restaurants because they very smooth and they have little ridges around the top that hold the button shank.









The little bright pink box in the photo above is a travel soap box I had here at home. It is the perfect size to keep my needles and pins.

I unpacked it so you can see what all I manage to fit in it. My favorite needle to use is a Jeana Kimball size 11 straw needle, but....I have other brands too. The little gray item laying just beside the pink box is a Clover needle cassette. I have a package of the Jeana Kimball needles in it and I use that at night when I have a little trouble seeing the eye of the needle to thread. That little thing will easily thread your needle. As I work, I do not glue or baste my applique pieces on my background. I simply use several applique pins. I also like Jeana Kimball's applique pins and those are in the little round box with the green label on top. I also have a box of Clover glass head quilting pins. I love those because they are thin and very sharp. All of that fits in the pink soap box!

To the front of these items are my marking tools. I'll mention them from the front to the back. The white item at the bottom is my herra marker. I use that to mark the crease on the edge of bias that I am going to finger press and stitch down for stems. The black item behind that is my Pentel Clic eraser. I use that to remove pencils marks on applique pieces that I don't quite get turned under with my needle. I also use it to remove visible pencils marks when I handquilt. The gold pencil behind my eraser is a Papermate Sharpwriter mechanical pencil. That is the marking tool I use to mark for handquilting. I use a very light touch and most of it comes out as I stitch. When it doesn't, I then use my Clic eraser. The lime green item is the mechanical pencil I use to mark around applique pieces before I cut them out. The red and black is also just another mechanical pencil for writing reminders and notes. Another marking tool I use when I am working with dark fabrics is a Verithin white marking pencil. I use that to mark both my applique pieces and to mark quilting lines for handquilting. I see I didn't have the white pencil in my box and I need to put it there now! Up by the needles you can also see my 2.5 inch square ruler. It's a compact size perfect for my little box.










I found these two little boxes for $0.50 at Michael's. I knew they would be useful. This is what I did with them.









One holds my thimbles and a sharpener for my pencils. I use different thimbles for different tasks. The thimble on the left is a Clover adjustable thimble. I like to use that one for hand piecing. The thimble in the center is a Roxanne thimble that I got for Christmas from my family several years ago. I like to use that one for all my handquilting. I do not use it if I go out of the house though as it was expensive and I wouldn't want to lose it. It stays safe inside the pretty little box! The thimble on the right is also one I use when I handquilt. I also use that one when I sew on buttons or hem something.

The other little box holds my wool pin cushion with applique pins and sharp quilting pins. There are also probably a few needles stuck in that one too. I like having a box with a lid so I an close it for travel. In between the two boxes is a little pin cushion I made. It is made from the cap of a liter water bottle. I just took a little fiberfil and stuffed it in a circle of fabric, wound some thread around it to close the circle. I then took some glue and put it around the inside of the cap and stuck the stuffed fabric circle in it. I've had that little cushion for about 4 yrs. now and that is where I like to put my needles with different color threads for the applique I am working with.

The metal box sitting off to the side is an Altoids tin. I have the berries for the center medallion of DD's quilt in that. I need to be sewing these on, but I'm having trouble getting motivated.

I am by no means endorsing the above products. I have just found that these are the products that work for me personally as I stitch.

If you read my post.....I would love to see what some of you use for your travel sewing kit and how you organize it.

After.....

It was a late night at my house. I worked and worked and worked...and this is what I accomplished!

It could still be better if I had a different storage system for the things on the floor under the cutting table, but at least for now it is all in bins or baskets and neatly stacked. Sorry the pics aren't real clear, but hey.....it was 1:30am!

Now I'm off to shovel the drive before the next artic front arrives later today. I think a nap is in my future for this afternoon.