Super Tote ~ and a giveaway winner!

I've been teasing this finish for the last couple of days and am finally getting around to the full reveal.  The pattern is the Super Tote by Noodlehead (can be purchased here) and I recommend it!  This is the first of Anna's patterns that I have purchased and made.  Her instructions are concise and clear as can be, including awesome digital illustrations and full size printable pattern pieces.

My finished bag.....

First up, the fabric - I've said this before, but again let me say that my fabric shopping options are very limited locally.  I looked and looked online for ideas and just could not decide on anything (I'm a tad on the indecisive side!) so I figured to the local Fabricland I would go.  The floral outer and the plaid lining are both no-name fabrics.  haha  Nothing designer-ish printed on the selveges anyways.  The handles and gussets are a medium-weight denim, which I have to say worked really well.

Rather than use a whole bunch of various interfacings to make the bag, I chose to quilt the floral pieces before assembly.  I used a thin cotton batting and a canvas backing (which was very heavy), cutting the pieces slightly larger than needed in order to be able to trim the pieces to size after quilting and not end up with warped edges.  This did for sure produce a bag that will stand on its own, however in the future if I make this pattern again I'm not sure that I would use the canvas again.  I do like the quilted panels, but rather than the canvas I think I'd even try the denim as a backing, which I think would still do the trick but would not end up quite so stiff.  (NOTE: I did still use a medium weight fusible interfacing on the handles, and two layers on the gusset pieces.  I also interfaced the pocket facing even though the pattern didn't call for it.)  The pattern called for piping, store-bought or handmade, for the edging of the front pocket but I chose to simply make the pocket facing 1/2" wider so that I could sew it down to the front of the pocket piece, right sides facing, then flip it to the back to produce a faux-piping look.  I'm super happy with how it turned out.

Here you can see the lining fabric a bit better, as well as the recessed zipper.  I'm not super in love with the recessed zipper (maybe it's my aversion to attaching fabric tabs to the ends of zippers?).  If I made this bag again, I wonder if I might skip the zipper altogether and go with a magnetic snap closure.  Not sure. 

It was super hard to photograph the interior of the bag, but this gives you a bit of an idea.  The pattern called for elasticized pockets like this on both sides of the interior, but after making one I couldn't bring myself to make another so I kept one side plain!  The gathering and elasticizing was super challenging for me for some reason.  

I would absolutely recommend this pattern, and I will likely make it again in the future but including some of the modifications that I mentioned above.  I think this bag has loads of potential for customization, which is awesome.  Oh, and if any of you decide to make it, the one thing I would absolutely recommend, especially if you pre-quilt the outers and end up with thick layers of fabric, is to use a 90/14 jeans machine needle.  That's what I used for the entire project and I had no problems at all, even on my machine that sometimes produces skipped stitches on thick layers. 

And finally for today, I'd like to announce the winner of the two mini charm packs that I offered a few days ago to celebrate my 100,000th pageview.  I had 72 entires, and the winner chosen by random number generator is.....#14.  Deb@asimplelifequilts.  Congratulations!  I will be sending you an email soon.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I feel like I'm finally back in the swing of things, sewing-wise, and it feels good.  I spent quite a bit of time at the machine this past week and weekend, so here we go....

First up, my Super Tote (Noodlehead pattern, can be found here).  The bag is actually finished but I'm not entirely happy with the photos I have so far so we'll still call it a work in progress.  :)  I'll be back hopefully in the next day or two with a full post showing my bag, as well as my thoughts and modifications of the pattern, but for now this is what I can show you...

And besides that, I finally decided what to do with my Joel Dewberry 'Notting Hill' fabric bundle and I've been cutting and sewing away.  I decided on Octagonal Orb blocks with alternating rings of the pink and teal colourways.  I'm undecided as far as the background colour, but with this tutorial I can work on the coloured segments while I mull over background ideas.  This looks like a bit of a busy mess at the moment but I have confidence that it's going to be awesome!

And finally, remember the HST quilt top?  It has been hanging finished on my livingroom wall for the past 2+ months and today I finally took it down and folded it up to get back to at a later date.  I hope that doesn't mean that it will go into hibernation indefinitely, but for now I just can't see myself working on it soon so I might as well put it away for now.

I'm out for now.....have a good week everyone.

Milestone giveaway

** This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to all who entered. **

Hey everyone!  My little blog has reached a milestone today ~ over 100,000 page views!  Kind of blows my mind actually.  So since it's a milestone day for me, and especially since I missed Giveaway Day @ Sew Mama Sew this time, I thought I'd offer up a little prize.  You might remember me showing these a few months ago....

I bought these two mini charm packs (2.5" squares) when we were on spring break, and since then they've been sitting here just looking cute.  A perfect gift to give to someone, I think!  Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner in about a week's time.  Good luck, and thanks to all of you who have apparently visited me frequently!  I appreciate all of you.  :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013 {bed quilt}

First off, to anyone visiting my blog for the first time, welcome!  And to all of my faithful quilty friends, thanks for coming back and continuing to support me (even when I fall off the face of the earth for a little while sometimes!).  And now, on with my quilt festival entry.....

Fussy Fairytales was my biggest quilting accomplishment since the last quilt festival, by far.  There are very few people that I think I would agree to make a bed-sized quilt for, but this family definitely qualifies.  The quilt was made for my little friend Eva, the daughter of one of my very good friends.

All of the supplies for the quilt were purchased by my friend, which was a first for me.  Usually I agonize over fabric choices, for weeks or even months sometimes, but this time I just got to enjoy using what someone else picked out.  It was awesome!

The blocks were a lot of fun to make, and they went really quickly using a stack & slash type technique, creating two blocks at a time.  Part of the fun was deciding which fabrics from the bundle to pair together, and which solid to use for the skinny frame in each.

The backing for this quilt was inspired by this photo on flickr.  It was a bit of a stretch for me as I'm used to doing very plain backings for quilts, but in this case of course the effort was worth it.  It makes the back just as fun and pretty as the front!

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  64" x 84"
Pattern:  Fussy Fairytales, by Kate Conklin

Fabric:  'Pretty Little Things' by Dena Designs for Free Spirit, a few Heather Ross prints and even some Echino, Kona Snow background, wide variety of Kona solids for skinny block frames, Kona Buttercup, Camellia & Petal for backing, Kona Cerise binding

Quilted by:  me, using off-white Aurifil 50wt cotton thread

Thank you all for visiting, and I hope that you'll go over and visit Amy's Creative Side to check out many of the other entries in the festival, in many different categories!  Just follow the link below by clicking on the button....

W.I.P. Wednesday

Last week I showed my stack of fabric, and this week I can show a peek of an almost finished Super Tote.  All that's left is the lining and zipper panel, which I have a good start on.  It's come together really nicely so far - I've been taking my time and going slowly and carefully since I'm nervous about messing it up!

So I've been enjoying getting back to the machine after a bit of a break, but I don't quite have the urge to quilt yet.  I have two different granny square projects on the go (one with small blocks, the other with jumbo blocks) which I haven't touched in ages, and this HST top...

....which would be the one that would be the easiest to pick back up since it's a completed top and the others aren't, but I'm just not quite in the mood yet.  I'm enjoying the bag project so much and I'm thinking that maybe a few more smaller sewing projects will be up next before I get back to some of these unfinished quilts.

Hoping you're all having a good, productive week.  Hopefully I'll have a finished tote to show before the end of the week!

May flowers

..... of a couple of different varieties!  I'm no gardener, but I have a few plants in my yard that need no love and yet every year, they do their thing.  This clematis surprises me every year.  It always grows and loads up with buds, then all of a sudden one day they just open!  Makes me happy.  :)

.... and flowers of a fabric variety .... I started working on my Super Tote yesterday (side note, I think that getting the pattern pieces ready probably took longer than the project itself will take!).  I'm skipping the interfacing on some pieces and am trying a bit of a modified quilt-as-you-go using a thin layer of batting and canvas backing for the bag front/back/exterior pocket pieces.  Here's a little peek at the first panel which I finished yesterday.

Back to the machine ....