One Yard Wonders - Farmers' Tote

Ha, my ploy of trying to reward myself with making Christmas presents for quilting those two tops didn't work. I got started on quilting the first top but got sidetracked by what else than a Christmas present!

Last December I bought the second installment of the One-yard-Wonders. It was already too late to make anything out of it for Christmas presents but I put it aside for the next year. So when I got bored quilting I pulled it out and looked through it again for some ideas. 

One thing that makes the selection of potential gifts a bit difficult is our new family gift giving rule of "you can't spend more than $15". So I have to rely mostly on my stash and buy only if absolutely necessary!

The first present out of the 'One-yard-Wonders' is the Farmers' Tote on page 212 (Woven Pile Fabrics section). The tote in the book is made out of a striped black and white corduroy. I liked the body it gave the bag and remembered that I had some black corduroy in my stash. With that in mind I knew right away that this bag is for my oldest sister! She loves the combination of black and red. I also had some beautiful marbled red fabric that I could use for the seam binding to give it a bit of colour!

5 hours later I have this beauty on my  table:

The flower was made after a pattern which I found in Amy Butler's stitches. I love the way it gives the bag a special touch!

The straps are supposed to be made out of webbing. I didn't want to wait for it if I should order any and made them out of the red fabric and some batting instead. They are soft yet substantial enough to hold whatever my sister will put in this bag! This bag is roomy! Knowing my sister, she will stuff it like a Thanksgiving turkey on her shopping excursions...  ;-)

So what are the downsides? The construction is straight forward. However it is really tiresome to bind the seams. Especially if you do it in the order the pattern asks you to do it. I bound the seams right after I basted the pleats. It just made more sense to me! Also, if you look at the picture you can see that the front/back pockets have a seam right in the middle. This makes sense since the pockets would otherwise be too flopsy on top to hold anything in. But this step is nowhere to be found in the instructions! I also don't like how the pleats don't really hold their shape because they aren't tacked down. I don't know if I am going to do that or leave them as it is... If I would make another one I would put some elastic band to solve this little dilemma. 

Overall, I am really pleased with how this bag turned out and I know that my sister is going to enjoy it! 

On to the next present or back to quilting... 

Take care,

Me

Topic of the Day: Mail a.k.a. Review of Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders

 It seems like that “mail” is a wonderful thing today! Since I already showed you what I sent off in the mail today, I thought it would be fun to show you what I got in the mail today. (Talk about perfect timing!)

It’s the new Fabric-by-Fabric One –Yard Wonders! 

I am so excited by it! It is chockfull of wonderful projects! I have already marked the following as must-have's:

Retro Bag by Sue Kim; I love the clean lines and the wonderful pleats. It also looks like it can carry what I use on a daily basis. 

Personalized Garment Bag by Lisa Cox; I need to make a couple for everyone in my family! We all have seasonal clothing that needs to be stored for at least a few months each year.

Hanging Book Display by Katherine Donaldson; I love this! I always pile up my books on my night stand. So I am going to make one (maybe even two!) for myself. I think that this will be my first project that I am going to sew out of this book!

Eight-Bottle Tote by Susan Byrd; What a genius design! And so easy! At least according to the instructions! LOL  I need to make one for my mom and for myself!

Farmers’ market Tote by Michelle Fante; No special reasoning behind it except that I love it! LOL

Pajama Boots by Sue Kim; Pasha showed those type of fleece boots at a store down town. So I know she wants some. Actually if I hurry up I could make those as a stocking stuffer! If I shorten it then it might work for my mom and sisters and even me (I hate cold feet...)! Hmmm, maybe this will be my first project instead since I have fun fleece on hand!

Bunny Pillow by Marlene Gaige; It’s just too cute not to make it!

Last-Minute Tunic by Heidi Massingill; I want one but I am going to add sleeves short ones or maybe even long ones since it’s cold outside!

Speedy Ruffle Scarf by Jenna Lou Odegard; I am a scarf fanatic… enough said!

Cool Season Clutch by Leigh Ann Tennant; It’s a bag that looks pretty! I am a sucker for pretty!

Wave Illusions Pillow by Caroline Sanchez; I don’t love making pleats but I love pleats! Does that make sense?

Of course, it also had some dress up clothes for “tiny” kids. But I don’t have those at home. But I thought that you might want to see a few of them...

The book also has a bunch of things that I really don’t have a use for it right now but I would never say never!

One project that I would definitely have to revise something on though is the Organizer Wallet. One of the materials needed is a magnetic snap! I don’t think that’s very smart though. Don’t banks and other places that give you those credit cards and membership cards tell you to keep your card away from anything magnetic because it messes up the magnetic stripe on the bag? So I would probably use a regular snap or Velcro. But maybe I am wrong about that?

Do you see a couple of projects that you might like?

Take care,

Me

P.S. I can't say how accurate or easy-to-read the instructions are. But I'll let you know as I am sewing them up! :-)

One-Yard Wonder - Mailbag Picket Duo

I am still waiting on that darn batting! I am going to have to contact the company and ask them if they could trace the package. I will never be able to finish all those quilts at the rate they are shipping! So what to do? Maybe a trip up to Stuttgart to pick up a bit of batting?

I have to keep myself busy with another One-Yard Wonder project... I don't know about you but I can never have enough storage so this time around I decided that I needed the Mailbag Picket Duo!

I used the same fabric as I used for the curtains in the study for the exterior bag and some plain white cotton for the lining.  It looks perfect!

I don't like how the bags were hung up in the book. So I used small curtain rods instead. I might still put a little snap button in the middle of the bag so they don't gape open like in the book after using it! But it is a quick project, and if you are in need of little pockets, I would definitely recommend those!

I still have a little bit left over of the fabric. I might use it for the computer table cloth...

Take care,

Me

One-Yard Wonders - Jewelry Roll

I've been working on so many quilts! I really enjoy making them but it usually takes a long time until you can "see" the finished product. So, since I am still waiting for my batting to arrive, I thought that I should pull out my One-Yard Wonders book and choose something out of there.

I remembered that I saw the jewelry roll back in May on the Pink Chalk Studios blog. I guess the bright colors just really made it memorable since I couldn't even remember it being in the book :-)

Here is a picture of how it looked in the book:

I checked if I had the required materials (thank goodness!) and got started on it right away. The project itself was fairly easy. I mean, yes, there are the time consuming things like working with pattern pieces, ironing on the interface pieces. But the directions are pretty clear. It took me about 2.5 hours from start to finish. And this is what I ended up with:

I will probably make a couple as presents. But I will have to change a couple of things:

1. I really don't like the tied ring strings (not tied in the picture above). I think that the ribbon will start to show a lot of wear after repeated use. I have to think of something better and maybe easier than the constant tying next time...

2. I also don't like the overall ribbon closure. Yes, it looks fancy but again, it will probably show a lot of wear soon! Maybe a velcro closure?

Do you like it?

Take care,

Me

One-Yard Wonders - Not-Ugly Car Trash Bag

One Yard Wonder – Car Trash Bag

I love fabric. Sometimes I buy a bit of fabric just because I love the way it looks and not because it is meant for a project. This little habit of mine leaves me in a precarious position of too much fabric, no plans and no space. What hardship! LOL

So way back when the book “One Yard Wonder” came out, I had to get it in my hands. Maybe it would help me get inspired to use these “little” pieces of fabric. I bookmarked quite a few projects and placed it on my “soon-to-do” project bookshelf. Well, somehow I forgot about it. Well, that’s until I saw a few projects from this book on other blogs and I realized that I had that book somewhere…

Well, I looked at the projects that I bookmarked and realized that I just don’t want to make them at the moment. However, there was one project – the car trash bag – that I could use desperately. You see, I have this “problem” in my car. No, it’s not trash but it is accumulated mail. We don’t have a regular mailbox over here. We have a post office box on post from which we pick up our mail. Unfortunately that also means that I don’t toss or file our mail right away. It’s been known to live on in my car, get married and have lots of babies ;-)

This project is super fast. It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish. I didn’t have a parachute buckle on hand so I used Velcro which works just as well.

I am so hoping that this bag is going to help me stay organized…

Take care,

Me

P.S. P looked at the trash bag picture in the book and pointed out that they used our dog Jake as a prop. I never even noticed until she pointed it out!

Here is the picture in the book

And here is our 10 month old baby Jake...