A bunch of bags

Late last year, I bought a book called Make 100 Bags.  I thought bags would be a way to use up scraps and stray bits of fabric.  Many of the patterns in the book are fairly detailed, but I did make a couple of easier ones earlier this year.  Now that the holiday season is approaching, I thought it might be fun to try a few more for gifts or as gift bags.

I bought several rolls of webbing for handles, large zippers, and some heavy foam and picked out a few patterns to work on one at a time.   

I got side-tracked making the "Clam bag" with a pattern By Annie.  It's small but was quite an intense project because the zipper was inserted on a curve.  I don't know who I'll give it to, but I can tuck something fun inside like socks or a gift card or both.

I love the outer fabric I used for the clam, so I also made a larger rectangular bag.  I love the way it turned out although it was confusing at first.  The book was reassuring that the odd flat piece I ended up with needed a final step to become a rectangle.  

I also made a few small zipper bags out of pre-quilted fabric I had on hand from Connecting Threads.  These will also make nice containers for small gifts.   Then I made two tote bags using some purple iris fabric I had in my stash.  The smaller one (not shown) will be nice with a couple of jars of homemade jam and some chocolates for friends or neighbors.  The larger one... who knows?

I haven't used up all the webbing, have two zippers left, and still haven't used that foam.  But it's time to take a break from bags and move on to other things.  Today I'll get out some Christmas orphan blocks that are begging to be used as a table runner to keep or give away.  I'll also pack up two Christmas quilts to be displayed at the library during this season.  I need them off the guest bed so that my niece can sleep without suffocating under too many quilts when she comes - maybe next weekend - to "learn to quilt."  Looking forward to seeing her, as she always carries a ray of sunshine.  That will be nice during these gray November days.

A quilt for Manny

I've been busy doing something I've been planning for a while:  a quilt for our friend Manny who's in a nursing home.  He and Paul are great buddies, and Paul has been visiting or talking to him on the phone often since he went about two years ago.   Manny now uses a wheelchair, so the quilt I'm making is about 36" x 48" which should cover his legs in the chair.  

I'm calling the quilt Paul's Old Shirts because it includes 6" squares cut from Paul's old flannel shirts alternating with squares of denim that people, including Manny's wife Mary, have given me.  I have a soft piece of plaid for the back and have quilted it very simply along the seams. 

Manny is sure to recognize some of the plaids as Mary and I shop at the same place for shirts - L. L. Bean.  Over the years the guys have been known to wear the same shirts on the same days sometimes, much to their amusement.

I still have plenty of flannel squares and denim to use in other projects, perhaps a tote bag or two?  The denim makes a nice bottom for tote bags, too.  On second thought, maybe I'll just take them to guild for the free table!

We hope to deliver this quilt sometime this week. 

The Calamity Club

 

I've taken a deep dive into this book which is 600 pages long!  I loved the author's The Help, which came out years ago and was made into an excellent movie.  I thought I'd read this when it first came out, but I hesitated because of its length.  Finally, a little late to the game, I did start reading it.  And I've been at it for three weeks and am now 75% of the way along.

The book is told from a couple of points of view - an 11 year old orphan, an unrelated sister in her 20s trying to help her family survive the great Depression, and a few others who slip in along the way.  It's 1933 in Oxford, Mississippi.  I kept thinking about that Bob Dylan song Oxford Town as I read:  "The sun don't shine above the ground..."  Segregation, poverty, and social mores are all a part of everyday life portrayed here.

I look forward to finishing, but sometimes the stories are so intense that I just have to step away for a while.  This is a book that will only be read completely by those who can endure its intensity and length.  The Help made much more of an immediate impact on readers - and was shorter, too.  Yet I'm glad to be reading this novel as there's a lot to think about and wonderful characters, too. 

A few gifts in the works

 A couple of months ago I made two phone charger bags out of pre-quilted fabric = one for me, the other for my friend Cindy in CA.  I cut out a few more to give as gifts, and yesterday I made two for Christmas gifts (Mom and sister Jenny).  Someone told me "they're a fire hazard," which I don't believe, but that put a pall on continuing the project.  Guess I'll make zipper bags out of the fabric I cut up.  I still have more of that pre-quilted fabric that's not cut, too, so that will go on the shelf for some future project.  Today I'll go buy a few more zippers for those bags which I can fill with small gifts like candy, scarves, jewelry, etc.

Meanwhile, I got busy working on a "Clam Up Bag" by By-Annie.  It's rather complicated and uses a very long zipper.  The pattern offers instructions for five sizes (XS to XL), so I decided to make the medium one because I had a zipper long enough to fit it.  It seems like a lot of work for a small zipper bag, but I thought I ought to work on something with a little more "style."  I love the fabric I chose for this bag and have lots left for other projects.  I have several more long zippers so if I like the Clam bag, I will make a few more.

In the evening Paul and I went to a "Haunted State House" event in our state capitol.  Spooky stories and a spooky play were offered in various low lit places, including the House chambers.  There were loud screams and things going bump in the night.  Everyone seemed to have fun, and I was impressed by my friend Alan's production which involved a large cast throughout the building.  

Vermonters love their State House, we love to show it off, and this was a new way to see it.  We've been on tours many times, but for some it was a first visit.  I'm sure they'll be back for the historical tour sometime.

Potpourri

 Yesterday was spent cleaning up the quilting room, doing a little here and there.  I took the time to clean my machine which now hums (or should I say "purrs"?).  I used the Sue Pelland Leaves Galore template to make some lemon peels and ended up making a few blocks in various colors.  I may use it as one of the borders of Daylesford eventually.  

This was my first time using the template/ruler, and I can see that it will take some practice to insure that all the pieces cut are uniform.  I used Misty Fuse as recommended and like it better than Steam-a-Seam, but each really has its uses.  I want to try to get better at machine applique because my aging hands are a bit less cooperative than they used to be.  

I used invisible thread to sew the pieces down using a small blanket stitch, and it worked very well.  I think I bought the thread from David Taylor when I took a class in his machine applique method a few years ago.  (I found his method very fiddly and messy - haven't used it since.)

I put this little tree block in a box of miscellaneous blocks, too.  Years ago I made a bunch of these after reading a blog by Amy Smart.  I put the resulting table runner in a craft fair where a friend, Suzy, bought it.  She even brought it to guild to show and tell.  I'd like to make more of these blocks sometime, but not now.  

Next up I'll be working on some flowering snowballs today, I hope.  I have aerobic walking in the morning and a Friends of the Library meeting in the afternoon.  In between I should be able to tackle a few of those blocks.  On my way home from walking, I'll stop at the Restore to drop off some leftover balls of yarn.  It does feel good to clear my yarn stash a bit.

What will I work on next?

I have a lot of projects in boxes and for once I'm at a loss which one to work on today.  Over the weekend I finished the Christmas tree row for the row robin and finished a baby quilt top for Bags of Love.  For the latter, I had a panel and simply added 12" quilt blocks to the top and bottom to end up with a quilt that's 36" x 50".  I'm out of batting, so I'll give it back to the group to have someone else quilt it and add the binding I made for it.  I hate using panels as they are never square and always odd sizes.  I had to cut the outer printed border off of most of the panel in order to make it a size that worked.  That's all too frustrating to do ever again!  :-)

Today, I have my choice of the following:

1.  a sampler of raffle blocks over the years in the Green Mountain Quilters Guild - I have enough for a quilt yet?

2.  a quilt made of selvages - not started, but materials are gathered

3.  playing around with a new Sue Pelland ruler and fusible applique technique - maybe bright orange peels on black and white backgrounds?  Do I really want to start something new?

4.  flowering snowball blocks - I have several cut out and ready to sew

5.  phone charger caddies - I have several cut out and ready to sew for holiday gifts

6.  tote bags - I have fabric and patterns all set aside to make bags for holiday gifts

7.  a miscellaneous project box that ought to be sorted through and, perhaps, discarded or maybe turned into tote bags.

8.  Daylesford  (a Jen Kingwell design) which is sitting on my design wall, waiting for inspiration for the next round.

9.  a batch of charm squares, layer cakes, and other precuts that my neighbor Carol gave me before she moved away,  Maybe I'll use those for the tote bags?  Some are just not my taste but might look good together.

10.  a batch of orphan blocks won in a raffle at the state quilt guild meeting.  

Stay tuned!

Fidget quilt and more

My Saturday guild has been making lap quilts and fidget quilts for Caledonia Home Health in honor of our member Tess's father who received care from that agency this year before his passing.  I had a bunch of stuff set aside for these quilts but finally got around to making one a couple of days ago.  It has been fun, but I'm out of ideas.  I started with some denim a friend gave me and then topped the 6" squares with various doodads.  I interspersed the 6" squares with a few others to provide texture, as that is what many people with memory decline enjoy feeling.  I finished the top and got it quilted a few days ago.  I'm not thrilled with the whole thing, so I doubt if I'll make any more.   I didn't take a picture, either.   I'll drop it off at the quilt shop next week sometime for Tess to pick up.

The yard work I hoped to do actually got done on Tuesday, including taking the hoses in to the garage and moving the planters in, too.  I left a couple of sorry looking mums in pots out for color, but soon they will go into the compost with all the annuals I pulled out.

This morning I started paper piecing some trees for Marie's row robin.  This was our first switch, and I was happy to be working on Marie's.  We switched alphabetically last year on the round robin, so this year we're going backwards.  There are again six quilters in the group which will result in a nice sized quilt.  Marie chose a holiday theme - all the holidays in the year, not just The Holidays.  So I am making wintery trees from Jennifer Chiaverini's Christmas book.  So far so good.  My rows will be anything in fall colors - quite a departure from my usual purples and brights.  I won't see the rows until April or May.

I also started knitting another little hat for Bags of Love this week after learning that they are in dire need of them.  The yarn is speckled, sort of tweedy, light green.  The next hat I make will be a mix of yarns because I seem to have quite a lot of miscellaneous balls hanging around.  I really like the DK yarn I've been buying from Knit Picks - it's called "Hawthorne."  It's a little pricey but I figure I'm handling it so much that I ought to enjoy the feel of it.