Two new project bags

I had a big list of things I wanted to sew over Easter, and first up was two new project bags.  I use these bags to store hand pieced or hand embroidered blocks that I'm working on.  I've currently got four Sue Spargo Block of the Months on the go!!! So I need four project bags.  

I love the mesh because I can see what's in each bag without opening it.  And it's stretchy!

I like to try new patterns with my quilting on the back of the bags. 

Patterns by Annie used to have a free pattern for a project bag called Piecekeeper.  (I can't find it on her website now). I use that pattern as my base but I've made a few modifications to suit my style of sewing.  

Patterns by Annie have great instructions for installing zips and working with mesh.  I've used techniques from the Zip It Up pattern on my project bags. 

Annie's zips really are the best quality so I use a 24" single sided zip on my project bags. 

I've learnt to give the corners a gently curve because it's easier to sew the binding on.  And I machine sew my binding to the front and then hand sew it to the back.  

Two project bags started and finished in one day.  That's good going.  

Licorice Allsorts

Material Obsession in Sydney, Australia sent out the last package for the Wendy Williams Licorice Allsorts Block of the Month last week.  

 

So naturally I decided it was time that I actually started stitching this quilt before the next round of Block of the Months get released in July.  

Don't get me wrong - I love this quilt, and I'm very keen to make it, but I just had too many other things on the go at once.  Even I have a limit of how many things I can juggle at the same time. 

I love that this quilt combines hand embroidery with quilting.  Each month there was a motif to embroider, and some blocks to piece on the machine.  It's taken me 3 evenings to embroider the first month's motifs, so I imagine I can do the hand embroidery quite quickly, but some of the machine piecing looks a bit tricky, and I will have to be very careful with the cutting out.  I may even make some test blocks!!

I decided that I needed a new project bag to store my blocks for this quilt in, so I whipped this one up using a very interesting fat quarter I bought at Stitch Witches in Dunedin. 

It's got Soft and Stable in it so it will keep my blocks nice and flat.  Each time I make a bag I try to use a different quilting design, so this time I did a variation of a equilateral triangle design in Jacquie Gering's book, Walk 2.0.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

My project bag - and the Peacock Party

Aurifil and Free Spirit Fabrics sent me three beautiful Anna Maria Horner Passionflower fat quarters, and a spool of Aurifil thread to play with.

I decided to make a project bag to store my hand pieced Dear Jen blocks in.  The Dear Jen programme runs for a whole year, and I certainly don't want to lose any blocks along the way, so now they are safely stowed away in my new project bag.

I used a free pattern from byAnnie for the project bag - it's in her Fall 2018 catalogue (still available to download for free from her website).  I used Annie's Soft and Stable in the middle of the sandwich, because it gives the bag good structure.

I quilted the back panel with Aurifil 4660 - a variegated pink.  Unfortunately the colour changes don't show up all that well because the stitching sinks into the Soft and Stable, but I know it's there, and you can see it if you look closely.  I would have loved to use a fancy zip, but I didn't have any that were long enough.

 I fussy cut the print on the front and the back of the bag so the flowers were in the centre.

Fortunately my local shop, Stitchbird, had Annie's mesh in hot pink.  There's a lot in a packet of mesh so I could make quite a few more of these bags yet.

I used some of my third Anna Maria Horner fat quarter for the binding.  Annie recommends cutting the binding on the bias and it really does help when there are tight corners to turn.  I chose to hand sew the binding down because it's so much neater for me.

Now my blocks will be nice and safe and I'll be able to find them easily in my brightly coloured project bag.

Thank you to Aurifil and Free Spirit Fabrics.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party. Thank you to everyone who has joined up.  Just a tip for linking up - don't just link up the url for your blog eg https://wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/
but rather click on the title of the post you want to link up, and go into that page so you can copy the url for that post eg https://wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/2019/05/aotearoa-pink-challenge.html

https://wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/
vs
https://wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/2019/05/aotearoa-pink-challenge.html

I noticed a couple of people had just linked to their blog, rather than to the post they wanted us to visit.  No worries if it was you - we're all still learning.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter