Re-purposed Denim Bag

This year I've decided to make a few handmade gifts instead of store bought for Christmas.  I've learnt quite a few techniques this past year and decided that this year I will finish off with a bit of creative fun.  This little re-purposed denim bag screams FUN!  Perfect for a fun little lady :-)

I made this little bag from old denim I had stacked away for exactly this purpose, I just never got around to making something with it.  So yesterday morning I started playing around with some strips of fabric, lace, buttons and ric-rac.  

I liked making this bag, having the freedom to go with whatever felt right felt strange but was great fun.  I am used to following along a pattern or at least having a set plan of what I wanted, so this was a strange experience mixing and playing with different elements.  The last finishing touch I added was the butterfly  I appliqued with a satin stitch.  I think it really blends in well with the rest of the bag.

Initially when I started out with the bag panels I wanted to finish it off a drawstring , but when I had the bag assembled ready to sew in the lining I changed my mind.  It being denim I thought it would be too heavy pulling the bag open and closed, so I decided to rather insert a magnetic clip.

 I had the button wholes already sewn in, so I just added a little knot to finish it off.  The finished dimensions are 14½ inches wide, 10½ inches high and the boxed width is 6 inches wide.

I am certain the recipient of this bag will love it...  :-)

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My Favorite Pass-time

Its no surprise that I enjoy free motion quilting.  To me its the most enjoyable part of making a quilt.  So yesterday afternoon I had a sudden urge to quilt something, so I cut a fat quarter large enough to get some decent practice.  

That's when my eye caught some dresden plate pieces that was between some of the fabrics my Mom gave me.  She had them left over from a quilt she made a few years ago.

So I quickly pieced half a dresden and placed it on the side and then added another piece of dresden in the one corner.  I wanted to have a large area of negative space to practice some free motion quilting.  So this is what I ended up with.

Just to add a bit more to the 'dresden' design I quilted a dresden on the opposite corner.  It also adds a bit of symmetry to the design.  Sure I had enough fabrics to make another piece of dresden, but I wanted to try something completely different.

I quilted whatever came to mind, I did not want to use the same design all over, so I varied between swirls, paisley, pebbles, a few echoing lines and of course some feathers. 

What was just going to be a practice sample will now be a small wall hanging with colour, texture and some dresden design.  I'm sure to finish it up tomorrow...

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Happy quilting.

Tree wall hanging

These past few weeks I have been busy making this wall hanging quilt.  It measures 26 in x 26 in.  I got the idea in a magazine, with much less free motion quilting.

It was quite the challenge deciding on what types of free motion quilting to use, and got valuable input from Leah Day at The Free Motion Quilting Project.  I did wiggly horizontal lines on the white background fabric behind the tree, Pebble ripples in the inner white border and blowing wind, which I think I did not pull off quite exactly as Leah, but I gave it a go, and I am happy with the result.  

I echoed around the base of the tree on the grass hill, not knowing if it would even 'work', but I like how it adds texture and creates a 'shadow' effect.  I quilted tree bark on the tree trunk, and for the inside of the tree, I just followed the swirly design of the fabric.

I am super proud of this quilt.  The effects all the free motion quilting has add so much texture to the design. 

Happy quilting.

Back at it... high time!

These past few months have been a huge test and struggle.  Things was so out of my control and I had no sense of what I needed to do, to make my life worth while again.  Its amazing how when you're at your lowest how your people can help you on your way, and show you life does go on.  You just have to pick yourself up and try and move away from that which hurt the most, to see that every dark cloud DOES have a silver lining...

So I got back into my sewing room.  Since I have not sewn a single stitch in over 4 months I realized how much I missed it, and how much I enjoy it!

I made this dresden plate wall hanging using Moda's Autumn Breeze and sewn the plates to a plain white background... Not sure how it happened, I cut the 'petals' all the same size, but one plate has 19 and the other 2 has 20 petals... weird :-)

But it all worked out fine...

I can't wait to start something new.
Happy quilting.

  

Sampler quilt block #4 - Celtic Applique

Making this block was quite a challenge.  

I had all the fabric cut, placed the applique pattern on the block of fabric, started to make the binding strips and that's when I realized I was stuck...  I did not have the right tools to create the 1/8" binding strips, so I had to improvise.  

After I stitched the binding and took it to the ironing board, I used a cooking skewer to open up the binding to create a tube to make it easier to iron flat with the stitches at the back.   It worked great!   So many times I have thought of throwing it away, I've never used it, and it was just tucked away in a drawer in my kitchen, finally found a good use for it now :-)

Other finished blocks:

Electric Fan

Stacked blocks

Tangled star

Applique flower and stems wall hanging quilt

I thought of trying applique the other day, not even knowing which direction I should go, I searched the web for basic application of applique.  Seeing how simple it was I started straight away.  I started tracing basic shapes like circles, hearts , triangles and squares on cardboard.  

Using anything I could find, like different size bottle caps (for circles) I started tracing them on cardboard and cutting them out.  

From there I played around mixing them up, using the sharp edges of the heats and circles I made flowers too.

Even putting some of these shapes together made pretty designs.

That was when I thought of making a small but simple flowers with stems wall hanging quilt using my applique templates.  Again not sure where I will end up I arranged them on a piece of fabric to see the sizes of the flowers and ended up cutting 4, 10" blocks.






I roughly cut a piece of colour printed fabric that I wanted to use for the flowers, stems and leaves and ironed a strip of applique paper to the back of the fabric.  I then traced the designs on the applique paper and cut them out.

I used 3 different colour print fabrics for the whole quilt.

Pulling the paper from the back of the applique, I ironed on the flower making sure I applied the heat long enough to make it stick to the fabric.

Before I started stitching the design to the fabric I pinned a piece of wash away stabilizer to the back, to secure it nicely and to make sure the fabric wont pucker up.

I used a zig zag stitch to secure the flowers and stems to my block.

As this was a test quilt, and I wanted to see what I can do, I tried different filler free motion quilting on each of the four blocks.  Again Leah's designs came in very handy and used Stippling, Wandering Clover, Paisley and Echo-Arches.

Stippling

Paisley

  

Echo-Arches

Referring back to Leah's quilt along #7 I pieced the blocks together using binding strips, following her instructions was easy and I will definitely use this method again


 

I enjoyed playing around with this little wall hanging quilt, and found a spot in my sewing room to put it up.

Flowers and stems applique wall hanging quilt