Yeah, so I actually made this quilt quite awhile ago but never really shared it. Since my latest posts have mostly been knitting, I’d thought it was time to share this one.
My friend Nicole had a baby girl in July and this is the quilt I made for her. It’s made from 2 charm packs and I grouped like colors together. I also did not over think the piecing or the layout. The quilting pattern is a bunch of little rectangles just free motioned across the entire top.
… and of course it is another knitting project bag! Really, I don’t need anymore; I just like making them.
This is Noodlehead‘s Maker Tote. Love her patterns – I’ve made almost every one!
For the exterior, I had some leftover strips of Allison Glass fabric and I made lots and lots and lots of flying geese. I used a paper piece template (free over at Fresh Lemons) which made easy and accurate work.
I can’t decide which is my favorite – the sparkly gray used in the handles, binding or zipper tape or the hot pink wood grain lining or the cats I used for the pockets. I can’t decide.
I’m so way late on posting this – I worked on this mini last fall!
My randomly assigned partner likes biology mostly, and warm-ish palette and submitted a favorite science-y quote. I settled on making a mini-quilt of the quote, using paper-pieced alphabet patterns I bought from the etsy shop From Blank Pages I still have most of the jelly roll from the baby girl quilt I made in August, which matched the warm-ish colors that my partner favors.
This. Took. Forever.
There are like a million pieces and a million seams in these little letters. Ok. I exaggerate. But it felt like a million.
My partner, who lives in Texas, also likes to receive things from where I’m from, so I included a Bronco’s Mystery Lego Figure (I’m hoping she got Payton!) and a Colorado sticker. I also included some fabric mini charms (2.5″ squares) and an adult coloring book. Not exactly the sciency-theme, but I think she liked what I sent!
In turn, a different partner made these for me! A LOST themed mini quilt – which is amazing! 2 fat quarters (18″ x 22″) of this awesome math-geeky fabric, elephant poo note paper, decals and a needle book that glows in the dark! AWESOME.
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I’m a big fan of Shannon Cook. Even though she primarily designs knitting patterns, I’ve made more of her project bags than any of her knit stuff. (Like this but then I also made this.) I don’t exactly need anymore project bags, but I have fabric that needs to be used. The reversible project bag is a free tutorial on Shannon’s blog, and it came together pretty quickly.
I picked up this text fabric a few years ago and I probably had a bag in mind when I bought it. Who know what I was thinking when I bought it. Anyway, the tutorial recommends that you interface one layer. After putting this together, I think I used one that is a bit thicker than I should have. That’s why it looks kinda wrinkly in the photos.
Right now I’m using it to hold the knitted hexagons I started way back when.
And meet Bane. Our Bengal kitten. He’s been with us for a little over a month, and I am the primary caregiver. Well, I’m the only one home right now, so he only has me to hang out with. He follows me everywhere and it is adorable – until it is annoying, like when I’m trying to take photos.
In spite of all the snow hitting the metro DC area, this little package arrived at my friend’s house yesterday. Just in time, and not on account of the weather – she’s about to have that baby boy. We’re crossing our fingers (she’s crossing her legs) to keep that kid inside until at least Tuesday!
Somehow, at the ripe old age of 38, it seems as if all of my friends are having babies. Which just makes me so happy. One popped out late summer, another one is due to arrive next week and two more babies are coming later in July. And on the family front, I’ve got one brand new nephew and another one coming next month! And more babies, means more baby quilts. Which I’m always happy to make.
The quilt is the Fancy Forest pattern by Elizabeth Hartman – baby size. Truly, I’m not sure how anyone would have the patience to make the larger size. Because this one, while adorable and cute finished, was a total bitch to make. So. Many. Pieces. As far as the pattern, it is very well written and the cutting instructions were really helpful. If you decided to make this quilt, follow the pattern suggestions! Even the one about separating the cut fabric into bags!
After making the first two blocks, I got smart and made pin labels to keep track of the different pieces. These are just cut up index cards scotch-taped to pins.
Once I had the pin labels, the remaining forest friend blocks came together relatively quickly.
I was snapping photos of the completed top when Miles jumped in.
I quilted a simple rectangular grid across the entire quilt to keep things simple and consistent with the geometric-ness of the blocks.
There’s a story to the knitted hats included in the package I sent to my friend… which will be another post. That awesome boob card is made by Craft Boner and I picked it up at a local craft fair last summer.
I LOVE THIS BAG.
Its my favorite bag I’ve made so far. Intended as my new ‘sweater knitting bag’ I’ve yet to put my latest sweater project in it because I keep using it for other things!
What I like:
What I would do different:
The bag came together pretty quickly actually. Cutting the fabric and interfacing took the most time. I cut and interfaced the pieces in one afternoon – grouping and labeling the pieces as I went. However, when assembling the pieces, I got a little confused due to the pattern piece descriptions. I think next time I’ll number them and then mark up the pattern instructions with the numbers. I followed the pattern instructions including the type of interfacing. I omitted the grommets on the interior slip pocket; they’re intended as yarn guides, but I know that I won’t use them. However, grommets are pretty cool looking.
I was able to make this month’s Denver Metro Modern Quilt Guild meeting where I showed it off. I love being part of this guild (and the FRMQG for the same reasons), not only for the eye candy and inspiration, but for the suggestions and tips. While I was up there, the other ladies mentioned finding leather belts at Goodwill to re-purpose for bag handles and Stephanie mentioned looking in the climbing section of REI at the ropes and tie-downs for straps and handles.
I’ve already got fabric and leather purchased for my next one.
Pattern: Caravan Tote by Anna Graham (Noodlehead)
Yeah, so I think this is #10 for me. Yikes.
Most of this one was cut and put together when I made the seven others back in March/April for my friends. The real motivation to finish this one for me was to move all my makeup from the random bags under my sink into one bag. Nothing really new to say about it, so here are the photos!
I’ve been on a crafting kick – guess I’ve gotten my motivation to make things back.
We were in Telluride, CO this past weekend for little get away. JJ, Miles and I needed the time away from work, Denver and life in general. It was awesome. The drive to Telluride from Denver is over 6 hours, so I brought along two knitting projects. The one you see below is my Strokkur that I started back in January. I was having trouble keeping the entire project in my project bag, so when I came back I knew I wanted to make something bigger to hold it.
The pattern is the Divided Basket by Noodlehead (Anna Graham). I’ve sewn plenty of her tutorial/patterns and they are really well done. Modifications I made to the written pattern were to use Pellon 72 – Peltex and batting to reinforce the exterior pieces. The Peltex and batting really give the basket structure. The sides of the bag do not fold in AT ALL – unlike my other project bags. Stitching all the layers was a bit tricky so I made sure I went slowly and didn’t force the fabric through the machine.
One side of the basket has two pockets where I keep little knitting notions – stitch markers, scrap yarn, scissors.
I dug through my fabric box and resurrected some pieces that I’ve had for an embarrassingly long time (i’m talking years here). The exterior is an Echino print that I’m pretty sure is out of production. The dotted fabric used in the lining is so old, I can’t remember where I bought it, let alone who makes it. The divider and trim on the handles are leftover shot cotton from another project.
Here you can see the colorwork detail of the sweater yoke. Colorwork is fun – both the process and this particular pattern. The yarn is a traditional Icelandic wool – the yarn sticks to each other, so there is a lot of me stopping to untangle the yarn while knitting. The sweater sat in hibernation over most of the summer. This wool is quite warm, and just not particularly fun to knit when it is hot outside. But the cool mountain mornings in Telluride were perfect for hotel room deck knitting. And I’m just about finished with the sweater. I’m really excited to see the final result. More details can be found on my Ravelry project page: Strokkur.
I’m finally getting around to posting the photos of my latest quilt! I made this for a special little one – the daughter of one of my West Point roommates. They live about an hour away in Colorado Springs, and I was able to visit with them and hand it off in person. Baby Joanna is beautiful and I’m so happy she’s here!
This is my third baby girl quilt of 2015, and my fourth (I think??) quilt finish of the year. Wow. I think that’s a record for me.
I bought two jelly rolls – Clementine by Heather Baily and Kona Blushing Bouquet – back in June during Pink Door Fabric‘s Open House. Honestly, I didn’t have any sewing motivation (or patience) for anything super complex so I settled on simple chevrons. I loosely followed this tutorial posted on Kitchen Table Quilting. The top came together super super quick.
Pin basting is always more fun with beer. The Liliko’i Kepolo is from one of our favorite Boulder breweries, Avery. We’d had it in their tasting room, but didn’t think they sold it for take home. JJ spotted it at our neighborhood corner store/pharmacy and brought some home.
I opted for some simple loopy quilting to keep it all together. The binding are just some strips from the Kona jelly roll. I machine-stitched it all the way around. It turned out better than my last few attempts! My quilt labels are the same, just change the names and dates.
I met up with 7 ‘college’ friends a few weeks ago. (If you know me outside my crafty, then you’d know that ‘college’ for me was a miliary academy.) We flew in from Denver/Colorado Springs, Washington DC, Tampa and Atlanta for a short weekend in Nashville. We ate tons of good food – seriously, every meal there was amazeballs – bought cowboy boots, watched Diane Sawyer and Bruce Jenner talk about some things on TV, and talked and talked and talked. Oh, and well, 3 of us ran the Country Music 1/2 Marathon on Saturday too – fun fun race. Side note, this was my 2nd half marathon this year and my quickest post-baby (2:02:09).
I wanted to make something for each of the girls, and the Sew Together Bag was the pattern I chose. It is just a great bag! Every time I make a Sew Together Bag, I’m amazed at the clever-ness of the construction. I just finished up seven of these bags last month, so I had a lot of opportunity to marvel at this pattern!
The exterior fabric comes from a fat quarter bundle of Mochi by Rashida Coleman-Hale, the lining and pocket lining fabric is actual Army fabric – the same stuff that the uniforms are made of; Fabric.com sells yardage and that is where I purchased mine. Zippers come from Zip It on Etsy.
Getting these sewn up was easier and faster than I anticipated. I did it assembly-style, which wasn’t exactly interesting. One day I cut all the pockets and lining. Another day, I cut all the interfacing. Then it was the exterior. Another day I ironed the interfacing. Then it was putting together the interior. And so on.
The final few steps were a bit fiddly, and I broke 3 needles sewing the long zipper tabs down. But when I got them all complete and lined up, a big huge smile came across my face.
