A Chocolate Bag and Procrastination

This project has been sitting, cut out, in our living room for months.  Literally months.  This past weekend I finally finished it.

None of you have project like this, right?  Projects where you just lose steam can't seem to pick them up again?  I love this Amy Butler bag pattern, and I love the way the chocolate fabrics look in it, but I just couldn't get my act together.  Something else was always calling.

Anyone else in this situation with a project?

Happy sewing!
Amanda

San Clemente Tote

I received the new Keepsake Quilting catalog in the mail today. Look at this cute San Clemente Tote pattern by Stephanie Prescott featured on page 95. It uses a "Garden Floral Medley" featuring Ambrosia. I think it is really cute! (Of course, I'm not prejudiced or anything.)

An Ambrosia Bag

Julie, of Jaybird Quilts, emailed me a link to an image she found this morning. Tina, thanks for making this bag in Ambrosia! I love the springtime colors I LOVE it!



Amanda

Bags, bags, and more bags...

I finally finished Caitrin's bag (now I have to make one in Swiss Chocolate!)

It coordinates with this picture that I mistakenly took at the Botanical Gardens.  I wish I knew how I did it so I could so it again!

Back to bags, we've also made Oragami Bags (also from Amy Butler's new book, Style Stitches) for Christmas gifts.

The best part is that they nest inside each other!

Speaking of bags and sewing, the new book The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam makes a wonderful present for your favorite sewer.

It shows how to really customize your own bags from any pattern.  I already have learned a few new techniques for clasps, etc. that I haven't tried before.  I am reading this fantastic how-to book cover to cover like a novel, proving, once again, that I am a sewing geek. 

(As if the fabric laying all over our family room floor left any doubt.)

Have a good week!
Amanda

P.S. I've had a few emails from people looking for kits for the Swiss Chocolate quilt that appears in the winter issue of Fabric Trends.  (Mine hasn't come yet.  Boo hoo!)  Swiss Chocolate will ship in late February.  (One of the great things about Fabric Trends is that you get sneak peeks of fabric before it ships.  Of course, then you have to wait for the fabric to... ship.)  I trying to wait patiently (patience is not a virtue for me as far as fabric goes) as well as I almost completely used up one of the SKUs sewing quilts for magazines.  I had two inches left.  Talk about cutting it close!

I turn my head for 5 minutes and this one turns 12!

I swear it was only yesterday that she looked like this....

I know that many of you out there know how I feel.  How does time slip away so fast?

At each of our children's birthdays, I think that I can't possibly enjoy their new age any more than their last, yet I always do.

Here are some of the things I appreciate most about Caitrin at age 12:

• She is tremendously empathetic.
• She is determined... about everything... always.  (Frustrating in a toddler, but a much appreciated trait in a young lady.)
• She is wickedly funny - with an acute, dry wit that can catch you by surprise.
• She is much more organized than I am.
• She lets me think that I am much more organized than I am.

I am making a new customized ballet bag for one of her presents.  The fabric is from the Garden Glam line by Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman.  The pattern is from Amy Butler's new book, "Style Stitches". 

Note the customized pockets that I've added.  I'm showing you all the pockets, rather than the completed bag, because, although it is now one day after Caitrin's birthday, I haven't completed the bag.  My excuse is that we are in Nutcracker season; consequently, I am adding 24-hour chaffeur to my job description.

Caitrin says she is thrilled with the customized pockets.  Have I mentioned that she lets me think I am much more organized than I am?

Happy birthday, Cait.  One day (and one bag) late. 

Love you so much that it makes me feel as if my heart will burst (and, OF COURSE, you too, Bob!),
Mom

Ambrosia Bag

The Ambrosia Bag pattern is finally available! 

I used the summer colorway, but included directions for the spring colorway (periwinkle, greens, and blues) as well.  Happy sewing!

Amanda

"Almost-Ambrosia" Pleated Bag

I used these vibrant fabrics designed by Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman Fabrics, accented with Kona solids, to test out my free pleated bag pattern, which will be available in September when Ambrosia ships to stores. I love including alternative colorways in sewing patterns and one can never have enough beautiful bags. I can't wait to try it in Ambrosia prints!

Bags aren't very useful when held upside down, but I wish they were, because I really like the bottom of this bag as well - the contrasting fabric that matches the bag handles gives it more interest and I like how the straps frame that area. So, yes, I am posting a picture of the bottom of a bag...



Check back in September for the pattern.
Hope that everyone is enjoying their summer!

Amanda

Test Kitchen

Things are really heating up here in the test kitchen/sewing studio, as we anticipate the release of Ambrosia, which will be in stores in September. I will be receiving a small advance shipment in just a couple of weeks, and I have some special free patterns that will debut here, along with some other projects that will be featured in magazines. (How exciting is that? I feel incredibly fortunate.)

So, amid the flurry of drawing and pattern writing, I am testing some of the patterns. It is always good to show people projects in alternative color ways. Can you guess what we are making from these delicious prints by Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman Fabrics?



Well, if you guessed a bag you are correct! The pleated pockets are accented with Kona solids, also by Robert Kaufman.



I will release this pattern in September so that it will be available when Ambrosia hits stores, right in time for back-to-school.

Batgirl's Bag, Part II

The work on Batgirl's bag continues.

I pieced the outside panels and made the pleated pockets. I then spread the panels on top of a layer of muslin and quilt batting. All set to quilt!

A few thoughts about quilting... Machine quilting is something that takes practice, like riding the bicycle. (Or so I hear, because I still can't ride a bicycle.) For your first project, pick something small where the quilting will be unobtrusive. Use a relatively busy print - mistakes are more obvious on solids. This bag is a good project to try because it is lined, so you can use matching thread in the bobbin and no one will see your messy back or the threads that might pop to one side from time to time. Keep a quilt "sandwich" made of scraps beside you to "warm up" and experiment with.

I love the symmetrical, intricate designs on traditional quilts, but my ability to follow exactly along marked lines is not what I'd like it to be. For me, quilting along marked lines takes some of the joy out of the process. If you are learning, sometimes it is easier to just "wing it". For this bag, I let the big flower motifs dictate the pattern. Instead of following them precisely, I quilted circles surrounded by big petals. In the area with the fern print, I quilted large fern-like leaves and filled in the with stippling. (You want to keep the amount of quilting realtively even throughout the design.) Here are the front and bag of the panels so you can see the quilting clearly, flaws and all:




If there were quilting police, they would surely arrest me, but I did have fun.

Another thing - threads and needles. Use high-quality thread and a relatively new needle - if you don't the thread may break, and constantly starting and stopping is really frustrating. I usually swear by Mettler silk-finish thread for all sewing. Recently, I picked up a spool of Superior Threads Masterpiece Egytian cotton by Alex Anderson from Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shop in Greensboro, North Carolina, and I am in love. It is a dream to quilt with, even at rapid speeds. Happy quilting, everyone!

Amanda

Pleated Pockets

I've been spending much of my time lately working on two new families to submit to Robert Kaufman Fabrics, but I took a much-needed break today for a bit of sewing.

Now, I know that there are much wiser souls out there would never dream of purchasing fabric without a specific project in mind (or at least admit to it), but that is not the way we roll here, principally because I am not that organized. Besides, sometimes you just fall in love with a fabric, or a fabric/special-person-in-your-life-combination.

This is why I frequently find myself in a GREAT SEWING QUANDARY. (Which, incidentally, I didn't know how to spell before writing this entry.) The quandary is that I think up the "perfect project" for the fabric that I have purchased, only to find that I don't actually have enough fabric to complete it. What is a girl to do?

Such is the case today. I fell in love with this combination of batiks when we were traveling about a month ago because it reminds me of a friend of ours who always dresses in springtime colors. (We will code name this lady "Batgirl" because it is our nine-year-old's idea and I am a big fan of his ideas.)


Later, it occurred to me that I really should make a bag out of the fabrics because Batgirl loves the bags that I've made in the past. But then I realized that I don't really have enough of the salmon print to create the pockets, nor do I have enough of any one print to make the straps.

I have now determined that contrasting straps would only enhance the design.

As to the pockets... I added another print into the mix and sewed strip sets of that print, alternating with the salmon.


I love how the modern rings contrasts with the batiks! Then I pressed them into pleats and basted the edges, so that just a bit of the more dominant teal print shows through.


I sewed them to the backside of the pocket, with a strip of light teal batik in between for trim, folded it and half and now we have fancy, pleated pockets!



I think Batgirl will like the fancy pockets even more than the regular pockets, don't you?

Here is the bag, sans pockets, lining, and straps, ready for quilting. If this looks like a project that might interested you, stay tuned. I should have it posted as a free project next month.



Speaking of free projects, I create these for the enjoyment of the crafting and sewing community at large. I've met so many great teachers and fellow sewers over the years and feel that this is a way I can pass on a little of the joy that they have given me. I've had a couple of inquiries over recent weeks regarding the feasibility of a) distributing my free patterns or b) selling projects created from them, particularly Twirly Skirt and Springtime Coasters. Please feel free to make copies of any of these free patterns for your friends and, yes, I'd be thrilled if you loved them enough to use them for a guild project, but please do NOT sell the patterns or items made using the patterns for monetary gain. This would not be in the spirit in which I have created these patterns.

Thanks everyone, and have a great week!
Amanda

5 yards, 5 fabrics, 5 projects!

After visiting Quilter's Loft a month ago and picking up one yard each of five different Valentine's themed fabrics by Moda, I resolved to use them (plus scrap batting and muslin) to make five different projects. Drumroll, please....

As you can see, our projects included a mantlepiece decoration, one large bag, one drawstring bag, a change purse, and a tiny gift bag.
First, we paper-pieced hearts and produced a Valentine's Day mantlepiece decoration. Paper piecing is a great technique to do with kids - it is easy because you sew right on a printed line! The results always look so professional, even for beginning sewers.

After playing around with these scrumptious fabrics, our daughter Caitrin, ever a fan of brown and pink combinations, decided she would like a bag. We decorated with flowers and ruffles and made each side a little different.



We also made a drawstring bag in two contrasting prints.
There were a few scraps left and I still needed a fifth project. What's a girl to do? "Omiyage" by Kumiko Sudo, came to the rescue. We made this tiny marble bag to complete our set of five. Now we are ready for Valentine's Day!

(I hope to have some of these projects available as patterns for future fabric releases... stay tuned.)
Have a great week, everyone!