Sewing

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Since I just showed you the Lined Drawstring Bags (using Jeni Baker's tutorial) I gave as teacher gifts this year, I thought I'd show you my first set. These were from March 2013, using a coordinated set of fat quarters that I'd purchased with no particular project in mind. I love how the set all goes together and was a little sad to split them up. Two were donated to my quilt guild's quilt show sale, I gave one to a friend for her birthday and we have two that house toys. The middle one in the group picture is the one The Boy chose to keep his matchbox cars in. I love that I get to see it often and clean-up is really easy for both kids.

Lined Drawstring BagLined Drawstring Bags

Jeni's tutorial is excellent and the bags went together very quickly. I can't believe it took me over a year to make some more.

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On June 2nd, I set some project goals for the month. Here's an update on how it's going.

The Primary (and ALYoF) Goal

I completed my ten drawstring bags in time for The Boy to deliver seven of them to his teachers as end of the year gifts this week. The Girl is happy to have one for her toys. The final two will go into the gifts to be given pile.

green flower bagblue bag

The Bonus Goals

  • Decide on my plan for party outfits for the kids to wear at The Boy's birthday party next month.

I asked The Boy, "What do you want me to sew for your birthday?" He thought for a minute, then got a big smile and said, "A quilt." Um... "Okay, kiddo, let me clarify, I mean what would you like me to sew for you to wear at your birthday party?" "A shirt." Okay, so I'll be making another bowling shirt for him (like the ladybug bowling shirt I made last month).

I've decided since I did a top (with shorts) for The Girl for her party, I'll make her a dress for The Boy's party. I've decided on Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress by Create Kids Couture.

I had a cute airplane and helicopter fabric in my stash, so now I'm working on pulling some coordinating fabrics for their outfits.

The Boy's birthday fabrics

  • Do something with my patriotic orphan block.

Step one: get them out and dust them off. Check. Yes, them. I apparently have three orphan blocks in various patriotics.

First is a 12" block that I think I'll make the center of a square centerpiece quilt.

12-inch patriotic blockThe other two are 9" blocks from block of the month kits I bought years ago. No idea how long ago I pieced these two, but I have kits for 3 more coordinating patriotic blocks. I think 5 blocks could make a nice table runner.

9-inch patriotic blocks

Thanks to Lorna for some great links! I got lightweight sew-in interfacing to try this method of machine applique. Wish me luck. I've decided I'll do a small quilt project (wall hanging or mug rug) to practice the method.

Still on the back burner.

I've also been organizing my stash which feels great. More on that later.

And as always, the internet is SO inspiring.

I'm loving following the American Made Brand Blog Tour. I especially enjoyed California and Iowa. I also totally dig that the fabric is made in the US.

Here are some challenges that have caught my eye.

  • It follows that since I'm drooling over the beautiful American Made Solids, their Farm to Fabric Challenge sounds interesting.
  • I've seen the Row by Row Experience mentioned on a few blogs. I've been wanting to make a row quilt and there are shops in my area participating. Looks so fun! It's also really neat how the program has grown since it started in 2011.
  • I also think it would be fun to participate in the Astronomical Quilts! Block Challenge.

Clearly, I must think that I have more time for sewing than really exists.

Oh, and I'm also drooling over this fabric (in addition to the American Made Solids). Man, it's on preorder and already sold out on Pink Castle Fabrics! Guess I'm not the only one drooling.

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I'm linking to the A Lovely Year of Finishes June Finishes Party.

This week was the end of the year for The Boy's first year of preschool. Oh man, time flies! He had a great year and has wonderful teachers and staff to thank for his great experience.

I had been thinking about what to do for end of the year teacher gifts and couldn't decide. Then I was over on Berry Barn Designs at the end of May and saw Sarah's Terrific Teacher Gifts post. Of course, it hit me! I could make teacher gifts! Why hadn't I thought of this before?

blue bagNow I've only worked with zippers on a couple small projects a few years ago, so I wasn't really up for that. Instead I decided to make more of Jeni Baker's adorable Lined Drawstring Bags. I made a set of 5 bags last year. The Boy loved them and I allowed him to keep one for his matchbox cars. I figured we could use 1-2 more around here for toys. Plus six for the Primary teachers at school and one more for The Boy's gymnastics teacher. Okay, I'll make 10, I decided. This was my primary June Goal with a time-sensitive deadline of June 11 (the last day of school). I'm so pleased to have gotten it all done on time!

The bags go together pretty quickly and the instructions in the free tutorial are great. I think I'll purchase the Lined Drawstring Pattern with 8 sizes and make some larger ones next.

I pulled 40 fat quarters from my stash for these. It sure feels good to do some stash-busting. I pulled the initial 3 fat quarter groupings and got to work. Pro tip: If you're gonna do a bunch of pieces at once, assembly line style and you haven't made the pattern for a while, make just one at first, so you don't make the same mistake ten times. :-) Thankfully, it wasn't anything too major. Basically I was using non-directional prints for the main exterior pieces, so I could have cut them as a single piece, but I cut two, then had to piece and press those seams, etc. Ten times. I could have saved a little time there.

As a time saving measure I was going to use ribbon for the drawstrings, but I was having issues with the ribbon unraveling and failed to read the "use fray check" part of the directions (oops) so I ended up pulling more fabric do make the drawstrings. I do like the look of the fabric drawstrings better, so overall I'm happy with that outcome, though it certainly takes more time. Tuesday night was a late night. ;-)

Working assembly line style, I cut everything and worked through the whole pile one step at a time. This was my first pile, attaching the linings to the outer accent fabrics.

ready to stitchI chain stitched while piecing to save time and thread.chain piecingWhile making the drawstrings, I ironed them all before stitching the lengths.

making drawstrings

 

In the interest of saving a little bit of time, I marked my machine with tape for the last two lines of stitching. This saved me the time of marking the fabric on ten bags. A great time saver for assembly line style piecing. 2nd to last row of stitchinglast row of stitching

 

The Finished Bags

car drawstring bagsix teacher bagsthree bags

 

Part of the reason I like the drawstring bags for toys is the easy cleanup aspect. For The Girl's birthday she got this cute Green Toys Build-A-Bouquet set. It even came with a box to keep the 44 pieces in. This is what it looks like when the kids put it away.

how the kids put them awayNotice how they don't quite fit. I've tried to put them away myself... sometimes I do no better than the kids. After many attempts, this was my result.

how I meticulously put them awayTada! But this is NEVER going to happen from a 2- or 4-year old. So... voila! Drawstring bag!

Build a Bouquet Flower Bag

 

Since I was working from fat quarters, and using a large portion of some of them I took some time to pre-cut my leftover fabric. Inspired by Lori's post How I Save My Fabric Scraps over at Bee in my Bonnet, I have bins for 10" squares, 6 1/2" squares (I used this size so they would work with my Midi Twister template), 5" squares, 3 1/2" strips and squares, 2 1/2" strips and squares, and 1 1/2" strips and squares (though I'm not sure I really want to work with pieces this small). It felt so good to have a way to keep my leftover fabric in a usable, organized way. I look forward to some scrappy projects in the near future.

scrapsYou can see more of my June progress in this post.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation and TGIFF.

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