weekender weekend progress

We had quite the busy weekend this past weekend, my mother in law and I went to see Wicked on Saturday night, and it was A.MAZ.ING.  Oh my goodness, I want to go again!  I immediately downloaded the soundtrack to my iPod, and have been humming the songs non stop.  Tomorrow is the hubs and I's anniversary, so he surprised me with tickets to yesterdays Steelers game.  We were up and at 'em quite early to get in our fair share of tailgating, who knew burgers and beer could taste so good at 9 AM! 

Anyways, in the midst of our busy weekend, I did manage some time to get to work on my Weekender bag, and made some fairly decent progress!   

I must say,  when I decided to give this bag a try, I was expecting  the absolute worst.  Now, don't get me wrong, it hasn't exactly been a walk in the park, I think I've broken one denim strength needle, have had to use my seam ripper a few times, and have thrown away more bent pins than I care to remember, but all in all things are moving along quite well.  Each step I finish I think I subconsciously hold my breath waiting for a "doozy" with the next step, but so far it has been quite manageable.

While I am loving this fabric I chose, the geometric design really shows off any misalignments.  I tried my best to match up the pocket section to the main panel, and think I for the most part succeeded.  I am noticing that my fabric is ever so slightly crooked, but I can live with it.

I am through step 8 or 9.  This is the top panel with the installed zipper, I ended up using a parka zipper that I found at Joanns.  It actually has two zips, I thought about taking one of the zipper pulls off, but ended up leaving it.  I figure for the wear and tear, it might not be a bad idea to have two pulls.  I also really like that this zipper is quite "heavy duty".  It's white in color, so still blends in, but did give a heck of a time trying  to sew over it during the installation process.  I think I just have to add the side pockets, and then the fun of sewing the whole conglomeration together begins.  I again am bracing myself for the worst with that step, cross your fingers!

I am incredibly pleased with how this is turning out, hopefully it continues to be smooth sailing!

  

WIP Wednesday {9.14.2011}

A mildly delayed WIP Wednesday post, but a post none the less!  Here's whats new:

Completed Projects

FTLOS

I managed to finish up my mini quilt and extras this weekend, and this package is on its way to its new home as we speak!  More about this here.

In Progress

Secret Pillow Swap

My lips are pretty sealed with this project here.  My new quilty email friend Ann and I have decided to do a secret pillow swap just between the two of us.  I'm having so much fun playing with the colors she is using in her new living room, above is a sneaky peek of pillow #1.  You'll have to wait a few more weeks to see anything else, but I am super excited about them!

Birdie Stitches

I finished up April's block for the Birdie Stitches QAL, and added a little something extra to the design.  I just love these blocks, and am quickly becoming addicted to embroidery!  Such a great take along project, and perfect for vegging on the couch with!

FWQAL

I only got around  to making one more block this week, and thought it silly to post about just one block.  I'll lump it in with next weeks post, but here's what I have so far!  Blocks 1-31.

AB Weekender Bag

No new progress to report.  Unless you count cutting out the pattern pieces from the templates.  I suppose that's technically step one of the directions...hopefully more progress this week!

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 8

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

FWQAL

Birdie Stitches QAL

Solid Spiderweb quilt

Weekender Bag

September Bee Blocks

Pillow Swap

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

For the Love of Solids Swap: Complete

I spent this morning finishing up my swap package for my secret partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap, and I have to say I'm glad I saw this mini through and didn't scrap it.  Seeing it quilted and with binding added the extra bit I thought it was lacking earlier.



This mini measures appx 20" x 22", and was constructed loosely using this sewmamasew chevron tutorial.  I am totally seeing pillows in the pattern in the new future.  I quilted 1/4" on either side of the seam lines and bound this using some Kona charcoal.



I really like how the back shows off the quilting pattern.  As for the label, I love using those printable fabric sheets (I found them at Joann's) that iron on to your quilt.  That way I don't have to worry about not liking my handwriting when labeling my swap mini quilts :-P



I struggled a little when deciding on my second item, and ultimately went with a metal frame pouch (which I plan to stuff with a few scraps of my partners favorite color fabric), and added a little hand embroidery detail using some pearl 8 cotton.  I almost want to keep this for myself!



While I was at my favorite LQS yesterday, I spied some precuts of Terrain by Kate Spain, and no joke, it just magically jumped right into my hands!  I most definitely wanted some for myself, and thought my partner would like a charm pack as well.  I know, I know its not a solid, but I think she'll understand :-)

This will be on its way to its new home tomorrow, hope you like partner!

Guest Post: Sewing Back to School

Hop on over to Sew Sweetness!  Sara has graciously asked me to take part in her 30 day Sewing Back to School series of posts.  Today you can learn everything you ever wanted (and likely didn't want) to know about binding! Check it out here.

WIP Wednesday {9.7.2011}

Wednesday?  Already?  As if the weeks don't seem to fly by already, these holiday weekends really throw things off!  Here's what's new from the sewing room...

New Projects

Amy Butler Weekender Bag

Bandwagon, here I come!  My pattern just came in the mail today, and I'm itching to get working on this bad boy.  I'm taking everyone's lessons to heart, and plan on reading, reading again, and possibly reading backwards the directions before starting...

In Progress 

FTLOS

Thank you everyone for your positive encouragement and feedback on this little guy.  I am mid way through quilting this mini, and am liking it much more with the quilting.  My partner is fairly quiet, so I'm heavily relying on her mosaic which would lead me to believe this is up her alley!

FWQAL

My blocks are slowly growing week by week and consuming my design wall!  This week I completed blocks 27-30.  More on this weeks blocks here.

Birdie Stitches

I finished up March's Birdie Stitches block this week.  I felt it was needing a little something extra, so I added some extra flowers using Clover and Violets Embroidery 101.

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 3

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 9

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

FWQAL

Birdie Stitches QAL

Solid Spiderweb quilt

Weekender Bag

September Bee Blocks

Pillow Swap

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

Be sure to stop over at Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

farmers wife

Since the weather decided to be uber crappy yesterday, and the hubby was working, I got to spend some quality time with my sewing machine on my day off.  I tackled a few more farmers wife blocks among other things.  I am really impressed with myself that I am still just as eager to work on these little guys each week as I was when I started!  I find that I tend to have quilty ADD when spending too long on one project, but these are certainly an exception.

Block #27 Darting Birds

This block took me forever.  And yes, if you look closely, its backwards.  I paper pieced this block (templates found here), and I have to say, while paper piecing gives nice clean perfect points, and avoids those templates, it sure leaves a ton of fabric waste (at least when I do it), and isn't all that much quicker.  And my blocks always turn out backwards.  It takes far too much brain power to figure out the mirror image, it was already a puzzle to figure out how the pieces fit together to make the darn block, let alone do it in mirror image?  No thanks.  Anyways, I do like the way this block turned out, I used some Denyse Schmidt from her new line for Joann's and the yellow is Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda.

Block #27 Duck and Ducklings

I decided to go back to using the templates for the rest of  the blocks, and I  think I just like it more.  I'll likely still use the paper piecing templates occasionally, but, and I never thought I'd say this, I think I prefer the templates!  This block used some Innocent Crush and the yellow is a Moda print.

Block #29 Economy

Ahhh.  Easy peasy.  I finished this block and said "thats it??"  Seriously, took me far longer to cut the pieces out than to actually piece the blocks.  I wish I had picked better fabrics.  This is just blah to me.  I may actually remake this one in fabrics I like more.  Maybe.  More Denyse Schmidt and the pink is Soire'e by Lila Tueller.

Block #30 End of Day

Since the previous two blocks were relatively simple, I added in a fourth block this week, which was also fairly simple and straight forward.  More new Denyse Schmidt (can you tell I just picked up a few of these fabrics on my latest Joann's run??), some Sunkissed, and some It's a Hoot!

30 blocks done, 81 more to go!  My design wall is quickly filling up with these little guys...I can hardly imagine when I'll have more blocks than fit on my wall!  Slowly but surely... 

weekend update

Happy Labor Day weekend!  In between family picnics and get togethers, I've found a little time to squeeze in some sewing.  I've turned my attention to my mini quilt for my partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap.  I've had this chevron pattern in mind for a while now, and had to see it through in fabric, but I'm not sure I'm thrilled.

What do you think??  It's quite simple and I sort of wish I had made the chevrons a little smaller.  It does go along with my partners mosaic, but I'm just on the fence about it.  I sort of have another idea swimming around in my head, should I just scrap this and start with idea #2?  I think I'm going to go ahead and quilt this and see if my opinion changes, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Changing gears here for a moment...what can endless yards of ridiculously stiff interfacing, 5 yards of cording, and yards and yards of home dec weight fabric mean?  Indeed it means I've caught the bug.  Yes, the Weekender Bag bug!  Seeing all these beauties all over blogger land had me thinking I just had to have one of these guys.  We have a vacation coming up in 5 weeks (not that I'm counting or anything) and this may just make an awesome carry on bag.  Now just to wait for the pattern to arrive, and I'll be off, wish me luck!

What have you been up to this holiday weekend??