FINISH NUMBER 2

 I got the binding onto the Batik quilt and fixed some of the quilting that needed fixing.  So it's done.

Finish #2 of the year.

QUILTING BATIK QUILT

 Here's one of the quilts that my friend Mary sent to me.  I volunteered to do the quilting on a few for her.  They are quilts donated to her quilting group to help raise funds.

I got the quilting on this one done this weekend.

I used a bottle to help keep the quilt top stretched a bit which really helped.

NEW CENTER SQUARE

 I really didn't like the way the Celtic block was looking so I re-thought it and started over.    I got out my compass and trammel and drew out a big round interesting block.

Then I had to pick out fabrics - I pulled out my batiks drawer and rifled through them and came up with some winners.  And I made the decision to do this the hard way with y-seams and everything.  Here we go.

First I made the Lemoyne Star that goes in the middle.  Easy.

Then on to the next circle:

Don't know how to put this circle around the Lemoyne Star, but I'll figure it out.

SECOND CAMDEN BAG

I know!  I said I'd never again make one of these bags.  But, I saw all the leftover pieces from the first bag and thought about how much money I spent on them.  I hate throwing away money.  

So, I made this smaller bag.

I knew where all the pitfalls were and managed to figure out an easier way to do it.  This bag ended up not being anywhere near as miserable to make.

I'm not real happy with the fabrics, but that's what I had to work with if the plan was to use up the leftovers.

I really like this bag.

FINISHED THE BAG!

It took lots of angst, cussing, pain and frustration, but I got the bag finished today!

On Tuesday, we went to McLendon's Hardware and got some nylon screw rivets to attach the handles to the bag.  [I didn't like the instructions in the pattern, and came up with this plan]

The DH drilled holes into the plastic tubing that makes up the handles.

The first set of rivets, 3/4" long,was a little too long.  So, Wednesday I went back to hardware store and bought shorter ones.  They only had 1/2" and I was worried that they'd be too short since the tubing was 1/2".  So I also bought 5/8" in aluminum, which is what I ended up using.

So, I spent alot more money and bought alot more hardware than I needed.

I used one of DH's square punches (1/4") to punch a hole through the bag's side.  [You too can buy one of his punches thru Veritas or Lee Valley]

Then I attached the plastic tube covered with fabric to the bag with the rivets and washers.

Then the ends of the fabric tubes was pulled down and attached to the bag.  This was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done - trying to hand sew the final bit of fabric down.  Never again.

I almost gave up a couple of times, but after several hours over two days I persisted and won.  It may not be pretty, but it's done and it works.

DONE>

[I thought I might get Jelly to pose next to it to give some measure of it's size.  But, noooo, she thought I was trying to kill her or something.]

BOTTOM ATTACHED

The bottom of the bag had to all be sewn on by hand and it was not easy.

The inside had me struggling until I got fed up and turned it inside out.  (I was worried I might ruin the bag by doing this). 

Well...that was easy.

Inside out - just like sewing binding on.

It looked really cool when it was done.

I had done the outside first, and then when I sewed the inside bottom to the inside sides, it made it all kind of shift or something and the outside looks like this now.  But I really like it.  Weird.

I still don't know about the handles.  They have me confused.

DIFFERENT APPROACH

Okay, since folding the doubled fusible in half, making four thicknesses, didn't work for me or my machine, I decided to go with just the doubled thickness.  

It won't look like the bag in the pattern, but it will be close.

My machine can do this, and the needle isn't gumming up and the thread isn't breaking.

Life is good.

I got the outside of the bag made, got binding on it and starting to attach the bottom.

Looking good!

I woke up thinking about a different way to make the bag that looks like the pattern, but without all that thickness.  I'll have to try it next time.

I NEED A BIGGER BAG

I decided I needed a bigger bag - one that would hold a quilt, so I could take it with me and work on the binding and such.

I ordered a pattern.  I went to Jo-Ann's and bought fusibles.  I hate fusibles, they are so unquilt-like.  Stiff and artificial, not soft, warm and comforting as quilts should be.

But this is not going to be a quilt.

I got out my batiks and starting sorting through them.

I cut everything out and started to sew...

Here's the pattern with the beautiful bags on the cover.

First step, fusing the fabric to fusible batting.

Next step was to fold them in half and sew into tube-like strips.  Here's where the problems started.  This is four battings thick.  My machine didn't want to sew that.  It started skipping stitches.  It broke the thread and did all kinds of horrible things.  I changed needles, I used the biggest needle I had, I changed threads.  I gave up.

Things did not go well, I eventually decided to give up.  I would have to go buy more needles and thread, or something.

I've already spent too much money on fusibles, some of which I think are the wrong thing.  I sent away on Amazon for the brand names mentioned in the pattern.  I'll wait for them to get here and re-assess.

SHOPPING SPREE IN CONNECTICUT

We went to Boston and then Manchester, Connecticut.  Darrell was teaching a class in Manchester (Boston was the vacation part of the trip). While he was busy making money (that paid for the trip) I was on my own for two days.  So, I went fabric shopping with the intent being to make a quilt commemorating the trip.  

As I drove around, from quilt shop to quilt shop, I looked at the scenery and absorbed the colors.  Then while buying fabric, I tried to buy prints and colors that reflected what I saw.

I must say, the GPS machine made my mission so much easier.  I just programmed all of the quilt shop addresses into it, hit the 'optimize' button.  It reorganized them, and then I just drove where it told me to go.  I was on a lot of secondary roads and saw some wonderful scenery.  

When I took these pictures I was trying to capture the colors of the landscape.

First stop, Quilters Dream in Willimantic, CT.  

It was a very nice shop set in an old house on a corner of what appeared to be a main street.  They have a great selection of fabrics, books, lots of patterns and sample quilts on the walls.  This is where I picked my 'focus fabric' - a fabric I would use to take into the other quilt stores and try to pull colors from.  I picked a fabric that was a little vintage looking and I also grabbed a group of 8 fat quarters that are reminiscent of 'Colonial'.  I was thinking I'd try to reflect some of the history of the area also.  Below is the fabric, the large piece across the bottom is the focus fabric.

 Oh, and I'll add that I bought a yard of the focus fabric, everything else will be half yards, except for the set of 'vintage' fabrics, which are fat quarters (on the left).

Next stop was in Glastonbury, Close to Home Sewing Center.

I was a little worried when I saw the outside of this place in a strip mall.  But inside, I was pleasantly surprised.  The front of the store is dedicated to Home Dec and selling blinds.  But, the rear of the store is a wonderful selection of quilting fabrics.  The people working there were very friendly and helpful.  I found a collection of William Morris fabrics that I had a hard time keeping my hands off - but I did find three that fit into the theme.  It is a great store and here is what I bought there:

Next stop didn't fit into the quilt shop category, but when planning this online I took what I found.  I didn't realize until I walked into the store at Rocky Hill.  It is called Affordable Fabrics, and that's probably because everything in the store is only $1.99!  See the sign in the window on the left?

The catch is you have to buy one yard minimum.  They have mostly fashion fabrics, but I did find a few cottons I could live with and one questionable one, but I love the colors, it's the one on the right below.

Next up is Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts in Berlin.  Berlin Connecticut, that is.

Another great quilt store with a very nice selection of fabrics, I had a hard time controlling myself.  She has a great selection of batiks.  I wanted to get more than I did, but I don't know if batiks go with colonial...?  Here's what I limited myself to:

The next stop seemed a little farther off than the rest, it's in Simsbury.  It was a lovely drive out there and there are these fantastic looking huge Sycamore trees lining the street as I got near the shop.  They were so beautiful, silver and white, and majestic. 

The quilt shop, Sew Inspired,  is located inside a small shopping mall which is mostly restaurants.  It's a wonderful store, they have a very fine selection of fabrics.  I think I'm getting farther from 'colonial' and more towards what I like.  

The people were very nice and gave me a shopping bag with the store's name on it.  They said I was the customer that had traveled the farthest that day!  And it's a good thing they did, because there wasn't room in the suitcase for all this fabric and I ended up carrying it all home in the bag!

That was all my travels for Saturday, but Sunday there was one more shop, in Vernon called Quilting By The Yard.

This place was something else.  It has a really fantastic selection of fabrics, but they are all over the place.  They are leaning against the racks, lined up out into the aisle ways, making it hard to maneuver around or see anything for that matter.  They have a huge selection of batiks, but they were all disheveled every which way.  The gal said it was because they were on sale (20% off) and people had been buying them like crazy.  But, all the shelves of the other fabrics were the same way.  While I was there I wanted so badly to start straightening things up!  Old habits, I guess!  I even thought about asking them if I could hang and just put things away, but decided against it - they'd think I was just nuts.  Don't get me wrong - I loved the store and highly recommend it.  It's just quirky.  I think I found more to buy here than anywhere!

Well, that's my fabric frenzied weekend.  Stay tuned for the Connecticut Quilt updates.  Already there are ideas buzzing around my head.

GLUING

Using 'Yes' I glued most of the trees to the cool card stock I bought at Paper Zone.    I went with my husband to the woodworking store the other day and right next to it was the Paper Zone.  I said, "I'm gonna run in there and get some stuff."  I must have been taking too long because he eventually came in to see what I was doing.  I asked him what he thought about the color of the cards I had in my hand.  He didn't like it.  He thought it was too lime-green, which it is.  But, I thought it would work great with my trees, which it does.

TREES CUT

Next, I cut out a bunch of little tree shapes.