Bags, bags, bags

I made four more bags. It all started with this fabric:

And it ended in a sports bag for my youngest who was about to have his first handball lesson ever.

In the photo above, I stuffed it with boxes, the bag is too floppy in reality. You can see, that is not stiff enough in the photo below:

Of course I should have known that big brother would ask for one, too. I made the second one much stiffer by using a fusible interface. And I used a laminated IKEA fabric as lining.

See? It keeps it form without stuffing.

Plus I tried a covered zipper. Yay.

And then there was my mother’s birthday. She asked for a little bag with the emblems of her rowing club. Well. Here’s the result:

I enlarged the emblem and appliquéd it on a low volume love fabric (wonder if she saw the hint?!)

I lined it with a red and white striped fabric and I even put in a little zipper pocket for keepsakes (which is lined with a fun fabric featuring all kinds of traffic signs).

I am happy to report that she loves this little bag and that she uses it a lot.

And I made another bag – another quilted one – that will be a gift for a dear friend. So just a little sneak peek today:

Happy Quilting!
Christine

Holiday Sewing

Hi everyone!

It’s been quite awhile since I last sat down to write a blog post. I have been sewing a bit during all the stress produced by my daytime job which took so much more time than usual (for several weeks I have been working full time instead of halftime). It is not over yet but I hope to get a new colleague soon.

But the last two weeks we had two weeks of family vacation of which we spend  10 days in Spain.

Prior to our trip I made some last minute holiday items:

1. Traveling Documents Holder with a clear vinyl back pocket for boarding passes:

    

2. Small Triangular Pouches for earphones and such…

  

3. Cases for sunglasses for the boys and me..

  

  

4. A little bag for the headphones I bought for the boys:

  

5. And last but not least three luggage tags that I made the very morning we were leaving for the airport:

I apologize for the mixed quality and backgrounds of those photos. When I made and photographed the items I did not have a block post in mind… I already posted some photos on instagram (did I ever tell you I gave in and joined instagram?! I am @grapesandhearts over there).

Does that happen to you? That you regret afterwards that you did not put more energy into coherent photo styles?!

 

Well and here are some photos of our trip to Mallorca, Spain.

The boys dragging their luggage bags to the airport… waiting…

  

… and then their first fight… and nightly bus transfer to our hotel (2 hours… uaaah)

  

Lots of fun by the sea / and by the pool…

  

… and in the water of course (o:

Tons of fun for the four of us. We had a great family time and somehow I wish I could stay at home a bit longer. But tomorrow I will have to go back to work and the stress starts all over again.

If your holiday still lies ahead, I wish you a happy and sunny time.
In any case, I wish you a happy new week!

Christine

Serger fun

We had the first snow this winter! However I took the products of my “labour” outside to take some photos. (Ha! that sounds like sewing tees is hard and a chore, doesn’t it?! And like I spend my spare time working…)

Infact, sewing tees has been a mere enjoyment as I treated myself to a new serger. My first serger. And “treated myself” is rather wrong, because I spend my christmas and birthday money that I received from my MIL and my parents.

I sincerely expected some sighing and shrugging shoulders when I called my mom to tell her how I spend my christmas money but she was very happy that I had found something that I would love to use…

So I made some tees first. I bought Rae’s flashback skinny tee pattern and couldn’t stop at one…

The pattern is easy to follow although my boys seem to be bigger than average. I first made a size 6 for my 6 years old son. It was too small in the armpits so I  shortened the arms to make it a perfect fit for my 4 years old.

Here are some details of the neck and the hem. I used a twin-needle for a more professional-looking finish.

In former times my boys have taken to their heels when I sewed clothes for them. It really helps to let them choose the fabrics and some fun iron-on patches.

This is my youngest with the first tee before I shortened the arms. It gets more and more difficult to get them pose for photos so I have to sneak in and catch them unexpectedly…

Here’s the bunch of tees together. So much fun.

Have you tried sewing apparel for your kids or nieces, nephews, grandchildren?
Do they love wearing handmade clothes?

Happy sewing and have a great new week!
Christine

Dare to be different – A finished Quilt

Yay! I finally finshed the scrapbuster swap quilt. It was my first swap ever and the first round was postage stamp blocks. I made a bunch of blocks, send them off across the big ocean…

… and received colourful scrappy blocks from around the world. I wanted the quilt to be big enough to serve as a throw quilt and added more blocks…

But I alwasy felt that the quilt was too busy and lacked a bit of interest and a little special something. And then, two years ago, inspiration came disguised as a book:

I knew how I wanted to use all those scrappy swap blocks. I made several grey elephants out of grey linnen. I made Elmer from more scraps and then I got stuck halfway down the way. I needed a background fabric and I was not sure how to arrange the blocks. Elmer in between colourful rows?

So what did I do? I put the entire project in a box and let it rest for almost two years. Am I the only one?!

Three weeks ago, I finally took it out again and suddenly everything went on smoothly. I made some more blocks, decided on a block layout (KISS: keep it simple and stupid) and made a reversible quilt:

And I won’t even try to diguise how happy I am with the final result. I loooooove this quilt. Both sides of the quilt. And as it is going to be used on our sofa, there is no chance that only one side will be visible.

I love how some scraps bring back memories of quilts I made and there are also squares of Mini Charm Packs that my friend Brigitte brought home from Quilt Market. I also used scraps from her four fabric lines for moda. And I love the thought, that this quilt also represents memories that my fellow swappers have of quilts that THEY made.

Here’s a close up of Elmer. Elmer is not grey like all the other elephants and at first is uncomfortable with his appearance. But by and by he realizes that his personality is not defined by his appearance and that he is happiest when he is himself – without disguise or pretentions.

A lesson I try to teach my two little sons as well: dare to be different!

So I kept the other elephants without details. I didn’t even bother to make them eyes. Only Elmer stands out. I wanted to stress his differentness by enhancing the sameness of the others.

I free motion quilted Orange Peels all over the quilt. I quilted with the patchwork side facing up, using the squares as a natural grid and using a blending grey thread for the “back”. Then I turned the quilt and stitched in the ditch of Elmer’s patchwork. Afterwards I turned the quilt again and quilted only horizontal Orange Peels (or Petals) through the other elephants.

This is a look at the back and top. I love how the Orange Peels turned out - if I do say so myself (: I thought about Dogwood at first but somehow thinking of elephants I rather thought of Orange Peel…

I used those Ann Kelle remix stripes as a binding and my favourite method of attaching the binding: the triple zig zag stitch of my sewing machine.

et voilà:

One last shoot with the patchwork side peeking over…

It is that time of the year again: It’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival again! There’s so much to be seen and so many lovely stories to be read.

This quilt is my entry for this fall. I’d say it is a Group Quilt or Scrappy Quilt.

 

Thank you very much for vising.

Please consider leaving a comment, that way I can hop over to your entry, too!

Happy Quilting everyone and remember: dare to be different!
Christine