Vinyl Front Tula Pouch

For the second year, one of the sewing groups I belong to did a swap. This swap has a twist: Each person brings a fat quarter of a favorite fabric from their stash to put in a bag. Then, we all take turns pulling out a piece of fabric and guess who it belongs to. We are a small group, so we are typically pretty successful in guessing the owner of the fabric. We each take the fabric away and come back a couple meetings later with an item made from the fabric we pulled from the bag to give back to the original person.

I pulled this cute Tula Pink cat print from the bag of fat quarters. It happened to be a fabric that I love enough to own, too! The person who brought the fabric enjoys hand applique and embroidery, so I thought she may like a bag that will keep all of her pieces flat and visible until it is their turn to be secured to the block.

I used a fairly heavy, clear vinyl for the front of the pouch. The primary fabric is the cat print, and for the back of the pouch, I chose to make a nine patch from a charm pack from the same Tula Pink fabric line. I sandwiched and quilted the fabric layers with a piece of soft and stable to make sure the pouch would lay flat while maintaining flexibility.

The binding is also from that same line of prints. I machine stitched it to the front and folded it around to the back for hand stitching. This allowed for hand finishing on the fabric portion of the pouch. The bag finishes a bit over 13″ square, so a lot of quilt blocks could actually lay flat in the pouch. I wish I had made one for myself when I was in a couple of bees- it would have been perfect to transport blocks!

Canvas Gift Bags

Posted on December 25, 2017 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Bags and Pouches, Holiday Sewing, Sewing / 1 Comment

As I was wrapping gifts on Saturday it occurred to me that a reusable bag would make more sense for several of the items I was about to wrap. I don’t usually purchase a large amount of any single fabric, but I did have some plain canvas on hand. Since the canvas has more body and substance to it than a standard quilting cotton, it didn’t even require a full lining.

The Christmas-y fabrics I had on hand were also very limited, but I did have enough to use as a facing on the top of the bag to add a bit of color and create the drawstring casings. Awhile back I had ordered 3/8″ grosgrain ribbon in a variety of colors to have on hand for various projects, and it worked perfectly for this project. It was purchased from cheeptrims.com (not an affiliate) which has great prices, but does have a minimum order, so you may want to pool orders with a friend.

To calculate the size of each bag, I loosely wrapped a fabric measurement tape around the gift, leaving a few inches excess to allow for seam allowance and ease. Half of this measurement was the width of the bag. For the height I also wrapped the measuring tape around the gift vertically and divided the measurement in half. I made sure to add 7-8″ to each half to allow for the gathering at the top of the bag and for the ruffle at the top. The corners are also boxed out to give the bag a bit more dimension.

These bags work great, and I’ll be making more to gift in future years!

Road Trip Case

Posted on December 16, 2017December 15, 2017 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Bags and Pouches, Book/Product Review, Quilting Community, Sewing / 1 Comment

This year for the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild we did an end of the year gift swap with a mix of handcrafted and purchased items. We drew names at the November Meeting, and the person I chose had been eying the Road Trip Case by Noodlehead. My partner likes Autumnal colors and Alison Glass designs, so I selected a palette of her batiks and prints.

There are several different pockets and pieces of trim, so it was fun to choose where each fabric would go. The pattern suggests batting for the quilted case exterior, but I switched it out for Soft and Stable foam, and I’m really pleased with the result. I incorporated a few lines of walking foot quilting on the exterior using 28wt Aurifil.

There are two options for the fabric pockets in the bag; two long or four short. I wasn’t sure which to go with, but I ended up choosing the shorter pockets since it will most likely be used for sewing notions. The pocket flaps with hook and loop tape (velcro) closures seemed useful to help contain smallish notions. I often don’t care for hook and loop tape closers since the hook side can pick up so much fuzz. I briefly considered replacing the tape with magnetic snaps. Ultimately, I decided that the velcro allowed more leeway in where the pocket flap could close depending on how full the pocket was. Hopefully it will work for my partner!

The case itself went together fairly easily, and I’m sure if I were to make more it would go quite quickly. Like most bags, I felt like it took as long to cut out and interface the pieces, as it did to do the actual construction. The vinyl pocket has the potential to be finicky, but I was pleased how well my machine handled this fabric especially since I don’t have a teflon foot. I didn’t even end up needing to lay tissue paper over the vinyl while sewing.

The Road Trip Case looks like a great bag for small sewing projects, and would be a fabulous art kit for kids. This would definitely make a fabulous holiday gift!

Overlay: A Riley Blake Challenge Quilt

Posted on December 12, 2017December 12, 2017 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting, Quilting Community / 3 Comments

Overlay is the quilt I created using the Rockstar line from Riley Blake fabrics for the Modern Quilt Guild challenge last Spring.

I focused on the red and white prints because I liked the idea of using such a classic color combination (such as the popular red & white quilt exhibition!) in contemporary prints. The design of the quilt also embraced the juxtaposition of classic and contemporary. The first step for this project was to make a traditional quilt top using a Flock of Geese block.

Once the top was complete, I started deciding which areas would be obstructed by the circular overlays. To assist with this process, I made circles from printer and craft paper so I could experiment with scale.

Once the right scale was achieved, I used the paper pieces as templates to cut the fabric pieces.

After determining the final layout, I cut corresponding circles from quilt top that had a radius 1/2″ smaller. Then I machine pieced in the circles- thats right- there is NO APPLIQUÉ in this quilt!

For me, the quilting is where my vision really comes to life. I wanted the texture to tell the story of the quilt even in the sections where the overall pattern is obscured by the circles. For example- if you were to paint a mural on a brick wall, the color changes with the design, but the underlying texture remains the same. In this quilt, the Flock of Geese design is carried through the entire quilt top using the quilting.

Where the white portions of the Flock of Geese block would fall, vertical matchstick quilting is used. In the red areas, organic mixed motif quilting is used. The thread color matches each fabric used on the front of the quilt.

The back of the quilt is a mix of red, white, and aqua Riley Blake fabrics. A facing finishes the edges of the quilt so there is no visual border trying to contain the circles that appear to float off the edge.

On the back of the quilt, you can really see some of the thread color changes that blend in on the front of the quilt.

I was able to enter this quilt into the county fair, and it received a first place and a best of division award!

Quilt Stats:

Title: Overlay

Size: 47″ x 63″

Techniques: Machine Piecing

Quilting: Matchstick and Mixed Motif Free-motion Quilting using an A-1 Longarm

Fabric: Riley Blake Rockstar Prints and solids on the front, assorted Riley Blake fabrics on the back

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Pieced using Gutermann Mara 100, Quilted with 50wt Aurifil in three colors to match the fabrics used

Binding: Facing in coordinating Riley Blake prints

This quilt was entered into QuiltCon 2018

Why I Pre-wash My Quilting Fabric

Posted on December 6, 2017 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Fabric, Sewing, Tutorial / 3 Comments

I confess . . . I’m a pre-washer. I know that a lot of quilters prefer their fabric right off the bolt, but I feel a lot more confident about the appearance and longevity of my quilts when I know as much about my fabrics as possible before I start cutting them up.

The Big Three Reasons I Pre-Wash:

The fabric will shrink before it goes into a quilt with other fabrics that may shrink at different rates
If the dyes used on the fabric are going to run, I would much rather know before I put them next to other fabrics. If a fabric bleeds a lot in the original wash, I will often wash it one or two more times. Occasionally, there is a fabric that never stops bleeding, and I am very careful about where I will incorporate that fabric. It may be perfectly fine in an all mid-tone quilt, but it would never be appropriate to use in a quilt with a light background.
Pre-washing removes any residual chemicals or finishes that were added to the fabric during the manufacturing process. I rarely wash my quilts immediately following the construction process, so I want it as clean as possible to start. It also can’t hurt to make as little skin contact as possible with the residues.

One of the big downfalls that I hear about pre-washing is the tendency to have fabric ravel out. To prevent this I stitch around the edges of the fabric prior to throwing it into the wash. The easiest way to do this would be a serger or overlock machine, but since I don’t have one, I use my domestic machine.

You could use a zig-zag stitch to accomplish this, but my machine (as well as most other zig-zag machines) have a special stitch for this. This stitch is called the Vari-overlock stitch in my machine manual, and it is recommended for stretch fabrics, but it works great for edging other fabrics as well. The foot for this has a slender piece of metal that is zig-zagged over while it holds the edge of the fabric flat and prevents the fabric from rolling.

The stitch itself is a series of short straight stitches followed by zig-zag stitch. You can make the stitch have tighter spacing by reducing stitch length. I use approximately a two stitch length for edging fabric for washing. When I use this technique for finishing edges on clothing, pillows, etc. I shorten the stitch length.

How do you feel about pre-washing fabric?