Bad weather = more quilting!

It's not a wonder that people in this area are productive quilters!! What else would you be doing??

The weather made headlines this week and it's still creating havoc. As I write this, our trees (and everything else exposed to the elements) are coated with a thick layer of ice. Soon this freezing rain will lead to rain which really can't come soon enough since I'm worried we'll lose power. Wednesday's blizzard was phenomenal!! It started abruptly and never let up until bedtime Thursday! The winds were the worst I've ever experienced. We were without phone or internet for 21 hours. So far, the phone is the only service suffering but I fear that may change as the bad weather continues. Our daughter who was visiting from Toronto until Monday morning decided to leave this morning preempting the canceled flights sure to happen.

However, with power, I was able to keep on sewing! Several projects were finished this week.

My daughter's Cargo Duffel, a pattern developed by Noodlehead for Robert Kaufman is finished and she loves it. She filled it with all her belongings and put it in her suitcase to bring home. It will get a lot of use of that I'm sure. 

I made a few changes, some by choice! I added an interior pocket similar to the Travel Duffel, made the pockets differently, added the straps that support the bottom of the bag, made it taller by adding the blue strips on the side and lowering the purple gusset. It has Soft and Stable from ByAnnies.com in the body of the bag which is what helps it keep its shape. Soft and Stable is machine washable and can be ironed on a medium setting. I LOVE this product! Just make sure your sewing machine has an even feed and can sew through thick layers! 

This is what happened to mine while I was sewing this bag! I have no idea how to fix it nor do I know where that little piece belongs but shortly after I finished the first duffel bag, my machine started making a strange noise. You should always listen to your machine... I did listen and looked for a cause but none was apparent! Then at the end of a seam, I noticed the even feed was no longer working as it should; consequently, the top layer was longer than the bottom layer. As I elevated the foot to remove the fabric, this little piece fell out.

We live about 50 min from the nearest sewing center that carries Husqvarna parts and luckily, they had a replacement, pricey but a necessity! Luckily too was the fact we needed to pick up our daughter at the airport close by the sewing center so we left earlier to pick up this new even feed foot. The new one works like a charm, has interchangeable feet and a few guide bars for when you want to sew parallel straight lines. This alone was a bonus as I previously drew the lines.

Next came my sister's Samsung tablet cover; this is the same sister for whom I made the little camera bag. I had leftover fabric and decided to treat her to a matching cover.

She wanted room to carry the charging cable and the stylus; the quilted pad you see inside will protect the screen from scratches. I used S&S (Soft & Stable) in this one as well. I think she'll like this. This is such a fun and relatively fast sewing project. 

I will leave you with photos of our Friday visitors... 

There were 4 of them; big daddy was in the alders beyond the spruce trees. Sorry about the bottom photo... I had to take this one through the kitchen window so you see reflected light. The deer were eating at the apple trees in front of the house after I took these. Remarkable animals! We'll have to think hard about protecting our garden if we ever get a chance at a decent spring and summer.

At the moment I would take this pile over the ice we're getting!

Toodles!

Lorette

Patterns!

It's been a busy week catching up on projects. Last Tuesday I started preparing the 3 blocks from the De Deauville To Cape Cod BOM by Roxane at Scrap, Quilt and Stitch; I felt really behind and wanted some evening handwork desperately! The crazy quilt was first on my list but after looking for hours for the beads I gave up. I know someday I'll come upon them while searching for something else. Until that happens, it has to remain a WIP! I promise to keep looking! Not all my craft boxes are empty for lack of space. Frustrating...

So far, De Deauville to Cape Cod quilt has been the favorite project! I so dearly love working on this quilt probably because it makes me think of the beach days that we all long for. For these blocks, I decided to use the sky fabric I painted in Mickey Lawler's class at Road to California Quilt show. What great fun that was; I had never painted on fabric before, at least not intentionally like this. She's a wonderful teacher and I believe we all had a great day playing with paint and fabric. So it's fitting to put some of it to use in this quilt THIS year! 

Block 7

     Block 6    

 

Block 4

                                    

Just after Christmas, I made a camera bag for our daughter Isabel and it didn't take long to get requests for more bags. Our oldest daughter Madelaine wanted a weekender bag so it's been a project of mine to hunt for the supplies. Don't you love the hunt?? After close examination of the pattern I had originally chosen, it was clear that some changes would have to be made to make it sturdier. I decided to use another pattern but the amount of fabric I purchased was not enough. What to do? I decided to sew a sample of the bag in fabric I had on the shelf to see how I can make Madelaine's with her fabrics. 

First step was to quilt the outer fabric and lining... after Lolah got a good warm up, she was ready to go and she sewed like a dream! Not a skipped stitch, not a knot, nor a broken thread!! What a treat!! This pantograph is called Flowers For Haley. I used Magnifico in grey... LOVE IT! First time trying it out on Lolah and it quilted beautifully! Love the sheen too.

                                     

                                    

Then it was time to draft the pattern pieces... THERE ARE A LOT OF PIECES TO THIS PATTERN!!! and 3 small errors or discrepancies. I will be contacting the designer to inform her of this so she can make the changes. It does have to do with the measurements listed being different from those on the diagram. I cut before crosschecking the listed measurements... luckily I had plenty of fabric.

You'll have to wait to see the results of this bag. Remember it's only the sample bag!

Yesterday, though I chose to play with a smaller, quicker to assemble bag. One request came from one of my sisters; she wanted a small camera bag too. I asked her to measure her camera (Kodak Easyshare) and to choose her colors. Her request was for grey, blue, and yellow! This is what I found... you can see the chalk lines for quilting. This is a fat quarter piece of fabric.

 And I couldn't resist the mice for lining! The brown in the above fabric was very difficult to match!! :) Don't you love the 3 Blind Mice?

 Love the mouse on the bicycle too.

 This is the result...

 All the inside seams are bound. And she LOVES it! I have yet to add my logo on the strap.

Patterns... you see them everywhere! Paper patterns like the ones above, patterns in the snow, on the water, in the sky, in fabric, on this bird... a visitor to our yard this weekend. He's called a Northern Flicker; he's in the only family of woodpeckers that forages on the ground for food. This one is around our house daily... quite cute! Love his coloring! and the pattern on his back and wings.

I'll be linking to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Toodles,

Lorette

Onward...

Making time to quilt or hand stitch is of prime importance to me. During one particularly stressful week of negotiations, potential buyer visits/house showings, it was important for me to sit at the machine and just sew. The Downton Abbey quilt resulted in grounding me and keeping me sane. Other projects accomplished the same relaxation.

On a quiet day after Christmas, I found myself alone at home with a whole afternoon free for sewing! I had a few projects in mind...

Peppermint Place needed to take shape! First the birdhouse blocks were trimmed.

Then the corners were sewn together. the applique pieces were all cut out in September; all that was needed was to prep them for appliqueing.

I have since finished the handwork on the top corner blocks. Perhaps I'll get the next 2 corners done before the move but this is questionable. I'm loving this quilt more and more each day... just love those little birds and the colors are delightful!

I received a request from DD no 2 who treated herself to a new camera after Christmas. She didn't like the camera bags available on the market and wondered if I would make her one; something that would fit in her purse, without straps, just something soft to protect the camera. This led me to JoAnns Home Decorator fabric section for these lovely cottons. I purchased 1/2 yd each not really knowing what pattern I would use but confident that it was enough for this purpose.

After a little web surfing, I found this pattern which google "tries" to translate from Italian. The pictures though speak a universal language.

http://hobbydistoffa-hdc.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-05-14T09:23:00%2B02:00&max-results=7&start=5&by-date=false

Since the camera had not been delivered yet, I resorted to looking at Amazon photos and getting dimensions of the camera and the lens. Then I decided to first build a paper pattern starting with the cosmetics bag size then changing each piece's dimensions to fit the bag I was making. Sorry, I didn't take any photos of this process... my mind was on the result not the process!

After 2 1/2 hours from the start of paper pattern-making to finish, this is what I had.

The next morning, I got up early to finish the removable foam insert.

 I was sad to have boxed up and stored my serger as I could have cleaned up the inside seam. The seam is zigzagged only. A little seam tape would give it a cleaner look. I was worried my calculations might not be accurate and was afraid the camera might not fit.

The bag is made so the camera body sits in the insert with the lens pointing up. As you can see, it fits beautifully and I have one happy DD!! The bag also closes without problem. 

I absolutely LOVE making bags! I have orders for 2 different sized bags but they will have to wait as the packing frenzy has begun. 

The contingencies on the sale of the house should be removed today. My studio is almost all packed. 

Lolah has a date with the technician who delivered her and set her up. She will be professionally crated and ready when the movers arrive on the 24th. 

In the meantime, I am getting ready for Road to California Quilt show. I've registered for longarm and machine quilting classes everyday starting Jan 20th until the 26th. When Road is done, I will be returning to an empty house, a house we've called home since Valentine's day 2008. We've loved living here but we're thrilled to start a new adventure in Canada, our real home!

Please forgive my absence from the blog... there is much to do in the next 2 weeks as we wind down our California activities and prepare for the road trip across the lower 48! Wish us luck!

Toodles!

Lorette