Little Island Quilting

Friday, 13 January 2012

A bunch of bags

I'm always interested in bag patterns.

Can never have too many bags.

And I kept seeing this one popping up all over the place.

A look at the Flickr group for how others had interpreted this bag convinced me to hit the 'pay' button to get the pattern and I'm thoroughly glad I did. In one afternoon I managed to crank out not one, not two but three of these bags.

This one lives here now.

Although the pattern doesn't call for it, I used home decor weight fabric on all the bags as I wanted them to be fairly stiff and resilient. With this bag I also backed each fabric piece with interfacing.

Bag lined with regular quilters cotton weight fabric.

I also top-stitched around the edge of the bag which wasn't mentioned in the pattern but which I think adds to the finish and also keeps the lining from peeking out.

On this bag I used fusible fleece to back each piece of fabric and then I used a velveteen to line it. This has made for the sturdiest of the three bags.

The pattern had instructions for fabric made handles but I skipped that as I had a roll of cotton webbing (2 inch wide) which you can pick up for a reasonable price. I've also used jute webbing in the past if you want a more rustic look.

All in all, a bag pattern to be recommended and an afternoon well spent.

Linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday.

Monday, 9 January 2012

First and last bee quilt

First- Fresh Modern Bee II was the first bee quilt I joined on Flickr.
Last - this is the last bee quilt I have put together from the three bees that I was in.
My starting point was this fabric from Anna Marie Horner's Loulouthi line which I just thought was the happiest and fun fabric I had seen all year.

So I asked my fellow bee members to make me something that made them happy too.

Because there were no guidelines on block type or style, I knew the only way it was all going to hang together, was for everyone to make sure they incorporated some of the above fabric in whatever they made.

When the blocks came back I decided that this block from Lil just had to be the feature block on the middle.

The precision and detail is incredible. It is all hand turn applique as well.

And this block in particular from Jess with the tiny and precise squares and triangles had me ooing and aaahing.

And this lovely paper-pieced pot from Leila. And really, every block was different and lovely.

So I tried to find a pleasing balance with all the blocks and really just added more of the Loulouthi fabric in between to balance things up.

I quilted it with a grid pattern (with the exception of the centre flower pot block which I fmq meandered around the open space) using a mono-filament thread in the top and a grey cotton in the bobbin.

For the back I took the one remaining block and raw edge appliqued in between the Loulouthi and another piece of fabric.