Cleaning up my Stuff

I spent most of the day cleaning and organizing my sewing area.  Going through all your stuff can be both  exciting and depressing.
I get excited when I find tops I have made and forgotten about because they have been put away to await quilting. This is Reminiscence one of my first applique quilts.

As I keep digging and cleaning I start to find more things like these "Flourishes" blocks I completed four and stopped.

And there are the Carol Doak BOM paper pieced blocks I think I made these in 2008.  They really need to be put into a quilt.  I even know the layout I want to use.

I have 12 of these 30's blocks I want to make an Irish Chain quilt with them.

Now this is not all I found but  you see now I am getting a little depressed.  

How will I ever get all of this done?  Especially when there are so many new quilts I want to make.

This is why I don't clean more often.  I am going to just put all this back where I found it and continue on my merry way making more blocks to put into little containers to be found at a later date.

I hope you are better at finishing your projects than I am.

Happy Stitching,

Nancy

Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome!

I will have to admit my house has gotten so bad I don't even want to live in it.  All I have wanted to do lately is sew hence the dust and dirt has piled up.  Now I never wanted to be known as the lady whose obituary said she was known for the cleanest house but this is ridiculous.   So the last few days have been spent cleaning showers, floors, windows and all the other things that don't have anything to do with quilting.

Now back to what I enjoy.

I have been participating in the BOM Comfort & Joy at Sweet Home Quilt Company my local quilt shop because I really needed another applique' project.




The first two months were just piecing -  nine patch, flying geese,

churn dash, log cabin and half sq. triangle blocks ...with one little sq. in a sq. block.

Month three was this little applique house and this month we made a snowman and a flag.










I think this is going to be a sweet little Christmas quilt when finished.

Beyond the Cherry Trees Progress

I know this is not a very good picture because I just don't have enough room to stand far enough back from my design wall---but I though I would show you the progress I have made on my Cherry Tree quilt.


I also made a couple of changes to my quilt. The purple in the grapes just didn't seem to fit with all the other red and green blocks.  Some of the others made their cherries red and they fit better but I didn't want to do all those cherries over so I just put some leaves around the vine.

I never really liked the pineapple block.  To me it just looks weird and not at all like a pineapple---also there is no red in this block.  So I found another block in one of my applique books made a few changes and had it enlarged to fit.




My only dilemma now is should I change the purple basket in this block.  I will wait and see what the last six blocks are about before making that decision.

Snappy Bag and GO

This is the fourth project in my Accuquilt Die Challenge.  I am using the 2" square die and the Funky Flower Die to make my Snappy bag.

I wanted to make a black and white bag so I gathered all my black and white scraps and placed them on the die rolled them through and very quickly ended up with all these nice little 2" squares.

 I arranged them in the order I wanted and sewed them together into little rows.  Then I sewed the rows together to make my bag front and back.

I pressed the rows on one piece going up and  the rows on the other piece going down so the seams would butt together when I assembled my bag.

Next I got out my Funky Flower die and fabric.

I ironed a piece of Lite Steam-A-Seam2 to the back of my fabric and ran it through the cutter to get these cute little flower shapes.  I placed them on the front of my bag ironed them down and stitched around the edges.

The next step was to stabilize the bag so I ironed a piece of fusible interfacing to the back of both pieces.

 I wanted to have a little black trim on the front of my bag so I sewed a piece of black fabric to the top of the bag

and since this is the casing the metal tape is going through I reinforced it with some batting.  I also trimmed the batting out of the seam allowance to eliminate some thickness.Next I cut two pieces of lining fabric the same size as the bag front and back and sewed them to the black fabric

  

I  made a simple pocket and sewed it to the lining before sewing the bag together.  I also made little loops for my strap to go through but failed to take pictures.

I wanted the bottom of my bag to be curved so I used my masking tape roll to draw a curve stitching    line on both corners---- put the bag right sides together and sewed  around the edges leaving an opening in the bottom of the lining to turn the bag through.

 I cut my metal tape the width of the bag top curved the ends and covered them with clear duct tape.
Then I  folded the top of the bag down  to cover the tape and have enough to stitch down.

I cut a piece of black fabric for the strap 4 times the width of the finished strap.  Pressed it in half  opened it and pressed each side to the center and stitched down both sides. Put the strap through the loops and tied an overhand knot.

Check out the tutorial for the
Snappy Bag on my blog for a little more direction.
This is not a pattern and you should use your own sizes and materials for your bag if you make one.