Mondo-ooooo Bag

This caught my eye at the Dear Jane retreat last month...

the MONDO Bag! (not quite done)

Fitting the lining... still needs straps and pockets -

The Michigan ladies all made one and I had to make one for myself. This thing was holding a lot of stuff.

I picked up a batik strip set at Erica's on the way home... You know the part of the pattern where it implores you to "Read ALL instructions first?!" wehell... I tried but didn't quite get it all. This increased the level of difficulty quite a bit. Loved the fusible piecing - made that part of it really easy and hard to bungle.

Some of the strips cut down to 2.5" squares.

Adding 2.5" squares to the fusible... all the work that goes in to making it look random...

All four fused 'gridded' panels...

Just previewing how it will be sewn together.
This shows the four panels after fusing but before being sewn.

This is where it was really fun. You just keep folding over the sewn part
and sew the new seam. Really fast. You do the short seams
and then the long, then clip and press.

One of the gridded panels partially sewn.

After the panel has been sewn.

The cool square bottom after sewing the bottom edges of the four panels together.

Had to go back and repair this seam. I am not sure what I did the first time.
This looks bad but it lays flat now.

The four lining panels fused to the fluffier fusible.
This is the step I skipped. You were supposed to cut the lining panels to fit the finished
size of the gridded panels. I had already sewn the outside together before I caught my mistake
so I went by the size they were supposed to be then had to resize it a little. Hopefully it will fit. : /

The lining coming together. This fabric is to die for.

Sweet Sixteen: Needle, thread meets fabric. News at 11.

 

Thanks to one of my quilting friends, I got a little boost on this project... She invited me over to view her quilt, which was gorgeous. After admiring a bunch of her other quilts and discussing misc tips on the Sweet 16, she then generously loaned me her Laundry Basket Quilts stencils and all 16 block patterns already blown up to full-size!

I ended up using my iPad as a light box to trace the pattern onto the background - worked pretty well! Had to hit the quilt shops and resupply myself with appliqué needles and thread (...and a few new swatches of cloth)... And voilá! Needle and thread finally made it through some fabric. Sweet Sixteen has lost her virginity.

The clock is winding down on ol' 2012...

In my happy place today... A quiet house and room to spread out with all my paperwork... Planning a fresh 2013!

Baby Charm Quilt...

Decided to make a little quilt for my new baby nephew. Found a few charm packs and took about an hour to figure out what combinations of fabrics to use. Decided to do a rainbow of 6 color rows, using as many of the same designs but you know of course there was design A in 5 of the colors and design B in only 4, etc. So it took a bit to figure it out but eventually i just made it work...

Laying out the strips...

First 4 rows assembled. Pretty fast - about 7-8 minutes a row...
I think I had the top pieced in less than an hour.

My mantra was "bang it out. bang it out." : )
I think I was trying to prove something to myself.

Basting the batting to the top.
Yeah, I don't really know what I'm doing, honestly.

The ugly underbelly. Lots of trimming.
Everything was crooked. oy.

The quilt turned right-side out... I think I'll restitch it on the inside and then I'll top stitch it... Was kind of wanting to hand-quilt it - it felt so good in the hand - but about 8 " from being done I broke the needle and had to completely disembowel about 4 bags and my whole desk trying to find my flipping machine needles... so - stopping here for tonight and we'll see what's what in the light of day.

11/30/12 update: Meanwhile, back at the ranch... So now I've restitched the outer border
on the inside, trimmed it, de-safety-pinned it, and have sewn closed the opening.
I've finished top stitching the edge, finished the stitch in the ditch quilting
and am moving on to embellishing some of the light squares with some free motion stuff.

A litle free-motion... very new to me! As someone who doodles spirals habitually (and smoothly)
you would think this would be more comfortable but it's kind of like trying to draw
a portrait with my left hand - very awkward... but I am staring to see
how it does indeed get easier with practice.

The backing against the top. I think I should be able to finishe it tonight.
I am starting to feel like a bonafide quilter. P.S. I was watching episodes of Hoarders while working on this...
I was feeling like I needed to brush up... "the room" is like - whoa. You know what I'm talking about. This sure
didn't have the acreage to bust much stash. About a yard and 1.5 charm packs total... but it did inspire me to revisit all my pending projects - the topic of my next post. oooo.

Caroline's in Rome City and More.

Caroline's Cotton Cottage. Charmant!

What a great little shop. Packed with great stuff... but very tidy. Really, a pleasure.

...in which I bought a collection of pansy-colored fabrics...
solids, prints, homespun, solids and batiks - all playing nice together.

and a handful of repros. aren't these just gorgeous?!

sylvan springs

downtown LaGrange (?)

Gorgeous drive heading back to the retreat...

 

Some work from last night...

Kansashi flower. Fun and easy... need to finish with a nice vintage or fabric-covered button...
Then it's going straight into MARGOT's hair! (right, Gretchen?)

teeny tiny bintsy 1/4" English paper piecing hexies.

Some work from tonight...

Amish Churndash...

T08.Jane Stickle's in Shipshewana - aka LS10, Megan's Cathedral