Rainy Days and Mondays...

Granny D here.  It's a dreary, rainy Monday here in Virginia.  Maybe that's why I focused in on this beautiful blue and sunny yellow combination.  As you can see, the front of the bag is already pieced.  The straps have been cut from the navy.  The back is going to be that navy Majestic fabric we have in the eBay store...I think...

As you can see, after a little contemplation, I'm still having an argument with myself.  Should I make the lining out of the navy and the back of the bag out of that yellow?  I'm thinking practical here.

 The yellow will show dirt quicker (these can be washed, by the way) but who wants to wash their bag every day or every week for that matter.  However, the interior might be even worse.  Lipstick comes open, pens leak.
Sigh.
As Jimelle posted earlier today, oh, the possibilities.  Well, at least between blue and yellow.
What do you think?
 

So Many Possibilities!

I don't know about you, but I spend my Sunday afternoons drinking coffee and deciding what kind of quilt I want to make this week. I choose simple quilts, partly because I'm new at this stuff, but also because I really, really need a sense of accomplishment by the end of the week. My other "job" is writing novels, and, as much as I hate to say it, I just can't finish a novel every week. So I turn to quilting to get my 'finished' vibe.

This week, as it turns out, is a pretty hard decision. I have loads of gorgeous fabric! I have apparently been collecting teals and blues to the point that my sewing room looks a lot like the ocean. I have a Lily & Loom layer cake for two kid quilts in purple and pink, but I'm just not feeling those candy colors this week. Also, thanks to Joann Fabrics BOGO sale last week, I have two new jelly rolls to play with. Sigh. Life is good.


I'm still fascinated with jelly roll strips, and I love the symmetry of coin quilts. So I picked out these:

and these:

I have a pattern in mind, something like a mix between a coin quilt and window squares, but I'm not going to bother posting it today because I know - FOR A FACT - that I will change my mind sometime during the piecing process. It's happened every single time I try to follow a pattern.

Do you follow patterns or make it up as you go along? Maybe a mixture of both?

Finished Product

Granny D here.  Remember all those piece parts I showed you on Monday?  We're calling that Make It Monday, by the way.  Well, all of those parts finally became something special today.

Since these will soon be showing up in our eBay store, I thought you might like to see how one is made.  I'm going to take you kind of step by step as to how I put it together.  As you see each step, feel free to let me know if you think something can be done quicker or easier.  I'm no expert, believe me.
First things first. 
I make the straps, the button flap and the pockets first.

Then I sew the pockets to the lining and put the lining together.  And this time I remembered to leave the 3" to 4" hole in the bottom so I can turn it later.  Sheesh!  I always forget that.  Thank goodness for seam rippers.

After that I start working on the outside of the bag.  I use fusible batting to make it soft and then quilt it just a little.  Then I sew on the straps and the flap.  You'll notice I changed the flap.  When I got ready to sew it on, it was just too wide.  So I just made another one.







Now comes the fun part.  I turn the lining inside out and tuck the bag, right side out into the lining.  Got it.  I just have to keep telling myself right sides together, right sides together...  You get the picture









Then, it's just a matter of sewing around the top of the bag, making sure everything is straight and even and those straps stay out of the way.  I turn it through that little hole I left in the bottom of the lining.  And then, whew, remembered to sew the hole up once I'm sure everything is cool.  Lastly, sew a button on the front to secure the bag somewhat.

And, there you have it.  A patriotic tote, that's roomy enough for just about whatever you might need.  Plus, it has plenty of pockets to help keep things organized.  What do you think?

Geometry and Quilts and Birthdays

I'm new to the whole quilting thing, and someday I'll post my first finished quilt - affectionately known at my house as "The Worst Quilt In The World". I can say that I learned A LOT making it, and I can't wait to finish piecing the two(!) I've got stacked in my sewing room right now.

But for now, I thought I'd share something pretty cool. At least, I think it's pretty cool. I hope you do, too. It's this:

I like to design quilts almost as much as I like making them. The color choices, patterns, and shapes are like puzzle pieces in my head, and I love love love that the possibilities are so endless. I started out doodling on graph paper, but this weekend I found myself with time to kill and no graph paper. I did have my laptop, however, and a free program called GIMP. It's neat, but there's a heck of a learning curve. I know just enough to do a few things, and I'm nowhere near as proficient as some other folks.

Anyways, I decided to play around and try to come up with a quilt design template. That's that thing up there. I count each block as a 5" square, just because my brain likes that number. That makes every numbered row a 10" block, perfect for charm packs and layer cake...packs? Stacks? Slices? I dunno, but you get my drift.

Why was I doing all this, you ask? Well, the Big Man's birthday is coming up, and I had a few ideas for a quilt. Unfortunately, I need to see geometry with my eyes. It won't work in my head. The circles roll away, the triangles are all sharp and pointy, and the squares fall flat. It gets dangerous in there. So I either doodle the patterns, or in this case, use that graph up there.



For the birthday guy, I chopped that thing up there in half and used this:

to make this:

The man loves peppermint candy. 

I numbered the rows differently and played around with it, and it was a lot of fun. However, I still love my graph paper and pens, so I'll probably print these things out and use them in the real world. The basic "peppermint" block wasn't my idea, but the placement was all my own (I think). Pay no attention to the numbers at the bottom - that's my own weird system of figuring out what fabric I'll need.

Feel free to use anything on this page. Just right click and save any of the images you like. Print 'em, play with 'em, have a ball.

Which do you like better: pen and paper, or software?