Sling Back Packs: Contemplating New Projects

 

On the hunt for the perfect bag, I kept seeing sling bags like this Wayfarer Sling Backpack (I bought the pattern) and this larger one from Life Sew Savory (See photo above).    So today's foray in the sewing room was to sift through the stash in search of the perfect combination of fabrics to make one or both of these bags in the coming weeks.  Don't be surprised if this also involves a trip to the local fabric/craft shops -- I'll need hardware, too!

Here are some possibilities pulled from my stash this afternoon:

 

Quilter's cotton and golden textured upholstery.

 (I liked the weave pattern, and thought I could duplicate it.)

This feels like a winning combination.  The fruitful harvest and the golden waves of wheat SING together.

Purple toned wool (picked up at St V) and a vibrant purple ultra-suede.

 

Another winning combination.  

The snowflakes and the purple are leftover from other quilt projects.

 

 

Denim, red bandana fabric and ticking for the lining. 

All left over from a different bag project.  Not sure I have enough of any one of these to finish a sling bag, so I might have to swap in some other denim or lining fabrics.

 

I have learned to keep the linings light in color, otherwise it's too easy to lose things in the dark recesses of a bag.

A pretty skirt that never did my figure any favors, but I loved the woven look of the fabric.

Faux leather picked up at St Vinny's.    Still need something for the lining.

So which one do I start with?

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 43 Garden Path - 77 Seasons - 99 WCTU

Block 99 - W.C.T.U. 

The blocks this round were a little putsy, but not bad.  Just took patience and care with the cutting.  The secret with the corner blocks on this one was to cut the pieces oversize and then cut it down to the right size after the fact.  

If you are wondering what WCTU stands for it it is something like Women's ?? Temperance Union -- or something like that.  They were fighting for prohibition.  

 

Block 77 - Seasons  

This was the only block this round to be paper-pieced.  Not too bad!  It was quick and simple.

 

Block 43 - Garden Path

Nope -- This one was NOT paper-pieced.  Although they gave us a paper pattern for the blue frame with mitered corners.  For the life of me, I could not get those to come together smoothly, so I started over and did it my way and it came together just fine. 

I think that might be it for the orange for a while ...   Starting to feel a little too tropical!

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 32.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Quilting Hollyhocks Around the Barn Step 6: Chicken Wire Borders

 

At some point in the last 10 years, I found this great chicken fence fabric that turned out to be the perfect border for the Hollyhocks quilt.

I've been thinking about how best to quilt the borders ...  a 3-ply Celtic border?  A diamond grid?

I even considered following the turquoise chicken wire grid pattern on the fabric, but decided that there would be too many places to stop and turn.  

  

I paged through some of my quilting motif books, and finally settled on this pattern.  It kind of looks like chicken eggs.  I guess Easter is coming ...

The practice  piece -- consider it a warm-up.  A chance to figure out what path to take.

I marked out the borders with a chalk line dividing the space in half, then  marking every 2 inches.  This is sort of like the lined paper we used in 2nd grade when we were learning to write in cursive.

Then I started stitching out the loops on the outside, then a round doing the inside loops, and then "shells" on the outside and then the inside ...   Borders are easier to stitch out because you are not wrestling so  much with the bulk of the quilt.

 

Just to remind you what the overall quilt looks like ...

I still need to go back and fill in the dark flower stalks and the cream backgrounds between all the flower heads.  Still deciding what will work in that space.  

 

 

I was stitching along, making good progress with just a few feet to get to the end -- when the machine paused a bit ...   I turned it off and on again ...  and continued on my merry way ...  until it paused again, made an odd noise, and I could hear something let loose inside, and maybe a screw falling down inside the machine ... and then, no more sewing.  If I put my foot down on the pedal, it would rev up, and go-go-go, but the needle didn't move.  Maybe the belt broke?  I only had about 3 more feet to go to finish that last round of shells on the border ...

I have to admit:  I got this machine in 2016 after my aunt died, and I have not taken it in for maintenance at all.  I know: It's supposed to go in once a year, but it's such a tremendous hassle to tear it all down and pack it up to go to Appleton where the maintenance guy in on a circuit, and only shows up every 6 weeks (or so) ...   It means about 3 months without it.  How's that for a good reason to avoid regular maintenance.   But now I can't avoid it.  It is well and truly broken now.  Fortunately, I have a spare -- the identical same machine I purchased from my mother when she upgraded to her fancier new embroidery machine.    So-- I was able to tear down and set up the other machine and finish the border.  Hurray!  But I do have to find the repair person in Appleton, explain what's wrong, haul it up there and then wait ...  and wait some more.  It's not just a quick trip across town and done, which means I won't be able to deliver it until next weekend.  More waiting.  I know -- It could be worse.

Good news!  Ana's Sewing Center in Appleton said they can take it, and do the repairs locally with a 5-10 day turnaround time.  Yahoo!  But I still won't be able to get it there until the weekend.

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 55 Linoleum - 69 Practical Orchard - 70 Prairie Queen

Block 70 - Prairie Queen 

This set of blocks was so fast and easy, I did all 4 of them on a Monday evening.  I don't think that's ever happened before in the history of my working on this project!  But that's the magic and simplicity of 9-patch blocks.  

This one is called Prairie Queen, made with green and blue batiks, along with a new background neutral fabric, as I am running low on the 5 yards of viney white-on-white I started with.    I love how those batiks come together with saturated colors broken up with textures and lights and darks.  

No paper piecing for this one. Yay!

 

 

 Block 55 - Linoleum

Not even the corner blocks for this one were paper pieced--So that made me happy.  It was another chance to inject a little more orange into the overall color scheme.  

 

Block 69 - Practical Orchard 

I liked this one so much, I made it twice.    Once with the batiks you see above, and the whimsical fairytale Julie Patckiss (sp?) fabrics you see below.     Frog princes, mermaids, starfish and sturgeon.

I probably should have tilted that sturgeon so as not to cutoff his nose. 

 I still can't believe how fast this set of blocks came together.   

I am getting better at trimming the hourglass blocks to size and keeping them centered. Success!

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 31.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmers Wife Blocks - 54 Kitchen Woodbox - 60 Noon & Light - 66 Periwinkle

Block 54 - Kitchen Woodbox  

I am very pleased with this block because I got to use up some of the last bits of one of my favorite fabrics -- Let's call it Firefly.  ;-)

This block was entirely paper pieced, but not frustrating.  The sequence is laid out, and you just follow it.  Sort of like an economy block.  It was an easy one to do in the evenings after work. 

Block 66 - Periwinkle  

I like this block, too.  Nice and simple.  It came together remarkably quick.  Paper-pieced, but not a headache.  Maybe I've finally figured out how to do that technique after all this time!

 Block 60 - Noon & Light 

Another paper-pieced block this week.  I went back and forth on making the star points purple or orange, and in the end, I split the difference.    Still trying to add a touch of orange to the blocks to make those maple leafs NOT look so out of place in the overall quilt.

I must be 3 weeks ahead of the weekly schedule now?  The end is in sight.  Though every time I count up the blocks that are left, it seems like I still have 30 blocks to go!

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 30

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 88 Star of Hope - 102 Whirlpool - 103 Whirlwind

 

  Block 102 - Whirlpool

Not a bad week for Farmer's Wife Blocks!  I am still working ahead in the evenings after work.   This one was entirely half-square triangles.  The hardest part was picking the fabrics and the color combinations.  It's very similar to one (or two?) i did earlier int he project--but the color arrangement was different. 

 

  Block 88 - Star of Hope 

Again the hardest part of this one was picking what color to make the teeth, or the points of the star.  I was thinking about a golden yellow (probably my least favorite color anywhere), but decided against that.  Instead I went with blue, green and purple to reflect the focus fabric.  My usual palette.  That worked out very well!

This is another one of those blocky awkward blocks.  My nickname for it is: Chunky Monkey.

 Block 103 - Whirlwind 

To me this one looks more like one of those throwing stars.  Dangerous.  Or a circular saw.  I guess they both have a kind of whirlwind action.   The directional fabric for the tines gives it a little more motion.

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 29 

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 78 Shooting Star - 82 Spider Legs - 86 Squash Blossom

Block 86 - Squash Blossom

Trying to inject a little more orange into other blocks so that the 2 maple leaf blocks don't look so out-of-place.     The one was paper-pieced, but not maddening.  I was more interested in the colors and fabrics for this one.  I got the chance to use up the last bits of that night dragonfly fabric.

Block 82 - Spider Legs

A little more orange here.  I contemplated other color schemes: green and blue; blue and purple; green and purple ...  and this is the one that rose to the top.  This block is similar to one I did a few weeks ago.  In some ways this is the opposite as that one was too dark.   This one also uses the "new" cream background, as I was running out of the viney white on white.  This one is a little creamier than the vines.  I forgot my sample at home when I bought it and didn't match that properly by memory.

 

 

Block 78 - Shooting Star

A frustrating paper-pieced block.  You can tell by all the extra piecing I had to do to fill in where I misjudged the fabric needs.  It's a very awkward looking block.    I was hoping the green would read as dark, and the blue would read as medium, but I think they both come out as dark.  

The middle sections were awkward to paper-piece.  It probably should have been broken up into more pieces to do it elegantly.  But I muddled through it.  Another week done!

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 28

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 37 Flower Pot - 57 Morning - 100 Weathervane

 

Block 100 - Weathervane

I am still working ahead on the Farmer's Wife blocks.  This was not a bad set.  This one and the next are basically the same blocks, with only some color changes for emphasis.   Just a little paper-piecing on the pentagon points in the green blocks.  For the half-square triangles, I learned not to bother with trying to cut 7/8 inch blocks.  I just cut them 2 inches, make the blocks, then cut them down to the 1-1/2 inch final size.  That seems to work much better for my eyes and the rulers I have to work with.  

I was running out of a suitable green, so purchased some new green batiks to finish this stage of the blocks.   Gorgeous!

Block 57 - Morning (with Chirping Frogs, or Swamp Thing)

This is basically the same block as Weathervane above, except that the cross-piece blocks were supposed to be all the same color / fabric.  They even recommended using a longer strip down the middle instead of breaking it up into 3 blocks.  So I picked through my scrap bin, and found a border fabric left over from a Julie Patchkis (sp?) quilt.  It was a little wide for this job, so I cinched it up down the middle (If you look closely, you can see the seam.)    The light blue didn't quite work all the way around the block, so I opted for the cream background to offset the green batik.    I am very happy with this block.  And yes, they have frogs on the farm, out in the country -- at least when they don't go crazy with herbicides and pesticides.  It's balanced without being too symmetrical. 

The green batik in the corners looks like frog feet to me, hence the altered names for this particular block.

 Block 37 - Flower Pot

 This one was the "Meh" block this week.  The top part was paper-pieced -- putsy, but do-able.

Not much else to say about this one.    On to the next batch!

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 27

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

A Few Small Repairs on the Loon Lake Quilt: Replacing the Misfit Log

Ah!  Much better!

What did I do with my "extra" time this weekend not having to work on Farmer's Wife blocks?  I knew It would take me a while to quilt up the flowers on the Hollyhock Quilt, but when I finished that job mid Sunday afternoon, I still had time ...

 

The Misfit Log 

So my thoughts turned to this job that's been bothering me for years, and may have contributed to taking so long to finish this quilt top.   The piece of fabric included in the kit for the log just never set right with me, never worked ---  Too warm and brown for the deep bottom of the lake.   And it's the wrong texture.   So when I got the barn wood fabric recently, there was enough left over that I could replace / hide / cover over that odd brown curly mis-matched log, with something that truly looked like it had been under water for a while.  

It was quite a job.  First I had to cut out a new log shape onto the Wonder Under fusible, then fuse it to the new fabric, and cut to the proper shape.   Then, on the quilt itself, I had to unsew / release all the appliques that were on top of the old log.  After ripping out the stitching, it wasn't that hard to lift the freshwater grasses / seaweed.  The trickiest part was the fish fin at the top of the log.  I had to literally cut that part out, and re-fuse it to the new log once it was in place.   Don't worry-- The fish was never harmed in any way!

Then the task of fusing it down again, and re-stitching.  It didn't take as long as it could have, and wasn't such the headache I thought it would be.  I am much happier with this part of the quilt now, but it makes the other brown parts of the log stand out as not quite fitting.  But this is much more subtle, and I think I can live with what's left there now.  Whew!

 

 

Practicing freemotion wood grain designs for the Hollyhock Quilt was also the prompt that made me think of the log.  I did not end up using this pattern on the log above.  Instead, I followed the patterning in the fabric to a good effect.  ;-) 

 

 

Green Darner Dragonfly

I also took the time to add the 2 applique butterflies to the top of the quilt.  I was thinking I would wait to add those until it had been quilted, but I also did not want to lose them between now and that nebulous time in the future.   So they are now part of the quilt, too.

I will have to plan another day for making quilt sandwiches ...

Quilting Hollyhocks Around the Barn - Step 4 The Flowers and Step 5 Revisiting the Barn Rails

This weekend, I worked on stitching the flowers on the Hollyhock Quilt.  Kind of a wavy spiral. 

 

 

It's always a good idea to practice the intended design before you have to do it for real.  I've learned that the hard way!  Here I was practicing the spiral pattern for the hollyhocks.  At first I was trying to start at a point on the edge of the flower, spiral in, and then spiral back out again.   But that felt too cramped, so I wound up starting at the center, and spiraling out -- a one way trip.  

 I worked on the flowers over 2 days.  It was good to break it up, because it was a lot of ground to cover.  This kind of quilting can be hard on a body -- very physical, although I have some things that make it easier:

A teflon oven sheet underneath that allows for easier sliding under the needle.  Less friction.

For this job, I was using some Neutrogena lotion that is quite sticky, and allows for good gription between my hands and the quilt.  It's easier than putting on and pulling off gloves when I have to cut threads, or some other fine motor skill task.  

 After the flowers were done, I decided to revisit the Egg and Carton pattern along the barn rail borders.  I thought the space was a little too wide open and needed a little more to fill in the spaces, otherwise it would not match the much more densely quilted flowers.  After trying a few designs on paper, I finally realized, it's the same basic shape as the leaves, so I added the swoops inside the eye shape, and an extra circle inside the star shape.  I think that will be enough.

After finishing up the rails, I needed to do something with the added barnwood panels at the center.  Since it was a larger patch, I decided to fill it with a freemotion woodgrain texture.    Again -- Good to practice the designs before committing to them on the quilt, or having to rip out stitches.   I usually try it out on paper first, then move on to a practice quilt sandwich.  This is great for warming up, and to get the pattern into muscle memory before you have to do it for real. 

 

 For reference, this is what the whole quilt looks like -- before quilting.  I still have the borders to do, and the dark green stalks and the cream backgrounds behind the leaves and flowers.  Still thinking about what to do with those spaces ..

Step-by-step, I'll get it done!  I hope that will be a trend for this year.   ;-)

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 56 Maple Leaf - 85 Square Dance - 101 Wedding Ring

 

Block 101 - Wedding Ring

I am now 1 week ahead on the Farmer's Wife Blocks.  I've been working on them after work.  We seem to be in a phase of 90-minute blocks rather than the 3-hour type now.  

This one is called Wedding Ring.  No paper piecing (Yay!) Just a lot of fussy cutting squares to 1-11/16ths.  I just look for the 5/8 mark on my ruler, and go half-way to the next mark.  Making the half-square triangles now is a breeze.  ;-)   That lovely purple batik is nearly gone ...  Though I did purchase a substitute.  In future blocks, we'll see how that fits in.

 Block 56 - Maple Leaf

Because I live in WI with maple trees all over the neighborhood, and as a lover of brilliant fall color, I had to deviate from the usual blue-green-purple color scheme.  And so orange and French toille.  There is one other block that uses these colors -- The Ozark Maple.   A quick and simple 9-patch block, easy to work up.  A satisfying finish on a week night.  

  Block 85 - Square Dance

I guess you'd call this block the missing link between the usual blues and greens and the orange and reds.   Handmade Karma recommended using a focus fabric for the center.  I auditioned a number of options, and settled on this one.  With (so far) only 2 other orange / red blocks in the whole quilt, I felt like I needed a few more blocks with orange and red to show it wasn't just a mistake, or an afterthought.   Having a few more of these colors in the overall quilt mixes it up a bit more, and makes it more of a design choice.   With this one being named Square Dance, I thought it was appropriate to mix it up even more by swapping out some of the colors in the corners.  You change partners in square dancing, and so the colors can act like new dance partners.  A bridging block. 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 26.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 44 Gentleman's Fancy - 47 Homemaker - 53 Jacknife

 

Block 47 - Homemaker

I finished the 3 blocks early this week!  They were not so difficult (some require cutting lots of little pieces to odd measurements, or the dreaded paper piecing).  This set did they take as long as some weeks.   And no clunkers in the bunch!   I could work on them in the evenings after work.    

Of all the blocks this week, this one is my favorite.  I like the exploding star shape and the colors.  I finally found a good mix between the medium green and the darker blue.  And of course, I love the purple.   That center patch looks like there's a bird flying off ...  a dove, or something.   Now you see it, don't you?    I am using up the last bits of this particular purple, which was scraps leftover from a giant Trip Around the World Quilt my mom made years ago. I may have to look through her scraps to see if I can forage any more of this lovely batik!  

 Just the corner triangles were paper-pieced, and with only 3 bits of fabric, it was not difficult.

The hardest part of this block was the set-in corners where the purple, green and blue points meet.  But they referred us to a tutorial, so it was not a big deal.  

Block 53 - Jackknife  

The corners of this one were paper-pieced, but not difficult.

The hourglass blocks were not hard either.  The trickiest part is trimming them down to the correct size, and keep the center point in the middle.  I still don't have that down quite yet.  I still like this color combination of purple, green, dark blue and the white background.  

Block 44 - Gentleman's Fancy

This one was entirely paper-pieced, but it made sense in the sequence of how it was laid out.  I made sure to cut all the pieces oversize, so I didn't have any shortages after flipping it into place.  I wind up using twice as much fabric (and wasting it) that way.  But at least it prevents the swearing and frustration factor when things come up short.   This is essentially an Economy Block -- ironic that it was paper-pieced.  The teal blue went nicely with the green batik. 

Now I have the weekend free to work on some other things -- like the Hollyhock Quilt, or just going for a walk with a friend I haven't seen in over a year ...

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 25.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.