Busy being Busy

Over the weekend I met up with the East Midland Modern Quilt Guild at a fantastic Village Hall near Ashbourne. It was so nice and sunny and we had our guest speaker give her talk to us on the patio in the sunshine. It felt as if summer had finally arrived. Later that evening I realised that the sun was stronger than I thought as I had a very red and sore neck!

On Sunday I pieced the backing for my lovely leaf bee quilt together. I used some ‘In My Room’ by Jenean Morrison to frame the bee signature blocks.Below you can see me trying to gauge whether I indeed had enough fabric. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the finished backing. This quilt is going to look wonderful once it has been quilted by this talented quilter.

Will it fit or not?

This week has also seen me make a Super Tote using this pattern by Anna-Noodlehead 

I had bought the fabric a while ago, specifically to make this bag. Gwen from Celtic Fusion was super helpful in matching some fabric for me. I really like this shop as it stocks some unusual and different fabrics and the service is second to none. The linen was from the local market stall.

I have to say, that it took ages to cut out the pattern pieces and then interface each of them. I also used, a new to me, interlining called Soft and Stable. It is just perfect for making a structured bag and it sewed well despite being quite bulky. The only drawback was that I did struggle to sew around the top of the bag once it was completed. The bonus is that the bag stands up on it's own.

It has taken me a full day and a bit to see this bag to completion. I pretty much stuck to the pattern, with the exception of making the handles ‘my way’ and adding a key fob and copying Hadley  with an little inner pocket for tickets etc. in the outer pocket (if you get what I mean). Fortunately for me, Hadley posted her thoughts on the bag making process just as I was getting to this stage. Thanks Hadley!

Me, my bag and husband are going to London tomorrow, so I will be able to road test this tote to see if it is really a Super Tote. I am sure it will be. It is a brilliant size - big without being too big, with lots of pockets to sub-divide my rubbish that I carry around ‘stuff’.

Di x