Tuesday 4 June 2013

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

18 comments:

  1. Beautiful bright, summery tote. Make sure hubby buys you lots of nice things in London so you can test it's capacity to max! Your sprouts quilt is gorgeous too. Just catching up on some reading and see some gorgeous pics in earlier posts!

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  2. ooh! I like your bag x We are just not used to having sun.. take care and use cream xx

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  3. brava! it's a beauty, di.

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  4. Wow! Gorgeous bag, and stunning fabrics too! Jxo

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  5. The backing for the bee quilt is wonderful and I can't wait to see how Trudi quilts it! I love that bag...

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  6. Lovely cheery bag! and looking forward to seeing the bee quilt done!

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  7. Gosh you are going bag crazy at the moment - that's another really lovely summery one - happy days in London x

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  8. Love the tote, and the fabric is so bright and cheerful. Have a lovely day in London

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  9. Love the bag - great fabrics :) Who was your speaker for your guild meeting??

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  10. Well now there's an idea for that exact fabric that just dropped through my door :oD

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  11. Beautiful, damn you, will you be making a bag a week until Retreat, just to make me feel bad about not progressing with the Weekender?!?! ;o)

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  12. Your super tote is amazing!! Love the fabrics you used :)

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  13. Hope you're having a good time!

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  14. Fab bag! Won't see you tomorrow sadly as am in the day job. Tell us more about your guild meeting :-)

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  15. Your Tote is just gorgeous - so bright and cheery - I want to take it for a spin to a sunny destination and fill it with purchases.......

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  16. Great backing, and super Super Tote xxx

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