A Commissioned Toiletries Bag

You may recall the totebag I made for my friend from my yoga classes. Well, I’ve made her a coordinating toiletries bag in a custom size.

Amongst the lavender (two years old now) and calla lilies (five or six years old now!)

When I gave the tote to her, I asked if she wanted a matching makeup bag, and she said no, she didn’t think so; they were too small for what she needed. I told her I did have a couple of bigger ones in my shop and so she said she’d take a look.

A Bag Lady That’s Me

I’ve been a bit quiet this month but my sewing machine has not. My two best customers, now two people whom I consider friends since we've been texting back and forth over the past several months (Lana) and couple of months (Audrey) have made sure of that!

Knitting Project Bag

Lana put in two more requests for when we'd returned from our Maritimes trip. One was a cat bag for a good friend of hers, small size (the usual makeup bags I've been selling for many years), and the other was a surprise bag for herself. I had free rein to choose fabrics and colours, knowing now what she likes; the only stipulation was the size, the 'tall small bag', sizing phrase as determined by her! Instead of my usual SandraJaneQuilts label, I sewed onto the bag side a piece of the selvage from this fabric, most fitting for a bag that will hold beautiful knitted projects.

Tropical Puzzle and More Project Bags

This is or was one of my USOs—UnStarted Objects, a set of fat quarters with the pattern included, that I picked up for a great price at Craftsy several years back. They sure had some amazing deals didn’t they? Between making a few more project bags for my returning bag-obsessed customer (I’m totally okay with this--love her--as I’ve now made one for the shop and have plans to make one for myself)  I have the flimsy finished. 

Spot the Rottie body photo-bombing! I could’ve cropped it, but he’s too cute. 

I don’t have a destination for this yet but I do have a backing fabric. Therefore it will get quilted shortly so it doesn’t become a UFO. I tend not to have a ‘waiting to be quilted’ pile.

A Project Bag Commission

You may recall the custom project bag I made for one of my repeat Etsy customers back at the beginning of August. Well, she emailed me asking if I would make a set of four custom bags for her! They hold her ongoing knitting and crocheting projects, and I may just have to make a couple of these since our collaboration!

A Flimsy, a Fun Fabrication and a Flag

First of all the flimsy. This is a fat quarter bundle I picked up years ago from Bluprint or perhaps still Craftsy when I bought this. It came with the pattern which is called Suburbia by Cozy Quilts. Gorgeous fabrics and a design that showcases them so well. 

It’s big: 58.5" x 60". I took my time and used my design wall throughout the entire process, working across the quilt with the 17 fabrics to evenly distribute colours and lights and darks. I just need to settle on a backing and then get it loaded and quilted. I'm thinking large meander as I want the fabrics to take centre stage. I have two, make that three, (I just remembered the Gravity kit--why have I waited so long on that?) other Craftsy/Bluprint quilt kits and one tote bag kit to check off my UFO, or rather, USO, list. That's not counting various other USOs and a couple of UFOs, so don't think I only have four items!

Another Positive Flow Totebag

If you saw my post on Instagram on last Monday, September 23,  of the two sides of a totebag that has been calling my name for months, then this finish will come as no surprise.

This is one of three projects in my Positive Flow pattern which is available in my Etsy shop. I had originally wanted to make a Fall-themed bag using a block from my soon-to-be-released quilt pattern, and I pulled out this assemblage of fabric chunks I’d put together almost a year ago with the idea of making a bag for my shop. Well, out the window went the new bag, and, scampering around like the squirrel she is, in came this bag, begging to be made.

Beaucoup de Bags

Over the past month and a bit I sold four of the makeup bags I sell in my Etsy shop. So I decided to finish up the two shells sitting in the drawer, and make two more to replenish the stock.

These are a fun and satisfying make.

Project Quilting 15.3 Inside Out

For this third challenge we were to create something that thematically or literally shows the aspect of being inside out. I think of expressions like Wear your heart on your sleeve, or My eyeballs fell out of their sockets. You could have exposed seams, which made me think of the old jeans and flannel-backed quilt I made years ago with raggedy edges from sewing the layers wrong sides together. A bag would work, Trish said, because it gets sewn with right sides together and then, as she said, 'birthed', pulling the outside of the bag through the inside-out lining. That bag idea was it, and I knew right away what one I would make. After last challenge's challenges (ha) and missing the deadline by a few hours, this one was going to be Simple Simon, no getting all fancy.

As soon as I read the directive for this challenge, I knew I would make my Positive Flow bag pattern. I sold the one remaining in my shop a little while ago, so with the intention of making one to replace it, I was off. Well, as much as one can be off with a dog recovering from ACL surgery and tag-teaming with one’s husband so that one of us is with her 24/7.

This ensures her safety and keeping her as quiet and immobile as possible for the first 3-4 weeks. Still, I got it done on Friday in time for an outside photo or two in the (are you sitting down?) sunshine!

Sewing Forever

Since the Christmas Tree Farm quilt finish I've been steadily sewing. I have a baby quilt commission that I need to finish by the end of this year, and I completed a couple of small Christmas presents as well. Here is what I’ve been up to.

I mentioned in The Christmas tree farm post that Brady had requested a bigger library book bag. It took two tries before I got the size where I felt it was not too big, but not too small either… Just right! As with the first bag, I made him in January 2020, it has a pocket on the front for his library card with his initial, which could also stand for books! I found a font that I liked in the computer, blew it up to the size I needed, lightly traced the letter onto paper laid over the laptop screen, and then used my Hera marker to trace imprint it onto the fabric. From there I lightly went over the imprint with a Bohin fine chalk pencil onto the dark fabric to be sure these eyes of mine could see where to stitch! I used a Sulky Blendables 12 weight cotton thread to FMQ embroider, going over it four times to fatten it up. 

More DrEAMi Makeup Bags

Two Drop Everything And Make it! moments happened to me this past week, both the fault of my stock person in my Etsy shop sandrajanequilts. Wow, you may be thinking, you have a stock person? I sure do–ME! Don’t worry, I’ve talked to ME about it and hopefully the issue won’t happen again, though in reality it is a very good issue to have!

This one was DrEAMi #2. I added a pretty green fancy bead zipper pull after I took the photo for the customer. It was well after supper, so I took it outside to the front of the house which faces west and has our rhodo in all her stunning glory at present as a supreme backdrop.   

Another Quilted Tote Bag - DrEAMi!

After the success of the two custom orders for this quilted tote bag, I decided to make one for my Etsy shop, Sandra Jane Quilts. Once I got started, I couldn't stop until it was done. Well, full disclosure: I did stop to make the Project Quilting challenge.

Believe me when I tell you I want to keep this one for ME! It makes me just so very happy. Isn't it spring-like too?

TGIFF: Positive Flow Tote Bag

Welcome to TGIFF - the linkup where we celebrate our finished quilt projects! Please honour the spirit of this linkup and only post finishes, thank you! If you would like to host TGIFF, the signup sheet and details can be found here.

Recently I made two tote bags as commissioned Christmas presents. Well, one of those who requested a bag for her BFF asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would make another one similar to it but for herself. Not a problem! I was in the process of making the heart quilt, Millie, so once that was done and sent off in the mail, I got started on the bag.

This one has the same main fabric A and B, but different fabrics for the plus blocks and front band than the one I made for S's friend.

Letting the Bags out of the Bag

Well, Christmas is about over for another year as I write this, and it was a very special one for me, as I flew to Alberta to spend it with Brianne and Brady. I had the joy of being a part of two other special Christmas presents this year. About three or four weeks before Christmas, within the span of a week, two of my yoga students approached me, asking if I could make them the tote bag I bring to each class as a present for a loved one. They actually spurred me on to get my pattern, Positive Flow, finished up. It had stalled because I intended to include the tote bag... Below is the original bag, which I designed to showcase my Blogger Bundle I curated for Bernie's (now closed) shop, Needle and Foot. (that's her blog, always a good read).

Thought we in the northern hemisphere could use a little Caribbean Sea and sand about now!

It's in the Bag Blog Hop: Back At Ya Backpack

Today is my day to present the bag I made for the Island Batik blog hop.

I chose to make the backpack 'Back At Ya 2.1'. It's a smaller sized backpack, and the perfect size for me. I was given four pieces from Island Batik's new line Nouveau Soul with which to make the bag. Read on to find out how you could win some of this gorgeous line of fabric for yourself!

Okay I just have to stop right here and say, Nouveau Soul was made for Sandra!! I have said several times how DO they do this, as in choosing the perfect fabrics, colours, but this one? A name with a French word in it, uh bonjour, c'est moi, Sandra, professeur de français, and Soul just makes me think yoga...

All the notions required to make the bag, along with the pattern itself, were supplied by By Annie, the threads by Aurifil, except for a couple that are my own purchases, and the machine needles by Schmetz Needles, except for the jeans needle which I purchased some time ago. 

Well I just had to take my backpack out into the neighbourhood for a test run!

Lee & Maria's On-Farm Market, just 0.5 km from home

I've carried many a bag of produce and other groceries home from here, (ouch my cramping fingers) so having a backpack in which to put my purchases is now a welcome addition to my homemade bags collection.

How about a little closer look?

Annie chose well! Do you see the Art Nouveau styled tulips? Love!

Project Quilting Season 11 Wrap-up

I absolutely LOVED taking part in Project Quilting with Kim for the first time, finally! Every year I see it, but I'm usually too caught up in an Island Batik or magazine project or something, so I haven't done it. I didn't really have time to do it this year either, but I threw caution to the winds and jumped in. I completed all six challenges, four by the deadline, two within minutes of it, waah, but all six are done, useable, and I love each one. 11.6 was Vibrant & Vivacious.

On Saturday afternoon, yup, 24 hours before the deadline I thought of making a bag, a grocery bag to be exact. So I dug into my pink, orange and yellow scraps, and came up with this wild thing.

Now before I walk you through what led to this zany bag, be sure you check out my previous post, which has a giveaway, as well as a link to the fantastic Benartex Fabrics giveaways. I will wait for you...

Brady's Book Bag

I spent a wonderful first day of 2020 fulfilling a request from my grandson to make him a bag in which to put his library books. He goes to the public library on Wednesday nights to get out a book or a movie, but mainly to play chess with one of his buddies. I love it.

One of the five or was it six ideas I had for 3D Challenge for Island Batik in December was to make a bag or a makeup pouch, so when Brady asked me to do this, back at the end of November, I thought, aha!

DrEAMi! #30 A Passle of Pouches and Placemats

Wow, this is a special Drop Everything And Make it! The 30th! That means DrEAMi is in its third year...who knew.

There are a lot of us quilters who chase squirrels. A lot. We see a project that just GRABS our attention and we go a little nuts (pun intended) drop the regular programming, and succumb to tunnel vision to get this new shiny project made and made NOW! That's a quintessential DrEAMi! but there is another type of DrEAMi, that you do Drop Everything but the Making it takes a bit longer than one sitting. I shouldn't take a few months because that isn't a DrEAMi, although it is a distraction and I've had my fair share of those! 

So, once again, with July being full of summer celebration, I'm sure there were some fantastic fat squirrels begging to be 'fed'... but first we need to revisit a couple of quintessential DrEAMi! projects from last month.

DrEAMi! #22

This month was another squirrel month! How about you?

This green bird feeder is the best deterrent to squirrels stealing all the bird food. Kind of like Island Batik challenges and their deadlines making me put on blinders and NOT follow the squirrels!! Do you see how she puts her paw on the step where the birds perch? That closes the little window to getting at the bird seed inside the house. Amazing, and the only one that has effectively prevented squirrels from pigging out.

I need to tell you a white squirrel invaded my sewing room this past month...

November Blogger Bundle & Giveaway

Yes! A big secret I've held onto (see Dayna? I can...) for most of this year can finally be let out of ....
the bag!😝

Welcome to everyone, new readers and regular ones.

Many months ago Bernie of Needle & Foot emailed me asking if I'd like to be the November Blogger Bundle chooser-upper. Pinch me? I was and am excited and so honoured that she asked me! It's another one of those things I've seen other bloggers do; the first one was Alyssa at Pile o' Fabric, and I thought, wow, I want to be her one day...well, I guess that day is today!

Without further ado, here are the fabrics I put together. It was such a fun process.

Beauties, right?!

This last Blogger Bundle for Needle & Foot for 2018 is extra-special: Bernie, in her generosity and inclusive nature, had the idea to have two giveaways, and asked if I'd be willing to send a bundle to one of my Canadian readers, while she would hold a giveaway for American readers. Anyone who's hung around my blog for any length of time knows how much I value inclusiveness, so I absolutely love this aspect of this month's Blogger Bundle. Would you like to open up that bundle?

DrEAMi! #21

I know it sounds cliché but where did this month go? And do not, I repeat, do NOT tell me how many, or should I type few, days there are before Christmas! While I should be focusing on my Island Batik project of the month (super excited to reveal this) and various Christmas gifts, I of course got waylaid by a pesky idea that scrabbled around, and kept popping up, nut in its mouth, willing me to come play. Yep, I got sucked in by a squirrel this month.

Actually a few...