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Back again...

Well I took a long unintended hiatus. If anyone is still following this blog, thank you. I'm glad to see the back of 2011. It was a long, hard, stressful year for me that I'm glad to see finished, though there were some highlights. I've made a new commitment to sewing this year and I've already started!

So far this year I've made two pincushion thread catchers from the Abby Bag pattern. I bought the kit for these from Connecting Threads last Mother's day. The kits are no longer available and most of the fabrics are sold out also :o(




If you've checked out the link, you'll notice I didn't make it like it's pictured. I didn't like the original bag so I searched on the internet and found these directions to make essentially the same thing but with a bag I liked. I also have to say that I didn't like the Abbey Bag pattern directions too much. Some of it was explained well, like the pincushion construction, but I didn't like how it went together or the original bag. This pattern could have used someone who is knowledgeable about sewing and technically minded to write it up and test it. It took me a couple of tries to figure out the directions to make the original bag and it could have benefited from more illustrations. It came free with the fabric kit so I'm not all that fussed but if I had paid $9 for it I would not be impressed considering there are great picture tutorials for free on the web. Suffice it to say, I will not make another with these directions.

The bag I made I love! I used belting to keep it rigid and open in the top and I added Velcro to the connector and back of the bag to make it removable, something the other pattern did not have. The Velcro isn't the best solution. I would've used buttons but they would've gotten in the way of the belting inserted in the top. I think next time I'm going to use some hooks and eyes. These were fun to make and I can see myself making more in different styles. I'm going to make one with a teacup on top for my tea loving daughter. I'll post my current project soon, maybe when it's done.



sew many ways

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The quilt with two names

I've known about this quilt forever. I originally read about it on the Quilting Board way before I'd seen the Jelly Roll Race or the 1600 inch quilt. You can find the original post here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/super-fast-jelly-roll-quilt-t44258.html   I recommend you wade through it because there are a lot of nice examples. On page 7 is a picture tutorial and somewhere in there is a discussion of making different sizes and using different widths. She used to have a PDF printout for free but you could just print the first page.  Anyways, I used my JoAnn's, 20 strip jelly roll to try this out.  I wanted to also separate the strips by piecing squares in between them. I really like that look for this quilt so I chose a crazy scrap I had laying around and cut twenty 2 1/2 inch squares. The jelly roll had only ten different fabrics, 2 strips of each, so I pieced squares on one end of each strip. I should clarify, you need to piece strips ...