Cut Loose Press Marvelous Midi Messenger Bag

So I haven't posted in over a month! Where has my time gone. It has been a very busy few months personally speaking. My Lovely Husband had surgery to fix his deviated septum and nasal polyps, our dog Shaggy (we inherited him from my husband's grandmother who passed away 6 years ago) was ill and we lost him, and my son started Senior Kindergarten after having a very rough year of Junior Kindergarten.  Needless to say we have had a rough go this past month or so.

I am finally getting back to posting here and I hope to have a few posts ready to go over the next few weeks. I am Starting my new posting with a project from CUT LOOSE PRESS. This is a great little project, the Marvelous Midi Messenger Bag.

This bag went together easily. Supplies needed to make this bag, Main, lining, and pocket fabric, fusible fleece and decor bond. The Creative Grids Non Slip Curved Corner Cutter Ruler is a nice ruler if you do curved corners on bags, home decor projects and quilts.

Here are my fabric parts all cut up. This bag features two inside pockets, instead of centering a sew line and dividing them evenly I made one side a bit small and one bigger. I like to keep a book in my bag for those times when you have to wait so the bigger part was made to fit a standard paperback romance novel. Also included in this pattern, a cell phone pocket. I made two just because. I like extra pockets. You cut a long skinny rectangle and fold it in half. You place the fusible batting on one side of the back of the fabric and fuse to the fabric. You  then sew with fabric right sides together and leave about 2 inches open to turn and flip fabric right sides out. Clip Corners before turning it will make your points sharper. I then topped stitches along what will be the top of the pocket and the placed the pocket on the body piece and sewed them into position, make sure to catch the opening we used to turn the pocket right side out. I repeated this process for all the pockets in the bag.

For a messenger bag I usually like carry it diagonally across my body but this pattern's bag strap isn't long enough. Next time I make this bag I will make it longer. The strap itself has fusible fleece inside to give it some body. I sewed long lines along the length of the strap to reinforce the strap.

Next I sewed the body of the bag right sides together along the sides and bottom. I repeated this with the lining leaving 6 inches open along the bottom for turning later on during the final assembly. You will now have two rectangles.  Box the corners of the lining and bag body measuring 2 inches from the corner point.

 Finally I took the two flap pieces and the fusible batting for the flap. I layered them fabrics right sides together and the fleece on the outside of the pile. I took my Creative Grids ruler and using the 3 inch radius corner marked  an line on  the flap corners. I sewed the flap together on three sides (2 short and the one with the curved corners) following the draw line. I then trimmed the corners to 1/8 inch. Turn right side out and top stitch 1/8 inch around the sides.

Now all our parts are assembled. Turn your bag body right side out press out the corners so they are nice and sharp. On the back side of the bag baste stitch the flap into place. On the sides baste the bag handle make sure to keeps the bag strap straight. Insert the bag body part into the lining, matching the top edges. Pin at the side seams and centers of the body and lining, this will help keep your bag from shifting during the sewing. Start sewing on the back portion near the strap. I triple stitched over the bag handles to reinforce them. Sew all the way around the top edge. Using the whole we left in the bottom of the lining flip your bag right side out. Slip stitch the opening closed. Top stitch around the bag opening. Start on the back near the strap as we did in the previous step and triple stitch over the straps again. Your bag is now complete.

I made this bag in about 6 hours. I had a lot of fun making this and I will be teaching it at my Mom's shop JoyQuilts.

2015 Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop

 I want to say thank you to the Hosts of this blog hop - Yvonne @QuiltingJetgirl, Stephanie @Late Night Quilter, Terri @Child Like Fascination, and my host Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs. Each day this week the bloggers involved will be posting a block they have designed with the beautiful colour pallet of fat 1/8's provided by Fabri-Quilt, Watermelon Summer - Chartreuse, Turquoise, Coral, Aqua, Lapis Blue, White. We had to create a 12 1/2 inch finished quilt block and share the 

The first thing I did was get out my graph paper, pencil and ruler. When I decided on a modified drunkards path I got out the template plastic and traced around the pieces and then added a 1/4 on all sides for seam allowances. 

I marked centre positions to help later in lining up the curved edges. I did come into a little trouble with the marks but I worked it out.  

The picture above I have included the finished sizes of all the pieces.  When I made my templates a 1/2 inch was add to all these measurements. 

Next I took my handy Masking Tape. I put two small rolled pieces on the back of my templates to hold them in place on the fabric.

Next I used my rotary cutter and rulers to cut as much of the piece as I could - be careful not to cut your template.  After cutting that way I used my marking pencil to mark the curved edge (I used the bottom of my Extra Large Tim Hortons Cup for the curve shape). I then removed the template from the fabric and cut the curve with my fabric scissors. 

Make 4 of piece A and four of piece B. I off set these blocks with a 2 inch (1 1/2 inch finished) solid white square in the center of the blocks.

For the next step get out your pins! I know there are some people out there with crazy mad skills that can sew a curve without pins but not me. I pin at the start and end of the piece. Then I head to the curve. I pin at the center point and at the beginning and end of the curve at fill in pins as needed to keep the piece even and smooth. When placing your pins put them in at the 1/4 inch seam line, this will help give you a true look at keeping the line smooth and without puckered. 

Sewing around the curves can be tricky. I sew right up to the pins and then remove just before sewing that spot. Take your time around the curves.

Sew all the units together and press toward piece A. If you need to, trim the rectangles to 7 1/4 inch by 5 3/4 inch. Sew the center white square to the center edge of one of the units stop a 1/4 inch from the interior side. Once this is done take the opposite colour unit and place it along the side with the center square. Keep adding the pieces in a round the center square. The final piece will then take in the 1/4 inch left loose on the center square.

 I usually piece and press making seams go opposite ways to get them to line up nicely. However with this I wanted the seams to play a part in the quilting effect later so all seams were pressed in one direction.  A trick I learned a few months back from Patti Carey was to pin them as if they are opposites and then just before you sew that area flip the seam back the way it was pressed.

When you have finished putting all the units around the centre square give them a press in the order you added them. The seams will lay nice and flat and your block is finished.

I call my block Watermelon Slice!

My husband thinks it looks like a T.V. from the 70's.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. Don't forget to stop by the other blogs posting today and all this week. Each host of the hop is doing a give away sponsored by Fabri-Quilt so don't forget to stop by all the amazing blogs participating in this fun event.

After all the blocks are created they are going to be made into quilts for charity. I am so happy to have been part of this fun project.  Here is a list of all the members of my posting day!

My host Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs

Colleen@Colleen's Custom Quilting

Josi@Avocado Quilts

Cindy @Sewing Moxie

Stephanie@Quiltn Party

Cristy@I Love You Sew

Sarah@Sarah Goer Quilts

Shelly@The Carpenters Daughter Who Quilts

Jayne@Twiggy & Opal

Sharla@Thistle Thicket Studio

Julie@Pink Doxies

Sarah@123 Quilt

Deanna@Stitches Quilting

Jane@Jolly and Delilah Quilts

Carrie@The Zen Quilter

Thank you Fabri-Quilt for sponsoring this block hop! 

Post again soon.

Foundation Paper Piecing!

I am going to give a few quick tips for Foundation Paper Piecing. I love, love, love paper piecing. When I first started quilting and my 1/4 inch seam wasn't the stunning perfection it is today, Paper Piecing made it look perfect. You can use this technique for traditional pieced blocks too! A quick disclaimer though... If you are fabric stingy and hate waste you will need to get over that to do my way of Foundation Paper Piecing.

My colour palette inspiration!

Foundation Paper Piecing is a great way to use pieces that would otherwise be too small on quilting projects. But if you like a little more order and continuity to your quilts like I do you can find out what size pieces you need by measuring from the sewing line to the opposite side. You need to make sure you leave enough extra to account for human error and I like to leave 1/2 inch extra on all sides.

Some tools I find really useful for paper piecing at the add a 1/4 ruler, a fabric folding pen, sharp pointed tweezers, scotch tape and a small cutting mat! Plus all the other regular sewing tools.

I do a rough pre-cut of my fabric, some people make templates to make sure the size is right. I cut up one of the blocks for a template but I don't actually cut the fabric to the template size I just make sure the template fits on the fabric I have. To make sure that my rough cut will fit the size of the pieces I measure from the first line of sewing. When sewing piece 1 and 2 for example I measure from the line between section 1 and section 2 for both pieces. For piece 3 I measure from the sewing line between section 2 and 3.  I leave my pieces in rectangle form because well I just don't like to wast time cutting little pieces. (I save all my little cut off ends in scrap bags and we sell them in the store or if they are too small for most people to use some of our customers have started to save them to use in dog beds for the animal shelters! What a great way to use those little tiny bits.)

The important thing to remember with Foundation Paper Piecing is that you will be sewing from the wrong side. Your fabric will be on the bottom and the paper on the top.  To start sewing take piece 1 place it right side away from the paper making sure it covers the whole space and over laps into section 2 by at least a 1/4 inch. Use your scotch tape, I make sure to make it a little less sticky by putting in on and off the table a few times or off the back of my hand, tape the fabric to the paper. Don't put the tape in any of the  areas where you will be sewing or you will sew right through it. (Picking bits of tape off is not fun trust me!) Next take piece 2. Line it up along the edge of piece on with right sides together, I like to do a quick check to make sure when I sew it together it will in fact cover my next section. Slide the fabric along the edge of piece 1 until you are sure it will in fact cover the next section completely after sewing and tape to the paper.

Flip the paper and fabric over so you can see the printed pattern. Shorten your stitch length to 2. The smaller you stitch length the easier it will be to remove the paper later. Sew two or three stitches before the line and back stitch this will anchor your stitching, don't stitch more than that or you will cross into the next areas sewing space and it will cause issues, try to stay with in the coming seam allowance.

After you have sewn piece 1 and 2 along the line leave the fabric right sides together, you will now need to go to your cutting board. Fold the paper along the line between 1 and 2. Take your Add a 1/4 ruler and trim the fabric to 1/4 inch. This is your seam allowance, you should only need to do this step for piece 1 and 2.  Next fold the paper back flat, take your fabric folding pen and apply it to the sewn line and fold piece 2 over so right sides are out. Let this dry.

Next fold the paper along the line between section 2 and 3. Take your add a 1/4 ruler, butt it against the fold and trim the excess fabric. Once you have trimmed this you will then have an accurate edge to place piece 3. Fold the paper back to flat. Line piece 3 along the cut line, make sure it will cover the next area and tape to the paper. Sew along the line anchoring the stitches at the start and end. Repeat until all the pieces are add.

Trimming down along the line between 2 and 3!

Adding piece 3!

Once all the pieces are added to the paper. Take it to your ironing board and give it a final heated press. After everything is laying flat, sew 1/2 away from the outer edge of the design with a basting stitch. This will keep everything tidy while you sew the rest of the parts together. Trim off any further excessive fabric or paper.

Sew the pieces together in numerical and alphabetical order. You will now need to remove the paper, the larger pieces should come off fairly easy. The seam allowance papers will be tougher tweezers will help get the paper out.

Come back and check out the final finish soon!

2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

Hi I'm Adrian. I am so happy to be part of the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop! The hosts of this years Blog Hop are Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs, Terri at Childlike Fascination, and my Hive Leader Stephanie at Late Night Quilter. They have shared some amazing tips so far to get this blog hop started.

A little about me! I have been sewing on a sewing machine since I was 16 years, hand sewing embroidery, cross stitch and such since I was about 8. My aunts always had a hoop or crochet hooks and were always keeping their hands busy.

I tried my first quilting attempt when I was 18 and it did not go well. I chose a Kentucky Chain Pattern and was planning on giving it to my grandparents who are from Kentucky. My cutting wasn't accurate and I didn't have a 1/4 inch foot. I gave up after trying to make those triangles lay flat and have points. I put the fabric back in the bag and tossed it in my closet. When I moved to Canada in 2007 I left it behind at my mom's house and never saw it again. It was for the best. There was no way that quilt was ever going to turn out right!

This is the first quilt I ever finished! It is an original design mixing fosil fern and batiks! Sunset.

The second quilt! Ocean Current! It's still not finished. The binding is only half done! 6 years in the making. We still use it every day! Maybe one day I will finish it.

When I married my first husband in 2005,who has since passed away, it was great because his mom was a quilter too. I was so happy to have some common ground with her in sewing, but I didn't really have the drive to be a quilter after my first failed attempt. I have always had the feeling that if I wasn't instantly good at something it wasn't worth continuing, I am glad I was proved wrong with quilting. After my MIL opened her shop in 2006 we became a Bernina Dealer. One of our first events with Bernina was a 440QE event and one of our customers didn't make it in. A machine was available to try the BSR and after just a few short hours I was hooked. The piecing love came later, but Free Motion Quilting was my first real quilting love.

Over the last few years I have started doing custom quilting for the customers at my mom's quilt shop and have done a few original patterns. Some of the greatest inspirations in the FMQ and Longarm Quilting world for me are Leah Day, Judi Madsen, Angela Walters and so so many other talented quilters. I have a one and done policy for myself because there are so many different ways to make a quilt and I want to try them all. I hate having to remake the same quilt over and over. For me creating the quilt, selecting fabric, construction and quilting and finishing are a unique experience and I love the novelty of that.

Fishes! I loved making the 3D tails on these little Fish. I used an ombre strip blue fabric for the background paying close attention to which fish had which background blue. It took some organization.

I just started this blog over a month ago at the urging of my friend Jean. I was hesitant at first because I didn't think my quilting credentials we solid enough, but when we attended the local traditional quilt guilds show and about half the quilts in it were quilted by me I figured I could do. I hope to share my continuing journey through quilting, running my local MQG and sharing it all with my husband, Chaz (we have been married one year yesterday!) and our son!

Speed Round Like and Loves

Name: Adrian, my mom named me after the Rocky Movies!

Sign: Cancer, climb on board the emotional roller coaster!

Author: Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Piers Anthony, Stephanie Laurens, Jim Butcher, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Musician: David Bowie

Comic Book Character: DC Harley Quin

Movie: Serenity, Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon), Twister

TV Shows: Stargate SG-1, Anything Joss Whedon and Company, Once Upon a Time, Peg + Cat

Dream Vacation Spot: Any where near the Water, ocean, lake, river, pond doesn't matter so long as I
can dip my toes in the water and see the sun rise or set on it!

Favorite Quilt Pattern: Sister Stars designed by my MIL Joy!

This is my favorite customer quilt I have ever done! Moon over Mountain. I rotated 21 different quilting designs in each row in a Suduko style. No design was repeated in each row and column. 

My Tips for Now

Blogging: Give it a try. We all have a unique voice and style. Someone somewhere will listen to yours!

Quilting: It takes at least 60 hours to get comfortable FMQ on a home machine, don't get discouraged before that! DOODLE DOODLE DOODLE! I always draw out a new design before quilting it!

Sewing: Get the right foot for the right job!

Life: Life is too short for small talk, get to the point with the people who matter!

Questions to get the conversation started:

What was your first quilt attempted? Did it turn out the way you thought and would you go back and make that quilt again?

I am so happy to have been included in this Blog Hop. Hope to see you back here soon. Don't forget to check out the other members of my hive posting today!

Erin @ Twin Mom Quilts
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Carrie B @ Chopping Block Quilts

I started this quilt in 2008 and was going to be a gift for my sister, it hasn't made it there yet! I knew how I wanted to quilt it but I didn't feel my quilting at that point was going to be good enough so it is now in my work in progress pile again! Maybe one day she will get it!

Brother Scan N Cut and Why I love it!

If you have never heard of the Brother Scan N Cut you will now! I love this thing! It is a multi-medium stand alone cutting system. One thing about me is that I hate hand sewing, well that's not really true Hand Sewing Hates Me! Applique, Embroidery, English Paper Piecing, and Binding are techniques I wish I could explore fully and increase my skills but Carpal Tunnel and my general klutziness has made holding small needles painful at times! When we started being a Brother Sewing Machine Dealer at my mom's quilt shop, JoyQuilts Website,  it was just as they were introducing the Brother Scan N Cut. I fell in love with this machine. Years before I wanted to be a scrapbooker, but never made it past getting supplies. I looked at other cutting machines over that time couldn't justify the price of the machine and the shapes for cutting. With this awesome thing it has a built in scanner and can cut whatever size, shape, or pattern I can scan!

We started a Scan N Cut Club at the store about 6 months ago to get the ladies who purchased them using it! Most still had them in the box and what little cutting they had done with it was problematic. They didn't know what settings to use or anything. There are so many great blogs or youtube channels for tutorials on the amazing things this machine can do!

We have cut several different mediums and made several projects with our Scan N Cut but my favorite so far has been our block of the month. The machine has 114 pieced blocks and 60 applique blocks. One of the things I also love about this is that it will draw on your 1/4 seam allowance, keeps me accurate. To make our block of the month with our Scan N Cut I chose 4 blocks that were in the machine. I changed the size of the blocks off set them and used lots of negative space and intense quilting.

This is a mini quilt. It finished at 24 inches on all sides. I used the solids from Kona. They were from the QuiltCon 2015 Charity Quilt Challenge Fabrics. 

This was the first block we made for this Quilt and the inspiration for the quilts name! We made four of these blocks and they were placed in the corners.

 Block 2 was a little more complicated because I changed a few of the colour choices from the what the Scan N Cut suggested.

We are cutting this block out this month on our Friday Club Night. The tiny pieces have some of the ladies so NO NO NO. But I reminded them that the seams are drawn on and the machine is cutting them not us!

Our Fourth block will be cut in July and we will also be cutting the extra white to off set the blocks in the right order. I really love how the sharp contrast of the background white shows the piecing.

I darkened this photo using Pic Monkey to highlight the quilting. I haven't really used photo editing software before this week. I wanted this photo to show the intense quilting I used on this Mini Quilt. I pieced this project with aurifil 50wt white thread, Kona Cotton Fabric, Hobbs 80/20 batting, and quilted with Mettler Polysheen colour 15, my Bernina 770 with the BSR!

So if you haven't tried the Brother Scan N Cut try it out! Post again soon!

T-Shirt Quilts with out stabilizer!

I have previously stated, a little over a month ago in fact, that I hate doing T-shirt Quilts. I never make them for myself always for customers of my mom's quilt store. Most of the time people are never happy with the final result, even though I explain the process, what the final product will be and how much the final thing will cost. On our quilt store website we have price break down on our services and in the end it seems to come as a total surprise to people how much the quilt costs.  I do take care when creating these special memory filled quilts making sure to preserve the most of each article and using as much of the clothing and printed designs as possible. With all that in mind and my general frustration at creating these one of a kind memento quilts when push came to shove I was pushed. A mother brought in her son's soccer jerseys and said it was for his grade 8 graduation, I crumbled. I told her yes I would do it, I am so weak! I explained people are never happy with the product or the price. (I have had one exception to this in my years of quilting!) I then proceded to show the mother what I would do and marked out exactly what of each shirt I would be using in the quilt. I wanted to make sure there would be no surprises in this one!

So here is a break down of my process of making quilts from clothes.

Tools I use are as follows:

-Rulers and/or templates for the exact size piece of the clothing I will be using.
-Marking pencil, I like the Fons and Porter Mechanical Fabric Pencil or a chalk marker if I don't need to be exact.
-Straight Pins
-My Sewing Machine and 1/4 inch foot
-Cotton Piecing Thread, I like aurifil 50wt.
-Scissors
-Rotary Cutter and Mat

So here goes my process:

1. Step one evaluate what parts of the clothing will be used and what will be the exact design of the quilt. For this quilt I am using a blue fabric as sashing between 12 Shirt squares and a 6 inch border. The finished quilt will be 3 x 4 t-shirt blocks sashed with blue.  I have marked the parts of the shirts using my 12 1/2 inch square ruler and a chalk marker. The importance of this step is that you will have a visual of what you will be actually using. This will show you any surprises like seam, collar, or shirt logo bulk! In my experience most shirts by the time you want to make a quilt from them have stretched and faded. Shirt logos and such will be a little off center if they were ever center.

2. The next part is actually cutting these one of a kind fabrics into usable quilt shapes. Take your fabric scissors and cut up along the side seams and through the under part of the sleeves on each side of the shirts. After making the shirts a single layer, place the ruler on the spot of the t-shirt you will be using. Make sure the shirt is laying stress free and flat, when you are happy with the shirt and ruler placement you can begin to cut. It is important to be able to cut all four sides without moving the shirt. Use the corner of your cutting mat in the corner of the table where you can reach two sides of the table or a swivel cutting mat.

3. After cutting all the shirts needed, cut the vertical sashing. This needs to be 2 1/2 inches wide by 12 1/2 inches long. You will need 8 pieces. An important part of this process is to have an accurate 1/4 inch seam and know how to do quilter math! Pin the sashing at the minimum places both ends and in the middle. If you have a particularly stretchy shirt pin more. Press towards the sashing, make sure you lower the temperature on you iron, use a pressing cloth, and don't stretch as you press.

4. Pin the rows together with the sashing. PINNING IS IMPORTANT!!!!

5. The next step is to cut the horizontal sashing. Here we will need our quilters math. The two outside t-shirts measure 12 1/4 inches, two 2 inch sashing and the middle t-shirt is 12 inches. All measurements totaled together equals 40 1/2 inches. This is the measurement we will use to cut our sashing. I have then marked the wrong side of the sashing with the above measurements. We will be pinning the sashing at the measurements, if you need more pins use them! With this method you will need to force the t-shirts to fit because otherwise things will get stretched out of proportions.

6. Join your rows together at the sashing using the measurements marked on the wrong side, following the desired layout. In order to keep the feel of the t-shirts and the bulk of the quilt make sure to pin and keep an accurate 1/4 inch. When starting and ending you may tend to make a narrower seam, check this using your ruler.

7.Once the rows are pieced together with their sashing you will need to cut the borders. For this t-shirt quilt we decided on a 6 inch finished border. Now for some quilter math again. To cut the two side borders we will need to add two 12 1/4 inches, two 12 inches and three 2 inches, for a total of 54 1/2 inches long by 6 1/2 inches wide, Cut two. Mark the wrong sides of the border pieces with the measurements listed above. Pin the border at the seam lines and the markings.

8. Now for the top borders. We will be doing the same marking and pinning as we have done all along. The quilting math is as follows, two 6 1/4 inches, three 12 inches and two 2 inches, for a total of  52 1/2 inches. Again mark the wrong side of the border and match them to the seams. PIN!

9. Now that your top is together. Give it a final press. Layer with your favorite batting and backing. When pinning or basting your top together don't be fooled by the stretchy t-shirts make sure you use the borders and sashing to make sure it lays flat. If your shirts are a bit trouble some place extra pins and make sure they aren't stretched in a weird way.  Free motion quilt to your liking!


This has been my process for making a t-shirt quilt top. Tips for quilting these types are loose all over patterns that are rounded, sharp pointed designs can create a strange pull on the shirts. When Stitching through logos your machine may skip stitches. I have been known to go stitch by stitch with my needle up down button to make sure the paint doesn't prevent my quilting. If the shirts have embroidered patches do all you can to avoid them. They are usually too think for regular needles to penetrate and can cause your machine to break needles.

Hope this has given you some confidence to create your own t-shirt quilt. Post again soon!