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.

Seminole Table Runner Finish

So I have finally finished quilting the Seminole Table Runner I showed in my last post. I am a little later posting than planned. Its been a rough couple weeks schedule wise around here but it is finally finished.

I really love quilting and trying new techniques together with tried and true methods. For me the tried and true method is FMQ with my BSR. New to me is walking foot quilting. I have used my walking foot in the past but I never quite got the results.

First things first I pin basted my layers together.

 To finish off this runner I used 100% cotton batting and a thermal fabric backing that way it can stay on the table during dinner and will take the place of trivets and pot holders. I grew up in a large family but we only have one stove top and sometimes a dual oven but to get the meal on the table and keep it hot we were rotating things in and out of the oven and always looking for pot holders to protect the table cloth and table. I used my dual feed foot (built in walking foot) to stitch in the ditch around the center patchwork. When doing stitch in the ditch I usually use my BSR, that way if my seams aren't quite straight or laying flat I can make the stitching fit at the ditch.

When I do use my walking/dual feed foot I do a finessing to make sure my stitch ends at the points. By using the hand wheel on my machine I can make the stitch a little longer or shorter to make it end where I need it.

Next I used my BSR to add detail quilting in the centre four patches. In the black square I added a triple petals and in the gray I did a side to side wave.  I moved across the centre of the quilt from end to end for the swirl and then added the triple petals after.

After the center four patch was done I put my 1/4 inch dual feed foot back on and stitched point to point  in the background fabric. I then also stitched a 1/4 inch on either side of the first stitch line.

When I got to the outside on the centre patch work I used my Hera Marker from Clover to mark the straight lines. I no longer had a point to shoot for with the stitching and adding the crease line from the Hera Marker made it easier to stay on the straight in relation to the rest of the lines.

Instead of cutting my thread when I reached and end point I back stitched/stitched in place to knot my thread and did a jump stitch. I usually do this when a jump stitch will waste less thread than cutting the thread and starting it again. If you use this method make sure you get a good knot in your thread otherwise you will lose your stitching and have to do it all over again. After I was done stitching I went back and clipped all the jump stitches.

After the middle of the runner was complete I used the dual feed foot and stitched in the ditch around the borders. Finally the runner was done, except for the binding, aka my least favorite part.

Thanks for stopping by!

Adrian

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!