A new purse and some baby books

Lazy Girl has done it again. Well actually this is an older pattern but still. I love their stuff. This was a super easy bag to make and they make zippers feel like they are not even work - mostly because they aren't. I picked up the cat fabric on my Minnesota Shop Hop Bus Tour. The pattern only takes 2 fat quarters, some batting and a zipper so its really easy to pick out cordinating pieces.

The books were all picked up from my Minnesota Shop Hop Bus Tour as well. The Little Golden book came from the shop in Worthington and the other two came from the shop in Windom. This will be the last of my baby books for awhile now i think :)

Hope you are all having a great week and hopefully your Friday goes quick!

Angela

English Paper Piecing Tutorial -- No Handwork!!

As part of my stash busting September I am working on my Craftsy BOM project. And I got stumped. I do not like handwork and don't want to do it. So I have figured out a way to skip the handwork and still get the look of English Paper Piecing. So here we go with my first tutorial!


I am working with 2" hexagons so keep in mind that this may not work as well for small pieces...but it is working for this size.   

 

Start with a piece of fabric that is slightly bigger than your template. Either pin or use glue stick to keep the fabric and the template together.

From here trim the fabric to roughly a quarter inch around the template. I go with a little more just for fun. 

Now get out those handy dandy Wonder Clips!! With 'regular' English paper piecing you would fold over the edges and baste around this hexagon...thats too much work. Instead fold over the fabric and place a Wonder Clip at each point. 

 

You will end up with some crazy looking thing like this. Place it on your ironing board and spray with starch of some sort. 

Then begin pressing.  Go around the flat sides of the hexagon first.

 

Now start removing the Wonder Clips and press down all of the points.

Flip the hexagon over spray with starch and press again. Wait to remove the pins and templates until JUST before you are going to sew the pieces together. 

Pins and templates have been removed and we are ready to sew!

Use a small zig-zag stitch that will catch both pieces of fabric. 
 

All sewn together - how cute!

And a close-up of the threads that bind them.
 

 Just keep on putting single hexagons together until you end up with a long chain. You will then be able to set them together side by side and use the same zig-zag stitch :)

 

 The final product -- hurrah!

 

I hope this helps others out there that don't like handwork but still like hexies!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Angela

Another Free Craftsy Class

Hello All! 

I just wanted to give a heads up that there is another free quilting class on Craftsy's website. The gal leading this class is Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! the class name is 'Creative Quilt Backs'. This class is described as a mini-class to give you a good feel of how the actual classes work and what the presentation is like.

Again this is completely free and a great way to see if you like the way that Craftsy is set up. Personally I find myself watching a lot of classes while I am in the sewing room and want some noise but don't necessarily want the radio on. The classes never expire and are available 24/7.   

In other news, I'm working on some projects on my list and should have some updates tomorrow :)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Angela S. 

Fast and Furious Quilting

I made up a baby quilt from my new book 'Fast & Furious - Quilting As You Go' by Gudrun Erla. The entire thing took about 2.5 hours with cutting and binding time included.

I had bought a bag of scraps from a local quilt shop a few months ago with no plans. Turns out I had more than enough fabric to complete this quilt with what was in the bag. I did piece the back but the only downside to that is that some of my stitching showed though. I'm pretty sure a baby won't care though :) I really love the purple border print that was in the bag. I think I may have to make myself something with it!

I also managed to finish the binding on my new little runner tonight so I can show that off at my quilting meetings this week :)

Close-up of the fabrics

Front of the quilt

Pieced back

Happy Monday!

Angela

Productive Saturday

I worked on quite a few projects today so I can cross some things off of my list. I have been worked on some seasonal wall hangings for my grandpa. This is the second one that I have completed so its now in the mail. I think they are a really pretty thing to just hang on the door.

 

Next I worked on a soft baby book. I found out that I only had enough fusible for one book so I finished the one that I needed to get sent out and its in the mail now too :) I have never made one of these before but they are really easy and cute to boot so I think it will get a lot of use. 

Last night I got a wild hair and thought I would use my new book 'Fast & Furious - Quilting As You Go' by Gudrun Erla. You can find the book here. Amazon is a great source of information on this book because you can see all of the color pictures of the projects in the book. 

I picked the 'Lucky Charms' pattern for a cute little table runner. This whole runner is just 1 charm pack, a little bit of binding fabric and some cute buttons. I think you could probably finish the whole thing for under $15. It took me about 1.5 hours to get this far so with the binding on it will probably be finished under 2 hours!!

CLose up of the runner and cute button

Runner minus the binding

 I think today I am going to tackle some of my flannel scraps and see if I can complete another pattern from Gudrun's book. The quilts in the book and more like a lap/baby sized but that will be just find with me. 

I hope you have a production weekend too!

Angela S.

Friday Night Sewing

I finally got my QAL blocks done!! Here all three of them are in their finished glory!

Block 10 - Quartered Star

Block 11 - Hour Glass

Block 12 - Jacob's Ladder

It feels great to be caught up with this project! I had all the fabrics cut out and just needed the time to sit down and sew...mark that one off the list! The next step was supposed to be available yesterday but its still not showing on-line so I'm still counting it...

2) Catch up on Quilting Gallery - Beginner's QAL

This weekend I'm hoping to work on another project from the list. Hopefully the baby books since I need to get a few of those finished for new babies in the family :) Working on the flannel scraps that I have doesn't sound bad either considering that the weather has turned more fall-like this week. Maybe one of those rice or wheat bags is in order for the foot of the bed hmmmmm

In other news go out and enjoy this weather since in a few months we'll be going stir crazy with snow outside!

Angela S.

Stash Busting September

Well folks - it's time to face the facts. 

My stash is too big for its own good. In order to tackle this issue I am going to spell out the projects that I can work on that will take no shopping(or little shopping). For some this may just finish the top but that will work for me for the time being. I usually attempt to make my own kits for projects so that later on I know I have everything I need to finish a quilt top. The backing is usually a different story :)

I plan on taking September off from shopping so that I can get prepared for Christmas and all of its projects early. I don't have many people on my list this year but hopefully I can make a few great things for people. 

1) Catch up on Craftsy BOM
2) Catch up on Quilting Gallery - Beginner's QAL
3) Flannel scrap bag - 2 of these
4) Soft baby books - 5 of these
5) Hometown fabric layer cake - Hexagon Hip Hop quilt from 'Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts' 
6) 7 charm packs - I will be working my way through the book 'Three Times the Charm'
7)1 Halloween charm pack for a 'Little Charmers IV' table topper
8) 5-yard quilt tops - 2 of these
9) WIP casserole carrier
10) Toooo many fat quarters
11) Seuss pillowcase
12) Cat paper piecing - Christmas fabrics
12) 10 minute self binding baby blanket - boy fabric


Updates on my stash attack to follow!!

Angela S.

Blog Hop Party Winners

Did you register for the blog hop giveaway last week? If so, please check your e-mail. I have notified 2 winners so please make sure to check those junk e-mail folders for an e-mail from me!

Thanks for all the great responses to my posted question. I love hearing feedback from other on what they like to see :) If you have other suggestions for the site please send them my way....I'm still a beginner here and would love to learn more!

Thanks again!

Angela S. 



****Update**** 
Both winners have now contacted me back - thanks for playing everyone!