September: quilt projects

We had great projects this month.

Linda is working on this sweet quilt made from a honey bun roll.

This hand bag that Des made, uses hexagons stitched together with a sewing machine. Des says its not too terrible to sew the hexies together.

Dixie brought a hexagon quilt top her grandmother made. It is all stitched by hand. 

Applique is perfect for a tea towel shared by Phyllis.

Rose combined cross-stitched blocks and scrappy borders to make this wonderful quilt. 

It was fun to welcome Vicky to the group this month. She shared a quilt she put together from blocks her great grandmother made. The fabric in these butterfly blocks is original 1930's and 1940's fabric and the borders are reproduction fabrics. The quilt was hand quilted by an Amish woman who once had a quilt almost exactly like this one herself.

Vicky said she really loves the repo fabrics and shared three different tops she made using reproduction fabrics.

This faux chenille baby blanket is fun, but maybe time-intensive. Stephanie L. layered four pieces of flannel together. Then she stitched straight lines 1/2 inch apart for the chenille sections with a 4 inch space between the chenille sections to create the stripes. She used scissors to cut THREE of the flannel layers between the 1/2 inch rows of stitching (do not cut the bottom layer of flannel) to create the fuzzy "chenille."  If you do accidently cut the bottom layer, just applique a cute flower or something over the hole, she says. Stephanie simply sewed around the blanket about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the edges to hold the layers together and let the edge fray.

It's in the Bag!

In September, Ilene showed us some of the amazing bags and totes she has made. This was such a fun and inspiring demonstration with so many ideas.
Ilene loves to use materials that you wouldn't always consider for her bags - jeans, napkins, sheets, shirts, corduroy and even fused paper!

This paper "fabric" is made by fusing layers of pattern tissue together. She quilted it and dabbed some gesso on one side and used pieces of coordinating fabric to make this adorable gift bag!!!

She added  the cutest details to her bags!

One of the favorite bags she showed was a black and white "pockets aplenty" tote that has lots of pockets on the inside, too. Ilene's bag also has a layer that can be pulled up and closed with a drawstring to give even more room!

Ilene demonstrated how to make sweet square zipper bags (one is shown in the photo above) that can be adjusted and made in any size. A free pattern for the sweet zip bag and a couple other bags by Terry Atkinson can be found here.

Ilene said she always uses interfacing on the lining and the bag to give them body and make them sturdy. She also quilts the bag and the lining and she always uses a denim needle to sew bags. 

And here is one more bag Ilene made from a cat food bag. The handles on this are actually the plastic handles from bags of sugar - she just sewed them on to her kitty bag! That is pretty resourceful and fun!

Here are a few websites where Ilene gets some of her bag patterns and ideas:

www.terryatkinson.typepad.com

www.thecreativethimble.com

www.studiokatdesigns.com

www.pursepatterns.com  (this site has some free patterns, too)