"Russian" Tote

My littlest sister (who's as big as me and not so very little anymore) recently had a birthday and she was overdue for a handmade bag from me. I struggled with what pattern/style to go with and finally settled on the 241 Tote pattern by Noodlehead. My sister prefers bags with longer handles so she can wear them across the chest, so I lengthened the handle, but otherwise followed all the directions. It has a magnetic closure and two inside slip pockets.

The matryoshka doll fabric is made in Japan but I ordered it from Korea. Go figure. My sister likes blues, greens, and purples and spent a summer in Russia a couple of years ago, so it seemed appropriate.

The pattern is definitely not for the beginner. Lots of curved seams that can be difficult to wrangle. I had to pick them out more than once. And the fabric requirements are a bit misleading. But once it's done, I think it's a cool bag - one that I would use myself. If you decide to make one yourself, be sure to use a 50% off coupon when buying the woven interfacing because that stuff is a rip-off. And you will need more than the 1 1/2 yards called for. I'd get at least 2 if not more.

Now I'm working on a diaper bag for my other sister who had twin girls back in November. I'm always on time, I am. Anyway, I'm hoping I can finish it before I leave to visit Georgia again (and before my sewing machine decides to crap out on me - it's starting to sound suspicious). I've designed the whole thing myself, which was probably a bad idea since I've had some fits and starts with the thing. Lots of seam ripping and cursing under the breath. But what I've made so far is darn cute and has me excited to see it finished.

Wish me (and my sewing machine) luck!

Twin Baby Quilts

Now that my sister has had her baby shower (not to mention her girls!) I can finally show you the quilts I made for my nieces.

They both look like this:


You'll notice there are 3D yellow flowers in the top right and bottom left corners. I made each quilt the same but made one with yellow flowers and one with pink flowers:

That way they could tell their quilts apart from the front. The yellow flower one is backed in yellow snuggle fleece and the pink flower one is backed in pink.

They each have jumbo white rick-rack as a border in the front:


The fabric comes from the Lucy Fun Flowers collection by Lakehouse. I just love the happy, bright colors. The fleece was thick enough that I didn't have to use any batting. And I followed the tutorial for machine binding found here. If you are interested in trying to make a quilt, the Basic Quilt Along Series at Make and Takes is a great start. It's written by Amy of Diary of a Quilter and she is a great teacher! Quilting is really not hard once you get the hang of it and I encourage even novice sewers to give it a try. Make a table runner or a small wall hanging first so you don't get overwhelmed.

For these quilts I adapted a pattern that came with my new Flying Geese Ruler. I basically cut it in half and then added borders.

Bridal Shower Gifts

I had a bridal shower to go to last weekend. Being the masochist that I am, I decided to make the gift. Aprons are popular right now and I had seen a tutorial for making oven mitts that I wanted to try.

I stopped at my local quilt shop and bought some Amy Butler "Love" fabric (totally appropriate) and some Insul-Bright, which is the stuff you line hot pads and oven mitts with. My guess is they have it somewhere at Joann's as well.

After more work than I had originally planned, here is the outcome:

Super crappy photos taken just before wrapping the gift. I made these late at night and spent the next day driving all over creation for the Valley of the Sun Quilt Shop Hop and then came home for 5 seconds to wrap the gift and then head to the shower. I was beat. And in no mood to take decent photos with artistic angles.

Here are the oven mitts:

I love them! I wanted to keep them and the apron. You can't tell from the photo but the apron pockets are lined in the red dot from the oven mitts. And I used what was left of the green dot to bind the mitts. I found the tutorial on Skip to My Lou through Cluck, Cluck, Sew's blog. It's pretty darn simple. The most time-consuming part is machine quilting the layers together. I just did diagonal lines, nothing fancy.

I used Simplicity pattern 2555, view A, but lined the pockets and made them smaller. I used 1 yard of roses for the apron, facing, and oven mitts; 1/2 yard green dot for the pockets, ties, and binding on the mitts; and 1 fat quarter of red dots for the pocket lining and oven mitts.

Together all the fabrics just make me feel happy and I hope she loves them as much as I do.