Busy Without Blog Interest

Yes, I have been busy in my sewing room, just not anything to blog about of any interest.  But here is exactly what I have been doing in my sewing room.

I did a really nice swim bag for my sister-in-law, but I only took pictures of the progress and not the final product.  Palm to the forehead moment!  I finished the bag late Saturday night, and packaged it up for mailing out on Monday.  I do this a lot.  I get ahead of myself on projects, and either miss a step or have to do re-work.  So,  here are the progress photos:

This is the main body of the bag, with a pliable plastic mesh for an outside pocket.  If you look at the top of the bag, there is a zippered inside pocket.  It was finished with boxed sides that I put purple binding on the outside of the bag, which completed the seams.  I added black webbing straps, both short handles and long ones to be carried two ways.

This is a close up of the design of the PUL fabric.  It is, I believe, a flowering cabbage, all over pattern.

This may be hard to see, but this lining is a "terry cloth" on one side and PUL on the other side.  I chose to line the bag with this to give it some more stability (the printed PUL was thinner than I have worked on in the past), and to give it a "towel" theme in relation to it being a swim bag.

Again, here is a palm to the forehead, because I can't give you a final picture.  SORRY!

I have also been super busy with these:

These are the cut outs of the fleece blankets that I sell on my Etsy shop.  I have sold most of my inventory, and needed to get some more done.  Two separate times, I would get one done, and post on my Etsy site, and it would sell within 24 hours.  One was a Winnie the Pooh pastel print, and the other one was John Deere green print. 

I sell more pink camo baby blankets that I had my husband get the whole bolt, because this fleece sells out fast in the local fabric store.  I also have had to order it on-line once in order to keep up with the demand.

So, to reiterate, I have been busy in my sewing room, just not much of the normal blog interest.

Warmest....

Another Custom Order Complete

I have been working on this custom order for quite some time, as I had to go back to the drawing board and do some rework.  Today, I am done with the custom order and here are a few pictures.

This picture is of the front of the bag.  The customer is originally from Australia and wanted a bag that reflected her homeland.  She wanted the flag on the front, so I found this awesome embroidered piece of fabric that I attached in the top right hand corner.  The top right hand corner has her first name embroidered.

I chose a light print for the lining (so one can see better in the bag), and the print has all things Australian written and pictured on it.  Was a perfect match for this bag.

This final view shows the front  and the lining for an overall view of the bag.

I am going to be honest with you, this custom order was a struggle for me all along the way.  I now know what it is like to deal with difficult customers,  who are unable to make up their mind and change their minds several times along the way.  I am chalking it up to a learning experience in this e-commerence business and will make a few changes next time I do a custom order.

Warmest......

UFO Project Progress

A few posts back, I did a post about a UFO project, here.  I have made some progress.  I have put together the blocks, and the first 1" border within this last week.

Then, this evening, after being at a gun show all day, I sat down and was able to de-stress by getting some "sew time" in working some more on this UFO project.  Remember,  I need to make 100+ flying geese, which will be the second border.  So, I sewed 25 of them, made them into a strip, and sewed it to the top.  Only three more sides to go!

This is a nice project to be working on, because the flying geese pieces are all cut out, and I can work on it whenever I have a couple of free minutes, and that doesn't require any deep concentration.  Everyone should have few of these type "no-brainer" sew time projects to work on when they have short periods of time.

Warmest....

Block 4 (Fat Quarter Shop Mystery BOM)

Here is block 4 of the Fat Quarter Shop Mystery BOM.  My first thought when I opened the package and looked at the block, I noticed that it wasn't a basket.  The first three blocks (see below) were all variations of an updated basket pattern.  I am making an assumption here, by thinking this block and maybe a few more, will be the alternating blocks between the basket blocks.  Oh, wait a minute, it is called a "mystery" BOM.  So, I guess, we will have to wait until each month and see how this "mystery" plays out.  That is part of the fun of this program that they offer each year.  You can find out more about this BOM here.

Here are the prior month's blocks:

Block Three

Block Two

Block One

Slow Progress

I have made very little progress in the sewing room last week.  I was working on the "Aussie" two zip hipster as a custom order, and sent a progress picture to the customer.  She was not to happy with the largeness of the flag on the front of the bag.  Sigh.

Fortunately, someone else is tickled pink about this bag, and I have it sold to them.  So, it has been back to the drawing board for the other customer.  It's also the time of year when the weekend gun shows happen, and I have to be there with my husband.  And, then there is the fall garden work that has to be done.  And in the Pacific Northwest, there is so much to be done, because everything needs to be trimmed back or dug up for a pretty spring showing.

I have worked on a couple of blocks with the old BOM's I am working on:

This first one is from the "Land of Lincoln Sampler" BOM and is block 4, called Kentucky Crossroads.

This block is from the "Civil War Tribute" BOM and is block 3.  But, with this BOM, each month has two to four of the same blocks to be made.  I have made the first 12" block and will need to make another one, then I will need to make the same block pattern two more times, only these blocks will be 18".

At least, you know that I am not just sitting around and doing nothing, just not much exciting to post about this time of year.

Union Jack progress

I finished the outside of the bag with the Australian flag incorporated.  I am now working on the lining.  I think it is coming along just splendidly!

PS... I also worked on the some (10) of the 116 flying geese i need for the border for my current UFO project I posted here.

Union Jack Block Sort Of....

Okay, here's the scoop.  As you know, I have an Etsy shop, and I receive lots of requests for custom orders in the bags I have listed.  This time is very unique, as I was contacted by a new customer wanting a Two Zip Hipster that reflects her Australian background, because she is originally from Australia,  and now lives in the United States.  She left the design up to me, but wanted to incorporate the Australian flag and some landmarks from her native land.  After doing some major web searching, I found this fabric with every imaginable Australian landmark one could think of, and I figured it would make an awesome lining!  Isn't it just perfect?  My customer thought so, too!

Now, I needed to incorporate the flag in the bag.  Again back to the web and googling the Australian flag and looking for a pattern.  Lo and behold there is a wonderful paper pieced pattern here.

I reduced the pattern to 90% so that it would fit the pattern piece that I want to be on the bag.

Now, let me say that I have only paper pieced once before, so I found a wonderful tutorial here on Connecting Threads website.  I watched, and I figured I had it, so I started to put the sections together. But, to no avail, I failed, and failed, and failed.  Over and over and over again.  When this happens, I walk away, and this time I slept on it.

The next morning, I realized that I needed a mirror image of the printed pattern, so I traced it on my light box backwards, and (drum roll please)  I managed to get it done!!  The way it is supposed to be done! Happy dance!!

This is the view of it sewn together with the paper still attached.

Ta Da!  Here is the final result.  I am so pleased in the way it turned out!  I should have the bag done in the next day or so, and will post the final product.  Stay tuned.....

Duck Decoy Bags

Sometimes, because I know how to sew other things besides quilts, I get some very odd requests. Requests for things that can't be found ready made and in a store or online anywhere.  My brother and my nephew are addicted to enjoy duck hunting.  They are so intense in this duck hunting Thing, that they made their own mechanical duck decoys.  But, these "precious" mechanical decoys cannot be carried with the other plastic decoys, at least according to my brother.  He asked if I could make three separate bags for the three mechinical decoys.

I made the three bags 16" X 18" with a drawstring and a cord stopper to hold it closed.  The fabric is Denier Cordura which is a heavy ripstop, making it water proof and very durable.  And, of course, it had to be in a camo print, it's for hunting after all!

Here is a close up of the bag top.

Here is the bag drawn up.