Don’t you just love how a flat, one-dimensional block of patchwork suddenly comes to life when you start quilting it? Something that was flat and lifeless is magically transformed, with a soft texture that just begs you to touch it.

Can you tell I’m jazzed? I’ve been working away diligently on Sarah’s quilt. There are nine blocks, and I have six done. It’s slow work, what with horsing around with the walking foot, but it sure does look nice when the block is done. At least I only have three blocks left to do, so that’s not so bad. Then I just have to quilt the outside borders, which should go really quickly.

I did two blocks this morning, and was going to do another this afternoon, but wound up running to the store with my dear hubby. His wireless mouse quit working, and we had to go exchange it so he could play games on his computer tonight.

Yesterday was stormy and blustery, with about three inches of snow and lots of wind. But today it was sunny, and much warmer than I thought it would be. It was a gorgeous winter afternoon, so I took advantage of it. I scooped the snow out of the driveway and walked up to the store to pick up a few groceries.

Andrew went fishing this morning at the Chocolay River. If he goes tomorrow, I may go with him. He said it looked like a great place to go snowshoeing. I can go exploring while he tries to hook into a brown trout, or a steelhead. He nearly caught one this morning, but it got away.  So we had pizza for supper instead, which was OK, too.

Here’s a shot of my favorite kitty.  She really likes this spot.  It’s warm and cozy, right in front of the heating vent!  Where else would a cat hang out in the winter?  On sunny winter days, the sun shines through the kitchen window, right onto this spot for an hour or so!  No wonder she likes it so well.

Free motion quilting seemed like a great idea this morning.  I was all set to do some really cool stuff with Sarah’s quilt.  But when I sat down to practice, Things Did Not Go Well.  I couldn’t get any control over my stitch length at all, or over where the quilting lines were going.

The problem, as you can see from my picture,  is my set-up.  I really do need a sewing table that I can set my sewing machine down into so that it’s flush with the surface.  I considered trying to put things around my sewing machine to make a flat surface to quilt on, but I’ve jury-rigged things in the past, with less than satisfactory results!

I need to save my pennies so that I can get a sewing table.  Until I can do that, I decided it’s best to save myself the frustration of making a mess (and then having to waste hours picking out a million stitches of varying lengths).  So I wimped out, and put the walking foot back on.

You’d be amazed what you can do with a walking foot.  The obvious first step was to make parallel lines of stitching on the blue sashing.  This was pretty easy, and went reasonably fast.

I still wasn’t sure what to do with the individual blocks, though.  I was going to do the borders, then come back to the blocks later, but after lunch I thought I’d try my hand at quilting the center block.

I worked around the log cabin strips in a spiral, using the walking foot.  When I came to the cats in the center, I decided to outline quilt them.

The center block was the most complicated, so I wanted to do it first to get it out of the way.  I outlined the kitties, the kitten in the carriage, the wheels, and some of the streamers.

It was pretty painstaking work, but it just proves that anything is possible, especially if you’re willing to horse around with a walking foot!  But it took less than an hour, all told, so it was still a lot faster than hand quilting it.  Plus it will go through the washer and dryer with no problems, which is important for a baby quilt!

The other blocks are smaller, and have less detail, so they should go a whole lot faster than the center block.

I’m pretty jazzed. I may even have the quilting done by the end of the week!

I found this really neat tutorial for a water bottle carrier.  My hubby has several health problems and is on a lot of different medications.  We’ve found out the hard way that he gets dehydrated very easily, especially in hot weather.  So I usually try to carry a water bottle with me when we go anyplace, but it gets old, having to hang onto a water bottle.  So when I found this tutorial, I thought, how cool is this?

The tutorial calls for Insulbrite, which is an insulated batting that helps to keep your water cold.  I looked for it locally but could only find it packaged in a one-yard length for $7.50.  Ouch.  I checked out The Warm Company, which makes Insulbrite, but $100 worth of Insulbrite is a lot more than I can use right now.  Maybe eventually, if my business takes off, but not now!

So I continued looking online, and found Quilt-Kits Online selling Insulbrite for $2.45 a yard.  Much better!  They’re lovely people to deal with; I had some trouble with their shopping cart and emailed them.  It turned out to be  my problem as I had downloaded a browser update that morning, but he helped me get my order through so I could pay for it with Paypal.  The order was filled very quickly, so I highly recommend them if you’re looking for reasonably-priced Insulbrite (or anything else for that matter).

I followed the tutorial and learned that you definitely do have to cut your material a little bigger than you would think.  The batting makes it smaller.  My first water bottle carrier is a bit of a snug fit for a 20-oz water bottle, although it’s quite usable.  I tried it out when we went to an outdoor show, and it does keep your water bottle cold.

For some reason I didn’t take a picture of my first effort, and it’s now residing in Minnesota at my daughter’s house.  I made it from purple and green fabric strips and lined it with some bright green fabric I had.  It really did come out cute.  My daughter liked it so well that she immediately wanted me to make two more for my two older grandsons.

The boys picked out the material they wanted from their mom’s stash, and granny did the rest.  The brown material is a treasure map, and of course, all pirates have to have some skulls and crossbones around!  The one on the left is lined with red, and the other is lined with the skull material.

I thought about shortening up the straps, but my daughter and I decided she could just tie a knot in them to get them to the right length for each boy.  They’re growing so fast that we don’t want them to outgrow them.  This way, they’ll be adjustable as the boys get taller.

The picture on the right shows the red lining in the one bottle.

I changed the pattern a little.  I didn’t like having the bottom as a separate piece.  I thought it was too hard to sew it on.  So I added it to the bottom as a flap.  This took a little playing around with a paper pattern to figure out how to do it.  Then I made one up in muslin to see how it worked.

I also changed how it was constructed.  I layered the lining and outside, right sides together, along with the insulbrite.  Then I sewed along the sides and top, leaving the bottom open to turn it.  This is where you sew on the handles, too.

I ran a couple of lines of zigzag quilting across it, using my walking foot.  I also found that it was was helpful to zigzag across the bottom and the bottom flap so the material and batting don’t shift.  It also makes it much easier to sew the bottom flap on later, plus it gives it a finished edge.

I left the walking foot on and sewed the tube together up the side, using a scant 1/4″ seam.  This leaves a nice finished seam on the inside.  The last step is to sew the bottom flap onto the tube.  It was a lot easier to sew this seam as it was already attached about a third of the way around.

The boys will be thrilled, and their mama will be happy they can carry their own water bottles!  Now I need to make a pair for my hubby and me.  I think I’ll make Andrew’s out of camoflage material so he won’t mind carrying it.  Maybe I can find some USMC material!

A couple of years back, I made a couple of really cool crazy patchwork pieces to use as inserts for turning an old pair of overalls into a skirt.  Turned out I had gained a few pounds, and the overalls no longer fit!  So I tossed them in the closet and forgot about them.

I ran across my old project last month.  Still haven’t lost the weight, so I decided to cut the patchwork out and reuse it in something else.  What could I make out of it?  How about a bag?

Here’s the finished bag on the left, complete with my mandolin.  I didn’t start out to make a bag for my mandolin, but when the bag was done, it was a perfect fit for it.  I don’t think I could have done any better if I had planned it from the start.

The picture on the right shows how the bag opens.  I didn’t think about putting a zipper or anything like that in ahead of time and found out that the bag was really roomy, but that it was too narrow at the top to get anything into it!  Hmm, back to the drawing board.

This was when I discovered that my bag would be perfect for my mandolin, if I could only get it in there..  I realized I couldn’t put in a zipper since it  might rub against the mandolin and damage it.  Besides, I didn’t have one on hand anyway.

I thought about a placket opening and looked around online for some ideas.  I found directions for making a lap, like on a shirt sleeve.  I used to sew a lot of clothes, so I was familiar with this technique.  It was a little tricky, but it worked.  I had a piece of velcro that had been banging around in my sewing box for years.  It finally found a home here.

For the lining I used a piece of burgundy fabric from my stash.  I didn’t really like the right side, so I used the wrong side, since it was a bit more low-key.  The lining was after the fact, too, so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to get it in there.  I turned the edges under along the flap and used one of the embroidery stitches on my sewing machine to sew it down.  In the front, I bound the top edges with a piece of denim.  This was after I slashed an opening in the front lining, turned it under, and hand-sewed it to the placket.

I made the strap longer so I can put it across my chest.  It’s recycled denim (along with the bag gussets on the sides) that I padded with a scrap of quilt batting.  Then I decorated it with some machine embroidery.

I even added a small pocket to the lining.  At least I thought to do that before I sewed the lining in!

This bag probably would have been easier if I had had a plan to start out with.  But I didn’t, so I just went with it, and figured out how to solve the design problems as I went.  It definitely was a learning experience, but it was a fun project too.

So far I’ve used my bag to carry library books when I walk to the library, and also shopping when I walk over to the store.  It’ll be handy this spring when I can finally start riding my bike again.  I won’t have to hang everything from the handlebars like I did last fall!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my bag!