Hexie Sew Along bag

The Sew Along bag is finished and I must say it makes me smile because it is kind of crazy looking with the hexies appliqued and the multi-color checked edges.  

All of this came from my stash - the black outside, the hexies, the lime green lining and the checkered bindings.  I used a lighter weight interfacing on this one and those side panels were a bit easier to handle than the first one I made.  Lesson learned.

This bag is only about 9 inches wide but it uses almost a yard of fabric. There are 3 zippered pockets inside plus a longer zipper closes the whole bag and becomes the handles. Such a clever design.

I have another set of zippers and some fabric from the stash set aside to make one more of these. I found myself looking through my fat quarter "collection" for ideas and must admit I found several possibilities.

Design Wall Monday - a little bag

Only one step left and that is putting the top zipper and handles onto this little bag. I even used a strip of tiny hexies that had been just sitting in my sewing room.  A bit of simple hand quilting gives it some texture. This pattern is the Sew Along Bag and the pattern can be found at Craftsy.com or at your local quilt shops.

Check out more quilters' design wall at: http://www.patchworktimes.com

Goals to help me focus

The hand quilting is almost done on this little piece and then I can put it into the project itself. More to be seen tomorrow I hope. Finishing this is my #1 goal for this week.  I haven't been setting weekly goals this year but I think it's time to start doing that again because my sewing time has become way too random with nothing getting finished.

Goal #2 is to sew another couple of rows together for my Traveling Stars quilt. And on Saturday I dropped off 2 quilts with the long arm at The Pin Cushion, so I should have some finishes coming in the next couple of weeks.

Hand stitching

Sometimes a little handwork is just what I need to relax and think.

This is just a bit of appliqué on a small project.  Hopefully more progress will occur over the weekend.  I'm planning a touch of hand quilting to enhance these 3/4" hexies. 

A patriotic block

My bonus block for Saturday Sampler . . .

June status of the stash

The month of June went by so fast that I'm not even sure what I did or didn't do. Yikes!

I do know that I donated some fabric again to a local lady who makes quilts for veterans at the VA hospitals. There are 9 yards of 6" strips in these 2 rolls. She was very excited about how many quilts she could make with these. And I was very excited that it would be used. 

The only finishes I had were small things - a bag, a pillow, a pillowcase, and a mug rug-size mini. But I'm close to having some bigger things to count. It seems like May and June had a focus on individual blocks for lots of different projects, and nothing finished. That will change soon!

In this month: 7.5 yds

In this year: 68.75 yds

Out this month: 12.5 yds

Out this year: 76.25 yds

I'm still a little bit ahead of the stash but have big ambitions to add some large numbers to that "out" column in the next month or two.

Small finishes

My paper pieced tulip pillow is done. I machine quilted this one, including the modified feather design in the white triangle areas.  I used a stencil to mark the quilting lines and then just stitched slowly along those lines. I'm actually kind of proud of this - a new skill that I've tried out.

Another finish for this week is this pillowcase for my daughter's friend. Those gals just finished a 5 day bicycle ride in Nebraska. I had made my daughter a similar pillowcase for her to take along. So now her friend will have one too.