Paper Pieced Snack Bag

At the beginning of July, I wrote that one of my quilting plans for the month was to finally try paper piecing.  Bethany from Make Me a Quilt commented on my post that she was interested in trying it as well and we decided to make a pact!  Less than a week later, we both had paper pieced our first block!  

A few weeks later and a few paper pieced projects later, I was talking to Kristy who was organizing this paper piecing blog hop and I was very excited to join in on the fun (clearly, I'm a fan of blog hops!)  Actually, Kristy's tutorial for the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop was about paper piecing - that post plus seeing all the fun blocks she has created also inspired me to try it!

As I wrote last week, my daughters and I are in the midst of crazy back to school sewing.  One of the items on their list was a snack bag and so my middle daughter and I searched the web to find a fun paper pieced pattern to use.  One of the first we came upon was this juice glass block on Sew Mama Sew from Ayumi of Pink Penguin.  My daughter loved this block and wanted to use it (even though she never even brings juice with her snack!?!)  I also decided to add in the companion sprout block by Penny of sewtakeahike.  

For the reverse side, I really wanted to paper piece the word "snack."  I looked around the web for a pattern to use but since I needed a specific size, I decided to try to make my own.  I'm happy I tried it - it actually wasn't nearly as complicated as I had thought and I was able to make the letters the exact size I wanted them.  Once the girls are back to school, I'll write something up about how I made the letters but for now here is a pic:

The "S" needs some work and I didn't intend for the "C" to be so much larger than the rest of the letters but overall I'm happy with it.  And, more importantly, the recipient LOVES it!

To make the snack bag, I basically followed the same process I use for my quilted totes which you can find here.  But I wanted to make the opening a little smaller so after I was finished with the bag, I sewed up the top between the sides and the handles.  Oh, and can you tell that purple was a requested color???  Unfortunately, I didn't have any purple thread but I did have a very pretty blue Aurifil that I used for quilting the snack side.

The girls usually just make a knot with the handles to close the middle opening so I just left it like that.

There have been lots of great posts along the Practically Paper Pieced Blog Hop - I very much recommend visiting some or all!  The hop runs for the month of August and culminates with a link party from August 29-31 with lots of great prizes.  Visit Kristy's blog for all the information.  And here is this week's schedule:

20 Fiona from Finding Fifth  

21 Beth from Plum and June

22 Megan from Jaffa quilts

23 Juliet from Tartan Kiwi

24 Katy from The Littlest Thistle

25 Sat Tracey from the Peony Teacup

And if you are also a fan of blog hops OR if you are a new blogger OR if you like fabric giveaways, click here for more information on all of that (and a current giveaway!)

WIP Wednesday - getting ready for school!

Confession:  I have made absolutely no progress on any of the QALs.  Not even fabric selections.  I have been on the Flickr pages looking at how everyone else is doing so that counts, right?

But I have a good reason - we just got back from our summer visit/vacation and there are only two weeks left until school starts so the girls wanted to get right to it and gave me a list of everything they want to sew (with me) for school:

1.  They each want a messenger bag.  We finished the first one yesterday - this one has lots of pockets (including two zippered) and a custom flap drawn with fabric markers by my daughter.  We made up the pattern as we went along - when I make one with my other daughter, I'll take pictures of the process to post.

2.  Pencil cases - waiting for the zippers we ordered

3.  I can't tell you what the 3rd project is because I am using it for my stop on Kristy's Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop .  My date is August 21st but I'll share a peek since we finished it a few minutes ago (yes, minutes - and I'm trying to get this post written before the baby wakes up from her nap!)

For this project, I had been on the lookout for foundation pieced letters but decided to try to make my own instead using paper and a pencil.  It really wasn't nearly as complicated as I would have imagined and it was great because I was able to make them the size I wanted.  I'll definitely be trying this again!

Their list also included lunch boxes, water bottle holders, journal covers, and new dresses!  Um, yeah - probably not going to happen!

And even though I haven't started on any of the QALs yet, they all look like a lot of fun and are being organized by super cool bloggers so you should check them out.  By the way, have I mentioned that I've never joined a QAL before so just decided to start by joining 4?!?  I think I'll be spacing these out throughout the next year - well, until another one of you decides to organize one!!!  

Vintage Holiday QAL at Fabric Mutt 
Totally Groovy QAL at Pile O' Fabric
How Far Will You Go QAL at The Elven Garden 
Sew Intertwined QAL at Sew Bittersweet Designs

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday which is being hosted by Cindy from Live a Colorful Life today and to TGIFF which is being hosted by Nicole from Mama Love Quilts on Friday.

WIPs and an HST with a Twist Pillow

WIPS:  

1. Circle of Geese (from Kelly's blog hop post )

2. Pop bottles (used this pattern from sewtakeahike)

3. and 4. I now have 27 9" squares for my crazy nine patch that I wrote about last week.  

5. and 6.  As I think I've mentioned, I am participating in the Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop (I'm posting this Friday - these are not my red, white, and blue blocks.)  I unfortunately realized that I didn't have very much red in my stash but instead of buying more fabric, I decided to use a few squares from a charm pack of Vintage Modern.  I only wanted to use a tiny bit of the charm pack so I had to improvise and figure out a way to use only a couple of charms.  Surprisingly, I actually liked what I ended up with (I can't show it until Friday) so I decided to use some more of the Vintage Modern along with some Essex Linen to experiment with my new "pattern."

Well, since I only had one charm pack, I used that up pretty quickly so I opened my drawer of 5 inch squares, cut them into HSTs, and tried some more variations.  What do you think?  I took lots of pics of the process so I'll write up how I made them soon.  I'm not sure what to call it - something along the lines of  (Traditional) HSTs with a (Modern) Twist - maybe?

I decided to make this one into a pillow and to quilt it by hand - alternating between stitching inside and outside of the diamonds.  I need to do that more often as I love the look of hand stitching.  Now, I just need to find the correct size pillow form.

Wow - I never feel like I get a lot of sewing done until I put it all together in a post and realize that I did!  I'm excited to see what everyone else is up to so I'll be linking up and visiting at WIP Wednesday.  

If you haven't already, click here to catch up with the blog hop news including a thoughtful post by Kati of From the Blue Chair, a great fabric giveaway, the weekly calendar and the Monday link up.

WIPs, Blocks, and Pics

Just some photos from my week.

The girl's redecorated their "library" using a crochet blanket I made a few years ago (it is an old crib mattress on the floor and an old toddler bed mattress against the wall.)  Comfy!  (I can't remember if this is the pattern I used but it is very similar.)

I put together the July block from In Color Order's HST block of the month (love this one!)  You can see my others here. 

Needlepoint?!?

As Bethany wrote about here, we made a pact to try paper piecing this month.  The pic above is my attempt.  I have to say, Bethany actually made it super easy for me since she immediately wrote a post complete with links to video tutorials and she created the awesome pattern for this super cute "tanganimal" - with more animals to come soon.

Have I mentioned that before our little blog hop came about, I had signed on to participate in the Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop.  I'm up on July 13th.

After seeing this awesome quilt yesterday by Amber from One Shabby Chick, I knew what my next quilt project would be.  And the tutorial she used from Elizabeth is fantastic (as Oh Fransson tutorials always are!)

And click here to read a wonderful advice post by Sara from Sew Sweetness and to enter the giveaway to win some patterns from Kate Conklin Designs.

Linking up to a few of these..