Busy Stitching!

Thursday night was my large quilt guild meeting.  I found these two blocks on the freebie table, and rescued them as the meeting ended.

orphan block from freebie table

2nd orphan block from freebie table (smaller than first block)

I know, not pretty, and not well made, either.  Neither lay very flat, but, I figured I could maybe make a tote bag with them.

Well.....I've been wanting to make some project bags, and I decided I'd better get started on them, since one of them will be made with the 'UGLY' fabric from my little quilt guild's Ugly fabric exchange.

This is the pattern that I will be using.  'Project Bags' from byannie.com.

pattern

I've been seeing the dozens (yes, dozens, she just finished an order for 25 project bags) of these bags being made on a blog I read.  I finally decided that I had to make some for myself. 

The pattern makes 4 different sizes of project bags.  I wanted the largest one.  It calls for quilting a 18"x 18" square, then trimming it down to 16.5".  I started pulling fabrics from my stash, and, got a bit carried away....  I ended up with 8 different squares to quilt.  I just finished the machine quilting on all of them.  Some are heavily quilted, and some are very lightly quilted (depending on the fabrics). 

First is the block from above.  It was wonky, so, I quilted it heavily.  I think it looks better now, than it did.

front of wonky block

backing of wonky block

The other, matching block will be used in the project bag, too.

Next is the 'Ugly' fabric from my little quilt guild's exchange.  I don't think that it is ugly, but, I wouldn't know how to use it cut up in a quilt, since it has a large pattern.  We got 1/2 yard of each Ugly fabric, so, I decided to put something else on the back, and make 2 project bags.  I quilted each piece differently.

Ugly fabric, 1st block

Ugly fabric, 2nd block

back of Ugly fabric blocks

Then I started working with some of my larger prints of my vast Sewing Themed fabrics.  I can never figure out how to use fabrics with larger prints, since you lose the print when it is cut up.  The first one, I made 2 matching blocks (front and back are the same) and I made one block of the 2nd one.

2 of this block, front and back are the same

front and back are the same

Then I pulled out some of my 'fun' Sewing themed fabrics, and had to add borders to these fabrics before I quilted them.  First, are the 'Singer' fabrics, with some thimble fabric added for borders.

Singer treadle block

2nd Singer treadle block

backing on both Singer blocks

Lastly, I used some bright sewing themed fabrics, that also needed to be bordered.  I made sure to keep all the border fabrics going in the same direction.  You can read some of the fabric parts.

1st block

2nd block

showing backing for both blocks

The backing fabric shown in the picture above, was ordered online last month.  When I went to cut it, I found a rip in the center of the fabric.  Grrr!!!!  I paid good money for this fabric.  At least I noticed it before I cut the backing squares.  Because of the location of the rip, I could use the piece on either side of the rip, and get the squares I needed (barely).  I hope the rest of this piece of fabric doesn't have any rips in it. 

While preparing these blocks for machine quilting, I also prepared 2 different table runners for quilting.  I haven't decided how to quilt them yet, since they will be looked at more closely (one is a gift for a friend).  I forgot to take pictures of them. 

Now to start cutting the pieces for the rest of the project bags, and see if I have enough matching zippers. 

I hope that all of you are having a productive weekend, too.  Hubby is off backpacking, so, I don't have to worry about cooking this weekend.  Having to stop and fix supper tends to kill my mojo every evening.  I worked on these till 10pm last night.