Stitching the last days of December

Last night I finished off as far as I can on my new addition for my Bionic Gear Bag.  Sally Thompson aka Ripstitcher designed a Little Trash Bag Thingie to hang off the bottom of the BGB.  I'm waiting on some special glue to arrive so I can add the magnetic snaps to the bottom of the BGB, straps and Little Trash Bag Thingie and it will be done.  Currently I've just pinned it in place.  

 I managed to cut up some of the very few scraps I have remaining for my original bag to make this and just love how it turned out.  It actually folds down and fits inside of the BGB!  If you are interested in buying a pattern or joining her series of Mastery Classes check her Sew Much Nicer webpage here. You can also find some of her other patterns on Craftsy here.  I'm planning on making her new Mother Lode Retreat Bag which will be able to accommodate a 6 1/2" x 12 1/2" ruler and all sorts of other goodies. She has a Facebook community that you can ask to join where she share some hints and has some videos to share and lots of shared images of these bags.

 I also finished up the stitching on my Cheri Payne Santa Clause comes but....

 I realized I probably should have mixed up the whites on the hat and his beard but love how they turned out.  Here is a closer look at number 1.

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 Santa Claus come but once...

 ...a year bringing toys and cheer..ho ho ho

 I've also decided to have some fun making some free cut Christmas Trees.  I cut two rectangles about 6" x 8" and then used my ruler to cut the lines.  This requires some straightening of seam lines and the resulting blocks are about 5" x 7".

 I've seen some that were paper foundation pieced but want to have fun seeing what will come when free hand cutting.  My second set were also done in pairs and started with rectangles about 5" x 6" and ended up a bit bigger than 4" x 5".  I changed the angle of the bottom of the tree and varied the width of the tree trunk also.

 I'm contemplating making some in the 5" x 7" range and see how they work out.  I'm also hoping a couple of friends will join me and swap some out with each other, but will see what happens.

 I also got a charm square package in the mail as a gift for subscribing to both Simply Moderne Quilt Magazine and Simply Vintage Quilt Magazine from Quiltmania.  They are from Kathy Doughty's new line Folk Art Revolution. I'm hoping to get some yardage of a couple of these to work with the charm squares.

My phrase last year was Explore new directions, looking at things from a different perspective.  What appears straight can be full of twist and turns.  I'll have to see what next year's phrase will be and how many different perspectives I took in the past year and review them with you before the year's end.  Enjoy these last two days of 2016.

Playing with hexagons and some new purchases.

The other day I was playing with some of the fabrics I used in my two bionic gear bags.  I decided to make a larger needle case, using some lovely linen for the outside.  I used 1/2" hexagons, I'm getting close to the end of the fun tropical drink fabric and had some fun cutting it out.

 I decided to have the designs linking rather than being a complete flower design and this is what I came out with.  The first two photos don't really show the colour of the linen correctly.

 I also decided to have some fun with the needle pages and added a pop of colour.

This photo is closer to the actual colour of the linen.

 Here is the back of the needle case once everything was stitched on and inside.

I also took advantage of the recent Dorr Mills wool sale and got some yard cuts of Dragonfly, Smokey and Chimney Sweep.

This is part of the Blue bundle I got, the top left is quite a dark navy and the one below white.

 This is the other half of the blue bundle.

I also got the honeycomb texture bundle.

 Here is the other half of it, I love that lemony yellow in the bottom right.

I decided to also get two of Primitive Gatherings new table runners.  I think one of the honeycomb wools may be used for this basket.

 I'm also a big fan of snowmen so this guy came home also.

Baby Bionic Gear Bag!

Sally Thompson aka Ripsticher has designed baby bionic gear bag. I started sewing mine on Monday afternoon and finished it off yesterday.


Here is the view from the left side opened up showing one inside pocket.


And from the right, I had fun fussy cutting the sides.


I only used two fabrics for the lining and pocket. It coordinates with my larger Bionic Gear Bag I made back in April.


Zipped up s back view, I used a cotton batt and machined stitched straight lines across like the larger version. The long zipper is an 18" one. I love it already.


The closed up shot.


Here is a picture of the larger bag open.


Showing some of the goodies I made to go in it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bras, Blocks, and Bionic Gear Bag

The online yahoo group I belong to is making Bra Blocks for Mary Lou Weidman.  On Easter Monday she shared a blog post about Easter, French Toast, her upcoming trip to speak at 4 guilds in southern California and being diagnosed with breast cancer.  You can read her post if you click here.

She also shared the news to us online and one of the gals; Carol Haueter suggested we make her bra blocks for a quilt.  Very quickly we had people signing up to make blocks and Tami Levin from the group offered to do the machine quilting for us.  Tami has a wonderful blog called Lemon Tree Tales, click here to check it out.                                                                                                                         

I made this fun cupcake bra and pinned a Daffodil pin from the Canadian Cancer Society that they sell each April to raise funds.

My neighbour and friend Rita kept hers patriotic.  You may know that Mary Lou's maternal grandparents were Canadian.

Another dear friend Ethel made this lovely rainbow beauty.

To finish up the local friends Tricia used this great floral print.  We all used polka dot fabrics for background.  They are all on their way for Carol to sew together along with my online friends.

On Facebook and her blog Michele Bilyeu is encouraging people to make Cross Blocks in different sizes in some of Mary Lou's favourite colours.  If you are interested check out her instructions about sizes, colours and address here on this blog post.

I decided to make mine in the mini size.  Cheddar and red are two favourite colours of Mary Lou along with turquoise...right down my alley.

The top left cross is a turquoise print on white.

Here are they all together getting ready to head to Oregon.

Actually that print is the one I used on my Bionic Gear Bag.  I made three other pieces for it.              

I love my Karen Kay Buckley scissors so I made holders for the two sizes I use most often along with a little needle book.  I can't believe how many things I'm getting inside the bag and it still has room for more.  I will definitely be making another in different fabrics soon.                                                  

Project revealed! A Bionic Gear Bag..

Remember this group of fabrics I posted last month asking what to choose for a binding?  

 Well I decided on using a dimples turquoise fabric for the project.

 A Bionic Gear Bag!  I love how it looks closed.  I machine quilted my outside fabric in straight line quilting.

 Here it is opened showing four zipper compartments inside along with some other goodies.

 A little squared bowl to use for a thread catcher and a dumpling zipper bag are included in the pattern.

 Here are the two mini projects in front of the larger bag.  When I first got my pattern the little dumpling bag wasn't part of it and she used the little bowl to hold wonder clips.  As you can see I've got some in the dumpling bag.

 I've opened up the zippers so you  can see that they form pouches between the zipper pockets.  Now to fill up this lovely bag.  Rip Stitcher the designer has a picture of it closed and then emptied of all the goodies she keeps in hers that you can see by clicking here.  She also has a video and how to order the bag if you click here.

Here is the link to a images on yahoo to inspire you to make one yourself.