Friday finish - Travel Duffle 2

Ooof this finish has been a long time coming. I made a Studio Cherie Travel Duffle bag back in April this year, and even though it was a bit of a battle I quickly forgot that and pulled fabrics for another one.

I had bought a couple of metres of this Kokka Ladybug print (From Stamped by Ellen Luckett-Baker) to make cushions for my ladybird mad mother-in-law. In the event I made her a Supertote instead and therefore still had plenty of yardage left to make a fun travel bag for the girls to share.

I cracked on and made the hessian handles as before, then ground to a halt. I don't know why really, but this project has languished on my Finish-Along list ever since. I picked it up again this month, when I was procrastinating on some mentally challenging secret sewing, and even took it as my sewing day project with Leeds MQG. I learnt from some of last time's mistakes, but not all of them. Used Kona Snow again for the lining as I had nothing else big enough. But hey, it's just the inside of a bag isn't it? And this inside of this bag always looks like a dog's dinner as it's unlined, so no point wasting any good stuff! I did remember to cut my lining a little bigger. I also remembered not to bind my end pieces until the pockets were on. This time I added two end zipper pockets but skipped the (uselessly small) side pockets. 

3 quilts which miraculously become a bag ...

Yet again, the final construction of this was epic. I broke 3 needles, had a million skipped stitches, fell out with it and chucked it in the corner of my sewing room while I got on with meeting my September deadline. That (almost) done, I picked it up again tonight, got lucky with a new needle and managed to get one of the ends firmly attached. 2 more broken needles on the other end but it is DONE. Seriously, I love making bags but my machine hates it so much, it breaks my heart. #shouldaboughtajuki

I do recommend this pattern, really I do. This is the best sized bag for a weekend away if you can't pack light and the way the handles wrap round to support its weight is very clever. It is a bit of a puzzle, and definitely requires a sew through anything machine, but it is a very satisfying thing to have made.

I'm afraid it is dark here already now and I was being impatient to get this post up so the photos are a bit lacking, apologies. This has 2 quilts and 2 cushions in and isn't even full!!

Simple cross hatch quilting in matching Aurifil #2000

I topstitched along the main zipper again to secure the flaps down.

I'm sure the zipper tabs on the other weren't as big as these!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday ...

Siblings Together quilts

I am very happy to report that the Siblings Together quilts that I made with the invaluable help of Leeds Modern Quilt Guild  were indeed finished in time to be sent down to Fat Quarterly Retreat and handed over. So pleased! We pieced the blocks at our June meeting, all 48 of them.

I was absolutely determined to get these finished by this year's deadline. I do work well with a bit of focus, so I sashed, basted, quilted and had the binding chopped up and ready in time for our July guild sewing day. 

No pins here! 505 spray ftw

Easy peasy wavy line quilting

Binding strips all cut and ready

The day of our July meet was an absolute scorcher. Remember Summer, people? Yes, that was just a few weeks ago. Just the perfect kind of day for binding two huge quilts. But that deadline was just a week away, along with the end of term, our family holiday and a whole load of gift making and packing stress! So I cracked on, and got the bindings attached and machined down. I usually prefer to hand finish my bindings but when speed is of the essence it has to be machine finished. Just a few finishing tasks to be done, attaching the labels and hand finishing the corners (I always like to do this for durability). Luckily many hands came to the rescue! We had some illustrious names at our meeting that month and so I am proud to say that the lovely Katy, Amy and Justine all had a hand in finishing off these quilts. It was a  busy, productive and super fun day. 

I left the finished quilts with Lisa who handed them over to Karen (you still with me, yes?). And Karen took them down to Fat Quarterly Retreat! This was a real team effort and I am so grateful to everyone involved.

Siblings Together is such an important charity. It helps to reunite and rebuild relationships between siblings separated by the UK care system. Each year it holds summer camps for these children, and each child who attends gets to take away their own quilt, a special handmade item infused with happy memories and love. I have donated 3 quilts to the charity this year, including these two, and been involved in 11 more! I hope to do the same again this year as once again I am part of the Siblings Together quilting bee. And Leeds Modern Quilt Guild will be making quilts to send again too, although we may give ourselves a little more time this year!!

I didn't manage to get any pictures of the finished quilts as they had to be handed over as soon as they were done, but Lisa did. Thanks Lisa!

So to summarise ...
Pattern: Granny square blocks in a 4 by 6 arrangement
Fabric: Potluck scraps plus others, Kona snow for sashing
Backing: IKEA fabrics donated by Lisa and Hannah
Binding: Chicopee plaid and Lizzy House orange jewels
Quilting: Simple wavy lines on the diagonal, I think 3" apart.
Size: 78" ish by 53" ish

Thanks everyone! 

Roundabout giveaway winner at last

Apologies that it has taken me a little while to announce the winner of the Roundabout pattern giveaway. I've had a rather stressful and horrible week culminating in my lovely Grandma dying yesterday morning so of course anything blog related has been rather low down the priority list this week. 

Anyway I finally managed to pop to random.org and the RNG said...

... comment number 4 which is Gill who said:

Thanks so much Gill, I will send your email to Jess so that she can send you your copy of the pattern. I look forward to seeing your version!

Thanks so much to all who entered, I have managed some sewing progress since my last post so hopefully I will be back to update soon. Here's a peek ...

End of August, start of September

I totally missed August's Fresh Sewing Day as we were still away on holiday, but that's okay because July was just a frantic rush of Siblings Together quilts, teacher gifts and holiday of course.

August has been surprisingly productive, all things considered. And by all things, I mean of course the school holidays, but also the priority secret sewing which cannot be shown.

So that's a finished Roundabout quilt
A started and finished flannel baby quilt.
A getting ahead of myself September STQB block.
And August's STQB block too of course.


And looking ahead with my plan for September.

1) Secret sewing project -  yes, I know, it's boring, but also exciting too!

2) #IGminiswap I have till December for this but I want to get on with it while the ideas are fresh.

And then I should try to tackle some of those outstanding WIPs really so for the sake of hopefulness:

3) Travel duffel 2

we've seen this photo a lot, haven't we?

4) The vaguely festive churn dash
I may take this to work on next week at Leeds MQG. It isn't even hard.

5) Aviatrix medallion
Or I may take this, because I am waiting for new rotary blades and this is all cut out.

But really, truly, I have a deadline to meet, a big girl back at school tomorrow, a baby who has dropped her nap (19 months! she's 19 months old!) and I'm doing another Whole 30 this month too so I'll be cooking plenty. I'd better focus on getting that secret sewing done. So if I'm silent, that's what I'm doing!

Linking up with the lovely Lynne who I finally met at Festival of Quilts last month! Which was a pleasure, of course.

Oh and my Roundabout pattern giveaway is still open till Friday September 5th so please click over and take part!