Monday, January 13, 2014

Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along: Aeroplane Bag

Good Day Folks! 

So happy to be here helping out Lindsay promote her book. I absolutely love it and there are a couple of quilts I can't wait to make!

When I first heard about this I knew it would be fun to make part of the quilt top and turn it into a bag. But what bag? I have a long list of bags I want to make (much to my husbands disgust!) so I thought it would be a good time to try one out. I am absolutely in love with anything SewSweetness so I decided to try out her Aeroplane bag pattern. This is a larger bag perfect for an overnight trip or getaway weekend!!

The next step was deciding on the fabric. Never an easy job. I finally decided on a charm pack of Bluebird Park by Kate and Birdie for Moda. Who can resist some cute squirrels and hedgehogs??


The next step was to figure out how many blocks I needed to make for the bag. I got out my trusty graph paper and worked out the numbers. I decided to use the blue background on the top and the green on the bottom. I made them a little bigger so that I wouldn't have too small pieces.  


Once I had the blocks made and assembled I decided to quilt the panel pieces. I wanted a little more thickness so I put a layer of leftover batting between the fabric and the Soft & Stable. The Soft & Stable was cut to the appropriate size and the batting and fabric were a little bigger. 



I recently got this amazing book by Angela Walters 


so I used this opportunity to try something different on the top- which I loved!


Not perfect but definitely fun to try! 

I kept the bottom a little simpler.


I was thinking about turning it into diamonds but I really liked this look.

The bag pattern calls for zippered pockets inside but I had some extra strips of the blocks left over so I used these to make normal pockets on the inside and I partitioned them. 



As you can also see I used some bright yellow for the lining. I love bright colors inside so that you can see what is lurking in your bag!

I also added feet to the bag. Feet are super easy to do- if you can use brads you can use these! I went with silver and used 8 of them. I always use some extra batting- or in this case Soft & Stable when attaching them to make it a little more secure. 


Here's what it looked like on the outside.


Once that was done I finished the bag as directed and it came out great!!





It was super fun trying out a new quilt pattern and a bag pattern! I am super stoked that I got to be apart of this quilt along with Lindsay and wish her the best of luck with her book as well as her new little guy!!

Take care and Sew on!

~Kim

Monday, January 6, 2014

Yes, I am still around! (Just barely!!)

Happy New Year!!

I know it's a few days too late but things are just now getting mildly back to normal.....as normal as it can be with temps well below zero and a couple feet of snow on the ground which equals no work or school for a couple of extra days!

Since my last posting.....sometime last year....we have gotten all moved in, painted, had one side of family out for Turkey day, got a puppy, had other side of family out for Christmas, went to Ohio to celebrate holidays here, and came back home! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

I finished my first project of the year. My friend Lindsay Connor wrote an amazing book about making quilts in a sewing bee. 



In honor of the book, she put together a Quilt A Long for one of the quilts in the book- Mosaic Tiles. I volunteered to join in and instead of using the blocks for a quilt, I made a bag! (Shocker I know!) And it couldn't be just any old bag, it had to be one by my other pal Sara Lawson! The Aeroplane Bag to be precise!


So anyways, I finished it today...can't show pictures yet but I will share the fabric I used....


Bluebird Park by Moda! How can you resist Hedgehogs and Squirrels??


So grab a link and join in- or just stop by to see what everyone else has made- and check me out on the 15th to see how the bag turned out!!


Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along

Take care and stay warm!!

~Kim