Several years ago I won a piece of hand dyed red fabric from Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber. I hate to admit it but I lost track of that piece of fabric – it got tucked down in between several pieces of fabric among the short stacks – I forgot I had it. I found it recently and I immediately once again wondered what should I make out of it. I love the large tote bag that I made last month and the pattern came in three sizes. I decided to make the medium size bag. I have been busy today making this bag and I got some work done on Joseph’s Coat too – more on that one tomorrow.
The fabric.
First I pieced together a charm package of squares to use for the inside lining.
I had enough of that patchwork for two sides and one pocket. I used some of the red for the center piece and one more pocket on the inside.
I am pleased with the look! The front.
The back
Two inside pockets, one outside pocket and I put a loop inside to hook my keys on. Now tomorrow I need to shop for a new wallet – this one is going to be a large purse – I can fit my kindle in it for times I want it with me. I can fit brochures in it when at museums and such – I can never fit them in the purses I normally use (smaller than this), my camera can be tossed in, I’m going to get a couple small flat cosmetic types bags for organizing and it will be set!
Thank you Vicki for the win – sorry it took me so long to make something out of it!!
Nothing new going on here just the same old stuff– I continue to work on Joseph’s Coat and Star Crazy so I thought today I’d let you know of some sales going on.
Head on over to “the twiddletails store” Anina is having a sale – a clean up sale as she calls it. I have ordered from her in the past – nice reliable service!
Also the Fabric Depot is having a sale – I have ordered only a time or two from them but remember them being reliable also.
For those of you who have the Go Baby, or the AccuQuilt full size – do you really think they are worth the money you spent on them? Are you constantly spending more money on them buying new dies and trays. If you are a hand quilter and often a hand piecer are you pleased that you bought it or does it mainly make sense to get one if you are constantly cranking out one quilt after another.
I have heard so much of these things but the other day I went into the site to look at them and start to add up prices – my goodness – talk expensive!!! If you go to the AccuQuilt website and write down which machine you want, then start to tally up all the pieces you need – trays, mats, dies WOW it gets pretty darn expensive! Those dies – well you can’t just get one 
, I think I got up to $1,000 and said ok I don’t think this is for me – now if I won one that would be something else – but to buy – give me your opinions –if you have one why did you buy it? Do you just not like to cut with a rotary cutter, scissors – Now I totally understand if you are putting kits together, have a handicap with your hands like severe arthritis or whatever – but I think I will stick with my rotary cutter and scissors for now.
I normally do not do mystery quilts. I like to see a photo of the final product first so that I select the right kind of fabric. I hate wasting fabric at the price it is and I can not pick out the proper colors without knowing what it will look like. That is the great thing of a free mystery quilt on line – you can print out everything – patterns and instructions and make it when you get it all!!
Pearl P. Pereira has a new free BOM out this year. If you sign up for her newsletter and web site you can have access to it. I haven’t a clue when I will make this and I don’t know if I will make the quilt or use the flower appliques in something totally different – but in the meantime I’m printing!
Here is a link to Pearl’s web site – P3Designs. If you go to Forums and then to Mystery BOM you can download the patterns. Another one for maybe next year – or the following 
Is anyone out there making the quilt called “Sedona Star”? It is a BOM from the Quilt Show. The pattern is by Sarah Vedeler and finishes at 88” x 88” – here is a clip of it:
I think it is a beautiful quilt. I had joined the Quilt Show a couple years ago when I made the Star Crazy quilt which was a BOM at that time. I let my membership lapse and then I saw someplace last week – I can’t remember where now – but someone posted that the Quilt Show was having a temporary “gift” of a month membership free – you just had to put in a code for the gift. Once you have membership you can access the patterns. It is listed under the BOM – you can look at it without a membership but you can not print out the pattern unless you have it.
My one month free membership let me access the first 5 months of the BOM – how about that! I immediately printed out all that I can and I will go back to it in December and print out the rest of the instructions by purchasing another month ($6.95) It does involve a lot of paper and I know I could just download to my computer instead. I have found though that if I do that I forget about! This way I print it all out – like printing out a book! and put it in sleeve savers and put in a ring binder – then I will have it all ready when I am ready for it.
With the membership you can watch any of the classes and get other patterns and downloads. I believe some you have to pay for and some you do not.
I most likely will do this quilt in a different color scheme – something scrappy of course to use my stash! Maybe next year? This will be a challenging quilt to make. I’m not sure which quilt will be my new quilt to make – I have the two new patterns by Edyta Star and one of those will most likely be next when I finish Joseph’s Coat. That is after I finish the applique on the Red and Green Applique – that is the one that I will finish first as soon as I get done with Joseph’s Coat.
As I make this purple row of Joseph’s Coat I can so tell how much shorter the rows are getting from the stack of pinned pieces of pieces stacked up in the box. This is what I have put together so far. I don’t remember what setting I used yesterday to try to get the purple at it’s true color so I selected this setting 
it might turn out different every time I do it.
I have been working on the tote bag I should you all the pattern for yesterday. I have all the pieces machine quilted – I am using Soft and Stable for the “batting” it is a firmer product that is great for bags. I also have the lining with the pockets on the inside sewed together.
Today I need to put all the pieces together. Just some of the pieces. I’ll show the whole bag when I get it done.
I think with some of the rest of the fabric from that bundle I will make a new cover for my Kindle as well.
This quilt group that I go to off and on meets in a classroom at Hobby Lobby about once a month or every couple of months if the room is in use for classes. Well one can hardly go into Hobby Lobby and not bring their coupon with them – can they? 
I had several coupons with me – ok – 4 – I gave one away to someone who didn’t have one. Regina took one from me and some of my cash to buy me a book - I used a coupon to buy a sock loom – I have told you all that I would like to learn how to knit socks but I found myself totally not able to do it – well there was a sock loom for sale!! The loom came with an instructional DVD and a little tool – now I just have to sit down this evening and learn how to use it!! Wish me luck, I will let you all know how it goes!! I also picked up the light/magnifier with the last coupon I had before I left. I will use that by the sewing machine for threading the darn needle which is becoming harder and harder to thread.
This is what Regina is working on – it is a block of the month using wool applique and embroidery – it is the one she is having problems with the needles getting sticky stuff on them. It is called “Harrington and Hannah”
I was talking & shopping more than sewing and got just about 2 sides of the binding done. I will work on that more this weekend.
I left after lunch and got my grocery shopping done. It is too nice of a day to spend more time sewing – that will be this evening I think!
