New Tutorial

I finished the Triangle Zipper Bag tutorial.  It turned out to be quite long with lots and lots of pictures so I’ve made it a PDF document.  In order to download and/or print the PDF instructions, you will need to have a PDF reader.  If you don’t already have one you can go to the Adobe Reader website and download it for free.

You can make your bag any size, but for this tutorial I made one that is about 8” long and 6” wide. Depending on what you’re planning on using it for you can adjust your starting size.

This is all you need to make one.

Supplies:

Outside – 9” x 12”

Lining – 9” x 12”

Strap – 2” x 12”

Nylon Zipper – At least several inches longer than needed (in this case the zipper is being installed on the 9” side so I used a 14” zipper).

Fusible Fleece - Two – 9” x 12” (batting can be used but you would need to quilt it).

Once you have your supplies together you can head on over to the detailed tutorial.  You can either look to your right and click on the Triangle Zipper Bag Tutorial, go to my website at www.robinquiltsetc.com and go to tutorials or you can just click here and you’ll go directly to the PDF.

Here’s what my finished bag looks like.

Don’t forget, I love to received pictures of the projects you make using my patterns and tutorials.  Please email them to me.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  If it’s something that needs to be answered for everyone, I’ll share it in a future Blog entry.

In the mean time……

Enjoy,

Triangle Zippered Bag

Today my friend Rob called and asked if I knew how to make a zippered bag and she described what she wanted.  Well I said yes and I guess I sort of know how.  I make lots of zipper bags and I’ve seen what she’s was asking for so how hard can it be.  She’s coming over Wednesday so that I can show her how.  After I got off the phone I figured I better make one and figure it out.

 

I sent her a picture with my phone after I finished this and she says it’s exactly what she’s wanting to make.  So now that I’ve figured it out I’ve decided to write a tutorial to share with her and at the same time with all of you. 

I’ve started writing it and I’ve taken all the pictures but it will probably be tomorrow or the next day before I get it posted. 

BTW I’m trying to figure out a name for this little zippered bag, any suggestions? 

Enjoy,

“Forty” plus a few

As I told you yesterday I’ve decided to make myself a bed quilt using my Five, Ten, Twenty pattern but using forty fat quarters to make it large enough for my bed.

These are the fabrics I had before going on the Spring Quilt Run yesterday.

The picture yesterday was probably better, these are nestled down inside a Trader Joe’s bag that obviously has a red inside.  But you get the idea.

Here’s what I add yesterday.

I now have a few extra so I can eliminate a few.  This should be fun.

I’m heading over to my friend Pat’s house to meet up with friends from my friendship group for a day of sewing.  With any luck at all, I should have some blocks to show you by tomorrow.

Enjoy,

Five, Ten, Twenty “FORTY?”

I’m still waiting for my “Five Ten, Twenty” pattern to arrive from the printer.  When it does, I’ll announce it here but in the mean time I’ve decided to try making a “Forty” for my bed.

Instead of twenty blocks as in the pattern, I’m going to make it king size for my bed.  I actually have a queen size bed but the new mattress's are so thick that I need to make it more like a California King in order to cover the darn thing.  My plan is to use 36 blocks to make it large enough and to use the other four to make pillow shams.

I’m planning on making it very scrappy and I have a good start.  Here’s 27 fat quarters that I’ll be using.

Of course nosey Molly just had to get in the picture. 

So the plan for today is to collect 13 more.  Marilyn and I are going on a mini quilt shop hop.  We will be visiting eight shops and of course stopping at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for lunch.  It should be fun made even better by having something special to shop for.

While I”m at it I’m going to look for some red, white and blue fabric to make a patriotic tumbler block quilt.  I’ll let you know how that works out. 

For now, Enjoy!

A Little Handwork

My youngest granddaughter, Emily, is in High School and is very active in sports.  She’s the goalie for her high school soccer team, goalie for her club soccer team, a cross country runner, a distance runner on the track and field team and now she’s added triple jump to her activities of choice.  Since I’m the designated “fan in the stands” (her parents work so are unable to attend the afterschool events), I spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for her to compete. 
This last weekend I found a great handwork project to take along with me as I sit and wait.  My friend Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli has an extensive line of patterns and books (I’ve made many of them in the past) but this one looks like the perfect project for me.  You can visit Jane’s website here.  

The blocks can be made either by embroidering the designs or you could appliqué the designs.  Jane actually has done both but the embroidery is what I want to do.

Instead of hand drawings, the pattern is a set of templates.  So you have lots of options on how you use them.  I’m thinking I’ll use them to quilt some of the designs in the border when the time comes.

Jane uses a marking pencil to mark her designs but I decided this was a perfect use of my Quilt Pounce.  Regular powder would obviously rub off but I have the one that doesn’t wear off until you apply an iron to it.  It perfect for what I’m doing.

Here’s my blocks all pounced and ready to go.  The floss is primary colors from Presencia.  Yesterday I started the sombrero while at Emily’s track and field meet.  BTW, she won both her races and it’s “better luck next time” for the triple jump. 
Enjoy,

Meet Carmen

Isn’t she cute with her cute Letty’s Bag?  While vending at the Glendale Quilt Show, Carmen and her bag came into the booth to say hello and show me her bag.  According to Carmen she doesn’t sew (could of fooled me) and that her family says that if she could make the bag, anyone can make the bag.  Well I don’t know about that, but she sure did a great job. 

Thank you for stopping by.  It was nice to meet you.

Enjoy,

Glendale Quilt Show Booth

It was a very busy weekend at the Glendale Quilt Show.  We setup on Thursday, followed by a very long day Friday (10:00 am – 8:00 pm), a busy day on Saturday and pretty darn busy on Sunday followed by packing up all the stuff.  I was exhausted by the time I got home on Sunday night and spent yesterday unpacking and recuperating.   However, it was a very good weekend for Two Wacky Women. 

The hot item?  You guessed it, the Letty’s Bag pattern and lots and lots of grommets.  We sold out early of some of them.  I got to see some old friends and make some new friends.  Thank you to everyone that stopped by the booth.  BTW, a gal stopped by that said she doesn’t sew but she made a Letty’s Bag and had it with her (more about her and a picture of her bag, later).

Here’s a few pictures of our booth all setup and ready to go Thursday night.

Don’t you just love our big red clothes pins.  They sure make hanging the quilts easy.

Gotta run for now, I have a busy morning ahead of me. 

Enjoy,

Glendale Quilt Show

Just a quick note to let you know that Two Wacky Women will be vending this weekend at the Glendale Quilt Show. 

Here’s a recent picture of the Two Wacky Women. 

Today Marilyn and I will load the U-Haul and head to Glendale to set-up our booth.  The show opens tomorrow morning at 10:00 and runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Here’s the link to the show: 

http://http://www.glendalequiltguild.org/2010quilt-show.html

The “Five Ten Twenty” quilt pattern will be making it’s premier appearance and all three quilt samples will be there. 

Hope to see some of you, stop by and say hello.

Enjoy,

Chapter 5 – Let the Testing Begin

Way back on February 4th I posted Chapter 1 of my quilt making/pattern writing process.  You can read about the beginning here.  I followed that with Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4 until now and I’m finally posting Chapter 5. 

The easy part for me is the initial idea followed by making 1 or 2 quilts.  The much slower part is actually putting the pattern to paper (or in this case, computer).  The writing can be slow at times and the graphics sometimes slow me up but I’ve now made it through and the pattern is ready for testing.

I am very fortunate to have three people that will be reading and testing the pattern for me. 

• Melinda – You know her as my lovely sister in Marietta, Georgia.  I Blog about her all the time and she teaches many of my patterns.
• Marilyn – The other half of Two Wacky Women.  Marilyn has already made the “10” from the pattern so she will be reading and looking for grammar/typo errors.
• Linda C. – Sorry Linda doesn’t have a Blog.  She is a member of my friendship group “The Wednesday Wacko’s”.  Linda is a prolific quilter and has tested patterns for me in the past.  She is a former school teachers so she is the perfect pattern tester for me.

So stay tuned.  Hopefully the pattern will be ready to send to the printer in the very near future and I will then be able to announce it’s availability right here in Chapter 6.

In the mean time,

Enjoy!

It’s a Small World

It’s amazing what a small world it is.  I live in Seal Beach in Southern California, and my sister Melinda lives in Marietta, GA.  I only get to see her about once a year but because of cell phones, Blogs and email, I’m able to stay in touch and talk to her often.  She’s the one that originally got me into quilting. 

If you follow my Blog on a regular basis you know that currently my number 1 pattern is my “Letty’s Bag”.  The first “Letty’s Bag” pattern was sold less than 6 months ago but I’ve been very blessed by how successful it has been, (pat, pat on my own back and a lot of thanks to friends and family).

Not only is it being carried by local So. Cal. shops it’s made it’s way to other parts of the country as well.  So with that in mind, click on over to Melinda’s Blog, read about it and check out the three “Letty’s Bag” sighting at the Sewing Expo in Georgia, and the owners of the bags aren’t even from Georgia (remember I said its a small world.

Here’s a sneak peek.

If you live in the Atlanta, GA area, the pattern is now available at Tiny Stitches in Marietta, GA.  Say hello to Maetha and/or Melinda if you’re in the area and have a chance to stop by.  In fact I think they’re having a shop hop starting next week.

Enjoy,

Changing of the Guard

Well, maybe not exactly the guard but it is the quilt that usually hangs in my entry way.  The wall it hangs on is really, really tall so it takes a fairly large quilt to fill up part of the space.

Remember this one?

It was originally called Almost Twilight but I’ve since renamed it Twilight Serenade.  The design originally appeared in Quiltmaker Magazine back in 1989.  It’s undergone a few changes over the years. 

I first made it many years ago while attending a Mary Ellen Hopkins seminar with my sister Melinda in Wisconsin.  It wasn’t a Mary Ellen design but a mystery quilt kit my sister and I each purchased on our drive to the seminar.  Melinda and I each made one that year. 

I now use the design to teach a workshop and in fact will be teaching it next month at Pass Patcher Quilt Guild in Beaumont, CA.  The workshop is on April 22, 2010 but I’m lecturing on April 21, 2010.  If your interested and live in the Southern California area you can contact me and I’ll send you the guild contact information.

OK……so back to “Changing of the Guard.  Since Twilight Serenade is on it’s way to Beaumont, CA, I put up another larger quilt.  This one I call my “Robin Quilt”. 

This was a round robin completed many years ago.  I appliquéd the center and then sent it on it’s way,  It went to several states and even made it as far away as Israel.  After almost a year it made it’s way back to me.  Here’s a close-up of the center and showcases the marvelous quilting Melinda did.

Did I mention that Melinda is a top notch long arm quilter and specializes in customer quilting.  If you visit her blog, she regularly showcases customer quilts she has quilted on her Gammill longarm.

Enjoy,

A Great Find!

Last week while teaching a workshop, several students shared with me a “Great Find”.  Thank you, Nicky.

The pattern they were making was “Devine Nine” which is one of my quilt patterns.  While making the blocks sometimes you are cutting through 9 layers of fabric, with seams.  I usually recommend using one of the large rotary cutters, the 60° one.  I was amazed that several of the students were able to cut through all the layers with very little difficulty using a medium size 45° rotary cutter. 

The secret? 

Carpet cutting blades!  Who knew?  They are the exact same size as the medium blades and fit perfectly, and guess what?  They’re way cheaper and sharper.  If you live near a Harbor Freight store, they have them.  A package of two cost, drum roll please……………….….$1.49. 

Sssshhhh! Don’t tell anyone, they’ll raise the price.

Enjoy and happy shopping!

Homemade Hand (Body) Lotion

A few days ago, Judy over at Patchwork Times blogged about making homemade hand lotion.  Well I decided I had to give it a try.  My husband uses a lot of cream on his legs and arms so he’s always looking for one that really works.  So I decided to give Judy’s “recipe” a try.  Well that sounded easy enough until I went to look for the ingredients, easier said than done.  So, keeping her recipe in mind I created my own. 

This was my first attempt.

 

2.5 fluid ounces of Vitamin E Oil, 13 ounces of petroleum jelly (the store brand was less expense than Vaseline Brand), 15 ounces of unscented babylotion.  when I started I had high hopes of being able to put it in the container on the left, NOT!

Well I dumped it all in a mixing bowl and whipped it all together with my electric hand mixture then my husband and I gave it a try.  It was good but way to greasy.  Although our skin absorbed most of it, it was a little much. 

So back to the store.

Instead of starting over, I bought another 15 ounces of unscented baby lotion to help dilute the petroleum jelly.

So now I had this.

This time I also added some vanilla scent that I had left over from my candle making days.  Again I whipped it all together with my mixer and we love the results.

See how fluffy it is.  It’s thick so there’s no way it will work in my squeeze bottle so I bought these little containers at the grocery store.  I was able to make five of them.

My husband and I have now both used it and we love it.  It leaves our skin nice and soft and seems to absorb fairly quickly.  I’ve used it on my hands, feet, arms and legs while my husband has tested it on his legs, arms and hands.

Here’s the final recipe:

2.5 oz. – Vitamin E Oil

13 oz. – Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly

2 – 15 oz. – Unscented Baby Lotion

1 tsp – Vanilla Scent/oil (not cooking vanilla)

I’ll definitely make this again once this is gone.

Enjoy,

Sort of Quilt Related

Yesterday I was able to lecture and teach at Desert Winds Quilt Guild in Hesperia, CA.  They were a delightful group of women and made me feel right at home. 

The lecture was in the morning followed by a four hour workshop in the afternoon.  “Wacky Devine Nine” was the project they worked on.  There were 16 in the workshop and they all got all their blocks made.  Some of them even got them trimmed so that they are ready to assemble their tops.  A special thank you to Pris and Donna for taking such good care of me.

Whenever I have an opportunity like this, I spend part of my earnings to buy myself something special.  It’s always something that I normally wouldn’t purchase, so it’s kind of a splurge.

Here is what I bought myself.

First………

 

Are these not the cutest shoes you’ve ever seen?  I just love them and they’re even comfortable. 

Second………

I have wanted these for ever.  I originally saw them on Paula Dean’s cooking show.  I googled pewter measuring cups and found them many, many years ago.  Since then, I would periodically go look at the website and literally drool.  Now I realize I don’t need anything this fancy but I sure wanted them.  I finally decided I deserve them and they definitely fit my criteria of buying something special for myself that I would never in a gazillion years buy if it wasn’t for bring in extra bucks from lecturing. 

Here they are……my all time favorite splurge.

I am over the top trilled.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday – March 1, 2010

Tomorrow I will be lecturing and teaching a workshop in Hisperia, CA for the Desert Winds Quilt Guild.  The workshop is my “Devine Nine” pattern.  With that in mind I pulled out a UFO “Devine Nine” to hang up on my design wall.  All it needs is an inner border and the outer border to finish the top.  The pattern is available here.  If I have time today, I’ll finish it up.

To view what others have on their design wall visit Judy at Patchwork Times.

Enjoy,