Where There’s a Need…………

A few weeks ago while getting ready to head to Las Vegas for my yearly week long sewing with the “Vegas Strippers”, I was having trouble wrangling all my rulers that I wanted to take.  I had all different sizes, big square rulers, a large 22” wide shape cutter, a 24” x 8” ruler and a variety of smaller rulers.  At the time I stuffed them into a plastic bag but that didn’t really work out well.  Along with the rulers I had various cutting boards one of which is about 24” x 18” which is a really great size since it works with all my various size rulers.  Oh, and while I was at it I had a couple of large ironing pads that I was taking.  Soooooo, there definitely was a need to make something that would handle this in the future.  I love what I came up with.

Here’s the front of the multipurpose bag.  I used pre-quilted fabric that I had in my stash. 

The back of the bag is my new ironing surface.  I use canvas on my big board ironing board as well as a covered TV tray that I sometime use.  I learned the canvas trick from Sharon Schamber many years ago so of course the back of the bag is canvas.  Under the canvas I have a layer of some kind of batting that is used for potholders as well a piece of Timtex to help it maintain it’s shape. 

To give you some since of how big the ironing surface is, here’s a picture with my big Rowenta sitting on it.

Originally I wasn’t going to put any pockets inside but at the last minute I decided to add one that I could put my rotary cutter in.  Other than that I carry all my other notions in a Art Bin plastic case that I always keep packed.

So at last I have a way to coral all my rulers when heading out.  I think I’m going to get a lot of use out of my new bag. 

I was thinking about a tutorial but now I’m thinking that it really isn’t necessary. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–July 30, 2012

Actually my design wall is empty at the moment but this is what was on my design floor a few days ago.

I’ll be assembling it later this week. 

What I’m actually working on today is designing/making a tote bag designed specially to carry my cutting mat/rulers and serve as an ironing pad. 

Here’s the pre-quilted fabric that I’m using on the front of the bag.  Plain old canvas will go on the back to serve as the ironing surface.

To see what other’s have on their design wall, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog. 

Enjoy,

Decisions, Decisions

I have 36 blocks made for my Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trips Around the World.  I have two decisions to make.  First is 36 blocks enough?  They are 12” blocks so the quilt would end up square and measure 72” x 72”.  I am not a big fan of square quilts, although maybe it could end up a wall quilt. The second decision is the layout.  Should it be many trips or one big trip?

I could use your help.  Suggestions are welcomed.

72” square Scrappy Trip Around the World

72” square Scrappy Many Trips Around the World

So please, help a girl out, which one do you like best?

Enjoy,

What the Heck?????

I’ve been plugging away at my Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trips Around the World.  Here’s my first 18 blocks that I showed you a while back.

For the last several day’s I’ve been working on the next 18 blocks.  All of a sudden I pick up one of the blocks and see this.

How in the world did I manage to slice, not one but two slits in the same block?  What to do?  I could make another block but I didn’t really want to do that so finally I decided to try to repair the slits.  I thought and thought about it and finally came up with using the fusible tricot that’s meant for fusing two pieces of batting together.  I’m sure most of you have seen it, it looks like this.

So I cut off two little pieces and fused it to the wrong side of the fabric and, by golly, I think it just might work.  Here’s the fixed block.

I finished the next 18 blocks tonight so I now have 36 blocks ready to lay out.  I’ll show you a picture once they’re on the floor tomorrow.  Then I have to decide if that’s enough or if I need to cut more strips and make more blocks.  Stay tuned.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–July 23, 2012

The reality is that my design wall is naked this morning but I thought I’d show you another top that I finished late last week.

This is what it look like before I took my rotary cutter to it.

Pretty simple and very plain but I love how it bloomed .  Now if I can just find time to get it quilted. 

To see what others have on their design walls, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog. 

Enjoy,

New iPad Carrying Bag

Friday was an open sewing day in Las Vegas.  I decided to putts around and make a few small projects.  I’ve wanted to make a modified Easy Peasy Grommet Bag to fit my iPad, keyboard and a few accessories for a while now.  When I was cleaning out some of my fabrics I came across a piece of Sand Castle fabric that I’ve had for a number of years.  When I saw it I knew it was exactly what I wanted to use on the outside of my iPad bag.

The flower was the finishing touch it needed. 

Here’s a glimpse inside the bag.

I love, love, love it!!!! 

Enjoy,

iPhone O-gram

Managed to get the borders on a Magnolia Lane that I started here in Vegas 2 years ago. It's all ready for quilting. I even have the binding made.

Enjoy,

Robin

Update from Vegas

Lots and lots of seeing going on here.

Enjoy,

Robin

Design Wall Monday - July 16, 2012

This week my design wall is in Las Vegas. So far this morning the design wall is set up but is still empty. Here is a picture of the fabrics I'll be working with today. Hopefully it will turn out to be a Hidden Wells quilt.




To see what others have on their design wall, check out Judy's Patchwork times blog.

Enjoy,




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Design Wall Monday–July 9, 2012

Unfortunately my design wall is empty this morning but for good reason.  My house is filled with family including my nephew and his wife  here from Sweden who are sleeping in my sewing studio on an Aero Bed.  The good news is, my Hunter Star quilt is finished and I’m in the process of hand sewing the binding down.  So here it is on my living room design floor.

This is the quilt that I’ll be teaching next week in Las Vegas but more about that later.

Check out what others have on their design walls/floor over at Judy’s Patchwork Times blog. 

Enjoy,

Happy 4th of July - America

Happy 4th of July from my home to yours!

Enjoy,

Another Quilt Top Finished

I finished piecing the quilt top for the baby girl that is due any day now to my husband John’s great-nephew Tommy and Abbey.  It came out really cute.

The backing is pieced and ready for my friend Sue to quilt it.   All I had left to use as the binding was scraps, so I pieced various lengths of all the different fabrics together to make a very scrappy binding,

I barely had enough left but I think it’s going to work just fine. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–July 2, 2012

My husband, John has a great-nephew that is having a baby girl any day now.  I’ve had this fabric for a while.  I used it to make a quilt for my friend Rob’s daughter Charlotte.  I had enough left to make a second quilt for this new little girl that will be joining our family very soon.  The top is almost finished, I just need to add a couple of borders and quilt it.

Here it is on my design wall.

And, here it is right before I turned it on point.

The fabrics are all from “Paris Cats” for Benartex.  It hard to see the cute fabric in the photos above so here’s a close-up of the focus/border fabric.

The background is a very dark brown and matches the sashing. 

To see what others have on their design wall, click on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times blog.

Enjoy,