Tag Archives: quilted bags
Some Teeny Changes…!
So guys! Not to drop a big ole bomb, but Melinda and I are splitting into two shops. Continue reading
Release!
Have you ever started a project, then it gets put to the side for something more pressing, then you get back to it and you’re just disenchanted with it? I had this happen recently. And I’m here to tell you to finish it!
I got this request before we sold our house, and I had to hold off because I couldn’t sew. So I finally got to where I could even start looking for the fabric, and that wasn’t easy. I made one of these navy bags before, and I tried to find the same fabric as before, with no luck. I had to change some out, but I do feel bad that it wasn’t the same fabric. Then I had that baby quilt that got expedited, so this bag got put on hold again. Then I got started again and it felt like I was treading water. No matter how much I would sew, it was not progressing. I felt stuck.
So I finally buckled down and I got it finished. It took a couple of nights and a little help from Jay Z and the rest of the gang in my mp3 line up, but we made it to the finish line. It was starting to really drag me down, I wanted to start so many other projects but I knew I needed to finish this one first. I finally did finish it, and to be honest it came out a lot better than I anticipated. It may actually be the best of these quilted bags that I’ve made!
The weight that came off my shoulders when that bag came out of the wash was incredible. I was so glad to finally finish this bag that was up on my list to finish. I felt a physical change, and I was instantly relaxed.
Now I can get to focus on some other projects, one of which is sewing up a storm to prepare for the Tomato Art festival! I don’t know if I got in yet, but I know I’d rather be prepared than shorthanded. I’m going to work on a lot of small items that I can make quickly like tomato pin cushions and head bands. Even if I don’t get in, it’ll be good to bulk up my store supply. Anyhow, I hope you’re all having a great week! This past weekend was my guild meeting, and I brought in my next bag project I’ve been working on (so bae) which is also finished now! I got such a big jump on this project Saturday. I really got my sew-jo flowing and went home and got it as close to finished as I could before I had to stop for a missing part, which I got on Monday.
If you have any projects looking you in the face, taunting you, just finish them. Because the world is your oyster once you get caught up! (I don’t know what that actually means, oysters are disgusting) Until next time, happy sewing everyone!
When it rains…
So, if you follow me on Instagram (@sewfluffincute) I posted that I am not ignoring my blog, but that I’m not going to post until I finish these bags that I’ve been working on. Well between fixing the house before we put it on the market (yippee finally happening very soon!) and still trying to get in a little gym time, and you know, that whole JOB thing (working, it’s for the birds. seriously!) I have had little snippets of sewing time. Last night would have been a great time to get a big chunk of sewing done, probably even finish the last bag, but no.
I woke up yesterday with a weird foot pain, and it’s my sewing foot! Okay that sounded funny…it’s my right foot and the foot I press my…step? what is that thing called? The pedal for my machine…with. It just kept getting worse all day and by the time I got home I was hobbling around looking downright pitiful. Needless to say, I did not make it to zumba last night, either. I have no idea what is going on, it feels like a bruise, but I am not quite sure where it has come from, and it looks fine. It probably is just my foot trying to get me to sit still or something.
So I’ve taken advantage of this “down time” by finally starting on this little project for my husband. I have been wanting to make him something for his office for a while now, and he said you could make a quote I could put in there. ‘Alright, sounds easy enough, I’ll just embroider it’ well that turned out just awful. Just terrible. Then I thought ‘maybe I can try and use my sewing machine’ okay that was a big ole no. Just a heaping pile of nope. Then it hit me, ‘cross stitching, I don’t think I can mess that up…too terribly’. The only problem I saw was that hand work typically doesn’t mix well with my tiny sweaty hands. I don’t know why my hands sweat as much as they do but they do and it’s gross. A few of the ladies in my guild do cross stitch and it just looks so clean and neat, and I thought okay, I can do that. So I picked up some adia, grabbed my seemingly abandoned embroidery thread, and got to work.
What even is this…I saw a video that suggested starting in the middle? nope.
I first thought “I should try a little practice piece” which turned out to be a good idea because that first letter was an e and it looked like I wrote it with my non-dominant hand. After I got the hang of it, this has turned out to be so much fun. It’s so clean and precise; I absolutely love it. I at least have something that I can play with after my sewing room gets packed up and away…which I’m still not entirely looking forward to.
Much better. And it looks so 8-bit. So cute. ❤
Anyhow, I hope you’re all having a nice week! Sorry to not post last week, but I am down to the last bag and it’s over halfway finished, so soon enough I’ll be back to regularly posting! Until moving gets in the way…again… 😀
Al is already fed up with talks of moving.
Until next time! Happy sewing!
P.S. This quote is:
“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
-Thomas Edison
I have another quote to work on as well:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
-Winston Churchill
Catching up!
Hi everyone! I have had so much going on I thought I’d try to catch everyone up with me. 🙂
I finished up the Titan’s bag for my coworker to give to his mom. I heard she liked it well enough that she started using it almost right away! That makes me happy.
I also finished up my Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller fabric challenge entry! I was pretty excited about that. I decided to make a lumbar pillow for my sewing room’s chair. It is just a plane wooden kitchen chair and I needed something. It’s so bright and pretty! I love it!
I also got some gym time in. I have been easing back in since being sick, and I’m up to going to classes now. I ran into my gym friend who has also been sick and just getting back into classes, and she asked me for three bags! THREE! 😀 So while I can, I’ve been working away on these bags. I think theyre coming along pretty well. I am trying to put all three of them together at the same time instead of one bag at a time like I normally do.
Anyhow, that’s what has been going on with me, lots of sewing!
I hope you’re all having a nice week! I’m heading to my ten year high school reunion this weekend! Woohoo!
Until next time, happy sewing!
A day late and a blog short
So, there are a whole lot of things going on in our house right now that mostly involve moving, and it’s 100% stressing me out. Typically when I’m stressed I tend to lose weight (don’t hate me…I didn’t ask for this!), so will this be a win-win?! New house, smaller waistline?! We’ll just see! I am kind of excited at the prospect of having a sewing room that is just a sewing room and not a spare bedroom, must better lighting (anything would be an improvement) and being able to like, really set it up exactly how I’d like it to be. 😀
Stress face….and Al….Being a ham.
Because of these stressful things, I haven’t been doing a WHOLE lot of sewing. I know, it’s just awful. Sewing should help with the stress, and I’m doing the opposite. The times that I have hunkered down to sew, it’s not been turning out quite like I’d hope, so that’s been no fun.
I started making a bag for my husband’s aunt so that when we go down there for Easter, I can give to her. Well the first run turned into a big fiasco. One of the patterns got cut too short, it affected all of the columns, the fix was working for half of the process but then just stopped. Why, I don’t know!!! Plus, for some reason, all of the columns I was sewing together started bowing. They’re starting to look more backwards C like than just columns, and again, I have no reason why. The more they bowed, the less the seams were lining up, so I told the hubs, he suggested just starting over. Yea, because it’s that easy, right?! O_O
It started out so nice *sigh*
Well it turns out in this one instance it was. I had plenty of leftover pieces from this jelly roll I was using, so I decided to make another, just a quicker one. Instead of doing the postage stamp patch work, I am doing this bag the same way I have done the other bags in my shop; straight rows. I got that all sewn together, and I FMQ’d it, got all the pieces cut out, got my zipper…just sitting there waiting…
So now really all I need to do is put all this together. It will be totally fine, I know. So that’s what I’ll be working on tonight. Tomorrow’s quilt guild time (Yay!) and we’re doing paper piecing. Not the English style, the one with the paper base…and you sew on the paper, or something. I’m excited because I have seen so many of these patterns that I’ve wanted to try, and now, once again, my guild is pushing this little bird out of the nest and right into “you’re going to face your fears and sew what you are afraid to sew” real life. I’m using this cute little lady bug. It is not hard looking at all, so I’m pretty stoked.
Anyhow, that is all that’s really going on right now; stress, being busy, bag sewing problems, y’know, stuff.
Until next time, happy sewing!
Why Pinterest may be the devil.
Author’s Note: I only say may be the devil. Not 100% convinced this is true because I have found great meatloaf and crock pot bbq chicken recipes.
Welcome to the window of INADEQUACIES!
A few weeks ago a friend of mine posted an article which, I really laughed about, then it made me go hmm. If you ever saw the episode of Southpark with the underpants gnomes, which I didn’t but I’ve heard enough that I get it, you know that they have no plan.
- Step 1: Collect underpants
- Step 2: …..
- Step 3: PROFIT!
Now the article is actually about working out; you look up all these diet and workout plans, but never put them to use, and wonder why you don’t see results. After reading it I realized I do the same thing about sewing, and it’s all Pinterest’s fault! I go on there, I see these great ideas, I’m like “I can do that and put it in my store” so I pin them, but that’s usually where they stay. They stay in my “sewing stuff” board, and that’s the end of them. I’m collecting underpants and expecting profit!
How can one little app have such an effect?
Another thing is, and I’ve had this happen to me a few times now and it gets worse every time, you find a pattern, you try it out and like it, then discover that it’s a licensed pattern and if you want to make it you’re going to need to buy this license. I found a really cute “pattern” for this zipper pouch for earphones, it was just pictures, no words, but I figured it out well enough. I was like great, I can totally do this and it’ll be a great little item for my store! Go searching for it again (I forgot I pinned it) and what do you know, there it is, a full on pattern, and it’s licensed. Now I’m sitting there thinking “Why should I pay this person $10 if I just found this on Pinterest and figured it out myself?” which, is just my angry greedy side talking. I’ll end up paying the $10 because I don’t want to be sued. Nothing puts a damper on things like being sued.
LOSE WEIGHT! SEW BETTER HEMS! ST PATRICK’S DAY! WEDDINGS!
I’ve also read some articles about Pinterest making stay-at-home moms and dads feel inadequate because they aren’t making their child’s first birthday a 100% pinterest-inspired, homemade (and looks amazing) party. Or their dinners just aren’t meeting the pinner’s standards. And oh no, they printed out the “clean your house in 5 days and keep it clean forever” list, but it just isn’t working! It’s really putting this pressure on these people who was never there before. “Oh you got a cake at Publix, I really like their frosting” was normal party conversation, instead it’s now “I saw on Pinterest you can make your own buttercream frosting and it’s fat-free and it makes your children grow up perfect”. Okay maybe that buttercream frosting isn’t out there…yet.
Now, don’t get me wrong. For creative juices that need flowing, I love Pinterest. For when I need a laugh, I’m sure someone will be sending me some hilarious ecard or something. Need to know how to do a quick fix around the house? Pinterest will probably have 80 million options. When I’m at work, not so much. It’s so distracting! It’s even more distracting that the drama that IS Facebook. Candy Crush can’t even keep me captivated as long as Pinterest, okay?! It also kind of gets the creative juices flowing to a point that they’re a waterfall. “I need to make bleach outlined profile t-shirts of my favorite logos!” “I must put tiny screw things in the back of plastic animals and make them into painted key chains!” “I have to make a OctoNauts themed birthday party banner!” (Ashley, you don’t even have children, why do you need a banner? why don’t I need a banner?!)
I think we all need some time limits on Pinterest. Sort of like how there used to be time limits on our old AOL. Ah yes, when the internet came from a CD…those were the days! 🙂
Anyway….here’s a little sneak peek at my next bag I’m working on. I’m hoping this process will speed up my bag production.
Aww yeeaa!!! Gettin fancy with some stippling! 😀
Until next time! Happy sewing!
Valentine’s, Galentine’s, Palentine’s?
Is there a Palentine’s day? Like, a guy version of Galentine’s day? It kind of makes me think of Chancellor Palpatine….before he went all dark side…well openly…anyways…I don’t think that there is a Palentine’s day because I don’t think most guys really care about Valentine’s day to begin with, and they already are freaking out about getting whoever they’re dating/married to/(what else is there?) something fancy or sweet. They don’t want to get something fancy or sweet for their friends like girls do. Which is why I’m pretty sure there are Valentine’s and Galentine’s, but probably not Palentine’s.
Anyway! 😀
Happy Valentine’s day everyone! I wanted to write about things that I love today (and every other day because I’m just a lovey dovey mush bug) AND what I’m working on.
First, I love my sweet husband. His name is Dax, and he is just the most precious person I’ve ever met. Sure, sometimes he has this serial killer look and you’re pretty sure he is going to murder everyone that’s in the way in the Shoney’s buffet line, but it just adds to the charm! (ok I can’t even say that without laughing, but it’s true) For every angry look there is, there is an equally sweet, lovey and cute action. He’s just the best, I could go on for days, but I’ll just leave it at that.
Here we are, looking fancy!!!!
Secondly…is my sweet baby puppy, Al!!! He’s our miniature long-hair dachshund. Al just turned three this New Year’s Eve, and he is just the best little guy. He does have some special needs, but he doesn’t let anything slow him down. He is always willing to lick you, the chair you’re sitting in, the floor next to you…your pillow…okay he licks everything and we can’t figure out why. Literally, little wet spots on the floor from excessive licking. I’ve asked him if he has doggy ADHD…but he refuses to answer the question. He also loves to try to take anything he can reach. Socks from a basket, a sandwich on the coffee table, batting scraps from my scraps bin….BUT HE’S SO CUTE WHEN HE DOES IT YOU CAN’T STAY MAD AT HIM OMG!
Oh, you’re eating breakfast? I’m going to sit where I can look at both of you and wait until one of you offers me bacon…because I know it is going to happen. GIVE ME BACONS!
Thirdly…….!!!! Is my little Pink Brother. Okay I know, so silly. (or…SEW SILLY! HAHA!) I had a hand me down Singer sewing machine, and it was just awful. It was a complete monster and it wanted to eat fabric and bang and clank and it was downright embarrassing to sew in my own house! I finally got fed up and bought a new sewing machine. I did some research, read reviews, you know, all the grown up pre-purchase things. Then it was down to two. XL2600I or XL2610, I ended up with XL2610 and I love it.
Anyhow! I know the anticipation is building up on what I’ve been working on. So here’s some pics from last night.
quilting away!
more quilting!
Love birds!!
All done!
Also! Here is the bag I finished up and sold this week! Thanks, Katie!
What’s red, white and awesome all over? THIS BAG!
Happy Sewing everyone! And happy Val-Gal-Palnentine’s day!
ah-ha! moments
Do you ever do something you thought up yourself that actually works and think “wow, I’m a genius” because I did, and I am just thrilled to bits. As you may know, I’ve been making these “jelly roll bags” and they are very simple and very fun. Well my husband took one to work with him to show the women that work in his office, and at least one of them said that they’d like it better if it had a zipper pocket and some way to keep it closed. I agreed, totally. The only things stopping me were a) zippers are scary and b) what am I going to do to keep this giant opening closed?
Well I finally found a video on YouTube that explained how to put a zipper pocket in, in a way that I understand and was easy…ish. So now that was out-of-the-way, and I’ve played with a couple of zippers now, so they’re not as scary as they were…now comes how to close this bag. I have used magnetic snaps before and they are great, but I didn’t think it was going to be enough to just put one in the lining in the middle. I mean this is an eleven (or so) inch opening, I needed something a bit more substantial.
I had an idea of trimming off the side of the bag and using it as some sort of flap. How I was going to fandangle this flap was beyond me, but I knew this was involved. I cut off about three inches on the side, so that each of the rows of patterns were going to be included in this flap. Then I got some scrap of the lining, sewed them together with the magnet snap attached to the lining, flipped it inside out, top stitched around the edges, and viola!
Now, how am I going to attach this thing? I didn’t want to just sew it to the outside of the bag or make a patch or something. I want it to look good, not like some piece of garbage. So, very bravely, I cut a slit into my outside part of the bag, just big enough to slip the “flap” inside. Then I zigzag stitched over this a couple of times, checked it with a good tug, and BAM IT WAS ATTACHED! And it looks good!
Okay I know how silly I am, you don’t have to remind me. It’s the little accomplishments that make me jump for joy.
It looked exactly like this in my mind…
Anyhow, I hope everyone is going to have a great weekend! Oh! Before I forget! I saw the President yesterday! Okay not close up…but I did see him landing at the airport from my office window. I even saw air force one on my way home and got a really good picture.
Happy sewing everyone!
Cute Fluffin Stitch 