Bags, Bags, Bags

Bags are some of the fastest gifts to whip up, especially for an instant Christmas present.  If you need some ideas check out these great free patterns gathered by Heather of The Sewing Loft.  I dare you to make just one!

Red and White Quilt Challenge Reveal

I have been so darn busy this past week -- maybe that should be sew darn busy.  I made a super cute sock monkey pillow for the guild's Holiday Bazaar silent auction:

Altogether I had 6 items I contributed to the auction.  I bought several things that other members had made so I did my share to support the guild.

I sewed the binding on my Red & White Challenge quilt yesterday.  I used the stitch in the ditch foot, foot R for my Juki F600, to sew the binding to the backside of the quilt.  I love this method because it's so much quicker and saves wear and tear on my hands over hand sewing the binding to the back.  Since I think it will be a table cloth for my kitchen table it just didn't warrant the hand sewing method.  I washed the quilt using TWO Color Catcher sheets and there was no bleeding whatsoever.  The Color Catchers were pink when they came out of the washer but the quilt remained white where it should have and none of the reds bled -- phew!

The pattern is called Syncopated Rhythm by Karen Montgomery.  It's a fun pattern that works up quickly.

Now on to more Christmas sewing.

Serged Edges

My Red & White Challenge Quilt is nearly done.  I just need to cut the binding strips and sew them on.  I used my serger tonight to finish the edges of the quilt.  I had heard other quilters do this in the past but I never had a serger - now I do.

Can't reveal too much of it right now.  I liked serging the edges as I think it will make sewing the binding on much neater since all three edges are cleaned up and stable.  Can't wait to finish it!

Timing

Have you ever been to a great pottery show? Today I took a co-worker to her first Potters' Market.  I finally found the batter bowl I've been searching for ever since I gave my niece a batter bowl that I had originally purchased for me! Yeah!  I can't wait to make some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I also bought a berry bowl and a pin for a coworker who is a huge Santa fan.

This weekend I will have to baste and quilt my Red and White quilt.  Stay tuned!

Getting My Sewing Groove Back

After all of my down days lately I think I've finally got my sewing groove back.  I worked on my Red & White Challenge Quilt, which is due on December 14th and I think I will actually finish quilting and binding it in time.  I used the cutting mat from my new Martelli Round-About to square up my blocks.  Here are the scraps:

Tonight I worked on a orange clutch for my quilt guild's Holiday Bazaar, which is December 11th.  I like how it turned out and I think I'll be making a larger version, maybe a tote bag.  The idea came from makercrate.com but I made this one a bit different.  I used a great orange melton wool and faux leather for the hexagons, and an invisible zipper (because that's all Haberman Fabrics had tonight when I needed it at 8:30 pm).  I pressed it using the ironing pad from my new my Round-About.  

And now that I've looked at it here I could see where I forgot to stitch a row on the right side so I've since correct that.

When I sew I just feel so much happier.  Being creative is the perfect balance to my day job where I'm so left-brained sometimes my head hurts!  I've got lots of sewing projects to make for Christmas so it's a good thing that my mojo has returned.

Oh, and that Red & White challenge quilt -- stay tuned for the reveal, once the 14th has come and gone.