WIP Quilted Patchwork Weekender Bag

A couple weeks ago, I came across a quilted patchwork Weekender Bag by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! 

I fell in love with it the minute I saw it and knew that I needed to finally take the plunge and make the notorious Weekender Bag by Amy Butler. This bag is kinda the Holy Grail of bags and definitely has a reputation for being hard to get along with due to all of the layers of peltex, interfacing, cording, etc that are involved when making it. 

I have always loved the look of this bag, but the reputation and horror stories had me pretty much sworn off making it, but when I saw Elizabeth's bag and the method that she used to make it by quilting as you go onto cotton duck cloth, I had a change of heart. 

Apparently I am not the only one either- from what I have heard of Sewing Summit and seen on a few blogs, it looks like Elizabeth sparked a quilted weekender craze and there is now a quilted weekender bandwagon! Check out these fabulous bags by  Laura and Amber!

Two weeks ago, I raided my scrap stash and even dug into a few fabric piles that I had been saving for a rainy day and came up with my color palette- red, aqua, and yellow. 

It hasn't been a fast process by any means, I just add a little each night and am finally finished creating my patchwork panels so now I am ready to start assembling my bag now...Duh, duh, duh... I am hoping to make it out in one piece! Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peak of what the the main and pocket panel are looking like together! I am excited to see it finished! 

I plan to finish it over the weekend since I am headed to Nashville next week. This is the perfect bag to take along on my trip! :) 

Stay tuned for more pictures to come soon once I finish it!

Ahoy Matey Quilt

With me having little girls, it's pretty rare to see me sewing for a little boy... but one of my friends just had her very first baby boy last week and I couldn't resist making the new little guy a quilt.

I can't even tell you how much I love this Ahoy Matey fabric by Michael Miller . When I saw that it had a panel and that it was so darling, I knew that I wanted to try making a quilt using a panel. Usually I am not a huge fan of panel quilts, but this one may have changed my mind. 

To make it, I used one panel (which is the main part of the quilt with the ship and waves on it), and then I used the Navy Stay the Course fabric for the side sashing, and Dumb Dot in Clementine for the prairie points, Clementine Ship Shape for the binding, and then Quarter Dot in Midnight for the backing. 

I have been wanting to try doing prairie points on a quilt and I felt like this was the perfect quilt for it. I found an awesome tutorial for continuous prairie points on Sew Take a Hike. It was such an easy tutorial to follow! Love how they turned out!

As soon as I saw the panel for this quilt, I knew that I wanted to hand stitch along the outlines of everything. I love the way it looks around the waves, clouds, and boat. Once I washed it and dried it, oh my goodness!! I was in love... it was a tad bit hard to part with this lovely quilt. ha ha

But lucky me... I happened to buy two panels and have just enough leftover fabric to make myself this exact quilt- should a little bundle of blue pop up into my future.... And if not, I am sure I can find a loving home for such a darling little quilt- don't ya think? :) 

Happy Sailing!

xoxo, Ashley

Work In Progress Finished... well... almost!

Remember the WIP {work in progress} that I shared with you guys FOREVER ago?? I finally finished it. Well kinda- I have just a tiny bit more hand quilting to do on two blocks, but it has been bound and in use for the past month on my littlest's toddler bed (which is why it is so narrow and long). I am not sure why I can't make myself sit down and finish it. It would take all of 30 minutes or so, but you know how things go... other projects take priority and things get put on the back burner. So alas, this little gem has been a bit abandoned but perhaps an afternoon during nap time will be enough to get her finished...

But until that happens, I thought I would show her off to you guys. 

What do you think? It was my very first time paper piecing and my first time making dresdens and I kinda loved it. It was definitely the most time consuming and labor intensive quilt I have ever made, but I still really enjoyed it. I was inspired by Kerri's vintage nursery quilt and decided to add in the dresdens to make my quilt a little different.

Almost all of the fabrics I used were japanese import goodies (most from Lecien's Old new 30's line) that I found in Kerri's shop. She has the cutest fabric and I loved picking and choosing out fabrics in soft pinks, aquas, and a tiny bits of yellow for this quilt. It almost a bit monochromatic to my eyes since I stuck with just a few shades of colors, which isn't normally my style, but I love the way it is totally matchy matchy and shabby chic looking. 

For the center of my paper pieced blocks, I used prints from the Sweet Life fabric I picked out. Since it is a Japanese import, some of the sayings on the fabric is so funny and isn't always grammatically correct- for instance, there is a block that says "I'm now cleaning a living" and "Let me give you hand".

I think the saying on this block had to be my very favorite- "You look spruce. Are you going on a date today?" ha ha My family says it all the time now and it makes me laugh every time!

I started machine quilting the quilt initially and had machine quilted around the edged of each block, but I decided to hand quilt the rest of the quilt instead of finishing it on the machine... which added to the time and labor intensiveness, but I love the look of it and think it adds to the vintage look and feel of the quilt. I used a pale pink DMC pearl cotton 8 thread for the hand quilted part.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are all having a fabulous week! 

Happy Sewing! 

xoxo, Ashley

The Mini Messenger

I know... I know... I have been a blogger M.I.A. for the past few weeks- but with good reason. Over the past month we have had 3 fun visitors come into town to spend a week each. It has been so fun! 

Our first special visitor was my little sis Heidi. We had such a great time together! She had been wanting me to teach her to sew something for over a year now, but we had never gotten around to it until this visit... And to our surprise this gal is a natural!

(exterior of bag Lark Sateen- Treasure Box in Charcoal by Amy Butler, interior of bag Vintage Modern  Sky Houndstooth by Moda, Mini Pom-Pom Trim in Aqua)

When deciding on a project to have be her very "first sewing project" we were back and forth between making a blanket, a skirt, or a bag... We ended up deciding to make a bag since she was in desperate need of a new one. 

We headed off to my favorite fabric shop and although it was a tough decision to decide on only one fabric with a shop full of awesome fabrics, she fell in love with this darling  print by Amy Butler. I knew that I had some matching fabric and trim at home to go with it so we headed home and got started. 

It was a lot of fun because we both worked together to come up with the pattern for the bag. Essentially it is the same as the Little Birdie told me Messenger bag so you could definitely follow that tutorial but just modify the measurements to make this bag. We wanted the bag to be tall and skinny instead of a wide bag so the width and height measurement flip flopped and we ended up making it approx. 12x15 inches.

She honestly sewed the whole bag except I put the zipper pocket in for her  (with the help of this awesome tutorial) and helped her a bit with the mini pom pom trim (tricky stuff to sew on! ha ha) but other than that- this was her deal... She was a total natural! She sewed a straight line immediately- something I had to practice! I was so impressed!! It was so fun helping her and seeing someone else enjoy sewing as much as I do. 

While at the fabric shop we found this cute Vallori Wells Little Wallet Pattern- so she used it to make this cute matching wallet to use inside her bag. I loved the pattern. It was so user friendly and would be the perfect beginner project for anyone- even kids. I can't wait to make one for myself and I think it is perfect for a little gift for someone.

Love spending time with my sister! We laughed more than I have laughed in a year. I am so glad to call her "my little sis". 

Watch out "Sewing World"- there is another awesome sew-er on the loose! ;)