FINISHED SEWING PROJECT: "Spring's Promise Project Bag" by Blackbird Designs

Another one of the Loose Feathers kits turned into a project bag.  This is the Very First LF kit from Blackbird Designs and Old Mill Stitchery.   It is the only kit that I finished as it was released, and then it sat in the 'under the bed box' for 21 years.  Oh well, it's done now.

Pattern: "Spring's Promise" Loose Feathers #1

Designer: Blackbird Designs

Fabric: 32 count "18th century blackbird" linen by R&R Reproductions

Threads:  Gentle Arts (GA) Sampler and Shaker threads as charted 

 

Stitches:  two over two full cross, eyelets

 

needlework completed, 8/2003, FFO 10/28/2024

Project Bag fabrics:  outside "Rosewood - green colorway" by 3 Sisters for Moda, lining is "Buttermilk Homestead" by Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin for Riley Blake

Tutorial by @elizabethanncanstitch (YouTube link)

FINISHED SEWING PROJECT: "Autumn Silhouette" Project Bag

I finally got around to the 'Autumn Silhouette' project bag this week.   It's been hanging out there for almost two years waiting for me to get the finishing done.  And I waffled SO  much on the fabric for this.   I'm still not 100 percent, because I think it's just a little bit bright. But "Finished is better than Perfect", right?  (Fabrics are from the "Bittersweet Lane by Kansas Troubles" line.)

I promise all the seams are actually straight and the bag is a proper rectangle, I am not a photographer!

 

Love the lining fabric!

Used the tutorial by @ElizabethAnnCanStitch (link to her project bag YouTube tutorial).

There is a point at which you swear you have turned this thing into a mobius strip, with no way to get it into the shaped of a lined project bag, but trust the process - it will all work out!

 Of course, I ran out of bobbin thread in the middle of the finicky bit!

Last step, a touch of hand-sewing to close up the lining.

Why do I always make this a bigger job in my head than it really is?   Once I started sewing, it was two hours (including breaks to re-watch the video directions, winding a bobbin, frogging the tangle that resulted from me not putting the bobbin back in correctly, finding my manual to figure out how to put the bobbin back in ::facepalm::, and maybe 20 minutes today to do the hand-sewing).

FINISHED SEWING PROJECT - Christmas Pillow for Marita

 

 Needlework from 1984 - on 14 count "oatmeal" Aida, 2 threads over one square.   I do not know the designer on this one, it was LONG before I started logging my finishes.

Pillow finish with an envelope back.  Border fabric is Jinny Beyer.  10 x 16 inches (10 x 40.5 cm).  

I followed the recommendation for a 'plump' pillow to buy the insert 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the finished dimensions of the case. (12 x 18 insert)  It is nice and plump and the back does cover completely, but I think I'm going to want to add a few snaps to the back to keep it from straining a bit. 

FINISHED SEWING PROJECT: Redwork Pin Pillow "GVS 1888; an orphan sampler"

Finishing weekend for April spilled over into May, but that's OK, I have a Finished Object!  I have been watching all the cute tomato and red-work pincushions that people have been making since several patterns/books with redwork smalls were released at market this spring.   I am especially enamored with "Keeper of the Pins" by Brenda Gervais.  

I realized that I had an appropriately pin pillow sized unfinished red work piece in the 'pile of shame' / 'under the bed box' / 'secrets of the cedar chest' (or whatever you call that pile of "completed" needlework things that need to be framed or fully finished).   

Needlework was completed June 2000 per the list in my little notebook in the KCHSG smalls box. "GVS 1888" orphan sampler from Antique Sampler and Needlework Quarterly magazine, Issue #13.

28 count coffee dyed Cashel linen (dyed by me), one over one in Waterlillies Silk by Caron Collection.  Approximately 3.5 inches / 9 cm square.

Finished as a pin pillow using the tutorial by @elizabethanncanstitch (link to YouTube tutorial).  I did the variation that she discusses with the four sections of rickrack.

Here's the unfinished piece, the vintage Debbie Mumm fabric used for the back and the very nearly antique cotton rick rack.   From stash (mine and mom's).  Stuffed with fiber fill.  I do want to try the lizard litter filling at some point. 

FINISHED SEWING PROJECT: The Garden Delights Project Bag

 Almost a year ago I finished a piece of needlework (the Garden Delights class by Elizabeth Designs) and decided to finish it as a project bag.  

To this point, all of my project bags have been totally utilitarian.  I've got a half dozen of those reinforced plastic zipper bags that look like they should hold produce at an upscale supermarket.  Useful, but not attractive. I've been watching the floss tube people purchasing (or occasionally making) very pretty bags and had a bit of a jealous pang.  But I also can't see paying someone to make something that I am perfectly able to make for myself.  

Getting this project to FFO status has been on my WIPGO board and was finally called this month.  SO, when I saw @ElizabethAnnCanStitch had a "Christmas Project Bag Sewalong" tutorial on her YouTube channel, I thought to myself - "It's a long weekend, I will do this."

And I did!

I had a bit of an issue at the start. The fabric I'd originally chosen for the outside of the bag (the floral trellis fabric which is the cotton fabric at the top edge of the bag above) was NOT printed anywhere on grain.  It's fine for a narrow piece like the accent strip to cut it visually on grain and structurally off grain, but on the back of the bag it was either going to be visually skewed or pull the back into a parallelogram.  Luckily the stash is deep and yielded a coordinating paisley print that COULD be cut on grain.  So I used that as the back of the bag.

And the off center trellis bits that I'd already cut went into the lining.  It's not like a garment where an off grain lining will affect the drape of the finished piece!

One thing I will do on future bags is give myself a larger turning opening.  I only left a scant four inches and it was very tight getting all four layers plus two layers of heavy(ish) interfacing turned out through that space. There was a moment when the whole thing tried to become a Klein Bottle / Mobius strip affair because I had hold of the wrong bit of the top!

I LOVE the bag and think it turned out pretty nice considering that it's probably been 20 years since I set in a zipper!  It's fully lined with no exposed seams.  It's also fully interfaced with Pellon fusible fleece, which gives it just a slight bit of structure. Will definitely use this pattern again!  

FINISHED: Rose Bear

Earlier this year when I started quilting again, I went rummaging through the basement looking for boxes that I knew held fabric.   I found a BUNCH of it.   And wadded up in there were several of those one yard printed panels for various things, including an apron, holiday ornaments (Christmas and Halloween), dolls and a bear.   Most of them were/are un-started.

But this bear was all cut out and one seam of the head was in place.   Well, I was tired of seeing it on the "Works in Progress list" so  I set myself a goal of sewing one seam or doing one step every night that I didn't have a meeting of any kind.   And lo and behold, if you work on something, it gets finished!

Panel copyright Cranston Print Works/VIP Screen Print.   I didn't find a date on the remaining selvages, but it has to be from the mid 1990s given the box it was in.   Probably purchased at JoAnns or Hobby Lobby.