Tag: bags

Small projects & HST Quilt-along

On Wednesday, instead of banging more Latin into my head, I made another bag using Jeni’s tutorial on In Color Order. I added pockets to this one, too — I love the pockets. I think the next time I make one I’ll use a different color for the edge of the pocket than I used on the main body of the bag: I keep imagining how a white stripe there (or even maybe a red or other colorful one) might look. I suppose I’ll just have to try again.

Black bag 1

The lining of this bag is also black, as is the backing of the pocket, so keeping all the pieces straight while I was sewing was definitely important!

Black bag side

It’s a nice size for holding all kinds of things — including sewing and quilting tools. I may use it this weekend when I go away for a few days, to be sure I can work on something in the evenings. See how nicely the rotary cutter fits?

Black bag 2

As for what to put in the bag, well, I’ve got that all planned out.

I’ll be spending the weekend with my family in CT, in a house that has solar electricity. The system works well (and much better than when I was a kid, when turning on one light meant every other light in the house dimmed!), but it’s still not sturdy enough for much hard work, such as ironing, for example. So I prepped in advance: I cut all the half-square triangles:

Half-triangle squares cut

And then I ironed all of them flat and ready to be trimmed.

HST squares pressed
You’ll see that they’re all laid out on little cardboard squares with months on them. That’s because I’ve decided that I’m doing two of each block for the Half-Square Triangle Quilt-Along. I’ve already made one each of January through May (though May was fussy, and I haven’t fixed it properly just yet), so there’s one of each of them, and two for June. Some of the blocks are really fun to make, and I like the idea of being able to put 24 12.5″ blocks together into something with blocks on the front and on the back, or something with matching pillow-cases. Or both: I haven’t done all the math yet to see how they could go together.

Hopefully I’ll have time over the weekend to trim all the blocks square and sew them (at least one block’s worth!) together, and then I’ll have pictures for next week.

A little bag, but a not-so-little choice of fabric

I’m considering submitting this little bag to the next round of the My Precious Quilt-Along, because it took a pretty ridiculous effort to get these fabrics off the shelf. “Surely I can use another fat quarter or something less pretty!” my mind wailed. “Not those ones!”

Minaret bag 1

But, no. These are two of the fabrics from Lizzy House’s 1001 Peeps collection, which I bought when I first started quilting, and which I’ve been having a hard time getting myself to cut into.

The My Precious QAL is brilliant: it got me to actually use the fabrics I bought because I like them, instead of just staring at them in the hopes that they’ll stay where they are forever! I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy them to have them gather dust, no matter how much the little grabby-hands part of me may disagree.

Minaret bag open top

I like the ways the fabrics work together, and I’m probably going to end up making another bag from this pattern. This one is already on its way to a friend, and it was a lot of fun to put together. The pattern is by Jeni of In Color Order, and she posted recently about a modification to add pockets. Both sets of instructions were beautifully clear and easy to follow.

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In non-quilting news, knitting on the subway has netted me half a sock this week, going to and from classes (in Manhattan) and study sessions (in the Bronx), but that’s about all. I’m taking two Latin classes this summer, one in June (classical Latin) and one in July (medieval Latin), and this past week I’ve spent what feels like a lot of time studying for my Latin final exam, which is this evening. I just hope it’s enough.

And hopefully the instructor will give us Cicero or Nepos, not Caesar. Wish me luck!