Man Bags

A couple of years ago I added some pockets to the now-ubiquitous reusable grocery store bags.  I originally had three of them. Now only one remains and it's got kind of a girly paisley pattern on it and that is certainly not helping my husband remember to take bags with him when he does the shopping. So I made some more. I used some more of that precious Echino fabric I bought on our Seattle trip earlier this year.

They are kind of urban and even lighthearted despite the color scheme. The pockets were originally added to cover up the painfully ugly logo printed on the bags. But it turns out the pockets come in so handy. We put our net bags for produce in there. And coupons.

Here's the other side. A little more color. But hopefully still manly enough. Are polka dots manly? Say yes.

These went so quick, and I love the chance to feature a little bit of special fabric without having to sew an entire bag myself. I want to collect this style of bag in every color and add pockets to them too! Now for goodness sake if you happen to see these bags out and about on a man, that is my husband, and you should definitely not compliment them (unless you are also a man, then go right ahead). See, if girls start complimenting him it will reinforce his assumption that carrying reusable shopping bags is not manly. So you can leave any compliments right here and then he'll never have to know that the ladies approve. I'm sure you understand.

Sew Slip winner!

Drawn by random.org, the winner of the Sew Slip II is Emily of Quiltdoodles, who said 

"Thank you for this chance to win the Sew Slip. Also thank you for this quilt-a-long. My favorite snack is popcorn. I am totally addicted to popcorn."

And I finally figured out how to show the drawing image! Given time, I always catch up eventually!

Congratulations Emily! Thanks to everyone for sharing your snacks and desserts, I have very much been enjoying all the yummy thoughts and suggestions. I'll definitely be trying some of them! A lot of you are really into pumpkin right now, which reminds me I should make some pumpkin cookies....mmmmmmm.

These are facts

• For 80% of my evening posts I finally hit the "Publish Post" button because the toddler has woken up and started crying.
• I have 52 bobbins for my Bernina.

• The Bernina's problem has reportedly been fixed and this time I was charged $0.
• Part of me wants to plan out a totally handmade holiday and the rest of me remembers that when I do that my family has this look on their faces like they wished they got something in a blister pack from Costco instead of my pancake mix/vanilla extract/soup-in-a-bag/handmade wallet or whatever. Not feeling the motivation this year. iTunes cards for everyone. You're welcome.
• Last weekend I had a fever and fatigue and other odd symptoms. My revolving diagnoses for myself included: kidney infection, lymphoma, pericarditis, liver cancer, Epstein Barr virus and pulmonary embolism. 
• As I'm sure you realize, I am a hypochondriac. I did not have any of those things and I was all better for work on Monday. 

 

• Speaking of work, that's where my phone is; in my lab coat pocket. With pictures of all my sketches from this week's quilt along on it. 
• With nothing to show for this week's quilt along I officially declare it catch up week!
• Until this June I had no idea what "following" or "subscribing" to a blog was or how to get your comments emailed to you.  

 

• I took my projects to Saturday's PMQG sewing night in an aluminum turkey pan. 
• A woman named Shruti is planning to donate 42 small quilts (about 32" square) for an orphanage in India.   Sounds like a great way to practice some free motion skills! Can you help?

Sew Slip review and giveaway

I was excited to get to review the Sew Slip II, after hearing Elizabeth recommended it at a Portland Modern Quilt guild meeting. I thought it would be the sort of thing new quilters might be wondering about. Heck, it was the sort of thing I was wondering about, and I don't think of myself as a new quilter! Luckily I am bold (rude?) enough to ask for a sample to try, and Nancy at Sew Slip was brave enough to cooperate with my crazy schemes.

It is an unassuming little roll.

It is super duper sticky on the back. It grabs onto your machine like serious business and it is realllllly slick on top. If you have a top loading bobbing you will have to lift up the sheet to change it. I thought it might leave some gummy residue when removed but it didn't, and I was able to change the bobbin without removing the sheet entirely. (Aside: check out what great hand position the toddler already has! It's probably because she loves to free motion quilt with me. She gets her own pair of gloves and I keep her hands under mine the whole time).

After I first sat down to quilt using the Sew Slip I noticed that my shoulders and arms felt more relaxed than usual because I wasn't working so hard to move my quilt along the machine. I think this could really reduce fatigue when doing long quilting stints.

I didn't really see a difference in my stitching. I did a quick experiment in aimless stitching to see if the Sew Slip was making my stitching any better. First, with the Sew Slip.

Then without.

I tried some quick feathers too. Sew Slip on top, without on the bottom. I'd say this was uniformly mediocre stitching, the Sew Slip didn't seem to make a difference in the quality of my free motion stitching. Although, maybe the real test would be to compare stitching after an hour of using or not using the Sew Slip, once fatigue has set in!

If your machine drops into your table I'm not sure this would make much of a difference in your quilting experience. But if you're working on an extension table, this little item seems to make moving your quilt up and around a lot easier. I'm certain I will put it on before I quilt my next quilt, though maybe not for shorter stitching stints. Or I may just leave it on the machine. Since the hole in the middle of the sheet leaves space for the feed dogs it works for regular stitching too.

I would definitely recommend the Sew Slip to anyone dealing with upper body injuries or pain. If you feel like you're working hard to get your quilt to go when you want it to go, this could reduce the drag you're fighting. It won't work any miracles on your stitching but if you're about to quilt a large quilt I think this would be a very nice present to yourself.

Nancy at Sew Slip was so generous she provided both a Sew Slip II for me to review, and one to give away! Do you think you could use a Sew Slip? To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below telling me your favorite snack or dessert. (Nursing moms think about food a LOT). Comments will be open until 11:59 PM Pacific time this Friday and I will draw a random number for the winner. I hope this was a helpful review!

Quilting shouldn't be a drag

Here's a post that's about a month overdue. It's time to talk about how to optimize your sewing space for no-drag free motion quilting. You could make simple, free adjustments to your machine and table, or you could make quite a spendy project out of it. I know more about the first approach because I am knee deep in student loans and I am by nature a total cheapskate.

If you notice a big difference between the quality of quilting on your practice pad and your quilt, you may be battling some drag on your quilt. You can decrease drag by making your quilting space as flat and slippery as possible. The more your quilt can just glide across the surface of your machine and table, the more control you will have over your stitching. You will have less wrinkles on the back of your quilt and you will be able to quilt longer because you are not getting all worn out struggling with your quilt.

First, let's figure out how to support all the quilt that you're not working on. Having your quilt hang off the edge of your table is not ideal. Try and keep it supported at all times.  A biggish table would be nice. Some people use an ironing board at the height of their sewing table to support the quilt.You could try this if  your table isn't large enough. If there is a wall against the left and back edges of the table even better - the quilt can't fall off that side of the table.

Now let's get your machine involved. If you could have the machine farther to the right of the table, there will be more room on the left for your quilt to lay while you're working. Now, it's a lot easier to manipulate your quilt top if your hands always have support underneath while you're moving them around. Unless you have a table that lets your machine drop into it, you will want to extend the working area of your machine with an extension table. Most machines have their own extension table. If your machine doesn't have an extension table, or you want an even bigger flat space than your machine's table, you could order a custom fit plexiglass table. Or maybe you'd rather whip up your own. How about this idea of making one from a cardboard box?

Now, let's get your work surfaces nice and slick. I know about a few ways to do this. Over on the Flickr group Leah suggested rubbing waxed paper on the machine bed to make it slicker. Kathy recommended silicone spray, which can be applied to both the machine and the table.  There are also sheets, such as the Sew Slip and the Free Motion Slider, that are designed to lay on top of your machine bed (and/or cardboard box, wink wink!) to make it slicker so your quilt slides easier. I have a little more to share about the Sew Slip in an upcoming post.

Are there adjustments you could make to your quilting space? Whatever your budget, there's probably some changes you can make to reduce drag on your quilt!

walk, walk, walk

That's what she was saying the whole time: "walk, walk, walk"

These pictures show two things. 

1) I've made more squares for the D9P quilt

2) I could use a design wall

Free Motion Quilt Along: Pebbles

Pebbles get people excited. Are you excited? Sweet. Let's start by putting into pictures what I tried to say in words. Pebbling step by step.

Stitch a circle/oval

Now, starting where your first circle ended, stitch another circle kissing that one.

Continue around that circle to get to a place where you can start a third one.  Try and make the third circle touch both the other circles.

Whenever you end up "trapped" somewhere you can't start a new circle, just follow along where you've already stitched to get to where you want to go. 

And so on.

The secret is out - pebbling is just circles!

It's like all I have is white fabric and white thread. I should get some sort of quilting blogger fine for this kind of behavior. 

Ready to try pebbles? Sure you are! This week we are going to fill one of the medium strips on the quilt with pebbling. I chose a strip on the end. I started with a basic pebble.

Then I squared it off. I liked the effect, kind of like cobblestones.

I tried lengthening the pebbles. It came out so so. I'm not gonna marry it.

Then my machine did exactly what it did before I paid $250 to stop it from doing that. And I switched machines while muttering crabby things to myself. Very, very crabby things.

And I did some practice stitching to get back into my groove with Mattie.

And I tried "stuff in pebbles". LOVE the beach balls.

You may be able to see a little tuck developed on one of my edge pebbles, which is a risk both of stitching at the edge of the quilt, and of circular designs. You're less likely to have this problem if your design is a bit ahead on the outside edge than the inside - these tucks always happen for me when I'm "filling in" along the edge. I'm certainly enjoying running my hand over that pebble quilting though! So have fun with pebbles everyone! Then show them off in the Flickr group.