One of my finishes this summer was this throw quilt. The pattern is XOXO by Green Bee Patterns and the fabric (Tokyo Train Ride by Sarah Watts for Cotton and Steel along with a few other prints from my stash) was purchased as a kit sometime in 2015 from Craftsy. It's a fun pattern with a variety of sizes and very fat quarter friendly. I love the color palette of the fabrics. I don't think it is something that I would have put together on my own as I tend towards bright, saturated prints. But, man, those peachy pinks, greens and golds are so pretty together! I love the background fabric - it is a great low-volume print on unbleached cotton. It gives the quilt some interest without being overpowering.

The piecing is all squares and half square triangles. I chose to make my triangle blocks larger than called for so I could trim them down to the exact measurement. I highly recommend doing that - it just gives you more precise pieces. I also highly recommend the Bloc Loc ruler for doing this. I'm not one to buy expensive extra gadgets and tools, but this is worth it. Total game changer!

I rented time on the long arm at Quilted Joy to quilt this one. Having the option to long arm my quilts without owning a long arm has allowed me to get so many more quilts finished this year. Yippee! I chose to do a free-motion orange peel that I think suits the quilt well. It is far from perfect, but the overall feel is there and because I had the blocks to guide me, it was a fast finish. Also...perfection is over-rated. Am I right?!?

The back and the binding are from the same fabric line as the majority of the prints. I chose to machine bind this quilt as it was slated for donation and I always think in situations like that, durability is called for. Plus, it is just plain faster. The finished size was 64" square before washing. I used 100% cotton batting so I am certain it shrunk although I did not measure it after it came out of the dryer. Gotta love that crinkle! I donated it to the quilt booth at our church carnival in July. It was a hard one to let go, but I cannot keep them all. Plus, the pattern is so fun, I can make it again!

Hello!

I know I disappeared. What can I say? Oh yes, SUMMER. That is it. I feel like I could go on about what we have been doing (a whole lot of just living) and where we have been (Vancouver! Alaska! New York City!), but I am just going to jump in with a finished project with plans of more finished projects to come. Sound good?

Back in June, my sister-in-law, Georgia, sent me the link to Purl Soho's Puffy Tote in Nani Iro Quilted Double Gauze with a little hinting about maybe making one of those. I am pretty certain that she wasn't looking for that exact fabric, but just a puffy tote. Knowing how dreamy, light and soft the double gauze is, I decided to try Purl's version first. And by try it it, I mean that I ordered the fabric in 7 different prints. Ha!

When the fabric arrived, I read the tutorial and knew that if I was going to make this bag happen, the bias tape it calls for would not. That seemed like too much fussiness for me. I cut the fabric in the size as indicated EXCEPT I made sure that the quilting lines were evenly spaced at the top and bottom so that the quilting would match up on the side seams. I am particular this way - if I can match a pattern, I do. Next, I ran top and bottom edges of the fabric through my serger and then sewed the side seams using the serger. This finished all the raw edges and made the need for the bias tape obsolete. (You could do this with a zig zag or overlock stitch on your regular sewing machine if you don't have a serger!) I followed Purl's tutorial for making the gusset, just sewing those with my regular sewing machine. For the top edge, I folded the fabric along the top quilting line towards the inside and pinned in place. Then, on the outside of the bag, I sewed in the ditch of the next quilting line. (You can see this in the photo of the pocket below). Finally, I sewed some 25" leather handles on and called it good.

The first bag (yellow and gray above) made didn't have a pocket. The next one does! This one I made in the same way, except that before I sewed down the top edge, I slid a zippered pocket under it and then sewed it all down together. The pocket is one piece of fabric with a zipper inserted in it so it becomes a tube. I then pressed it flat so the zipper was towards the top of the pocket and finished the sides with some binding. Fairly easy, all done by machine, including the binding. I think it makes for a much more functional bag.

The pocketed one was gifted to my friend Marcia for her birthday. It just screams summer to me! I still have to put the finishing touches on the remaining five, but I hope to finish those up in the next week or so. Or maybe after the Olympics...I love a good excuse to watch TV and knit or do some hand work.