Dear Jane Continued

Back in 2013 I started my journey of the Dear Jane Quilt.

I have now been working on it on and off for several years.

This is the year I would like to maybe finally finish it.

For clarification I said that last year.

This year I have hoped to finish up several ongoing projects.

But as always I seem to get sidetracked.

I'd like to think its part of the job.

I have every week my personal shop hops in California, Nevada and Oregon and it really is so hard to resist that fabric temptation.

But I am trying.

This is currently where I am on my Dear Jane.

 

 

 I now have 22 blocks to finish, 32 triangles and the 4 corners.

I have collected all the purple batiks I need to finish so it's only a matter of staying focused.

 

 

 

And not yielding to the temptation of all sorts of the possibilities of all the quilts out there in the universe.

 

 

 

 

An Epic Bag

When I was in Texas this past September for the wedding of Kelsey and Mike,

The wonderful couple with Pastor Diane.

Dru Ann and I did what we always do and visited a few of the local quilt shops.  You never know what they might have that I haven't seen here in California.  I usually end up coming home with something I just have to have.  This time it was a pattern for a very LARGE bag.

The bag is called Anything Goes from Aunties Two Patterns.

I took this picture on top of my washing machine.  Yes it is an odd place to take it but I was trying to give some sort of reference so you can tell the size of the bag.  IT IS BIG! You could fit a small dog in it.  I couldn't get Millie to model inside the bag but you get the idea.



She is soooo cute! But I digress.

To make this bag you need 40 2 1/2"x 42/44" strips.  I used a package of Sumatra batik precuts from Blank Quilting called the Oceanside Collection.

The time consuming part of making this bag is prepping all your strips.

I used a single layer of Pellon iron-on fleece to make the tubes.

I then had to break out this bad boy to zigzag the strips together.  I normally sew on a Juki which just goes forward and back in a straight line which is all I need when sewing.  I picked this machine up a few years ago very inexpensively so when I occasionally need to zigzag I can.  I don't know much about the brand, there's not a lot of information out there about Morse sewing machines, but this one works like a charm!

And for the finishing touches I had Jim pick me up some plastic plumbing tubing at Home Depot to put in the handles,

And I found these great buttons at my  local Jo-Ann Fabrics.

They are made from coconut.

  Aside from being a awesome bag I thought I might be able to make this a class I could teach.  After spending a weekend working on it I decided that wasn't feasible.  It takes a lot of time to make the strips.

 I am now using the bag to carrying my samples of Stof , a quilt fabric line from Denmark made in Japan that I have added to my arsenal of fabrics I rep.

This bag would make a great weekender bag or something you could use whenever you are going to a sit and sew to carry all your important  sewing stuff.
You can also easily slip in a bottle of wine or two - just saying.