This is what I bought at Quiltworks Northwest. I hadn’t been there in a long time and they had a TON of fabric. It was everywhere. This is where TFQ bought the bag pattern. 
The Quilting Loft is a new-ish store in Ballard and well worth the trip to visit. Angie, the owner, is really nice and has great taste in fabric.
This is the fabric I bought at the Quilting Loft.
Archive for February, 2008
Can’t Do Without the Fabric
The Many Fabrics of Sawtooth Stars
The Sawtooth Star is a great block. Lots of options, but if you just make them out of two fabrics, they are fabulous as well.
Here are TFQ’s 4″ Sawtooth Star blocks: all 685 approximately of them. Sit back and enjoy the fabulous fabrics!
This project was a “clear out my scraps project” and a precursor to the Fabric of the Year project.
Series of Bags
TFQ and I went to Quiltworks Northwest in Bellevue on Friday. At the shop, TFQ saw this bag made up and bought the pattern. The pattern is called Eco Market Tote and is from Favorite Things. I don’t normally buy or even think about non-quilt things, so I didn’t pay much attention. I was interested, but not from the making point of view. I am not sure what lit the spark, but after we visited the Quilting Loft and saw the Alexander Henry Home Dec fabrics, I knew I wanted to make one. TFQ suggested that we make them and it was a great idea. I would have never finished mine if TFQ and I had made the first ones together/at the same time. While we were working with our own fabrics, we puzzled out the directions together. We, unfortunately, got the first printing of the pattern and there are a few mistakes, which have, since, been corrected (TFQ contacted the company). We also made some adjustments, like making the handles wider than the pattern calls for.
The fabulous thing that I found is that this is a great opportunity to work in series. No, it is not a quilt, but it is a great canvas for showcasing fabric combinations. There is also a lot of room for creativity – different types of pockets, different fabric combinations, different fabric ratios and even embellishment. I know that TFQ has picked out fabrics for two more and I would like to make more as well. I have several large conversational fabrics in the quilt backs stack that would really be great as bags. I also have some great French fabrics that a friend brought me from France that would make excellent totes.
This is my bag. As mentioned, the fabrics are from the Alexander Henry Home Collection. They feel like canvas, but may be a kind of cotton duck. I am actually kind of stunned that I picked them out as the accent fabric has a lot of brown and all of the fabrics are very 1960s looking.
This was a great project to branch out in the fabric department and try something new. I wouldn’t buy these for a quilt, but for this bag, they are great!
Back of the bag in construction phase.
Front of bag with pocket pinned on. The back and front are the same until you put the pocket on. The above picture is how that back looks and the picture below, as you can see from the picture of the finished product, is how the front looks.
This is the third bag. TFQ made it today. 
She added two more pockets on this side to break up all the black. The new pockets do a good job of bringing the red fabric back into the limelight.
The lovely piece below has the distinction of being the first bag we completed. It is TFQ’s bag, but I think it was a real collaborative effort – at least int he brain power department. This was also the bag we learned on. The fabrics are fabulous and it turned out really well.
Detail of the the reinforcing X stitching to keep the handle secure.
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Wood hyacinth. TFQ says they a weed in Seattle. I just thought they looked beautiful in this setting.
Mosaic entry way on Market Street.
I like the shadow on the tree.
Ornamental cabbage.
Art tree and Seattle face.
Sleeping Well in Seattle
Inspiration a la Red Shoe Rambling
TFQ’s Propellers
Propeller Detail
Circles on the Mind
I have this design on my mind. It keeps coming out in different forms all over the place. I think of it as a Mandala, but I don’t know if it can rightly be called a Mandala. I’ll have to look it up.
Moving Right Along
I have been trying all week to get a few free moments to show you some pictures. I am off on a trip tomorrow and don’t know if I will get to posting until the first weekend in March, which is why I want to post!
These are the retail therapy fabrics that I bought. I have already washed and ironed them do I could use them in the 2008 Fabric of the Year quilt (see below). I was pretty disappointed in the quality of the fabric in the whole top row except for the multicolored dots on the light background (right). The green and yellow fabric with the white dots are really, really thin. You can see through them and I am sure the seams will show through if I press towards.
I found the other two by searching for violet on the site that shall remain nameless. It turns out that the fabrics are very, very dark. Not violet at all. At least not my definition of violet. [I could go into a whole dissertation on taxonomies here, but I'll spare you. I'd like to keep a few readers.] That wasn’t the main problem with these fabrics. When I tried to press them from the front, the iron kept getting caught on the fabric. I don’t know if ‘caught’ is the right term, but I couldn’t smoothly move the iron over the front of the fabric. I had to turn the fabric over to press it.
The color is printed on the front and something about the ink makes it not smooth. I love shopping online, because I don’t have to leave my house, but this is a good example of one of the pitfalls: I can’t feel and look at the fabric before I buy it. I could return the fabric, but I have already washed and cut into it. When it is cut into smaller pieces, I am sure it will be no problem.
Here are the two newest members of the Pineapple family. They are both a perfect… 14″. Sigh. They are supposed to be 12.5″. I made these so carefully, I don’t think it is possible to have been anymore precise. I measured each strip to ensure it was 1.75″. I also made sure the blocks were square as I sewed each row on.
I am bringing all the blocks with me this weekend and will work on them when I have time. I also spoke with TFQ about them and some possibilities are:
- the new iron
- the service on my sewing machine last fall.
I decided that I would finish this quilt even if it meant making all the blocks over. Blocks never go to waste, so I could make a lot of pillows!
Here are the new fabrics that I cut for this week.
Here they are all sewn together and integrated into the blocks I made last week.
Mind Sorbet
The Chocolate Box quilt, which I talked about in the post about the retreat is what is discussed in Judy Martin’s February 2008 newsletter. Kristin, one of her readers writes:
“I agree that there is nothing wrong with fast quilts. In fact, in the past after completing a challenging project, I would often use a fast and easy quilt as a “mind sorbet” to cleanse the mind before beginning the next project. They are nice for showcasing big or odd prints, or for picnic quilts or for kid quilts for gifts. I do think though, if we are not challenging ourselves and not enjoying the process, we are missing something.”
The Chocolate Box is mind sorbet. I felt thick and full after working for so long on the Pineapple. I needed something to cleanse the palette and the Chocolate Box did it.
That is such a great description and I hope I will be able to add it to my lexicon.
Really Look!
Friend Julie is really taking her course with Gabrielle Swain seriously. I wouldn’t expect any less, of course. It is great that she is sharing. I have been working on REALLY looking at things when I draw in my journal and this post talks about the same thing. I think I can never have enough reminders to slow down, really look at things plus what Julie says here about distilling things down to what you really need.
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