What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Back in October I bought a faux leather panel and some fabric to make a tote bag to each of my two daughters... for Christmas. Well let's say that everything was stashed away and nothing happened before Christmas. I then set my deadline as their birthday and again, I missed the target for the first one. But the difference there was that I had at least just started it before my daughter's birthday. I decided to use the Emma Tote Bag pattern by Bara-Studio for her bag since it is quite big and I needed to take into ...

 It seems that somehow the end of the school year has crept on me even more than usual... I suddenly realised last Sunday that the kids were about to start their last week, i.e. that teachers' presents were needed to be completed by the end of the week but I hadn't even made a start... I needed 4 this year and one was needed by Wednesday morning not Friday + Wednesday evening was the annual fete de la musique (music festival for the summer solstice) which meant that that was one last evening to work on the presents.

I ...

 These have been a long time coming! I thought it would be a quick and easy project but it didn't turn out how I had expected when I first tried month ago so I put it aside for later. 

Keeping with the quidditch theme, I offered to make the colours headbands for the local team quite a while ago. I initially envisaged making them out of stretch fabric but I didn't like how they looked once finished to make sure there were no raw edges. Plus kids and adults are playing in the same team so the head ...

 Some last-minute sewing that I had planned for earlier in December but got pushed back because I needed a party dress and then because I was in bed nursing a flu-like illness... I eventually found time for some sewing on the 24th... better late than never really!

A few years ago I had made some fabric gift bags that I use every year to wrap some presents. I wanted to make more this year and some bigger ones too for those larger presents that tend to use up a lot of paper. I had the fabric that I had bought ...

 My company Christmas party was in London just under 2 weeks ago and we were told to dress like in the 1920s. A quick look online made me realise that I had left it too late to order an outfit so I bought the Folkwear 1920s Flapper dress pattern and I went to Toto tissu to buy some black fabric and some bling to make a dress in the week or so I had left.

The pattern is rather simple with 2 identical pieces for the top and 2 identical pieces for the skirt. I cut a size Large qnd ...

 It only took 10 years... but it is now finished and ready to be used/enjoyed...

I started the Super Mario Quilt during a quilt-along with Angela in 2012, I made x blocks and cut zillions of little squares and then all was parked for a long long time...

Eventually I got all the pieces out again in September 2020 while I was going through my stash, UFOs etc in preparation for the big move, I picked up the pieces again and made the last few blocks I needed to finish the quilt.

In April 2021, I finally finished the ...

 This one was started over a year ago. I joined an online class with Claire's Thread in May 2021 to sew the Ultimate Coat by the Maker's Atelier.

I didn't quite manage to finish it during the sew-along but made quite great progress. The Coat was assembled and only needed the finishing touches. 

 I know, summer is over,  although temperatures adding midday have been so mild recently that we could wonder! In any case I'm ready for summer weather with my new blouse! I cut it early September as part of a double challenge. The Charlie pattern was offered for free by the designer,  la Robe du Chat, new to me but a nice find! With a challenge to sew the pattern by mid September, which I failed! There was also the IG #magamsewalong challenge to make a shirt in September. 

 The plan for my Flabellum quilt was to finish it in time for our house move last summer and it so nearly worked according to the plan! The top was finished at the end of May last year.

I sent it to get quilted (my first professionally quilted top) and got it back in July just before we packed up to leave. 

 Finally, after 1 year in this house, I've finally sewn one garment, from start to finish. Granted it's taken me 3 months but it's now wearable. I'm so happy that I've got (part of) my sew-jo back.

You know the urge to start a new project when you really shouldn't because 1) you have enough unfinished ones to keep you going for a long while and 2) you're about to go on holidays so should really concentrate on everything else but starting a new project. Surely I'm not alone?

School is now over and with that teachers'presents are also completed! And on time too. Granted, I made a lot less than last year with all the bags we gifted before or big move, not just to school teachers. But considering the very little time I  spent creating in the last year or so I had to be realistic. So for my youngest daughter's teacher, I also made 2 Open Wide Pouch from the pattern by Anna.

Back in April last year, I started to make a Persephone purse to gift to my friend for her birthday, similar to the one I made myself the previous fall. I picked the model with the frame this time instead of the 2 zipped pockets. I choose a lovely tweed fabric for the exterior. 

Sadly I didn't finish the purse on time to gift it ...

Finally,  I have finished a quilt! There wasn't much left really, just about half of the border that needed to be sewn by hand before we moved. And then we moved... I had packed the quilt into a suitcase rather than a box to retrieve it quicker. But I hadn't packed hand sewing needles or any energy/ motivation...

And finally last week, I did the last few stitches on the binding to have a finished quilt!

Just one year after I started it with the sew along. The top was pieced last autumn. I had planned to quilt ...

 Only 4 more... I kind of ran out of steam really but wanted to make 4 more to gift to some of the lovely people my children had interacted with in various clubs over the years. 

So with that, here are my last 4 bags. 

2 for the dance teachers

2 for the Scouts leaders (one with upside down birdies...)

And 4 additional finish for July and off my Q3 FAL list. 

Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday, Brag about your Beauties, Off the wall Friday, Peacock Party,  Whoop Whoop Friday, Patchwork and Quilts

Celine

 And that will be 3 more, including 2 rather last minute. I needed one for Brown Owl, to be gifted with the open wide pouches so I finished that one with about one hour to spare.

And I also needed one for school last Friday as the presents have to be quarantined before being handed to the teachers this week. So that was another one to finish off.

This one was with 2 colours as I messed up the cutting of the wave!

And some more OPAM for July. Ideally I need to make 4 more bags but I must ...

 It has been long time since I made an open wide pouch (pattern by Noodlehead) so I made 4!

I used faux leather for the outside and cotton for the inside, one with the sports print

Linking ...

 More end of year teachers' presents on my list but I took a break from the bags to make some pencil cases. I can't really make bags for men I think. 

I started with 10'' squares for those pencil cases and added a 1'' square of faux leather on either side of the zip.

First step is to sew the zip to the outside and lining so it is "sandwiched" between the 2 layers.

 I have taken some time to sew this week-end and although I had planned to do a lot more than I have, I have managed to make 6 more Zero-Waste Wave Bags. 

My first series was with this gorgeous raspberry faux leather. 

It was all going so well until I realised I forgot to sew one strap....

Thankfully after a little bit of unpicking, I could fix it and have 2 more bags

One for my daughter's form teacher and one for one music teacher

One for the French teacher and one for ...

 Finally, a finish, just before the end of the month! I am so happy that this UFO is no more. It is now a finished quilt that I will be able to gift to a good friend before I leave. I just finished sewing the binding tonight, didn't have that much left to do really.