Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Hula Girl Bag

 Hula Girl bag is done.  Doris needed a new wheelchair bag.  You can see the holes and the rips in the old bag at the bottom of this post.  This fabric is called Hawaiin bark cloth. It is used a lot in upholstery, so it should be fairly strong and durable.  I cut out a hula girl motif and interfaced and topstitched her on.
 This is the back of the bag.  It worked out really well having the buttons on the side that does not show.  There were no ripped buttons or ripped fabric like the first bag I made.
This is the bag that I had to replace.  The topstitching on the demure hula girl was starting to come apart at the right edge.  There were tiny holes becoming visible in the merimekko fabric.  I think this is more from washing.
This is the inside of the bag and the reason why I decided to make a new bag.  She just ripped this fabric to shreds.  I love putting a pretty print on the inside of the bag.  The new bag has a light purple japanese geta or wooden shoes fabric.  I think Doris will get a good kick out of it.  Its always fun when the inside looks just as interesting as the outside.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

On the design wall

This is what I am working on.   These are all silk fabric scraps.  I have been cutting silks for about a week now. Luckily, I have about another hundred fabrics to cut into triangles.  From each fabric, I cut three pieces and try to short them in to categories. So far the categories are white, dark, red, yellows, etc.

At first I tried putting them on my design wall, a tablecloth pinned on the wall.  The silks would not adhere to the wall.  Then I placed a sheet on the bed and used that as my design wall.  Taking a picture of it really allows you to see the separations of the light and dark.
There are problems with silk that I have been pondering, but haven't made a decision yet.  Should I put on an interface backing.  Some of the silks are very flimsy and sheer.  Should I hand piece them?  
I still have a long way to go.  But it is taking shape.  Now back to cutting more triangles.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Puppy and purple bags

Here is a picture that Resse drew of her new puppy Oreo.  It was such a cute picture that I made a bag for her.  I copied the picture onto a pretreated Bubble Jet Set fabric with freezer paper backing.  I used the leftover Cherrywood fabrics to make the surrounding borders, handle straps and backing.  There is a zipper close and japanese fabric for the interior.


This is a simple purple bag for Alyssa.  It is made from a Kokka heavy cotton and a hawaiian print pocket.  I really liked the feel or weight of the Kokka fabric.  Unfortunately, it is so expensive.  There is extra padding in the handle and a zipper close.  The inside has the hawaiian print fabric with a purple pocket.

These two bags took me 1 day to complete.  Simple, no embellishments, no quilting, no beads.  The girls are  growing so quickly, I hope they don't outgrow cute and simple things.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Santa Rosa Quilt Show 2013

These are some of the quilts from the Santa Rosa Quilt Show presented by the Moonlight Quilters of Sonoma County.


 These are from students of Gloria Loughman and Laura Fogg workshops
 I like this pattern on the diagonal.

This pomegranite was made with scrap fabrics.  If you look closely, you can see an alien ship and other interesting fabrics.  There is no net.  The quilter carefully machine quilted around each of the edges of the fabrics.
This pineapple block is offset and has some beautiful feather quilting.

This is a picture of how they used a chain for their framing.
The red quilt was from a red challenge made by Linda Morand.  The houses quilt is from Judy Mathieson.