Bag No.58 - Japanese Bunnies

Five years ago, I made a bag for my colleague and friend Šárka: 

She has carried the bag every day since then and the bag is really „well worn“ already. This march, it was her round birthday again and I decided to make a new bag for her.

I dived into my fabric stash and found some great Japanese bunnies. I also had layer cakes from the Yucata fabric collection by Debbie Maddy, which were perfectly matching with the original Japanese indigo fabrics. 

I must admit, I was a bit lazy to develop a complicated design. I simply chose very ordinary small squares. I had enough fabric squares and pictures, so I created panels for two bags, one with bunnies and the other with Japanese cats (not finished yet). The panels for both bags are machine-sewn and hand-quilted with original Japanese sashiko thread. The bunnies bag for the birthday girl is finished (and given) already.

Here it is!

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Cover for Project Binder

 

My mind is not able to concentrate on one project only. After years endeavours I had to admit it. O.K. not one project a time, there are more. A sewing basket here, a pile of cloth there, sandwiches waiting for hand sewing stacked on the work table. You know what I mean. One of my first attempts to make it manageable was a project binder. An ordinary office binder with sturdy plastic pockets, one for every small hand-sewing project and EPP project. It proved to be a good choice, it is practical, well arranged and easily portable. Nevertheless, it is not really nice. Therefore, I decided to make a fabric cover.

I used my dyed cloth, some vintage fabric scraps, and two amazing pictures from the Old Made fabric collection by J.Wecker Frisch. Also, thread, buttons, and ribbons were dyed by me. I spent several pleasant evenings stitching, quilting, and embroidering.

 

It works very well, but it seems to be too small for all my not-yet-finished projects:) 

I like it anyway!

Happy stitching

Michaela 

Bag No.57 - Raven

The Raven quilt was made in spring 2020 as a combination of machine and hand sewing on natural linen. The tree is made in reverse appliqué with machine quilted raw edges, the raven himself is a nice picture from a commercial cloth. I used fusible appliqué and the bird is machine and hand quilted. The quilt was originally a part of a series of small quilts with bird motifs to be exhibited on Prague Patchwork Meeting 2020. But covid pandemic changed everything and the raven and the other birds had to wait till April 2022, when they were finally shown in my small gallery on PPM Quilt Show Brno 2022. 

 

With my dear friend Hella in Brno, 2022

From all the bird creations I liked the raven the most. Therefore I decided to let him fly with me every day. He became a really nice big bag for my everyday use.

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela

Bag No.56 Sitting Hare

 

There will be not much writing today, because the whole story of the Sitting Hare was told in my latest blog of 2022 already. Today I can proudly announce that the sitting hare definitely became a bag. Based on the original template by Amy Tedge, the panel was actually bigger than needed for a bag. I just hadn´t the heart to cut it smaller and the finished bag belongs to the biggest bags I have ever made. It can accommodate so much! I love it.

 

 

Happy stitching! 

Michaela

Sitting Hare

The sitting hare became the last finished project of 2022. When I first saw the beautiful creation by Amy Tedge, I just couldn´t resist buying the pattern. The aim was (and still is) to make a bag for myself.  

This is the original work by Amy:

My colorway of the background is quite different from the original. It is not the fact that I wouldn´t like it, I simply haven´t such lovely vintage-looking fabrics in my stash.

I followed the (very good written) instructions for the appliqué and embroidered outlines and flowers,  nevertheless, I added more quilting on the background. I must admit, I love hand quilting... 

The bag isn´t finished yet, but the appliqué and embroidery panel can be declared finished.

Happy quilting!

Michaela