Upcycling a Bag in Boro Style

It´s unbelievable how time is flying. In 2016 I made a small series of „book bags“ for the exhibition in our town library. My daughter fell in love with one of them and has been carrying it since then. This is how the bag looked in 2016.

In 2022, the truly beloved bag had to be repaired. I made a new binding and covered the bottom with new fabric. (You can read the whole story here).

Nevertheless, after two more years, the bag wasn´t wearable anymore.

The outer part of the bag was in a horrible state, but surprisingly the inner side, made from canvas, was completely fine. Then I said to myself: I covered the bottom of the bag with new fabric two years ago already, which was fine, so why not cover the whole bag with new fabrics? I liked the idea very much and it was clear, that I found my hand-sewing project for the summer holiday. 

I covered the whole bag with patches of different Japanese fabrics and quilted with white and blue sashiko thread. 

And  this is how the beauty looks today

Isn´t it beautiful again?

Happy sewing!

Michaela 

 

 

 

Two Owls

 

In January, I posted pictures of wonky stars with golden fish in the centre. As my favourite projects are zipper bags, I used the two blocks to make two zipper bags. Since the golden fish by Tula Pink make such great centres of the stars, I looked through other fabrics of hers for new „star candidates“. My eye fell on barn owls in a great pink-violet colour combination. They are such beauties in themselves! I think the stars turned out very nice.

I quilted on my Babylock Sashiko:

On the backside, I used fabric selvages from Grunge fabrics, they are just amazing!

I´m pretty sure, those are not the last stars I have sewn:) 

Happy sewing!

Michaela 

 

Little Joys

I haven´t been writing my blog for some weeks (sometimes I suffer from what I call "writing-laziness"), but I have been sewing of course. Besides some bigger projects in progress now, I spent many happy moments sewing little somethings. Let´s look at them!

I love every centimeter of my precious fabrics and have never thrown away any small piece except for what you would call micro or nano pieces. When sewing patchwork, you don´t usually use fabric selvages, they have to be cut off. But fabric selvages are often really charming, they contain information about the name of the fabric series and colour references, which are sometimes lovely little pictures referring to the fabric print like mushrooms, hearts, pumps, apples, fish, and so on. Some designers pay big attention to this „selvage design“. Although cut off, they are loved and carefully stored in a big plastic box, waiting for further processing.

I used fabric selvages from fabrics by Cori Dantini (the writings) and other designers (the pictures) in combination with narrow bias bands I could buy recently, to create some key fobs. I actually wanted to make more, but I ran out of metallic rings:) I like the outcome very much, they make great presents for friends.  

Since I like making key fobs of any kind, I immediately fell in love with key fobs by Quiltwerke. They are foundation paper-pieced and allow the use of small pictures. I bought the pattern and tried some of them out. Well, my work is not really bad, but the patterns require precision which obviously goes beyond my ability:) Nevertheless, I surely give them another try.

I like giving presents which can be eaten or used up in some way, like tea, dried fruits, nuts, or homemade cookies. Nevertheless, this requires a little charm or tag or another little something that helps you to transform „just a pack of nuts“ into something very special. Like a fabric tag with pictures by Anita Jeram:

Happy sewing!

Michaela

Bag No.64 - Birds

Some time ago, my dear quilting friend Alena asked me to make a bag for her. She herself is a very creative person, a very experienced quilter with a great sense of colour. She sews beautiful big quilts and quilts them on her Bernina quilting machine. On the other hand, she doesn´t feel much for small projects like zipper pockets or bags, therefore she never has sewn a bag for herself. As well as being delighted and almost proud of being asked to sew a bag for her, I was also a bit anxious. Would I find the right colours, the right pattern for her? After long thinking, finding ideas, and rejecting them again, I finally found an idea that I liked. Like many times before I was inspired by the bird pictures of Christine Robinson. Three of them were finally chosen to be transformed into appliqué. I´m still suffering from the pain of joints on my hands, therefore I decided to combine machine quilting (background), machine-sewn raw edge appliqué (plants), and hand-sewn needle turn appliqué and embroidery (birds and embellishment of plants).

Today, the handles were attached and tomorrow the birds are going to fly to their new owner. I hope Alena will like them and the bag too. 

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Golden Fish

I bought some Tula Pink fabrics a few weeks ago. Tula Pink fabric is something, that you admire and play with first, then you add it to your stash and admire it again and again, and only when you really must, you cut into it at last. And so it was with those fabrics too.  I was thinking about a special gift for my great English teacher and looked through my fabric treasures to find something exceptional. Holding Tula Pink fabric with golden fish in my hand I realized, that I had found the right one. A golden fish that can fulfill three wishes!

The fish was a great motif for the centre of the star block I learned at the end of the year, and there were exactly the right shades of Grunge fabrics in my stash, so I was able to start sewing immediately.

The way I sew the star blocks produces two blocks in one go, which I like very much.

For Věrka, I chose the brighter one:  

On the back, I used the selvages of Grunge fabrics, I love them!

I finally decided to try a new way to make a zipper pouch. It turned out very nice. 

I had to cut off a piece of the bright back panel at a certain moment. The piece was so beautiful and cheerfully colorful that I didn't have the heart to just throw it away. After some thinking, I made a tag using an inscription from the selvage of a Cori Dantini fabric. 

 

The other panel was changed into a cute zipper pouch in a classical way. 

Woow, a nice first project of the New Year, isn’t it?

Happy sewing

Michaela 

Last Project of 2023

 

 

Like every quilter I have many plans, unfortunately, not all of them fit into the time I can spend sewing. At a certain moment, I have to decide what I can possibly manage in the old year and what the first project of the following year becomes. The last (finished) project of the year 2023 became a Christmas gift for my brother´s family.

Terry Runyan is one of my favourite authors and her book “Painting Happiness” belongs to jewels on my bookshelf. This autumn I was able to buy even three panels with animal motifs by her: cats, dogs, and also elephants.  The most of them I used to make New Year’s cards, but some cats of the Cosmo Cats panel I saved for placemats I wanted to sew for my brother. As they are cat lovers, the cat motifs were a clear decision.  

 

Only a short time ago I ordered a stockpile of Grunge by Moda Fabrics (a huge thank to patchworkcz.cz)  and some shades of yellow, blue, and grey went very well with the cat motifs.

I wanted to use the cats as center of uneven stars I have never sewn before… My experience with improve quilting is actually zero, but I decided, it was time to find out. I must admit, it was a fight. The first two pieces I saw in a very clumsy manner, there were many pieces of the precious Moda Fabrics left. 

Then finally I started to think. There must be another cleverer way to do it and finally, I found out! The outcome was perfect, there were two stars sewn in one go in inverse colours, which was even more interesting than my original plan. 

On the other hand, I found out that I ran out of fabric. In the very end, I had to patch even very small pieces together to finish the last mat. As I said before, it was a fight:)  

 

I quilted on my Japanese mate Baby Lock Sashiko in a classical way and made a contrasting black and white binding.

 

Happy sewing in 2024  to all of you!

Michaela