Tag Archives: bag

Maxwell Bag

The outer and inner parts put together
5/2017

I took a 2-day class at my LQS last May and produced an almost done Maxwell Bag. All I needed to do was the handle and some finishing touches. I spent some time on Sunday working on the handle.

First Step – cut the handles to size.

Second Step – enclose the soft and stable around the cord

Final Step – somehow get the cord into the fabric tube

I spent some time wrangling the cord in the fabric tube and finally gave up. I’ll try to do more in the evenings. My next bag class is on Saturday and if I do not have these handles wrapped, I’m going to see if the instructor has an easier way to do this.

~happy crafting

~melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Uncategorized. Tags: bag, bag making, By Annie bags, maxwell bag. 3 Comments

Jul. ’17

Stash and Dash bag

On Saturday I was able to take a bag class at my LQS, Quilt Emporium, in Woodland Hills, CA. I’m so excited because it is the first in a series of bag classes offered through a program by By Annie. I love that they start with an easy bag and work through a series of bags that get more complicated so that you learn various techniques of bag making. I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time and in fact, mentioned it to the ladies at my LQS. I’m sure my request wasn’t the only one because the class was pretty full.

I forgot to take pictures early in the day but after lunch remembered so here are the pictures.

By the time I remembered to take pictures I had already quilted my inside and outside fabric to the soft and stable. I already attached the belt.

I already made the zipper/mesh pouch.

And I was making the outer part of the bag. You can’t tell but that’s a vinyl pocket. I have heard horror stories about sewing on vinyl which is one of the reasons why I took an actual class. Luckily our instructor had a Bernina and let me borrow her Teflon foot specifically made for sewing on vinyl. With her instructions and the foot, it was easy peasy and I can’t wait to purchase a foot of my own and sew more bags with vinyl.

Our instructor showed us how to connect the zippers. These zippers were from By Annie and were 30″ long. The zipper had 2 zips attached and an extra zip in the kit. I would have had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to attach those zippers on my own.

Here’s the bag all trimmed and ready for binding.

Yesterday, I was able to get it together and put the binding on:

Inside

Outside

~crafty mojo is coming back…

~happy crafting

~Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Uncategorized. Tags: bag, bag making, By Annie bags, stash and dash bag. 4 Comments

Feb. ’15

WIP Wednesday – 2/4/2015

Getting it done – one piece at a time…

Tell It To The Stars
October 5, 2014

Sorry it’s been awhile. I lost my quilty mojo for a bit. With Flowers and Baskets finished, I wanted to do a small project before I started my next big quilt, Tell It To The Stars. I picked the Manhattan bag but it took twice as long as I wanted to spend on it. I was hesitant to start the project because it was the first time I did that bag and I knew it would take me longer than usual. I do like the bag and I plan to make more. Now that that is done, I played with my secret project a bit. I’m not loving the design so I keep moving fabric around. It’s better tonight but I found more fabric online that I feel would complement it better than some of the fabric I’ve got on the design wall. So, I’m waiting for the fabric to come in.

And with that, I pulled out Tell It To The Stars, my sewing table was clean and I had no more excuses. I’m on the last clue – the border part. I’ve pulled out the instructions a number of times but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. This time, I did. Can you believe the top pictured above was from October, 2014? And the last thing I did for this quilt was the November clue, which was part of Border #3…

Tell It To The Stars
32 blocks from the November Clue
11/9/14

There are 4 additional borders I need to cut and attach to the top. I cut border #4 tonight. I’ll be cutting the other borders over the next few nights. I’ve got until 2/10/15 to work on this project because once the next clue for Scrapitude comes out I will be setting aside Tell It To The Stars again!

What is on your WIP Wednesday?

And for a piece of my non-quilty life, which is another big reason why nothing has been done – a friend of ours built my hubby’s new computer and it wasn’t working. We couldn’t figure out what was going wrong. I didn’t have to do anything but I did keep our friends company while they were doing this huge favor of building this new computer. That took up the bulk of last week. Saturday, the girl had to take a HS exam for one of the schools she is applying to. Afterwards, we drove to Vegas for a quick getaway. What’s a girl to do? We had a voucher for a free room that expires this week so we didn’t want to waste it. It was a fun, quick trip. Initially I was going to go to a quilt shop to do some damage to my stash report but I refrained from going. There are reasons why I refrained but I’ll keep it a secret until I’m able to tell it. Before you get the wrong idea, it isn’t because I was being good… The hubby’s computer did get fixed and is now running properly.

~Wish I was quilting…

Melanie

See more WIP Wednesday posts at Freshly Pieced. 🙂

Posted by Melanie. Categories: WIP Wednesday. Tags: bag, manhattan handbag, Tell It to the stars, WIP Wednesday. 5 Comments

Jan. ’15

WIP Wednesday – 1/28/2015

Getting it done – one piece at a time…

Manhattan Handbag
In Process
1/28/2015

Since I finished Flowers and Baskets I’m taking a little break with this bag. It’s been difficult. I do not know why it’s so hard for me to follow instructions for a bag pattern but I’ve messed up more times than I can count on this one. I’m surprised its looking as good as it looks right now. I take each mess up in stride though and chalk it all up to a learning experience. This is the first bag I’m attempting and I do not know the difference between fleece, decobond, and peltex… ;0 So I just look at the sizes and luckily all three were cut in completely different amounts so I could kind of tell what was what. The next one will not be as difficult.

First Yarn Project of the year
Sweet Pea Hat
1/28/2015

I’ve also broken out the yarn ball that I set aside last fall. I wanted to get it done in time for Jacob to where in the winter but we all know how much crafting I did last fall (nada!)…. So, I’ve casted on and knitted 3 rounds. Don’t tell Jacob it’s called a Sweet Pea Hat – I think he won’t wear it on principle.

Yarnbox
January shipment
1/28/2015

And my January shipment from Yarnbox came yesterday. It’s lovely yarn, I’ll put it aside with my other yarnbox boxes. I’m starting to build a yarn stash too….

What is on your WIP Wednesday?

~Wish I was quilting…

Melanie

See more WIP Wednesday posts at Freshly Pieced. 🙂