You've Got to Love When a Plan Comes Together!

Last week I posted about the hand dyed batik fabric I made and the little quilted piece that resulted from it (see that here).

Well, after many hours of thinking about my design and mulling over ideas, I finally sat down and got to work making this fully lined and totally organized puppy raiser carry-all bag.





It's amazing what you can do with a recycled old pair of your husband's jeans, some colourful quilted fabric, muslin and a repurposed adjustable strap from a bag that's never use.


Here are various views:

 

The front zippered pocket allows me secure but quick access to a bit of cash and/or my iPhone.

The back outer pocket, for puppy training treats, is lined with a piece of an old denim shirt. This will allow me to turn it completely inside out to shake out crumbs that inevitably end up in the bottom of the pocket in which I carry dog treats.

I decided to add grommets with brass rings through them to attach the strap.  Since I have a small carabiner attached to my keys, this also gives me a great way to attach my keys to the bag and tuck them inside so I can get my hands on them quick and easy!  You can see all of the internal pockets for everything I need...no more digging around trying to get my hands on what I'm looking for!

It's big enough to carry extra little things I might pick up while shopping, or to carry a light jacket or umbrella, or my DSLR camera when I want it, yet not so big and bulky that I can't comfortably wear it wherever I go! I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

Blog Hop - Mary Beth Shaw's Book: Stencil Girl

The inspiration for this piece came from Mary Beth Shaw's book, Stencil Girl (and when you buy the book, you get an exclusive stencil/bookmark with it!). Mary Beth uses paper for a wonderful paper batik 'quilt', but since I have other plans for the finished fabric I have used cotton muslin instead of paper.

Since it was a cool day and we needed a little fire to warm up the cottage, I melted my wax on top of the wood stove.









After melting the wax, I kept it at temperature using an electric melting pot while I worked on the kitchen counter.  I layed the stencils over the fabric and applied the wax with a brush. I used soya wax since it was all I had on hand, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. If I do this again I'll go back to a combination of bee's wax and paraffin. I've used this combination for batik before with good results.

Once the wax was appied I used these liquid dyes in little misters to apply the colour.








This image shows how the soya wax let some of the colour through.  Not quite what I was going for, but the end result is pleasing non the less.

The pieces were put into little ziploc bags and left over night.

 The pieces were then hung to dry outside on the line.



Unfortunately, when they were rinsed the colour became a little more pastel than I was counting on.  Oh well, they're still lovely bright colours.  These next images show the quilting that was done, inspired by the stencil patterns.

 And these images show a few of the stencils that were used. Some of the pieces didn't turn out as well, so the original stencilled image was lost.

Stencils used:

Buildings Stencil by Carol Dube 
Gears Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Greek Key Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Dots and Dashes Stencil by Jessica Sporn
Trees Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Pods Stencil by Jane LaFazio

My plan for this wonderful piece of quilted fabric is to make myself a carry all puppy 'diaper' bag for all the things I need to have with me for my Future Dog Guide foster puppies. I'm still designing the bag, complete with lots of pockets inside for maximum organization.  I'll post a picture of the finished bag when it's done.  Until then, thanks for visiting and joining in another fabulous StencilGirl blog hop! Please make sure you visit all of the other blogs on this wonderful week long hop!

Giveaway: 

One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive Stencil Girl the book with exclusive stencil bookmark and (3) 6" x 5" stencils designed by Mary Beth Shaw. 

All comments left on all of the blogs will be entered into the draw.  
Giveaway will close: Sunday, September 21st @ 11:59PM Central Time

Good Luck!

Hop Stops:

StencilGirl Talk

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Linda Kittmer - you are here!

If you missed the first few days of this week long blog hop go here to find the start.

Didn't win the giveaway...buy this incredible book here

An Extra Post This Week...

Hi Everyone, I'm popping in with an extra post today to let you know I'm posting over on StencilGirl Talk blog today to share a quick little tutorial on how this "Stepping Stone" art quilt began.

I was inspired by a beautiful skein of thread and that led me to audition a bunch of my hand dyed fabrics and some batiks I had in my stash.  The tutorial shows how I used a bit of surface design using three incredible stencils designed by Terri Stegmiller. Please pop on over to the StencilGirl Talk blog to check it out!

This quilt is actually made up of five smaller quilts which were then aligned and stitched together with some areas overlapping.  After finishing the hand stitching that I've shared in posts here and here, I took the five pieces to the my studio for some machine stitching.

 

And here is the finished piece.  Unfortunately, the stitched design in the circles does not show up well in the photo.  It looks much better in person (In my humble opinion!).

Planets Triptych

This week, I've been finishing another UFO.  It's a piece that I started in the summer.  I started working on it after seeing a piece that my friend Diana did based on Carol Ann Waugh's Stupendous Stitching. Later, after signing up for Carol's online class, I had set this aside and I did the large colourful piece called Spirals, Lines & Serendipity.

In an attempt to finish up yet another of the unfinished pieces that I have lying around (thanks Tracey for your challenge!), I pulled this out and got back to it.

Each of the individual panels are mounted on 8" X 8" canvas squares, and the intension is to hang them vertically as shown here.

I've called it Planets because of the various spheres and the batik patterns on them.

Working Upside Down...

The entire time I was working on this piece, I had it in this orientation, from the initial layout, through the machine stitching and while I was working on adding the hand stitching.  Even when I mounted it on the canvas...

  

And then this morning, when I tried to hang it up on the wall, it told me I had it wrong.  Don't you love how clever it is to know which way it's to be hung!

I'm Putting On My Own Spin...

...or should I say spiral to Carol Ann Waugh's idea for a 'stupendous stitch' piece.  As I mentioned in a previous post (see here) I signed up for the Stupendous Stitching online class and created my stitch bible.  The next step was to start playing...

I started to couch various cords and ribbons onto a wonderfully bright piece of batik. I love spirals, so I just had to add some of them to this piece.  Not following the instructions of having lines going from one edge to the other, but that's just the way I am.  When I play with line spirals just seem to appear...

Here's another picture after I've added a variety of the fancy stitches that my machine is capable of.  Notice that even more spirals seem to have appeared.  :o)

And this is where I start to really have fun...

I'm taking this in a much different direction than what Carol Ann Waugh does since although it's a fun idea, I have to make it truly my own piece.  It may take me a while to finish, but I'm really excited about the direction I'm going with this.  Stay tuned to see the finished piece...I will post it when done, but that won't be for a while...

Have an ARTfully great day and thanks for visiting!

Now all I need is an iPad...

A couple of my friends asked me to make some iPad covers a while back, so that's what I've been doing for the last few days on my sewing machine.

I've used mostly batiks, and some of my own hand dyed and or surface designed fabric and a whole lot of fun free motion quilting.  I really like how the black thread pops on those bright colours.


You'll also notice I've added one of my faux tie-dye circles to the closure flap on each of the covers.

Too bad I don't have an iPad...sigh...

30 Minute Zippered Pouch

Unfortunately the process photos in this post were lost to computer gremlins.  I have been able to restore the final images.  Sorry!

As you will know if you've been following my blog, I found it necessary last week to go shopping for a new car (see why here).  This was also an opportunity to completely empty out the old car, reorganize my 'stuff' an decide what I really need it the new vehicle.  Something that is probably good to do once every 7 or 8 years! LOL.  I had a few small things that I wanted in the glove box (flashlight, spare batteries, note pad, etc.) so I decided to make a little zippered pouch to keep them in.

  I started with a piece of this pre-quilted scrap I had.  I thought it would be perfect because it gave me batting and a backing (which ended up being the lining of the bag) and it was free because someone had given it to me.

Next I grabbed my stash of little batik scraps.  I keep them in one of those zippered plastic pouches that bed sheets come in these days.  It's a great size and I can see through it so it's perfect!  

I just randomly started layering the scraps on the pre-quited backing, using a zig-zag raw edge applique method to secure them.  I used whatever strange shape I had and I think it added to the fun of the final result.

I wanted to add some more interest, so I cut some circles and squares than started adding them, again just using the zig-zag stitch.

Then I added some extra stitching lines on a few of the shapes, using a straight stitch to make spirals, etc. inside the shapes.

I stitched the zipper to one end, flipped it around and stitched the other side of the zipper to the other end, and then folded it, right sides together, and used my serger to stitch the side seams (remember to OPEN THE ZIPPER for this part).  I also serged across the corners to give it a bit of dimension and then I turned it right side out and it was done!  All that in 30 minutes!

Here's the finished pouch, showing both sides.  A great way to make something from nothing (or little seemingly useless scraps).