Can I just say how much I love fun projects like this? I really enjoyed making this bag and I think a lot of it had to do with it being an awesome kit made by Sotak Handmade. Svetlana has been steadily working on her own designs and screen printing them on fabric. She also sells a few kits in her shop from time to time and I was happy to scoop one up.

I had purchased the bag kit over the summer and was saving it for a rainy (actually snowy would be more accurate) day. I have been busying myself with cleaning up my sewing area and getting things a bit more tidy and organized. Actually, I had been planning on moving my sewing space to our basement, but at the last minute (after moving almost everything) decided it just wasn’t right. So in the process of moving things I actually found it to be a great opportunity to really look through what I have and how it all flows through my workspace. Of course one of the things I found was this kit and decided it would be the perfect quick project I needed to stay focused and feel somewhat accomplished.

The kit had everything pre-cut and set to go, plus the instructions all in a cute box. So if you’re shopping for someone creative, I totally see a kit like this being such a fun gift. I hadn’t ever bought a kit before, so it was such a fun experience! I enjoyed every minute of stitching it up. This drawstring bag was especially fun because of the variety of sewing. From patchwork to quilting to bag making there was just enough of each which made it super satisfying. Svetlana does have a PDF pattern you can purchase that includes multiple sizes. I’m definitely planning on doing a few more of these for gifts.

I hope you’re having fun doing some gift sewing! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year!

Happy Friday! I’m excited to have finished this Tangelo quilt this week (started here). It was definitely a project I let sit for long periods of time without working on. Usually I like quilting a quilt right after I’m done piecing the top, but this time was a little different. I knew I wanted to try free motion quilting like Carolyn does on her quilts. It was really intimidating for me so I let it sit for a few months before deciding I just needed to get started!

I ended up making another column to the top to make it a bit wider, I’m glad I did. I think the colors are balanced really well. I used Me + You Indah Batiks for the triangles and I love how it turned out. The colors are so pretty!

This was also my first time paper piecing an entire quilt top! I’ve done a bit of paper piecing in the past, but never an entire top. I’m really proud that I stuck with this project and that I tried quite a few things I normally haven’t done in the past. It’s always exciting to push myself to try new things. I know it’s easy to get stuck and always doing what’s comfortable, so this was a great exercise in doing something uncomfortable and I feel very rewarded for doing that!

The free motion quilting is something I thoroughly enjoyed on this quilt. It took a bit of time and forgiving myself of little mistakes, but I am so excited to try out more of this style of quilting! I’ve done more traditional stippling before, but this was a whole new thing for me. I highly recommend Carolyn’s Creativebug classes, and she has one specifically on how she does this type of quilting.

I’m excited to ship this one off, just need to add a quilt label! I think this one definitely calls for it.

Pattern: Tangelo Quilt (baby size) by Carolyn Friedlander
Fabric: Me + You Indah Batiks and a chambray for the background (sorry I can’t recall which),
Carkai for the backing

Hope you have a great weekend!

So far I’m having a bit of fun with the Tangelo quilt. I’m going for the baby size quilt and hopefully will be gifting it as soon as it’s finished. I really like how it’s coming together so far. These Me + You fabrics are so fun to work with, I love the colors and textures!

It’s been a while since I’ve paper pieced anything other than the Rainbow Clutch (pattern in my book). And I’m not sure I’ve ever paper pieced an entire quilt of any size. I did a bit for the Ringo Pie quilting bee, those blocks were always such an adventure! So I wanted to make sure what I was doing was going to be right! I love the piecing instructions. I kept them right next to me while cutting and can say that it’s really nice that there is hardly any waste. I did manage to get into a good flow once I got a few blocks in. There’s a really nice rhythm to this type of piecing, one that you can turn on a podcast and just sew and trim to your heart’s content.

I’m already looking ahead to the quilting part and taking stock of what I might need to buy. It’s seems that every time I sew I look for gray thread and have just run out and never ordered more. Every. time. ug. It is nice now though, Natalie loves putting my thread in color order, so she’s in charge of that. I’m terrible at organizing in that way, so I’m glad she takes over. Next I’ll have her folding fabric!

I’m hoping the removal of the paper doesn’t drive me too crazy in the end. I’m definitely excited to put together the quilt top! I have just the recipient in mind. I also have two more quilt tops that I’d like to transform into quilts sooner than later. Until then, they’ll been sitting patiently in a drawer until I’m ready.

Pattern: Tangelo Quilt by Carolyn Friedlander
Fabrics: Me + You by Hoffman Fabrics, chambray background