Bagged the Bag

My first attempt at a picnic bag was a fail.  You saw the pictures last week.  I kept revising the design.  I clipped where I shouldn't have, but fixed it with a ziz-zag.  Finally I was trimming an edge and cut it too deep.  I was thoroughly frustrated!!!!!!!   

I am very goal oriented and don't give up easily so I got busy hunting through my patterns and found another pattern that I had done before as a knitting bag, which I love.  I made a few revisions to accommodate the fabric in the my stash and the needs of a picnic bag and got busy on it.  I cannibalised the failed bag for a few parts and added them where I wanted them.  It is finished ready for our next road trip.  

THE Bag!

Inside with paper plates stowed.

Inside showing the rest of the stuff.

I made a flatware roll, which I expect to love.  I have always carried the flatware in a plastic bag and it was a pain.  I found a simple design on the Web.  It only took me a morning to make and will work great.  Next time I will make it a little bigger, but this will do the job for now.

Roll rolled up.

Roll opened up.

I am ready to travel!.  Meanwhile my poor quilt sits abandoned.  My daughter decided to make a quilt and got a kit in Hawaii.  She wants to make this quilt for her home in Southern CA.  She is not a quilter, but did a lot of sewing many years ago.  She looked at the cutting directions and threw up her hands in despair.  I have the quilt now and have spent two days sorting through the cutting directions and organizing them so she can hopefully figure it out.  It is really simple, but she is worried that she will get something off-grain and is generally afraid to cut.  Remember those days?  I will help her get started and she will end up with a lovely quilt I am sure because she is very capable.

Go out and have a picnic.  It is still summer!

       

Travels and The Bag

 I started a post the other day about the quilt I am working on.  It will have to wait.  You don't want to read about the hours of ripping I just finished....yet!

We drove to Seattle the first week in July.  It is a 2-day drive so we spent one night in a motel that knows us now and always gives us the same room on the ground floor and accommodates our dog.  Our grandson married his sweetheart two years ago on the Courthouse steps because of COVID.  Now that things have opened up their families threw a big party for them to take the place of the Wedding Reception that they couldn't have.  We spent a week there enjoying family, Fourth of July celebration and the Wedding Party.

I digress.  When we travel we carry our own food so we don't have to go hunting for a restaurant when we are tired  and impatient.  Thus we take a picnic bag that holds utensils, paper plates, etc, and a cooler with our simple supper.  The bag is made from a circle folded in half with a zipper around the round edge.  It opens flat, but is a nuisance as everything is topsy-turvey.  Time to build a new bag.

Old bag.

 Where to start?

Daughter #1:  "What do you want the bag to be like?"

Me:  "I don't know."

Daughter #1:  "Well, Mom, it is a little hard to make a bag if you don't know what you want!"

Daughter #5:  "Well, Mom, lay out everything you want in it, and plan from there."

Me:  "Jackpot!  Now I have somewhere to start.  AND I DID!"

So, my current project is the new bag:

1.  I found a simple, free pattern, well illustrated and explained. 

2.  I figured it out (mostly) went to gather fabric from my stash.  I found some heavy-duty canvas,               which may be waterproof in my stash, and fabric for the lining.

3.  Went to Joann's to pick up heavy stabilizer, webbing for handles and a zipper.

4.  Nothing to do now except follow the directions and get it done.

5.  As I work I am thinking:  "I may wish that it was bigger.  I may want the top to open wider (longer zipper).  Will the pockets work for my needs?  The webbing for the handles is a bit too wide I think.  Oh well, it is an hour's drive to Joann's so I'll push ahead with what I have.  We will try this one out and see  if I need to do a revised 2nd version."

6.  I cannibalised the old bag for some wide elastic and a mesh pocket.

Pieces of half the bag.
Outside is black, lining is blue.  I am ready to attach the handle straps.

7.  Finally, I will make a cutlery roll to organize the flatware and drop it into the bag

Sew some happy seams this week.  Try something new just for the fun of it.

.

Gaillardia

First post complete.  Now, what have I been doing for the last 2 years?  I am always busy.  I am a flea on a hot stove.  I am not averse to creating complicated quilts, but they take a long time to make, so I am not terribly productive when compared to some quilters I read about.

I was out walking after a rainstorm several years ago.  We have gaillardia growing all over the place.  I don't know whether they strayed from planted seeds or whether they are part of our normal flora here.  I took photos of a bunch of flowers that day, and got to the place where I was taking pictures just to take pictures.  I saw a very bedraggled gaillardia at the end of its beauty and somewhat the worse for wear after the storm, but the light was great.  I snapped the shot and when I saw it later I loved it.  That flower was colorful, dramatic and artistic.   I thought many times that I would like to do a quilt of it, but was always into some other project.  Now I had finished my latest and I did not have any UFO's.  I do not ever have UFO's.  I finish or toss.

Bedraggled gaillardia.

I even converted it to black and white.

Off to the computer where I had already developed my idea, but needed to create a pattern.  My method was fused appliqué, which I love doing.  I can create so many details that can't be pieced.  I don't think I even had to buy any fabric as I have a pretty substantial stash.  So... it was done!

I

Gaillardia quilt.

I did not succeed in showing the pokey things that come out of the center.  Maybe next time.

  Just for laughs here are some other photos I have taken of this bright and moody flower.

Sew some happy seams this week.  Have fun with your needles, threads and fabrics.

 I am wondering if I have any readers left.  I quit blogging when Blogger went over the top with so many changes and many of them did not work properly.  I hope that has changed so I will give it a try.  I think it has been about two years and I have been busy.  I may have stopped blogging, but I never stop sewing, dreaming sewing, creating sewing, and...well you get the drift.

I believe I left off when I was working on the Mayan Mask.  I finally added a new section to my mosaic quilt to solve a problem.  I put the mask on the new top part along with some colorful bird graphics.  Then I bound the quilt with the fancy prairie points.  This was binding with a facing and I love that method.  I do dislike doing traditional binding and I found this much easier.

King's Mosaic

Prairie Point Binding

This is the best I can do with photos on Blogger.  Still frustrated by that.  These show the various interesting points on the quilt and some of the quilting.

Enjoy a great week, summer weather, and summertime activities.

Mardi