arguably the coolest bag i've ever made

From the second I laid eyes on this quilted bag in a Japanese book I was editing, I KNEW I was going to make it.  My curiosity demanded it.  I'd never seen anything quite like it and I loved everything about it ... the shape, size, handles, patchwork, colours, monogram with embroidered outline, and of course the super cool swivel hook clasp.

At a glance, it looks pretty straight forward.  The patchwork is made from simple sashed squares set on point.  The body is mostly just top-stitching (also should have been done by hand).  Add a quick appliqued letter and throw on some handles and boom! there you have it.

However, like many clever Japanese designs, this one requires a little more attention than you think.  The squares are an odd size, and the patchwork pieces are cut with templates.  So when you're cutting/piecing them together, if your seam allowances aren't precise, the wheels fall off. 

About the appliqued letter - the book only comes with a template for "A", I'm assuming after the author Akemi Shibata.  So I had to find a font on my computer, get the correct size, and make my own template from there.  The gorgeous fabric I was given by Lecien is just so lovely to work with, but it's a thicker woven that isn't usually used for applique.  It took a little more attention to get the corners right.  Not gonna lie, the embroidered outline hides a little of my .. er ... less then perfect points. ;)

About the colours.  I know, I know, NOT something you'd think I'd like, right?  But I was kinda mesmerized by the interesting mix of black, brown, blue, green, and yellow.  So I dove into my stash and found it surprisingly easy to come up with these prints - 3 of each colour - and (almost) all from Lecien.  The original bag also used a fun book/letter print for the sashing so when I found this one in amongst all my "script" fabrics (of which I have several, so it turns out), I knew it would be perfect.  Don't be surprised if I end up making an entire quilt with these colours.  I won't be. LOL!

And then the hardware.  Love it.  Love it, love it, love it.  But here's the thing.  I needed to use dark thread to go with the leather, but the lining of the bag is very light.  I didn't want the stitches to show through and I didn't want to applique a "bandaid-cover-up patch" over the stitches on the inside afterwards.  Soooooo, I just took my time and stitched the handles and swivel hook - which have pre-punched holes - very slowly and carefully by only catching the top layer of fabric and batting with my needle.  Somewhat tedious, but well worth the results.  For me.

I got several questions about the red handles from my last post.  All the hardware from both of these bags will be available very soon from ZakkaWorkshop, the company that is publishing the English version of Akemi's book, "Quilted Bags & Gifts".

Happy weekend to you! xo k

they call me "the bag lady" ...

For a time, I worked at a quilt shop sewing shop samples, teaching classes, designing projects, and writing patterns.  My favourite thing was to make and teach bag classes - especially Japanese designs from books and magazines.  For me, they provide the perfect balance of design and interesting bag construction.  I learned something new from every project and was always eager to start the next one.  It didn't take long for me to earn the nickname "the bag lady".  So many times I'd be introduced to a customer and they'd say, oh YOU'RE the bag lady!  LOL!  It was fun, and I enjoyed it.

Ironically, I don't like carrying a purse.  Never have.  I'm good with just a wallet.  And for evenings out, my husband's suit pockets work great. ;)  I reluctantly carried around a tote of sorts when my girls were babies.  But now?  Not so much.  I've been going to a fitness place 3x/week now for almost 4 months and I carry my sneakers in a plastic shopping bag!  LOL!  I'm totally not kidding you.  My girls make fun of me saying that for someone who makes/owns so many bags, I have no excuse to NOT use a cute bag.  Excuse?  I don't even have an explanation.

I finally replaced the plastic bag with a cloth one last week, but it was a gift with purchase, not even one I made.  I know.  Again, no explanation.

That was my lead-in to this latest project ... a Japanese bag from Akemi Shibata's book, "Quilted Bags & Gifts" that will be available very soon in English!  I had the pleasure of working as a technical editor on the book, and was also asked to make a few bags for quilt market.

This little beauty is called "Two Way Hexagon Bag" - two way because it has both hand handles and a shoulder strap.  Oh how I love this bag!  Among the more obvious and charming features, it has a hidden pocket in the front, a zipper installed by hand, and I love the little finger tab on the end of the zipper.  And then there's the lovely red leather handles and strap!  I used Lecien's Mrs. March scraps from my stash that I've collected (hoarded) over the years. 

To me, this is not a 100% true rendition of a Japanese bag ~ I had to cheat a little with this one because of time.  I made the hexagons slightly larger so I had less EPP hand-stitching, and I wish I had time to hand quilt the hexagons too, but I had to settle for machine.  In fact, ALL the quilting should have been done by hand.  (Sigh.)  I machine-stitched the zipper bindings down rather than hand stitched them.  And the zipper tab was supposed to be two covered buttons, but the store was out of the correct size so I used a technique I'd learned from other patterns and that didn't require anything special.  And in the interest of FULL disclosure, the little loops to hold the D-rings for the shoulder strap also should have been hand-stitched in place.  I just caught them under the top zipper binding.  Ok, those are all of my sins confessed for this project.

I made another bag from Akemi's book that I'll show you soon.  It has a fighting chance of becoming my official "work-out" bag ... when I get it back after Quilt Market. :)

xo k

a spoonful of sugar ~ book tour

Lisa Cox has been a fixture in our blog community for many years and she never fails to delight us with beautiful photographs, pretty fabrics, and inspiring projects/tutorials.  I was over-the-moon happy when I heard she was writing a book!

It's finally here and I have great pleasure of showing you one of the projects from "A Spoonful of Sugar".

You know, I've been meaning to make a sewing portfolio for ... a really long time.  My sister even asked me to make one when her store-bought one was falling apart (back in the 90s or early 2000s ... I wasn't kidding when I said a really long time!).  I just never got around to it, I guess.  So when I saw Lisa's verison, I simply needed to make it.

I used all "Flower Sugar" fabrics by Lecien.  The main fabrics on the cover and the inside are from the newest collection that's coming out later this year.  But the handle fabric is about four years old and the binding fabric is from five years ago!  That's one of the things I love about Flower Sugar - it mixes so well from year to year.

Oh, and the solid pink is a Lecien Flower Sugar basic.

My first fabric pull for this project was pink for the main fabrics and yellow for contrast.  But at the last minute, I remembered my recent apology to yellow and a promise to myself to use it more often, so I did a last minute switcheroo.  I love how sunny and happy it looks.  Yellow is just cheerful.  Period.

A few "full-disclosure" items:

One - the original pattern in the book has a delightful hourglass patchwork cover, but sadly I didn't have enough time so the cover of this one is just something I made up on the fly, it's not in the book. 

Two - I'm really naughty about reading instructions carefully.  I'm embarrassed about that, but it's true.  It's quite ironic too, because if you've ever bought one of my patterns, you may have read the "Please Read Carefully" clause on the first page!  LOL!  Gotta love karma ... I got caught with this pattern.  One of the photos of the finished project shows what I thought was a decorative measuring tape ribbon stitched to the inside.  I thought it was a sweet and clever design detail, and I just so happened to have such a thing it my ribbon box.  I realized later that it is an actual measuring tape that's supposed to be functional!  (I'm such a donut sometimes, honestly.)

Three - I fussy cut a pretty rose for the tab closure and decided to use a magnetic clasp rather than a snap that would hide some of the rose.  That's just the way I roll.

I hope you are inspired to make one of these super handy portfolios for yourself, or even for a gift for a sewist you know.  If you've never sewn with plastic before, don't be scared!  The sewing machine goes through it like butter. 

I'm only one of many stops on this book tour.  Here's a list of all the blogs you can visit to find out more about Lisa's book that I think belongs in every sewist's library. :)

April 26 – Jodie Carlton from Ric Rac

April 28 – Melissa LeRay from Oh How Sweet

April 29 – Jemima Flendt from Tied With a Ribbon

April 30 – Beverley McCullough from Flamingo Toes

May 2 – Sedef Imer from Down Grapevine Lane

May 3 – Nadra Ridgeway from Ellis and Higgs

May 4 – Amy Morinaka from Chick Chick Sewing

May 5 – Caroline Critchfield from Sew Can She

May 6 – Me ;)

May 7 – Bronwyn Hayes from Red Brolly

May 9 –  Anorina Morris from Samelia’s Mum

May 10 – Peta Peace from She Quilts A Lot

May 11 – Faith Essenburg from Sarana Ave

May 12 – Angie Wilson from Gnome Angel

May 13 – Sharon Burgess from Lilabelle Lane Creations

May 14 – Stacy Olson from Stacy Olson

May 16 – Ayda Algin from Cafenohut

May 17 – Jennie Pickett from Clover and Violet

May 18 – Wynn Tan from Zakka Art

May 19 – Lisa Cox from A Spoonful of Sugar

Lisa, thanks a million for inviting me to participate in this book tour.  Your work delights and inspires me always.  Congratulations on a lovely book.  Looking forward to your encore publication! ;)  xo k