Monthly Archives: May 2017

Bernina Block of the Month#2

Quilts, Sewing, Sewing Crafts Posts,

It has been a few days since the Second Bernina Block of the Month(BOM) came out, and I finally finished it today.  Since I am buying my fabric as I go, it has taken me a while to find anything that I like.  I am roughly using their color suggestions.  I am trying to use my scraps and buy new ones along the way.

This month they called this the Shoofly block. It uses squares and half square triangles to make a simple 9 patch block.  I found myself at Craft Warehouse yesterday looking over their truckload sale.  I originally went in thinking that I would purchase 3 gray fat quarters, 1 blue fat quarter, and 1 yellow fat quarter.  I found some beautiful fat quarters, but soon realized that I was going to spend twice as much and get less fabric than if I bought a quarter yard of each fabric.  So I reluctantly put back the beautiful fat quarters and searched for a yellow, gray and blue fabric that I liked.  After a half hour of searching, I came up with the following fabrics.

When I got home, I put Abigail down for a nap, and began cutting the fabric into the needed squares for this month’s BOM.  I got all of my squares cut, then began cutting the larger squares into half square triangles.  I was not watching what I was doing, and on the last square I messed up cutting the triangle properly.  The worst part was that I did not have any extra fabric to just cut another triangle.  I guess that is the risk I take when I do not buy extra fabric and only buy what is needed.

I then began assembling the triangles last night.  Some how I managed to use the messed up triangle.  When I messed up the cutting, I managed to cut it in a way that still left me with a little bit of room to make my quarter inch seam.  Before I get too far on this quilt I may think about seeing if there is a product out there to secure that seam.  Whether I use some sort of iron on fusible webbing or a glue of sorts that will not let the seam fray.

This morning I put the three blocks together per the instructions and this is what I ended up with.

Bag Time

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The last Bernina Mastery class that I took a couple of weeks ago inspired me to work on making bags/totes.  I made a quilted zipper pouch in the class and decided that I could apply what I had learned and make my own bags and totes.  Here is a picture of what I had made in class.  The instructions were to make the exterior black, but I decided that I preferred the interior lining fabric as the exterior.  So, I switched it up a bit.

My sister moved nearby and I decided that I would gather a housewarming basket for her.  As I gathered everything that I wanted to give her, I noticed that I would need a large bag or basket to put it all in.  While I was at “A Common Thread”, I found a thin foam batting, and decided that I could make a large bag for her.   So I found some leftover fabric that I had laying around, and decided to quilt her a large tote bag.  I used one yard of fabric for the exterior and one yard of fabric for the interior.  I used my Bernina Stitch Regulator(BSR) to quilt the exterior of the bag by tracing around the cupcake design.  Once the bag was completed, it was huge!  I love how it turned out.  She can now use it in the back of her car for trips/groceries, or what ever she wants.  I had a lot of fun with this one.

I then wanted to try making a couple of simple tote bags with an embroidered design.  I choose a design, and made the same bag, but two different ways. On the first bag I choose to quilt the exterior and the lining.  I like how stiff the bag turned out, but that required me to have seams showing on the interior of the bag.  I do not like that look quite so well.  On the second bag I choose not to quilt it at all, but kept it fully lined.  This bag has no visible seems.  I like that, but afraid that it might not stand up after washing it.  I did enjoy making these bags.  I also used cotton webbing for the straps, which I have never done before, but love how it turned out.  I will use this product again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what the quilting looked like before I put the quilted bag together.  It was nice to get some more practice with the BSR.

Here is the inside view of the quilted bag.  As you can see there are several seams that you can see, but the I still like how the bag holds up.

I had fun playing with the embroidery module on my machine.  Each of the bags has the same design but I used blue on one bag and yellow on the other.