Signs of Life ... And Productivity! / Beauties Pageant 314

In the past ten-plus years of blogging, I don’t think I’ve ever gone three weeks without posting something. For those of you who showed up since October 24 wondering what the heck I was up to (because apparently it was not writing blog posts), I was having fun!

First there was a girls-only vacation to Disney World, followed by days of recovery from the girls-only vacation to Disney World, and then a guild retreat in the backwoods of New Hampshire.

The retreat was a WIP marathon for me. I found that I had multiple projects close to the finish line, and there was nothing like two days in the middle of nowhere to get me to finish them. (More on that sometime soon!) 

But even Disney required some sewing, as evidenced here by the six Hudson pouches I made in advance of the trip. (The pattern, by Sotak Handmade, is available here.) I gifted each amusement-park goer in my party—including my mother-in-law, who couldn’t make the trip—one of these beauties. 

I followed my favorite approach to small projects: I discovered that I had six nylon zippers in my stash. I purchased a pattern that would work with the sizes on hand. I dug around in my drawers for fabric options that coordinated with the zippers and might appeal to the recipients. The result? Six different and lovely pouches!

I cut into two ladybug fabrics I have been hoarding for the endeavor. For my pouch, I paired a bright-red ladybug fabric with scraps of a dark denim-linen blend on the exterior. For another pouch, I used a ladybug fabric as the lining. 

I considered venturing to a local bag-making-supply store to purchase zipper pulls for the pouches but opted to adorn just one pouch with a Sarah Hearts charm I purchased at QuiltCon last year.

I have more production lines planned—not for Hudson pouches, but for other little bags and more thread catchers. My best word of advice on that subject is to minimize thread changes. Nothing slows down production more than stopping to replace a spool or bobbin, so I stuck with cream or pale gray for all of these gifts. : )

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Overcoming Quilty Procrastination / Beauties Pageant 247

I am a pretty disciplined person. I start what I finish. I make messes, but I also clean them up. I like completing projects and crossing things off my to-do lists. It’s just the way I’m hard wired. Every so often, however, I procrastinate.

A case from the archives: my Gypsy Wife quilt. I think anyone who’s tackled that pattern will attest to the sheer number of decisions a Gypsy Wife requires and the challenge of following the instructions. Yet, I started out 2022 with the goal of finishing my quilt before the end of the year, and I had it pieced, quilted, and bound in March 2022—nine months ahead of schedule!

All of this is to say that deadlines work for me. I don’t assign one to every project—that would make quilting feel more like a job than a joy to me—but when it’s hard getting something over the finish line, it’s time to look at the calendar and come up with a reasonable timeline. 

Here are some truths that I’ve discovered in this journey from WIP to finish. Do any of them ring true for you?

You’re Likely Further Along Than You Think

When I pick up a long-procrastinated project, I am almost always further along than I remember. It’s a nice surprise and, I think, shows how once an item is relegated to the back burner, its challenges grow in my mind. 

When I picked up my Gypsy Wife in January 2022, I was surprised with how far along I was with block construction. Did I still have a bunch to do? Sure, but I gave myself an entire year to wrap it up, and I was bragging about the finish in a blog post here just 12 weeks later.

 

Starting and Stopping Requires Time

I will never be a one-project-at-a-time gal. I like the variety that having multiple projects going at one time offers, and I enjoy the process of creating (not just finishing) as a result. There’s nothing wrong with putting down a project with the intent of picking it up again in the future, but if that practice becomes a cycle that doesn’t result in a finish, it become a time suck for me.

Case in point: my Sandhill Sling, which is pictured above and below (and originally blogged about here). I started sewing my sling back in September 2023. I was very, very far along in the process when I realized a detail on the front was every-so-slightly off (I’m literally talking about adjusting something an eighth of an inch, friends). Multiple times in the months that followed, I picked up the project, read the pattern, determined what fixing this minor detail would entail, watched a video about finishing the bag, and decided I didn’t have the (emotional?) bandwidth to finish the bag.

That cost me! I wonder how much time I wasted processing the pattern information, putting the project aside, and then repeating the process a month or two later.

In the end, I assigned a deadline for the sling: I was going to finish it in time to take it to QuiltCon 2024. With that in mind, I reassessed the eighth-inch mistake and decided to live with it. Then I proceeded to watch that video yet again, hand-basted the lining, and attached that lining to the exterior with my machine. After that, I realized that the bag was too small for my QuiltCon needs and left it at home. But hey, I finished my bag!

 

Prepare for the Hit of Dopamine

Do you know what I think I can accomplish after tackling a long-procrastinated sewing project. Anything! Bring on the Y-seams, the curves, the free-motion quilting ... I just finished a WIP! Do not underestimate the power in that (and how much a brain enjoys the accompanying jolt of dopamine)!

So what’s lurking in your closet or under your sewing machine table that needs to be finished?!

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Triangle Pouch by Sew Lux / Beauties Pageant 234

It always feels good to end the week with a finish, even a pint-size one!

I’ve long admired the pouch and pillow patterns designed by Chrissy Lux, and I finally made time in my sewing schedule to try out her Triangle Pouch. 

This pattern is a great way to use up a lone mini-charm pack or, in my case, the remnants of a jelly roll.

I love how this project exudes personality both inside and out. The autumnal palette on the exterior opens up to a gray and cream dot on the interior that’s punctuated by contrasting binding strips. Because if you’re going to take the time to bind raw interior edges, you might as well give them a little oomph, right?

This may be my first Triangle Pouch, but it will not be my last! I have three additional striped zippers that are begging to be transformed into something special. With one Triangle Pouch under my belt, it’s easy to plot three more.

Should you want to make your own Triangle Pouch, you can find the pattern on the Sew Lux site and view the accompanying YouTube video here. The fabrics, alas, are all out of print: I used Songbook by Fancy That Design House for the exterior and a Swiss dot by Jen Kingwell for the interior. The super awesome zipper comes in tomato (pictured), as well as aqua and black, and can be purchased at Stitch Supply Co.

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Three Popcorn Pouches, One Easy Zipper Project / Beauties Pageant 183

For the past two years, a bag full of prepped Popcorn Pouches has been living in my fabric chest. Whenever I open the bottom drawer, I move this bag out of the way and carefully replace it before I close the drawer back up. It’s been so long since I selected the fabric for these pouches and cut the necessary pieces that I can’t remember my plan for them, but surely I envisioned something better than moving their pieces from here to there and back again!

There’s something to be said for having projects at the ready, though, because when my guild held its bimonthly sewing bee, I knew those pouches were the perfect project to cart there.

This is not my first go-round with the Amista Baker’s Popcorn Pouch pattern (available here). I did make a slew of these little numbers back in 2020, four of which are pictured in this post. I added some bling to that bunch and sent them off as Mother’s Day gifts and as thank-you gifts for pattern testers.

The latest round includes three pouches—one in the mini size and two in the small. If your zipper stash is getting unwieldy, this is a quick and easy pattern to put those zips to good use.

 

My advice for easy zipper installation is to use Steam-a-Seam 2, a double-sided fusible tape that’s a quarter-inch wide. I find that using this tape, and then adding some Wonder Clips for good measure, keeps my zippers in place as I stitch. The skinny adhesive gets hidden away in the seam allowance. I also use it to keep the back side of my binding strips on these pouches neat and tidy.

My other tip: If you’re making multiple pouches, try to find one thread color to do all the work. I used the same off-white Gutermann thread for everything except finishing the bindings. The limited number of bobbin changes and rethreading episodes made the process go faster.

For you fabric nerds out there, the selections represented here are all oldies but goodies. In the pics throughout this post, you’ll see Persimmon by Basic Grey, Turkish Delight by Josephine Kimberling, and Lark by Amy Butler.

I am signing off for the month of August. Come back in September for new posts, the latest linky, and some giveaways! Wishing you all a wonderful end to the summer!

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Henlo Fren Pillow / Beauties Pageant 117

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ve likely clued into the dog obsession here at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. We currently have one furry family member, a five-year-old Golden named Rose whose big personality demands that the rest of the household revolves around her. 

This obsession has only grown worse over the past year. My husband and I, in an effort to keep our wits about us during the monotony of the pandemic, have started following dog accounts on Instagram and TikTok. And let me tell you, there are dog lovers, and then there are dog lovers on social media.

In fact, that second group speaks its own language. Those people talk not of dogs and puppies but doggos and puppers, and greet each other with “henlo fren” instead of “hello friend.” Those hoomans feed their canine companions treatos and brush their doggos’ floof. And sometimes, when their pets are being extra naughty (see Rose in the pic above with my sock!), they just have to shrug and concede that’s just doggos being doggos.

Hello Friend Pillow Pattern Hack

The time spent on canine-friendly social media instigated a pillow pattern hack. Using the Hello Friend pattern Happy Sew Lucky released at the beginning of the pandemic, I made my own Henlo Fren pillow. All the letters I needed for “henlo fren” appear in the phrase “hello friend,” so there was little actual hacking to do; the only sacrifice I made for my version is forgoing the original’s cool letter spacing. 

My husband was pretty excited to receive this as a Christmas gift. Actually, I think it’s the most excited he’s gotten about any project I’ve made in the nearly 20 years I’ve been sewing!

A Past Pillow Debacle

It had been a few years since my last foray into pillow making. Pillows are supposed to be fun, satisfying sews, and a 2019 pillow project ended badly. I took some much-loved bits of Alison Glass fabrics and sewed them into this lumpy mess ...

What went wrong? Well, I quilted the pillow cover too densely, which affected its drape (or lack thereof). I couldn’t remedy the stiff cover, but I did try to get it to fit the pillow form properly. Multiple attempts to trim excess fabric were ineffective, and after banishing the pillow cover to a dark corner of my closet for a year, I chopped it up and resurrected it as two pretty awesome See-It-All Pouches. Nice, right? (I wrote more about this pouch pattern, from Aneela Hoey, and sewing with vinyl here.)

The Merits of a Zipper Enclosure

I knew I didn’t want to make the same mistakes with this pillow, so I swiped the quilting design directly from Happy Sew Lucky’s pattern: I started with a line of quilting along the perimeter of the word bubble and then echoed that shape every half-inch. It’s simple and elegant, and adequately attaches the pillow cover to the fleece lining.

The pattern provides instructions for both an envelope enclosure and a hidden-zipper enclosure. (For that matter, it also offers two options for sewing the words: traditional piecing or paper piecing. I paper-pieced my words.) Although I usually opt out of installing zippers whenever I can, I’ve sewn plenty of them (see more zipper projects here) and chose to follow the pattern’s zipper instructions, which created a clean finish. I did make my cover an inch smaller horizontally and vertically, just so there was a little more poof and a little less extra room once I inserted the 20-inch form. Together, the zipper enclosure and slightly smaller cover resulted in a pillow whose plumpness is evenly distributed and lump free. 

Words of Pillow-Making Wisdom, Perhaps?

Everyone has his or her own preferences when it comes to making pillows. Happy Sew Lucky has me sold on zippers. What are your words of wisdom for the pillow-making masses?

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Adding Bling to Some Bags / Beauties Pageant 81

Despite the dozens of zippers I have installed in past projects, the process continues to intimidate me. I think the issue is that I sew with zippers in short spurts—when I, say, bang out Christmas presents for a small army or tackle the four zippers in a Sew Together Bag. There’s just enough time in between such projects that I begin to doubt my zipper acumen.

But recently, I had the need for some quick gifts—for Mother’s Day, as thank-you gifts—and I decided to make Amista Baker’s Popcorn Pouch pattern. It’s one that’s been on my radar screen since its release back in 2018, and it proved to be both a simple and a satisfying sew. In fact, the zipper installation is so straight-forward that it would be an appropriate project for beginners.

I love making pouches and bags because they’re practical gifts and I can never have enough of them myself. They’re also a good way to use stashed fabric that hasn’t worked for quilt projects. Look at that Cotton and Steel fabric at the top of the post. It’s lovely, but I struggled to fit it into more than one quilt top (this one). On a pouch or two, though, it’s the star.

And consider the Denyse Schmidt fabrics in the pouch below. They’re from collections sold at a national chain. Because they weren’t quilt-shop quality, I hesitated to use them in projects that would get washed over and over again. An item that won’t get laundered, though, is the perfect venue for them.

All the zippers, fabric, and interfacing used in the nine Popcorn Pouches I made came from my stash, so I thought I’d indulge in some crafty retail therapy by buying some charms to use as zipper pulls. They were inexpensive, were easy to install, and added a little personality to the finished products.

A question for my fellow bag makers: Have you upped your zipper-pull game? My first foray into adding a little bling to bags was simple: I attached single charms with jump rings. If you have any suggestions on what I can do in the future, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

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Finishes Big and Small / Beauties Pageant 75

Buy the Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern here!

It’s been fun to have my family around during this hunker-down-at-home pandemic. All four of us get to have dinner together every night and talk more than usual. I have ample time to do whatever the kids want me to do with them. Mom, do you want to watch a show/read a book/talk about video games? The answer is almost always yes—although to be truthful, when it comes to talking about video games, I just smile and nod in agreement with whatever my 11-year-old is saying.

But sometimes it’s not fun. Sometimes I find myself—quite literally—running away from that same 11-year-old, locking doors behind me, yelling, “Leave me alone!” For as much as I love my family, I am an introvert who recharges by spending quiet time by herself. That’s where my sewing hobby comes into play.

I am often quilting for sanity these days. After all, my sewing machine doesn’t talk back to me. Actually, it makes few demands of me at all, apart from the occasional drink of oil and new needle. And it lets me think without interruption; I feel smarter when I spend time with it. Also, when a project is finished, it stays finished. I wish I could say the same about the state of the laundry, the dishes, or the house in general.

As a result, I am making good progress on a lot of projects. Some of them, like the quilt at the top of the post, were among the 21 WIPs I identified back in November. (For the record, that list has been whittled down to 15. Yahoo!) That is my Warm and Cool Coin Quilt, the first official From Bolt to Beauty pattern, sewn with Kate Spain’s Canyon collection. It’s with a team of great testers now. I will be sharing more pictures of and details about that pattern in upcoming weeks. : )

Other projects are small and satisfying. Remember my See-It-All Pouches? I made two more. The latest pouches started out as a pillow cover that was over quilted and, as a result, rather stiff. I cut it up to make two lovelies that went straight to guild friends. Here are the before and after pics ...

Yes, that’s much better.

Have you had the luxury, like me, of getting extra sewing time these days? If you have finishes to share, please add them to the linky below!

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Vinyl See-It-All Pouches / Beauties Pageant 68

This past week I spent some time doing one of the things I do best: making a bunch of small projects into one big project.

My original plan was to make two zipper pouches for friends who will be attending QuiltCon later this month and fill them with silly items that will remind those friends of our past QuiltCon adventures. I followed the pattern for Aneela Hoey’s See-It-All Pouch, from her Stitched Sewing Organizers. The pattern calls for one 10-inch zipper per pouch, but I had five 10-inch zippers on hand. So, I started up the assembly line—after all, busting one’s stash includes busting one’s zipper hoard.

I cut into some Kokka fabric, designed by Ellen Baker, that has been aging in my stash since 2013 for the first two pouches. Apparently, it can take seven years to find the right project for a fabric.

Then I used up some bits of a Rifle Paper Co. print for pouch #3 ...

And cut into a mystery fabric (middle, below) and some yardage from Rae Hoekstra’s Lotus line (far right, below—in the stash since 2014!) for the fourth and fifth pouches.

This was my first time sewing with vinyl, and it wasn’t a big deal. I had some issues when finishing the binding on the pouches, though. I attached the binding to the back and finished by machine-sewing the binding from the front, and I couldn’t get the bobbin thread to stay on the binding on the back, especially at the curves. (The straight pieces of binding along the zipper were easy-peasy.) It wasn’t a problem that got better with each pouch, and I had to accept I was doing the best I could. Some sewers would look at the backs and think they are perfect as is. I just like precision with finishing details like that.

You’re welcome to skip this numbered list. There are my notes to my future self for sewing with vinyl in general and sewing this pattern in particular!

1. Iron the vinyl to address any wonkiness when it comes off the roll—just use a lower heat setting with a pressing cloth, and weight the vinyl to cool.

2. Use a bigger needle size (I used a 14 here) and a longer stitch length.

3. Cover vinyl that comes in direct contact with the feed dogs or presser foot with tissue paper. The tissue paper prevents the vinyl from sticking and easily tears away after sewing.

4. Use a 3/8-inch seam for attaching the binding to the back instead of the scant 1/2-inch seam called for by the pattern. (Hmmm ... that may be part of my binding sadness, though. Perhaps I should try a scant 3/8-inch seam for a sixth pouch?)

5. Remember that you’re perforating the vinyl when you sew it, so you have only a few times to pick out stitches and resew without undermining the integrity of the vinyl. If you need to resew the final strip of binding, you can always trim away from the perimeter of the pouch so the next set of holes hits at different spots on the vinyl.

Have you sewn with vinyl? I no longer have any 10-inch zippers in my stash, but I had to buy the vinyl for these pouches and have some left over. (How is that for irony? I used up all my zippers of a particular size but now am stuck with leftover vinyl.) I would love to hear any recommendations you have for using that vinyl up! : )

Linking up to TGIFF at Sarah Goer Quilts ...

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