Simply Charming Twister Tote

It's Cool to Be Square Blog Hop. 

Thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt, for hosting this blog hop.

Here is my Cool little story about Squares. I had wanted to make this tote bag for a while and this blog hop was the perfect reason to make it. I had purchased a charm pack in 2016 as we drove through Boise, Idaho on our way to Washington state for my Mom's 90th birthday celebration. We stopped at a few quilt shops along the way in a few states. I had no idea what I was going to use the charm pack for because I don't normally buy pre-cuts.

I figured I may as well use this charm pack for making the Simply Charming Tote (Around the Bobbin pattern). To make a Twister quilt or bag, you must first sew together squares (It's Cool to be Square). Well I forgot to take a photo of the squares all sewn together, but I did square up the scraps leftover after cutting the Twister blocks out and sewed those back together in the correct order, so here is essentially the same thing only in smaller squares:

This is a Moda Charm Pack with sewing related wording on the printed text fabrics and dots, stripes, plaid flower prints on the rest. In black, red, gray and white.

Here is my finished Simply Charming Tote:

If you know me then you know I like to make changes in bags I make by adding or subtracting things or both. Here I added strap tabs with rings and rivets to both the straps tabs and straps.

The back of the bag has different fabrics from the front. All from the same fabric charm pack.

I did add purse feet to the bag. (Not part of the pattern instructions).

Inside I added one slip pocket and a zippered pocket too. The bag closes with a magnetic snap and you can see the bag opens up nice and wide.

This fabric is printed with houses and trees and the text is all addresses.

I divided a pen pocket and the rest of the pocket is divided into smaller sections.

So boys and girls, the moral of this story is that Squares really are COOL, because they can grow up to become other cool things too like Twister quilts or bags, lol! That's my Cool to Be Square project. I hope you enjoyed it. Now be sure and check out the rest of today's blogs to see what project each of them came up with and if you missed any day, you can visit those other blogs that you missed too. Thanks for stopping by to visit.

May 22:

Just Let Me Quilt

Vroomans Quilts

Patchouli Moon Studio (you are here)

Den syende himmel

Quilt Fabrication

Samelia's Mum

In case you missed any of the other days, check them out:

May 18

Creatin' in the Sticks

Life in the Scrapatch

Day Brook Designs

Songbird Designs

The Darling Dogwood

Kathleen McMusing

Quilting Gail

May 19

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Quilt In A Not-Shell

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Seams To Be Sew

Daughters of Dorinda

Kathy's Kwilts and More

May 20

Ms P Designs USA

Selina Quilts

Karen's Korner

Just Because Quilts

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Sew Many Yarns

May 21

Scrapdash

Websterquilt

Quilt Schmilt

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

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It's Cool to Be Square Blog Hop

It's Cool to Be Square. A blog hop proving that starts today, so go and check out what cool and square projects these bloggers have made. 

May 18

Creatin' in the Sticks

Life in the Scrapatch

Day Brook Designs

Songbird Designs

The Darling Dogwood

Kathleen McMusing

Quilting Gail

May 19

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Quilt In A Not-Shell

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Seams To Be Sew

Daughters of Dorinda

Kathy's Kwilts and More

May 20

Ms P Designs USA

Selina Quilts

Karen's Korner

Just Because Quilts

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Sew Many Yarns

May 21

Scrapdash

Websterquilt

Quilt Schmilt

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

May 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Vroomans Quilts

Patchouli Moon Studio

Den syende himmel

Quilt Fabrication

Samelia's Mum

My day to share is the last day, so please come back to visit.

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ETA Pouches

I joined a Facebook Group called, Bags by Bags of Style, and Christine the designer had a free pdf in the files called ETA Pouch. So I downloaded the pdf and in the pdf is a link for a video showing Christine making the bag step-by-step.

The pattern piece itself looked different and odd, so I thought I better watch the video first and see how she makes this bag. I did watch the video and I made my first ETA Pouch in a Chile Pepper print. It really turned out well and was so different from other pouches I had sewn. Christine surely must have the kind of brain that likes puzzles.

The second ETA Pouch I made using 2 print fabrics. That's the fun part about making this bag is that you can make it all in one fabric or mix and match fabrics. Especially great when you have a large scrap of fabric, but not enough for a front and a back.

You can see a seam down the center front, but the way this bag is constructed is different that you would think. There are no side seams on the ETA.

Don't you love a pop of bright color inside? This lime green looks great. There is a zippered pocket inside.

The top zipper tabs are longer (and they are not separate tabs either) as you will soon find out if you want to attempt to make one of these bags.

I used 2 fabrics to make the exterior of this ETA Pouch.

Another thing is the lining fits nice and snug too. Better than other bags I have made.

So after making the two ETA Pouches, I wanted to try and make one with 2 fabrics, but make it more the traditional zipper pouch way that I am used to and see which I prefer, not just in making but how they look. Using about the same measurements, I was surprised that this one came out taller than the ETA.

On this pouch I added both a zippered pocket and a slip pocket with a pen division.

I like the easy way of making a regular zippered pouch, mainly because I am used to making them, but on mine above the zipper tabs are not as clean and sleek looking as the ETA. Because the ETA has longer tabs the bag doesn't open up quite as wide as the regular pouch, but it's a large enough pouch that I don't know if it matters all that much?

The looks are similar from the exterior and the interior and both are a medium-ish size pouch. I sure love the results from the ETA and by making more I will get more used to her way of making this bag. It's also fun to use more than one fabric outside.

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Zippered Pouch in Batik Strips with Added Name on Pouch

Just before this virus closed down so many places, a woman in my stitch group asked me to make her a bag with her name on it for when she played golf to keep her stuff inside. We met and I gave her the bag and the next day all our groups were cancelled until further notice. I was happy that I was able to get it to her, or I might still have it waiting until we would see each other again.

Becky wanted the bag bright colors, but left the rest to me. So I decided to use many bright colors and used lots of strips of batik fabric. Then I enlarged a font on the computer for her name and painted it on the fabric. I added a wrist strap (to hang off her golf bag). The bag could double as a cosmetic bag or small project bag too.

The back side of the bag.

Bright lining too.

Quilted with variegated thread in wavy lines.

Becky didn't want any pockets inside, but I thought she might at least want a pen, so I used some fold-over elastic to make a pen holder.

I had to include one of my Thank You pens for her. Actually it says, "Thanks-Patchouli Moon Studio-Bags by Daryl P"

Becky was pleased with the bag and that made me happy too. I hope she was able to use it for something else until she could play golf again.
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Beehive Needle Stitch Book

Long before we were all quarantined, the applique group I belong to decided to all make a stitch book to hold our hand sewing  needles. The book was curved at the top and had an inside page on each side and the front and back of the book.

Well you know me, I have to change things to suit myself and so I added more pages and made my book without the curved arch. I added a Kam snap to close the book (instead of a tie) and on the inside pages, I added labels (that I made myself) to designate the different kind of needles and where to place them. After all what good is a needle book if you have 10 kinds of needles all stuck into one piece of felt, which is how all my other needle books are.

I also added or changed the applique a bit and added beads, buttons and more. I used wool felt, wool and rayon blend felt that I hand dyed myself with Kool Aid, some acrylic felt too. I love how my needle book came out and I will be using it more than my other needle books because now I know what needle is what.

The beehive is some Kool Aid dyed wool blend felt I dyed years ago. The pink flowers are acrylic felt. The embroidery floss I used around the beehive ran when I misted it with water to remove the marking pen lines. So now my beehive has a halo of gold around it. It must be a heavenly beehive, lol!

Can you see the halo around the beehive where the embroidery floss color ran? I added a few tiny hot fix crystals above the hive for more bling.

This is the back outside of the book. 

First pages inside.

I used a purple heart Kam snap and a piece of measuring tape ribbon to snap the scissors in place. I don't like to use ribbon ties because they take longer to tie and the ties tend to look all ratty after awhile of being used. A cute sewing machine button anchors the ribbon at the other end. The purple thing you see is actually a knitting needle point protector that I like to use for small scissors to protect the scissors points too. 

I made labels for all my different needles. I typed the names into a columned document on the computer and printed them out and then used clear adhesive shelf liner and taped it down on the entire front and the back of the printed paper. I cut them apart using my ruler and rotary cutter and punched holes on each side. Then I just hand sewed them down with a button over each punched hole.

These pages show more needle types.

The beehive door is actually a pincushion. I am using the felt pieces like here under the beehive and on the first inside page to hold a few pins instead of holding the needles from the original pattern.

Not sure if you can see that the beehive door is stuffed to make it a pincushion. I kind of went overboard with the beads around the hive. I wasn't sure how it would look and the more I added the busier it looked to me, but I didn't want to take it all out, so I left it alone. 

This is the stitch book made by my friend, Bobbie, and it's her house we meet at for our applique group (that is before the quarantine started). This is how the Stitch Book is supposed to look (before I changed mine). The book has an arched top and binding all around. Bobbie does such beautiful work!

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A Variety of Fabric Christmas Gift Bags

I hope all of you my dear friends and followers are doing well. This is a different time for us all. For me it's great to be able to get a lot of sewing done and not have to schedule anything, but I do miss seeing my friends, family and going to all of my stitching groups and seeing everyone as well as seeing all the show & tell.

One thing on my sewing list to do was that I decided to take out all the Christmas fabric that I had on hand and make some gift bags in a few styles and sizes. I still have a couple more to sew that I cut out and have more fabric to make more bags, but I will make those another time. I am glad I made these and was hoping to sell them at a craft show in November, but who knows whether that show will happen at all now? So maybe next year? I'll see what happens.

This is a simple drawstring bag.

This is a small bag like the one below only smaller. I added a Kam snap to close it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to add snaps on the other bags like this, so I just tried it on this bag.

I like these winter animals.

Inside I added a foam core board to stiffen the bottom of the bag. I covered it with decorative paper. The board is removable.

This is such a sweet little drawstring bag and I really like this fabric.

I used strips of blues and greens that I sewed together to create the exterior fabric first and then made the bag from the sewn together pieces. 

This is the other side of the above bag.

Here is a small and large bag in the same style. I love how dimensional the poinsettia looks on the large bag.

One small and 2 large bags.

Two small and one large bag. On the 2 small bags, I sewed together the scraps of all the leftover Christmas fabric I had used on the other bags I made in order to create these bags. I like the scrappy look to them.

A tall and small bag. Again the bag on the right made from fabric scraps leftover.

Two more scrappy small bags and a large bag.

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