The Gracie Bags: 1 & 2

I had the pleasure of testing The Gracie Bag recently. Designed by Sammy Valencia of Shamballa Bags. Sammy is a newer designer and she sells her pdf patterns in both English and French versions.

Right away I knew I wanted to use some Frida Kahlo fabric for the front panel. It fit perfectly. I really love this bag! In fact I made 2 Frida versions of Gracie.

Here are my Gracie Bags, Frida Kahlo style!

Gracie has a zippered closure and I added a stacked button on the zipper tab for fun.

This is the back of Gracie. She has a pretty back, yes?

The zippered closure with a handmade charm.

Gracie is nice and roomy inside. See all the stuff she can hold. Plus there is a zippered pocket and a slip pocket too.

Next is Grace #2, another Frida on the front panel:

I made the top accent a different color on this Gracie and used a different Frida.

On the back of this one I added the accent and the tabs in the accent color.

A zippered pocket and a slip pocket inside. This one I didn't have a long enough zipper, so I added a magnetic snap closure and it is just as nice.

I should have dropped the snap down a bit more. Still it works well and I have been using this bag lately and love it.

I added the accent to the bottom of this one, mainly because I ran out of the other light fabric, lol!

Pop over to here to see all the tester Gracie Bags and to get the pattern. It's at a great price right now too!
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Fabulous Freebie Blog Hop Schedule

Welcome to the Fabulous Freebie Blog Hop

Joan of Moosestash Quilting is the hostess with the mostess for this Fabulous Freebie Blog Hop tour. It should be a fun, fun, fun blog hop to not only find some great free patterns, but to see how each blogger has made them too. I know I will be hopping along to visit each blog during this Fabulous Five Day Event. Won't you join me in the fun?

Here is the schedule for the week: 

Monday August 20

Just Let Me Quilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats

Quilt Fabrication

Tuesday August 21

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

Sew Many Yarns

Samelia's Mum

Vroomans Quilts

Wednesday August 22

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Creatin' in the Sticks

Just Because Quilts

Hazel's Daughter

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

BeaQuilter

Thursday August 23

Words & Stitches

Patchouli Moon Studio (that's me)

Something Rose Made

Sew Golden A Chance

Clever Chameleon

Friday August 24
Seams To Be Sew

That Fabric Feeling

Selina Quilts

Quarter Inch Crafter

Yanicka Quilt

MooseStashQuilting

Make sure to stop back here each day for the links in order to hop along. Or follow these great blogs so you don't miss their regular postings too.

Happy Hopping!
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Decorative Stitches Basket

Last year I taught a few women I know how to make a large basket with handles using the decorative stitches on their sewing machines. I brought a couple of smaller fabric pieces with me to demonstrate how to sew the stitches. I recently came across these fabric pieces and finished sewing more stitches and quilted it. Then I turned this into a small, but taller basket.

When I started this in the class I was sewing on my Pfaff machine. When I added more stitches, I used my new Juki. It was fun to see the stitches on the Juki.

The other side.

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I'd Rather Be Sewing Grocery Tote

Christine of ChrisW Designs has a new grocery tote bag and it's a FREE video tutorial.  I got to test the bag and made both the large and small versions in one day. Yep that quick and easy.

You download the pdf which has the fabric requirements and measurements, which you can find in the link on the video page. The testers versions are on the pdf itself or you can see them here on Christine's Blog.

Made with home dec fabric, here are my bags. The large is first.

You can purchase the "I'd Rather Be Sewing" embroidery file from Christine if you have an embroidery machine and embroider it on the front pocket. Or you can choose an embroidery design of your own. Or like I did here use an Orphan Quilt Block and turn it into a pocket. Be creative with your pocket.

I added rivets to my straps. 

The bag is unlined that is one reason it is fast to sew. You place a piece of template plastic in the bottom of the bag to fit it some stability when loading your groceries. I covered a heavier plastic with a fabric sleeve I made. As you can see the seams are all hidden in the French Seams.

The bag folds up nice and flat so you can store it in your car or in your home.

This is the small size, which is only slightly smaller. I added a green binding on top of the pocket to define it a bit. I also folded over the center of the handles on both bags and stitched so that I would have something to grab a hold of easier. I have small hands, so I like a narrow handle to hold.

I also added rivets.

Folded nice and flat. This lovely fabric was a gift from a friend last year. I have lots more of it too, so I will be making more bags.

Here they both are filled with one pound salad green containers which fit perfectly into either size bag. They look about the same size, because I place the larger bag on the left in the back and that made it appear smaller.

The pdf and video tutorial are free, so hurry up and make a bag or 2 or 3, since wouldn't YOU "Rather Be Sewing" too?
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Brother PQ1500s For Sale

I am selling my Brother PQ1500s sewing machine. Since I added the LED light bulb, it is just like the Brother PQ 1500sl (the "L" stands for LED). I have had this machine since I bought her new over 10 years ago from my local Brother dealer and she is one heck of a workhorse that can sew through thick layers like butter! I use her for piecing and quilting and bag making. She only straight stitches, but does it so well and fast.

I never thought I would ever ever sell her, but I bought a similar new machine and just do not need 2 nearly identical machines. If she doesn't sell I will keep her as a backup machine, but right now I do not have the space to set her up and sew with her. She has been recently serviced and runs so smoothly.

She comes with a lot of presser feet too. Plus an extension table, a knee lift and a soft cover. Instruction book, foot pedal and cord of course too.

The Brother PQ1500s and sl machine is very similar to other straight stitch semi industrial machines such as the Juki TL2010Q, Pfaff Grand Quilter, Janome 1600, Singer S16, Babylock Jane, Elna 7100. Some of those machines have a needle plate to cover the feed dogs when free motion quilting, but the on the Brother, you just turn the lever to drop the feed dogs.

The Brother PQ 1500s also has a pin feed system which is great and helps move the fabric along as you sew. I have used it instead of a walking foot at times. It does have a walking foot too.

It is a very easy machine to use and sews fast! 1500 rpm, so if you are piecing or quilting and want to go fast, just floor it.

Being a high shank machine and having a large throat space, you can quilt using this machine as is or mount it to a frame like the HandiQuilter frame and then it will quilt more like a long arm machine.

I am selling her for $400. I would like to sell this locally (Albuquerque area), because it would cost a lot to ship it as she is heavy. I am sure the shipping would be around $100.
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Nestling Baskets Updated

I tested all 3 sizes of  these Nestling Baskets from Around the Bobbin. This is an updated slightly different version of her original Nesting Baskets, which I had also tested a while ago. The main difference is the added binding at the top of the baskets. It gives it a nicer look to have the binding and you can add a pop of color by the binding fabric your choose to use. The pattern does suggest to sew the binding on as you would by machine and then hand sew the second step. I do usually sew my quilt binding on like this and I did sew the binding on this first medium size basket like that, but then I got in a hurry and sewed the other baskets by machine and I am not as happy with the binding, so I will be redoing those by hand later. There is another part of the construction of this basket version (as opposed to the first Nesting Baskets) that makes these sew up easier and faster, so it's not just the added binding that makes these different to the first version.

Here are all my test baskets:

I used a movie theme for this medium Nestling. Popcorn inside and movie film strips outside. Doesn't that popcorn look real?

A striped in the fabric will give you a mitered corner look.

You can see my binding on this and the rest was done all by machine and not as neatly as I would have liked it so they will be redone later.

This is the small size Nestling. Oranges outside this time. I must have been hungry when I was testing these, lol!

This one is the large Nestling size and done in a Southwest print. I like how the corner mitered on this one.

Here is another medium Nestling size.

one small, 2 medium and one large Nestling Baskets.

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