GO! Workout

When I think of things I'm grateful for, that I picked up quilting as my hobby of choice always makes the list. It's brought me good times, helped me through hard times, and invited the friendship of wonderful women into my life. I love, too, how quilting lets us bring gifts to others as well. A friend is fighting cancer and so I've been collecting well wishes from co-workers. This weekend it's been all about sewing up those blocks.  (I whited out the names to protect people's privacy).

These have been great blocks for my leaders and enders tumbler project. Wow, have I made progress this weekend!

They may not look like much all neatly folded up (there's some more strips out of the camera image as well), but I have the rows for the lap quilt nearly all finished. Just a few more patches to add and then I'll be joining the rows together. I'm excited about that -- all part of my current need to finish the old as well as start the new.

The working dies for this week:

I love when dies play well together -- like how the 3" finished half square triangles line up so perfectly with the signature die.

And there is a new Big gadget in my sewing room!

That was an indulgence that nearly had me hyper-ventilating before I clicked purchase. Though there is at least some reason to the madness. My doctor has a habit of starting sentences with "Well, at your age . . . ." And what being an old gray mare of my age means is that those repetitive stress injuries are way too easy to come by. I can feel it on occasion when I'm doing a lot of GO! work -- cranking that handle again and again. I feel it with rotary cutting as well. My elbow and shoulder just ain't what they used to be. So I'm hoping the GO! Big can keep me quilting away with a little less wear and tear, since I am a woman of a certain age (and then some).

GO! Progress

Or: Just Tumbling Along

Making progress on the table runner. The top is sewn together, layered, basted . . . 

though I still need to close up all those pins.  I'm thinking just some simple straight line quilting on this one. 

So lo-o-o-ong! Off into the shadows we go.

Putting all those squares together was a good reason to pull out my Leaders and Enders project. I have a bad habit of working on it for a while and then stuffing it in the closet and forgetting about it. Oops! But, hey, working on it while I put together all those circle blocks meant I made some good progress.  

Once I started putting some of the tumblers up on the design board, I could see the quilt top was going to be way too dark and boring. I needed to cut more tumblers out anyway, so I'm hoping adding some brighteners will give it a little spark.

Meanwhile, I've got another GO! project in the wings. This is one I just need to get up my get up and go to start!  I think this is the first time in all my years of quilting that I bought fat quarters for an entire line.  (Greetings, Black Friday sale!) Mon Ami -- isn't it fun?

And now, it's back to prepping -- classes start tomorrow. The (break) party's over.

GO! Trick or Treat

This weeks GO! sew was all about little drawstring bags. This time for a pumpkin carving party, so definitely Halloween.

These use the AccuQuilt GO! large Tumbler die, as I showed here.

Filled with treats:

A whole bowl full!

I think I made up 16 little bags. It's possible I may be drawstringed out for a bit!

Still pondering what this coming week's GO! project will be.  So many possibilities!

GO! Tumbler Gift Bags

Years ago I came across this great idea for using the Accuquilt GO! 6 1/2" Tumbler to make little drawstring bags. You can find the tutorial here at Jo's Country Junction.

One of the things I really like about this little bag is the way that when it is opened up, it is wider at the top opening. That makes it a lot more versatile.

While drawstring bags are super easy to make, there is always one part of making them I hate -- weaving the cord through the casing. Am I the only one who has to fight to get the safety pin through the opening? I'm always getting the pin stuck on the wrong side of the seam allowance. Then I have to back up and bring it forward again, where I find that it is still not placed right. It's worse than trying to parallel park! So annoying.

What follows is just my method for making sure the safety pin that's bringing the cord through doesn't have to fight those seam allowances. If you're interested in making these, I'd suggest hopping over to Jo's tutorial and reading through her directions first. Then what I'm doing here will make more sense and you can decide if you want to add these steps in or not. (I know it would probably be easier if I just recreated the entire directions here, but this is Jo's smart idea, so I don't want to infringe and recreate her tutorial).

To begin, after I've run the fabric through the GO! and I have my four patches ready, I make marks in the seam allowance on the wrong side of the fabric. For bags where the lining is completely inside the bag, I mark 1" and 1 1/2" down from the wide side of the tumbler (what will be the top of the bag) on all four sides. (These identify where the casing for the drawstring cord will go.)

For some of the bags, I use Jo's idea and fold over the lining fabric so that it forms a binding edge at the top.  Like this:

When I'm going to use that little binding edge, I mark the fabric that will be the outer fabric of the bag at 3/4" and 1 1/4" and the lining fabric at 1 1/4" and 1 3/4".

When it is time to sew the side seams, I sew through the side seams of the lining (still leaving a turning opening at the bottom), but for the outer fabric, I skip over the half inch between the marks. In the picture below, you can see that the blue fabric is the lining so the seam is unbroken, and the yellow is the outer fabric, so I left that part of the seam open.

Next comes the part where I take steps to ensure the cord doesn't get caught in the seam allowance.  I put a little glue in the seam allowance between the two marked lines (for both the outer and lining fabrics) and then iron the seam allowances back.  (Sometimes I iron all fabric in between the two casing areas and sometimes I just iron open the specific spots. In the picture below, I ironed the whole part open). Do this on both sides of the tumbler, front and back.

After that I just turn the bag inside out, sew the opening in the lining closed, and stuff the lining inside the bag.  I draw the casing lines on the outer side of the bag at 3/4" and 1 1/4" from the top of the bag. And in the best of all possible worlds, with those pesky seam allowances glued down out of the way, the safety pin holding the cord slides right through those openings with no trouble at all!

These little bags are so useful. You can tuck a gift card into them, a tiny little toy, or, even better yet, little chocolate kisses.

These little bags weren't what I originally had in mind to show this week. I have a table runner in process. I just got distracted.  Perhaps I'll have the runner done and ready to show by the end of next week?