Sewing: Miranda Day Bag

Over the last two days, I’ve had a sewing project on the go… a quilted day bag. The pattern is from our trip to Canda and is available from Lazy Girl Designs. It’s not the first bag I’ve made, but even so, it took some effort to follow the instructions properly (operator errors, the instructions were actually pretty clear…). The pattern calls for quilting cotton fabrics – I chose a heavier weight printed canvas for longevity. I’ve also learnt from previous experience and on finishing it, liberally sprayed it with Scotch Gard fabric protector. It will be washable though. Fabrics from Thimbles Fabrics & Crafts. Finished size: 12″ x 6″ x 10″. Total make time approx. 8 hrs, materials £40.

Quilt No 017: Aldi Christmas Special

img_7435_wI can’t believe it has been over a year since I have completed a quilt. That’s not to say I haven’t been quilting – I have a couple of tops that I have been procrastinating over (I really hate laying out and pinning), one of which is a year late being delivered (so sorry Beth and Mike!). These two table runners use Christmas-themed fat quarters that were part of Aldi’s recent ‘So Crafty’ promotion. You really can’t go wrong with six fat quarters for less than £4. They’re not necessarily patterns and contrasts that I would have chosen but after cutting them according to Barbara Chainey’s ‘Fast Quilts From Fat Quarters’ cutting plan, I put them together to make the main squares (12″x12″), before sashing and binding with left over fabric.

I used basic stitch-in-the-ditch quilting in the long table runner, and a holly leaf design of my own making for the shorter side table runner below. I actually quilted the smaller runner first, and had such a hard time marking the quilting pattern on the dark fabric that it put pay to more complex quilting on the larger.

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