Brick Bag Tutorial

Okay this is going to be a long one. At long last I've put together a tutorial for making those small project bags. I will apologize in advance for the quality of some of the pictures. I'm crafty, but I'm a truly lousy photographer.

First, gather your supplies. You'll need a rectangular piece of quilted fabric, a zipper the length of the short size of fabric, some ribbon for a handle, matching thread and some kind of marking tool.



I scored some of the these quilted placemats on clearance at JoAnn Fabrics a couple of years ago for $0.97. It's roughly 12" by 18", give or take 1/2" or so, and I used a 12" zipper. If your zipper is longer than that, it's okay.



My finished bag is about 7" long, 5" wide and 3" tall. You can adjust the size by adjusting the size of the quilted fabric you start with. The long side should be roughly 2" longer than the desired finished height plus the width times two (5+3=8, times 2 = 16 + 2 = 18). The short side should be 2" bigger than the length plus the height (7 + 3 = 10 + 2 = 12). I think. My math might be off a bit, so hopefully you won't get your heart set on exact sizes.

If you're using pre-quilted yardage or are quilting the fabric yourself, I recommend finishing the edges with an overcast or zigzag stitch to help keep the quilting from coming apart.

Step 1: Pin the zipper to the short side of the quilted fabric, right sides together, pulling the tab down a bit to keep it out of the way.


I pinned the zipper about 1/8" from the edge of the fabric

Step 2: Stitch 1/4" from the edge of the zipper tape.



When you get close to the zipper tab, stop with the needle down, zip up the zipper, then complete the seam.



Step 3: Pin the other edge of the zipper tape to the other short side of the quilted fabric.



Step 4: Stitch 1/4" from the edge of the zipper tape, as before.



Moving the zipper tab to keep it out of the way.



Step 5: Fold the fabric back from the seam and topstitch 1/8" from the seam. This will keep the fabric from getting caught in the zipper. Do this on both sides of the zipper.



Step 6: With the tube wrong side out, center the zipper and pin, as shown.


Open the zipper a bit, so you can turn it right side out later.

Step 7: Sew the pinned edges together.



Step 8: Now here's the fiddly part. For each corner, pull the side seam up and fold it back along the side fold. Center the seam and mark the height along the edge of the ruler.


45-degree line is along the edge, the seam is 1-1/2" from the edge, 3" chalk line is along the bottom of the ruler.

Step 9: Stitch along the marked line.



Repeat steps 8 and 9 for all 4 corners.

Step 10: On the end where the zipper tab is when it's closed, take a few stitches out along the new seam line so you can insert the ribbon for the handle. You need the opening to be a bit wider than the ribbon. Do this on both sides on that end. Sorry, this is a truly horrible picture.



And this one isn't much better.



Step 11: Cut a piece of ribbon a bit longer than the side of the bag. I cut mine 8-1/2" long. Insert the end of the ribbon into the opening in the seam line on each side, making sure the ribbon isn't twisted. Pin in place.



Step 12: Stitch over the seam line to catch the ribbon.



Step 13: Using a hand needle, tack the points to the seam line on the inside.


You could use pinking shears to trim the points off, but I think they add structure to the bag.

Step 14: Turn the bag right side out and you're done.


I added a removable stitch marker.

Oh and don't forget to thank your assistants for all their hard work.


"Sleeping here, Mama...."

Twins!

You might recall my friends and I made a couple of quilts for some twins last year. The babies have grown up a bit since then:


Henry and Jack

They're in town for the week and we went to the Akron Zoo today. Here they are with Mom and Dad in the train.


That's a small caboose!

They have some pretty cool pillars in garden area at the zoo:


Rumor has it they light up at night

We rode the carousel.


Marjorie and Julie

And this scene looked vaguely familiar to me.



I have no idea why.....


"Mama! There's a kitten on me! But she's kinda warm and the A/C is on...."

In crafty news, I've made progress on my two sets of twin socks.


Karira socks


Plain socks - my camera doesn't photograph purple very well

And guess what I finished?


Julie's head, Big Blue (top only) and me

Now I just have to get a backing made before my next guild meeting so I can give it to the machine quilter. Yay!!!!

Socks

So since I finished a pair of socks, I started a couple of new pairs. First up, a pair of Karira socks for the Dragon Knitalong on Ravelry. The designer is a local gal, Shannon Okey, aka Knitgrrl.


Yarn: Destination Yarn in the Tuscany colorway

We're supposed to be reading the book, too, but while I have the paperback and I downloaded the audio, I haven't gotten around to starting it yet. I have a bunch of other books I've borrowed from the library that I have to finish first. Too many books/projects, too little time.

Speaking of time, in sad news, a woman in my office, Mary, passed away unexpectedly this week. I didn't know her well, but she was an avid reader, just like me. We'd talk books every now and then. I got her interested in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, but she died before she got around to starting them. I realized that life is short and I'd rather spend my time knitting things I love. So if you remember my bobble socks (aka Politically Correct) from the mystery sock class I took a couple of months ago.....



You can forget them. They are no more. I had already decided that I didn't love them enough to be full-length socks. So I knit about an inch of the pattern, did short-row heels and knit a few rounds of the foot. Then Mary died and I decided I didn't love them enough, period. Nothing against the pattern, since the class samples were cute. It just wasn't right for this yarn. Truth be told, I've never been a huge fan of the bobble anyway.

So Thursday at knit night, I ripped them back and started these.


Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, color number 3514

They don't look like much now, but they'll just be a plain sock with a little ribbing at the top. I think that will allow the beauty of the yarn to shine through.

In other news, look what I got at a local farm stand yesterday - a yellow doll watermelon.


Isn't it pretty? Pretty tasty, too.

I spent some time in my sewing room yesterday, but didn't get a picture of my project. I did get a picture of my supervisors, though.


"Whatcha doin', Mama?"

Fun with yarn

A couple of weeks ago, I got itching to dye some yarn again. I started with my second ball of Very Pink yarn. I wound it into a hank for dyeing and soaked it in my crockpot with some vinegar.


I wasn't kidding about the pink

I mixed a heaping 1/4 tsp of delphinium blue Wilton icing dye into a couple of cups of hot water.



Then poured it into the crock pot.



I mixed it around


Whoa, it looks pretty dark

And let it cook for an hour or so.


But it lightened up a bit

I had read that the delphinium blue was one of the Wilton colors that "breaks" when you used it to dye yarn, meaning it separates into it's component colors. You can see how some of the yarn looks a bit more pink. If you click on the picture below, you can see the pink line around the top.


Love the guy who invented crock pot liners!

After the yarn was dry and wound, it looked like this



I'm not sure how much of the pink in the yarn is from the dye breaking and how much is my inability to tie the cotton yarn loosely enough to allow the dye to get mixed evenly. It doesn't really matter, it looks pretty cool anyway. It has more of a matte look than the other yarn I overdyed, which I haven't decided if I really like yet. That's okay. I'm sure I can find someone who loves it when I'm ready to knit it up, if I don't fall in love with it by then.

In other fun with yarn, look what I finished!


Oooooo... swirly!

I wish I could take credit for the swirling colors, but it was pure luck. I think they look pretty cool, though.


They're really comfy, too.

Blue kept me company while I finished the socks


"Your socks match my eyes, Mama."

Playing catch (up)

Once again, I've been lazy about blogging. I guess I just haven't been feeling it lately. So this will be a long-ish post with lots of pictures. Those are the best kind, right? ;-)

I was really busy last weekend (July 9-11). On Friday, I went to Akron to pick up my mom and headed down to St. Clairsville, OH, where my aunt Karen lives. My cousin Annette and her son, Tim, were in Ohio, visiting from Maine. They had originally planned to stop by my house, but she's highly allergic to cats and figured my five furry children would be the death of her. My hair disclaimer for the next couple of pictures is that it was a very humid/rainy day. Here's me with cousins Amy and Annette.


Me, Amy (with baby Josie, due in Oct.) and Annette

And here's the whole group, minus Annette, who's taking the picture and her son, Tim, who was crashed out upstairs.



It was really nice to see everyone, especially since I normally only get to see them every other year at Thanksgiving.

Saturday morning, Mom and I headed back to Akron, then I headed to Kent to see my friends from KSU. Sarah's hubby, Mark had driven in from MA, so the gang got together for dinner and s'mores. We neglected to get a group picture, but we did get pictures of all of The Ugly quilts!


Fronts


Backs

I think I went a little overboard on size and ugliness of the back. But Sarah has *four* Elvis-in-a-blender stars on hers, so maybe it's a draw. :-)

I've been working on some other crafty things I haven't blogged about yet. I made some bracelet and earring sets.



And a boatload of stitch markers:





No, I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of those stitch markers. Maybe I so need to open an Etsy shop.

And lest you think I've completely stopped knitting, I've made significant progress on the Laughing Matter socks:



I'm hoping to have them done by August 1, so I can start a knit-along/read-along on Ravelry. The plan is to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and knit the Karira sock. I'm going to listen to the audio book, since I picked it up at the library last week.

Also, I took another mystery sock class at River Colors Studio. This pattern is called Politically Correct, because there are lines of purl bumps on each sock, one twisting to the left, the other to the right. You can't see the twisting lines in this picture, but you can see the bobbles! I'd never made bobbles before, so now I know how.


Bobbles!!

In other news, Max would like to say that the fur on his leg is growing back nicely after his surgery last month.


"This is an old picture. It's even longer now!"

Nine years later.....

Remember that picture of me and my friends from 2001? Well, here we are, nine years (almost to the day) later.


Ann, Sarah, Julie and me
(I stole this picture from Sarah, because it was better than the ones on my camera)

Shockingly, we're in front of a fabric shop again. That's Country Fabrics in Shiloh. Inexplicably, they have a palm tree out front.


Outside a quilt shop. In Ohio. Sarah's mom said it's usually inside.

Also, remember that stack of bag pieces from my last post? I finished them.



And the insides:


Clockwise from top left - Ann's, mine, Sarah's and Julie's

After shopping, we went to a quilt show in Ashland, but I didn't get any pictures there. I did run into a lady from my quilt guild there. And saw that one of my guild friends had quilted a few of the quilts in the show.

On the way home, I stopped at That'll Do Farm. I was greeted by the chickens.


Later the brown one and several of her friends were pecking at my sandals and toenails.

I also got to meet the new goats. There are five of them named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Fred. :)


Donatello


Raphael

Here's a news flash - cats can't read. I got up one day last week and found Emma nose-deep in this, which someone (probably one of the boys) had knocked off the top of the aquarium.


Bottom Feeder = Catfish = Cat food? Maybe they can read.