My thoughts on Soft and Stable and a 'Pin'cushion too

I've discovered a great 'new to me' product that I have to share with you!

The Sweetwater Four Square Bag that I showed off in my last post called for byAnnie's Soft and Stable.

After a bit of searching, I was able to find it at one of my LQS's and I love the stuff!  I highly recommend it for bags!

It's kind of a foam-like product.  Mine was cut off of a giant roll at the store, but I think it comes in sheets too.

It gives the bag flexiblilty, softness and stability without being too bulky.

It's not as bendy......is that a word?.......as batting would be, but much more flexible than the stabilizers or interfacing I've used in the past.

I'm really pleased with the results and I'm happy that I decided to give it a try.  I didn't want to wait to order it, so I had considered substituting batting, stabilizer, or a combination of both instead.

Stephanie from Loft Creations gives a great detailed review here if you'd like to read what she has to say too.

  

I'm glad I tried the Soft and Stable. It gave the bag a more polished look and feel.  I'll definitely be using it again!

Have you tried it? 

  

On a different note, I'm happy to see that my Morsel pincushion that I posted about here seems to been pinned fairly often on Pinterest recently.

It's just fun to see that so many other crafters like it!.......Not to mention, I looked around at some pincushion boards when I was checking out what was going on, and I got too many lots of new ideas!

Zipping right along to a finish

I love this bag!

My Four Square Bag by Sweetwater is finished!

This is a great pattern, simple and fun.

  I did decide to change it up a bit and add a zipper at the top to keep my stuff from falling out.  I loved the look of the bag without the zipper, but that's just not too practical for me.

I didn't know how adding the zipper on my own would go, since I'd never added a zipper to anything that wasn't already in the pattern.

The catch was that this bag included a lining too, and I'm not sure I've ever put a lining and a zipper in the same bag, forget about figuring out how to do it myself!

It took a little sewing, then a little unsewing, but it really wasn't too difficult.  

From now on I'll be more open to customizing patterns a bit to make them work better for me. 

I guess that's an huge advantage to making it yourself!  Seems pretty obvious, but I tend to follow the pattern and not make many changes.  I'm glad I gave adding the zipper a try!  

Thanks for the encouraging comments when I was considering chickening out!

In Progress

I've been enjoying my friend Izzy's WIP Wednesday posts each week, so I've decided to join in the fun too!  

She's been posting about her Works In Progress and linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced to show off what she's been working on.

A new bag is what's in progress for me this week.

It's the Four Square Bag by Sweetwater.  I just love their stuff.  Can't get enough of it. 

Fabric with text on it is something I'm interested in right now and they have lots of it.

Here's my progress on the bag so far.  

I'm thinking about trying to add a zipper to it, but I'm going back and forth about it.

It would keep my stuff from just falling out, or getting dumped out when it gets hit by a soccer ball or something, but I do like the pattern the way it is.

I've never tried to modify a bag before so I'm being a chicken about it.  Should I or shouldn't I?

Any thoughts or ideas?

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday! 

A little Wiggle Whimsy

Here's the first row of my Wiggle Whimsy quilt top for Terry's quilt along.

Wiggle Whimsy is a Moda Bakeshop pattern by Rebecca Silbaugh and my blog friend Terry has organized a super fun, no rules Quilt Along for it.

Terry suggested that the cutting be completed in January, and the first row finished in February, but mine didn't really happen that way.  The fabric choices slowed me down.

I was looking for something out of the norm for me.  Something beyond my normal white background.

  I certainly don't have anything against a white background, that's for sure!  I love it!  I just wanted to go outside the box a little on this one. 

I put the choice off for a bit, then I looked through my stash to get some inspiration and hopefully some fabric! 

 I ran across a bright blue batik and a black and white jelly roll, both fabrics that I've had forever.

Then a quilt I had just admired in the Another Year of Schnibbles Parade of Favorites popped into my head.  I loved the color scheme!

  JoAnne's quilt was so bright and fun it inspired my fabric selections.  It helped that I had the fabrics in my stash!

And since last night was the Friday-Night-Sew-In,  it was the perfect time to order pizza, do some sewing, and get my first row finished!

I wanted to mention that the cutting I did for Wiggle Whimsy earlier in the week was so quick and easy since I was able to use my Shape Cut ruler.  Do you have one?

I've been using this ruler for years and although I don't use it for everything, it's exactly what I reach for when I'm cutting strips or blocks at whole or half inch increments.  It makes my least favorite quilting task of cutting so much easier! 

I think another blogger did a post about the Shape Cut rulers recently.  Sorry, but can't remember who it was!  I wish I did!  I like my Shape Cut ruler so much, I bought a quarter inch version this week.  I'll let you know if I like it!

I  usually just mark the Shape Cut ruler where I need to make cuts if I'm using it multiple times to make the cutting even faster. Painter's tape is great for this.  Not much thinking involved!  Got to love it! 

Painter's tape is such a handy quilting tool!  I've always got a roll nearby to tear off a piece to mark my ruler and even mark my sewing machine when I need to.

I like to put some on my machine to help me sew straight from point to point, like on half square triangles. I've used it to mark quilting lines too!

Well, I've got to get started on dinner!  I'm planning on it taking a little extra time since I'm trying out a new recipe I found out in blogland.  I'll let you know if it's a success! 

A finish that has been driving me bananas

It's finally finished! Quilted, bound, labeled and everything!  WooHoo!

Originally, this quilt had been on the frame back in July.

  You may remember George, a Schnibble pattern by Carrie Nelson that I made with the LePetite group last year.

I started to quilt it during the summer and it just wasn't going like I wanted it to, so I picked out the stitches and put it away to start again another time. I was disappointed.

The quilting pattern I had chosen just wasn't working out for me once I got the quilt on the frame.

 I was trying to quilt bananas on it, or at least something banana-like, but I just didn't like it.

I had practiced the pattern plenty on my white board and on muslin too, but I just lost it when it came time to put it on the quilt.  Has that ever happened to you?

   

  

As much as I wanted to make bananas the quilting pattern, I just couldn't be happy with the results.  I decided that I needed to be happy with it and I just didn't know where to go from there to make it the way I wanted.

The only solution I could come up with was to give it up for the moment.  That moment turned into months, which wasn't my original intention.

I think the grass is making the border wavy.  It certainly wasn't wavy before I took this picture!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I pulled it out and decided to give it another try.

The idea of banana quilting had to be abandoned I decided.  I tried a few more banana-like designs this time around, but again I just didn't like the results.

These loopy swirls that I had been practicing recently came to mind and that's what I went with.

I'm thrilled with the results.  Much better looking than my original bananas! 

Are you wondering where this banana theme is coming from?  I guess should explain. 

I believe Carrie named the pattern after the monkey.  You know the one.  Very appropriate I thought because of the monkey wrench blocks!

 Some of the fabric I used on the front had bananas in it, so I just decided to carry on the theme!

I guess I still managed to mash some of the banana theme in there somewhere.  Don't you love that banana backing fabric?

Well, after an uber busy week including an overnight soccer tournament, track meetings, science fair, shopping trips, a math team trip, Valentine's Day, college acceptances and a few colds.....seriously, that's not even all of it.......I'm happy to be able to take a deep breath and have a finish to show you too!

I'm looking forward to starting what I hope will be a quieter week, with a little more sewing time!  I hope you'll be able to sneak some time in too!

Treats

I made these treats for all of my boys this morning and I thought I'd share them here too. A family favorite.  Any holiday is a good excuse to make them.  Just change up the M&M's.

They're just so good and they are going so fast!

You can find the recipe in this post. Quick, easy and yummy! They are hard to beat.

I did change it up a bit this time and I made some using Rolo's and pecans.  What a hit!  This 'new to me version' was mentioned by Jackie in the comments of the recipe post, so I decided to give it a try.  

Thanks Jackie!

     

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Works in progress......

I have a few projects going on here.  How about you?