Category Archives: Patterns

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ), Patterns, Quilting

Twirling Star Mini Quilt Finish {Pattern Testing for Devoted Quilter}

April 24, 2015 kittywilkin 14 Comments

Visitors entering our home will now be greeted by a bright and colorful quilt (of course we will also greet any visitors in person… but, you know what I mean!). I’ve finished the Twirling Star mini quilt I was testing for Leanne at Devoted Quilter, and I’m loving it in its new home.

It was really fun to make Leanne’s pattern with a modern aesthetic. Here’s Leanne’s version:

I love how different choices of fabric and colors can completely change the look of a quilt. The mini quilt finishes at 19 1/2″ x 19 1/2″ and features both traditional piecing (the hourglass blocks) and paper piecing (the pinwheel blocks). The pattern also includes a coloring page, where you can test out different color arrangements before starting. I tried out a lot of different color possibilities before deciding on this one, and the coloring page is KEY (and so much fun). Leanne’s pattern is now available in her Etsy and Payhip shops, so if this looks like a mini you’d like hanging in your home, too, head on over and buy the pattern!

I decided to quilt this mini with one big radiating spiral, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I followed the tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts and began the spiral with free motion quilting (FMQ) in the center and then switched to my walking foot for the outer spirals. Since I have yet to find an actual pen/chalk/pencil that I trust for writing ON my quilts, so I decided to just wing it and do it by eye. I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and it was a lot easier than I anticipated.

Once I quilted past the center, I switched to my walking foot, which proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Keeping a steady curve with the walking foot was tough, although I can see that I did improve as I moved outward, either the result of more practice or the less severe angle. As with any quilting, I found that I was more consistent with spacing and more accurate with the curve when I went slowly.

quilting "jump" — A little quilting “jump” as a result of less-than-smooth maneuvering with the walking foot.

There were quite a few “jumps” where I had stopped sewing to reposition the quilt under my machine and must have restarted sewing with too much torque on the quilt. Either that, or perhaps I tried to turn the curve while my machine was stopped. (You can see one of the “jumps” in the bottom of the blue triangle. Just a little wiggle.) If I were planning to submit this quilt to shows or give it to someone who would noticed the imperfections (are there such gift-quilt recipients?), I might have ripped out the quilting and tried again. But for this, a quilt meant to hang in our own entryway, I opted to just let them be. When you step back and view the quilt as a whole, the imperfections are lost.

I didn’t keep track of the time I spent making this quilt, but here are the other quilt finish stats:

Twirling Star Mini Quilt

Completed April 2015
Pattern: Twirling Star Mini Quilt pattern by Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Size: 19.5″x19.5″
Fabric: Pinwheels are pieced using rainbow fabric from Alison Glass’s 2015 Sun Prints, Mercury and Grove (Andover Fabrics), with a background of Modern Floral in Charcoal from the Botanics fabric line by Carolyn Friedlander (Robert Kaufman Fabrics).
Hourglass blocks are pieced using Scribble Notes in Black from the Architextures fabric line by Carolyn Friedlander (Robert Kaufman Fabrics) and Make and Pin fabric from the Makers fabric line (Art Gallery Fabrics).
Border is Ink in Charcoal from Alison Glass’s 2015 Sun Prints (Andover Fabrics).
Binding is Black Kona cotton (Robert Kaufman Fabrics).
Quilting: Spiral quilting using free motion quilting in the center and a walking foot for the outer spirals
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2600 – Dove for piecing and quilting
Related blog posts: Embrace the Rainbow, Twirling Star Flimsy Finish

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

Design, Patterns, Quilting

Embrace the Rainbow

April 15, 2015 kittywilkin 17 Comments

Rainbows make me happy. As early as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed arranging things in rainbow order. In high school and college, I would always eat M&Ms in rainbow order. No exceptions. As a mom, putting colored pencils or crayons away in rainbow order fills me with a weird feeling of bliss. It’s no surprise, then, that rainbow order finds itself into so many of my quilts. For a while, I thought I would “grow out of” my penchant for rainbows. For some reason, in my mind, rainbow order isn’t as mature as, say… marsala, or gold. Then I had a little blog comment conversation via email with Jenn from A Quarter Inch from the Edge, where she pointed out, “Why does one need to get over a penchant for rainbows? We see them so rarely in real life… we’ve got to make a few of our own!” True that! And so, I have embraced my love of rainbows and I’m letting it shine! Here are two of my current works in progress as proof.

I’m testing a pattern called Twirling Star by Leanne at Devoted Quilter. It has been fun getting feedback on Instagram about fabric choices along the way. I opted for an entirely low volume background, just switching up the background fabric for the outer pinwheels to help the center star stand out a bit more. Opinions were pretty evenly split between using this Botanics Foliage in Charcoal fabric versus using Ledger from Carolyn Friedlander’s Architextures line. As much as I LOVE Ledger (can you tell I love pretty much all things Carolyn Friedlander?), I was toying with the idea of spinning the outer rainbow pinwheels, but wanted the flexibility to make the decision after seeing the blocks. With Ledger, the directionality issue would have required that I make the decision before assembling the blocks. Foliage, it was!

Now I just need to sew these blocks together and add the borders and this mini quilt top will be finished!

Next up is my progress on the Prismatic Medallion mini quilt I’m making for my partner in the Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap. I definitely attribute my recent burst of rainbow to my purchase of the newest Alison Glass Sunprints. How could you resist making EVERYTHING with these fabulously bright and saturated fabrics!?

I’ve finally received all of the supplemental fabrics needed to fill out the black and white section, and all of the pieces are cut. Only the green and blue/turquoise triangles are sewn together so far. I’m really happy with the black and white triangle, and have come to accept the blue/purple triangle. I’m still debating the yellow/orange and the red/orange/magenta sections.

prismatic medallion alison glass version — Alison Glass handcrafted added in. I think it’s too brown for this palette.

In the yellow/orange triangle (beneath the black and white one), I originally bought a fabric from Alison Glass’ s Handcrafted line to vary the colors a bit. Now I’m thinking it may be too brown for this palette. I’m leaning toward the brighter Cotton & Steel basics yellow instead.

In the red/orange/magenta triangle (bottom center), I’m thinking I will spread out the purply magenta triangles a bit more. I’m thinking this bottom layout will be the final layout, with the C&S yellow and the spread out magenta. I need to decide soon and get this sewn together! What would you do?

I’m linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Patterns, Tutorials

Tips & Tutorials Tuesday: A New Linky Party

February 10, 2015 kittywilkin 3 Comments

I have had a bunch of tutorial ideas on the back burner for quite some time. Even the best ideas, without a babysitter and a day with sufficient bright light for photographing, get stuck on the back burner sometimes. My friends Stephanie and Michelle over at Late Night Quilter are kicking off a new link-up for quilter bloggers called Tips & Tutorials Tuesday, which is the perfect ~~kick in the pants~~ motivator to get me sharing some of those tips and tutorials I’ve been wanting to share with you for months.

Did you know that I have a few tutorials available now? If you click the “Tutorials” heading on the top toolbar of my blog, it will take you to a collection of my tutorials. Today, I thought I’d feature the tutorials I’ve created so far.

Key to My Heart

My most recent tutorial goes along with a pattern I released recently for Valentine’s Day (or any other purpose, since you can fussy cut anything you want for the center of the heart) called Key to My Heart. It’s a quick and easy pattern that includes paper piecing to help perfect the accuracy and placement of the features within the heart, and applique to make the heart-part easy peasy! The tutorial takes you through each step with photographs to help clarify the instructions.

You can find the tutorial HERE and buy the pattern for only $2 on Craftsy or Payhip. (See below for information about a killer sale I’m offering for the next week).

Basic Foundation Paper Piecing

Since I design paper piecing patterns, I thought it would be a great help to create a basic foundation paper piecing tutorial. I absolutely love the accuracy, perfection, and endless possibility of designs that paper piecing brings you, but I know that it is a struggle for some. Once I wrapped my brain around the fact that I was sewing something backwards while looking through a mirror, it all clicked. Hopefully my tutorial is helpful to those of you who perhaps want to paper piece, but don’t quite know where to begin. Here are some sneak peeks at the tutorial, which you can find HERE.

Perfect 1/4″ Seams

The third and final tutorial is more of a tip. It’s just one of the little tricks I’ve found to help sew accurate 1/4″ seams. As extraneous as it may seem, I’ve found that taking the extra few minutes to cut accurately and employ little tricks to help ensure your seams are consistent throughout your project really makes a HUGE difference with the outcome. Read the tip HERE and let me know what you think!

* * * * * * * *
Finally, since Valentine’s Day is only four days away, and in celebration of all of my new followers, I am having a flash sale for the next week: buy any three (3) patterns for only $4. Patterns usually range from $2.50-$4.50 so this is definitely a deal! Since coupon codes and open offers such as this one aren’t really compatible with Craftsy, if you buy three patterns, I will immediately refund the difference from $4, so you will be paying only $4 for three patterns of your choice. Visit my Craftsy store HERE. For interested international buyers, if you see a pattern on Craftsy that is not available in my Payhip store, email me at thenightquilter@gmail.com and I will be sure to get the pattern either up on Payhip or emailed directly to you.

I hope you find these tutorials helpful, and I’m looking forward to sharing more tips and tutorials in the future. I’m linking up with my fellow Late Night Quilters for Tips & Tutorials Tuesday. Go check out some of the other great tips, too!

Giveaway, Patterns, Quilting

Doe Layers of Charm Quilt & a Giveaway

February 9, 2015 kittywilkin 366 Comments

When Fat Quarter Shop contacted me about quilting along with their newest shortcut quilt pattern, I immediately decided I wanted to make the quilt out of Carolyn Friedlander‘s newest fabric line Doe. Thus the seed was planted that grew into the Doe Layers of Charm Quilt.

Remember this sneak peek?

Well, here it is!

Layers of Charm

Layers of Charm is Fat Quarter Shop’s newest Short Cut Quilt pattern, complete with a free downloadable pdf and video. The pattern uses a layer cake and charm square pack, so I used a Doe layer cake (with two cameos by Botanics) and the coordinating Kona cotton solids charm pack. When I started this quilt, Doe wasn’t yet available in the US so Robert Kaufman Fabrics was kind enough to send me what I needed in advance (Thank you!). The part of the process that took the longest was deciding on a layout that I liked. I ultimately decided on one that I feel embodies the Doe fabric line well, with the focus on low volumes and amazing texture, with just a pop of color. Piecing the 57 1/2″ x 57 1/2″ lap sized top took me only 6 hours (and I’m a meticulous, seam-ripping-until-perfect kind of sewist).

For the back, I chose to sew one row from Carolyn’s Catenary pattern on an Architextures Ledger backing. The Catenary was my first time attempting needle-turn applique, and even with a time crunch, I truly savored each stitch! All three of Carolyn’s fabric lines are represented in this quilt, and I absolutely love it.

I decided to use a combination of straight-line quilting and free motion quilting, all of which I did on my domestic Bernina sewing machine.

Doe Layers of Charm quilt — Two quilting thread colors converge.

When inquiring about a coordinating Doe Aurifil thread set, Alex Veronelli from Aurifil said that there was not yet such a set, but offered to send me coordinating threads of my choice (Thank you, Alex & Aurifil!). I chose:

2783 – medium delft blue
1320 – medium teal
2850 – medium juniper
1154 – dusty orange
5022 – mustard
2021 – white
2026 – chalk
2310 – light beige
2600 – dove
1246 – grey

Look at them shine (and comment below for a chance to win small spools of all these colors)!

My chosen quilting pattern left a TON of thread ends to bury (3 hours worth!) but I’m really happy with the outcome. Changing threads to coordinate with each section of the quilt really helps emphasize the varied values and textures in Carolyn’s Doe line. The Layers of Charm pattern is a great pattern that lets the fabric do the talking.

My family helped me photograph the completed quilt during one of our recent blizzards (there seems to be one every few days). We had a little bit too much fun, as you can see.

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Layers of Charm free Shortcut Quilt pattern by Fat Quarter Shop. (instructional video here)

Size: lap sized: 57 1/2″ x 57 1/2″ (pattern includes table runner, crib, lap, queen, and king sizes)

Fabric (all by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics):
Front: layer cake of Doe with two squares from Botanics, charm square pack of Doe coordinating Kona cottons.
Back: Architextures Ledger in Grey with Catenary pattern in Doe Droplet in Carrot on Kona Med Grey and Architextures crosshatch in Niagara
Binding: Architextures crosshatch in Navy with an accent of Poppy

Batting: 100% cotton Soft n’ Crafty batting

Thread: Aurifil 50wt in coordinating colors: 2783 – medium delft blue, 1320 – medium teal, 2850 – medium juniper, 1154 – dusty orange, 5022 – mustard, 2021 – white, 2026 – chalk, 2310 – light beige, 2600 – dove, and 1246 – grey

Time:
Piecing the top: 6 hours
Piecing the back: 4 hours
Squaring, layering, and basting: 45 min
Quilting: 7 hrs 45 min
Finishing (thread burying): 3 hours
Binding: 1 hr 30 min
Total: Approx. 23 hours

While I always seem to take the long road, this quilt could easily be whipped up in a weekend (or a day, if you’re quick). I am already thinking of making a baby-sized version with all black and white (heavy on the black) 10-squares and a bright pop of color solid charm pack.

Now, for a giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of the Layers of Charm pattern, I’m hosting a giveaway. One lucky winner will win a layer cake (ten-square) of Doe by Carolyn Friedlander (thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop) and a set of small spools of coordinating Aurifil threads* (thanks to Aurifil). You can enter by leaving two comments:

What would you make with your winnings?
If you follow me, Night Quilter, let me know how–or visit my right toolbar to follow me if you don’t already, then tell me how! (e-mail, WordPress, Bloglovin’, Instagram, Twitter, Craftsy)

The giveaway will be open until Monday, February 16th 12noon EST. I’ll select one winner randomly from the comments below. Good luck!

*Note: The coordinating Aurifil thread set is not an “official” Doe coordinating set. I personally chose ten colors that I feel compliment and coordinate with the Doe fabric line.

After entering the giveaway, head over to the Fat Quarter Shop’s blog the Jolly Jabber to see the other version of this quilt in the blog hop. Meanwhile, we’ll be snuggling in this lovely Doe quilt.

Paper piecing, Patterns, Quilting, Sewing

Finishes New and Old

January 23, 2015 kittywilkin 11 Comments

Remember back before Christmas, when I only showed you tiny peeks at most of my projects since they were to be given as gifts? Well now that the holidays are long over, now that I’m back and getting into the groove of home life, now that I finally have a free minute to blog about them, now I can show you the full gifts!

I also have finalized and posted another Valentine’s Day themed foundation paper piecing pattern, which goes live in my Craftsy (for US buyers) and Payhip (for international buyers) today! It’s a day full of finishes, both new and old. A picture is worth a thousand words, so without further ado…

Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead

I made this pouch for my sister, since her favorite colors are teal and lime green. The zipper installation was my FIRST ever zipper, and I think it came out quite well. I used linen blend fabric leftover from my Go Anywhere Bag, and I think my sister loved it! Anna from Noodlehead has the best tutorials, and this one was a perfect first-zipped pouch tutorial.

One thing I learned while making this pouch, though, is that when the directions say to “align… the side/bottom seams” while boxing the corners, you really need to line them up perfectly. The bottom and side seams for mine (as you can see in the photo above) did not line up perfectly, since I flew past that little bit of instruction, but now I know for next time! I’m hoping that the chocolates inside the pouch distracted my OCD sister from this slight misalignment! (Love you, Lucy!)

Reversible Tea Cozy

When talking to my mom about quilting about a year ago, she made it clear that she thought making a quilt was too much work and too time consuming, and therefore she did not want me to make her a quilt. She instead requested “a tea cozy for every season”, since it’s a quick project that can be completed in a couple hours. She also drinks tea from her tea pot every afternoon, so it will be well used and loved. It has taken me a while to get this first one made, but I don’t think the next one will be far behind. I used the fabulous tutorial by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. I definitely will be using her tutorial again, since the tea cozy fit my mom’s large teapot quite well. Here are the two Christmas-themed sides of the tea cozy I made for my mom.

A New Paper Piecing Pattern!

And finally, a recent finish: a new paper piecing pattern called Love Struck. Special thanks to Julie from That’s Sew Julie for her awesome pattern testing! This pattern includes printable foundation paper piecing templates including two “printer pages” to help save paper when printing multiples, clear assembly instructions, a coloring sheet on which you can try out color schemes before beginning, and sewing tips along the way. You can find in on Craftsy here (for those in the US) or on Payhip here (if you’re international). Both this and my Key to My Heart pattern are on sale for $2 until Valentine’s day!

We’re getting lots of snow this weekend up here in Maine, so I know what I’m doing all weekend–sewing (and playing with my kids in the snow). If you’re looking for a good weekend project, turn this block into a festive table runner or pillow. Here’s the pillow Julie made from four blocks. AND she says she “whipped up this whole thing in a week while taking care of five kids, one sick, and getting a double crochet hat order together.” Holy smokes, Julie! You’re amazing!!

Get the pattern here:

Craftsy (if you’re in the US)
Payhip (if you’re international)
…or go to Julie’s blog and comment to enter for a chance to win a free copy of the pattern!

If you do decide to make this pattern, share the love and tag me @nightquilter on IG or twitter, and use #lovestruckpattern. I’d love to see!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and TGIFF. Happy weekend sewing!

Applique, Paper piecing, Patterns, Quilting, Tutorials

Key to my Heart: Pattern and Tutorial

January 16, 2015 kittywilkin 12 Comments

Since returning from vacation, my design wheels have been turning and cranking out ideas faster than I can create them and turn them into patterns. I did manage to finish this pattern, though, complete with a tutorial. Key to my Heart is a pattern that combines foundation paper piecing and applique to help you create a perfect log cabin-style heart on a 9″x9″ block (or a background block of your choice. The heart measures approximately 8″ wide by 7″ tall). The log cabin pattern is paper pieced for quick, “perfect” stitching, and then the heart shape is cut out and appliqued onto the background of your choice. The heart is shown on the paper piecing template so that your block is perfectly centered and ready to go.

This block would be perfect for a variety of Valentine’s Day gifts, or even just to show your love any day of the year. I plan to make my block into a tea cozy using Yvonne’s great tutorial here, but you could make yours into a mug rug, mini wall hanging, table runner, or even add it to a larger quilt.

The pattern is for sale in my Craftsy shop for those in the US, or in my Payhip shop for international folk. It is on sale for only $3.50 until February 1st, when it will be listed at the usual $4.50.

Since this pattern combines paper piecing and applique, I decided to provide a tutorial to help explain and show each step more clearly. Once you’ve printed your pattern template, you are ready to go!

Instructions

Step 1

Paper piece the log cabin portion of the block until fabric extends at least 1/4″ beyond all edges of the heart.

Notes:

*Shorten your machine’s stitch length to 1.2 to make paper removal easy.
*The center square is perfect for fussy cutting! Find key fabric to share the key to your heart. Or, be creative! Do you love cats? Fussy cut a cat for the center. Love tea? Fussy cut a teapot for the center. Whatever you or the gift recipient loves can be fussy cut for the center of this heart.
Tip: Hold the paper and your fussy cut square up to a bright window or lightbox to be sure your fussy cut feature is centered before sewing.

Step 2

Using a long basting stitch (2.5 or larger), sew around the outside of the heart, approximately 1/8″ from the line (this distance does not need to be perfect, nor do the stitches need to be perfect. The purpose of these stitches is to hold all of your fabric flat while cutting out the heart shape.)

Step 3

Using scissors appropriate for cutting both fabric and paper, carefully cut along the dotted heart line.

Step 4

Remove paper piecing foundation paper.
Jump for joy at how easy it is since you shortened your stitch length to 1.2 before paper piecing!

Step 5

Applique your heart to the center of your background fabric using your preferred applique method.

Notes:

*To accurately center your heart, fold your background fabric in half and press lightly. With the fold running top to bottom, line up the center top and bottom of the heart with the pressed center line of the background fabric. Either measure the distance from top and bottom of the background fabric until it’s equal, or position your heart as desired.

Step 6

Find gorgeous matching thread. (I love Aurifil, and there’s ~~almost~~ always a perfect match!).

Step 7

Quilt and finish as desired.

I would love to see if you create this block. Photos of your finished block can be posted in my Night Quilter Creations group on Flickr found HERE, or can be added to the Craftsy page HERE. The first three (3) people to buy, complete, and upload a photo of a completed block to either the Flickr group or my Craftsy page will receive a full refund OR choice of another pattern from my shop. How about that for sharing the love!?

Want to share the love some more? Instagram your blocks and tag me @nightquilter.

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday. Share the love ❤

Business, Patterns

2014 in Review & VATmess Transition

December 30, 2014 kittywilkin 2 Comments

{I’m still on vacation until mid-January! This is just a quick pop-in with some fun 2014 analytics and some important info on my pattern shop transition due to the new VAT tax laws. Happy New Year, and see you in a couple of weeks!}

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. It’s pretty fun to read since this was my first year of blogging. I think it went well, and I know I sure enjoyed the ride!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

In other news, I’m shutting down my Craftsy pattern shop for now due to the new VAT tax laws coming into effect January 1st. I’m slowly transitioning my patterns to Payhip, which takes care of the VAT tax for its sellers (SCORE!). I’m only just finding my way around it, but I’m excited at the prospect of having a selling platform that allows me to continue to sell digital download patterns to customers all over the world. I’m still on vacation for a couple more weeks (lucky me!), so the full transition won’t occur until mid to late January, but I’ve got a start!

I love the range of selling options on Payhip so far. They allow sellers to create coupon codes, set up systems where buyers can get discounts by sharing the pattern link on social media sites, and even create shop affiliates. For now, I’m offering 10% off any patterns up on Payhip with the coupon code “vatmess”. This sale will run through January 15, 2015. I get vacation, and you get a sale! Here are the patterns up so far (click the photo/link to go to the selling page or click HERE for the main page):

Buy Lupine Pattern

Buy Fish Rainbow Row Pattern

Please spread the word, and have a wonderful, happy, healthy new year! 2015 is going to be a great year! All my best, and see you in a couple of weeks!

Patterns, Sewing

Ready to Go Anywhere: My First Bag!

December 5, 2014 kittywilkin 12 Comments

I did it! I made a bag! It’s definitely not perfect, but for my first bag, I am SO happy with it. I followed Anna from Noodlehead‘s pattern for the Go Anywhere Bag, and it was quite easy to follow, even for an absolute beginner like me.

Going into making this bag, I was extremely, unnaturally scared of the whole process. I was seriously terrified! A huge thank you goes out to Sarah Fredett from Smiles too Loudly, for being there as real-time support on Instagram when I first got started on the pattern. Sarah walked me through the tangled mystery of interfacing, and helped me gain that first bit of confidence to forge ahead. Thank you SO much, Sarah!

Anna’s pattern was very clear and specific, going as far as to suggest little triangles at the tops of each pocket to reinforce the opening (genius!?). The images in the pattern were a great help for me, a visual learner. The steps were clear and well sequenced, and I feel like I was able to follow along without too much reading ahead or back-tracking to make sense of it all. It is my first bag ever, but most definitely not my last! (I’ve already bought a bit of the coveted Anna Maria Horner Field Study Feathers-Parenthetical Linen in the Deep colorway for my next bag. Shhh!).

While this bag did not include the installation of a zipper, I’m proud to say that not only did I create pleats for the first time, but I also installed two magnetic snaps and sewed inner pockets (not to mention taming the dreaded interfacing). Go me!

go anywhere bag top view — Top view of the Go Anywhere Bag. Pleated pockets!

I think of myself as a very practical person, so choosing a white-based fabric for the outside was initially a hesitation. Before making the bag, I figured since I loved the fabric so much, I would go ahead and use it for the front and back pockets (aka the feature fabric), but would only use the bag for special occasions. Now that the bag is complete, I can’t help but use it as my everyday purse. Sure, it probably will get dirty, but it’s pretty fabulous in the meantime!

Like I said, since it’s my first bag, it’s far from perfect. I had quite a bit of difficulty maneuvering the whole thing in a smooth manner through my domestic machine, so there are wiggle waggles in the stitching here and there. All you expert bag-makers extraordinaire (Hillary, you’re on the top of this list!)–how do you smoothly finagle thick layers of bag under your machine?! I am clearly in need of some tips!

imperfections in sewing bag — Wiggle waggle stitching.

I also made the executive decision to create two impromptu pleats in the back pocket to ensure that the front and back pocket tops lined up with each other. The alternative would have been a smooth back pocket, but completely unaligned pockets on one edge (shudder).

All in all, making this bag was a really fun activity. I’m proud of myself for biting the bullet and trying something new, and I’m excited to try making more bags! Next up will be a zip pouch–small, but with a (dun dun DUN) zipper!

I didn’t get very many great photos of my bag, since I had my usual helper with me. He’s pretty cute, though, huh? It’s worth the bit of blur, and he certainly seemed ready to go anywhere with my new bag! (I’m leaving out the photos of him actually taking off running with my bag, since I realized post-photo that our messy house litters the background!)

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday. Bag #1: done and done!

Crafting, Patterns

Getting Brave with a Bag

November 19, 2014 kittywilkin 6 Comments

I’m going to do it. It’s official, now. I’m going to attempt to a) follow my first non-quilt pattern and b) make my first bag! I bought all of the fabric, interfacing, and notions needed so now there is no turning back.

I recently stopped in my local (really local this time at 20 minutes away) fabric shop Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast, with a bag in mind and was taken by their colorful linen blend selections. Initially, I had in my mind that the feature fabric for my first bag would be linen blend, but I decided on a cotton print (the butterflies-“Flutter” by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics) for the large front feature pocket for the bag. The main body of the bag will be the teal linen blend, then handles and inner pocket will be the lime green linen blend, and the inner lining will be the dark blue fireflies (from Water Garden by Jane Dixon for Andover Fabrics).

I bought the necessary interfacing, pattern paper, and a magnetic snap closure, so I think I have everything I will need. I opted for the Go Anywhere Bag by Noodlehead, for many reasons:

I’ve seen so many awesome bags made with Noodlehead‘s patterns,
Noodlehead was also recommended by the woman at Fiddlehead,
Fiddlehead had the patterns for sale, so it was one-stop-shopping,
The bag is BIG! which means it should fit all of my ~~crap~~ valuable items,
There are no zippers, so I don’t have to face that challenge yet, and
I feel like the pattern really highlights the fabric choices.

I can’t wait to begin!

I am hoping (planning?) to have a chunk of time tomorrow to sew, and that’s when I plan to tackle this bag. Sure, I have other projects that could use some progress made, but I’m ready to sit down, bite the bullet, and MAKE a BAG! I’ve read through the instructions a couple of times and have been thinking about this project a LOT, so I’m counting it as a work in progress and linking up with Freshly Pieced’s WiP Wednesday.

Any tips for a first time bag-maker?

Business, Patterns

Giveaways and Sales

October 14, 2014 kittywilkin 1 Comment

Two words everyone loves to hear, right? I recently released three new foundation paper piecing patterns and had some great pattern testers help me along the way. I offered my blogging testers the opportunity to host a giveaway on their blogs, so now you have a chance to win a free copy of one of my new patterns. Check out these two great giveaways:

Visit Shayna’s blog Wife, Mom, Creator for a chance to win a copy of my leaf paper piecing pattern.

Sarah of Pitcher Family Adventures offered to test both my Leaf pattern AND my original Fishies pattern, so on her blog you have a chance to win your choice of either pattern.

Be sure to take a minute to stop by both blogs to enter to win! While these giveaways are going on, I’m extending the sale in my Craftsy store. Both Fish patterns and the Leaf pattern will be on sale for $3.50 for one more week.

Each of these patterns will be on sale for one more week!

I try to outweigh “check out my pattern store” posts with more project-focused, photo-heavy, quilting inspiration and progress posts, but sometimes there just needs to be a little self promotion (right?). In this case, it’s win win–you have a good chance of winning a free paper piecing pattern, and I’m helping spread the word for my awesome pattern testers.