bag | Night Quilter

The days have been ticking by with a fury, and in only 4 short days, I’ll be on a plane (four planes to be exact) to Austin for QuiltCon. My family–husband especially–has been super understanding and helpful in terms of giving me a bit extra sewing time so that I can feel prepared. After a long late-night sewing stint last night and a great mail day today, I’m feeling much more prepared. Here’s a quick post outlining what I’ve finished:

Super Tote

I amazingly finished sewing this Super Tote (pattern by Anna at Noodle-head) so that I will have an awesome handmade bag large enough to carry all my supplies around QuiltCon. Only the second bag I’ve ever made, there are a number of things I messed up or would do differently next time, but I am happy with it! I used Anna Maria Horner’s line Field Study for both the front pocket and lining, and used Robert Kaufman 21-wale corduroy for the body.

Night Quilter Belt for the AlterEgo Moda Dance Party

night quilter alter ego belt in progress — Night Quilter Alter Ego belt in progress.

quiltcon night quilter alter ego belt in the snow — Don’t mind the snow. Of course it’s snowing again. We are getting another 24″ tonight into tomorrow!

quiltcon night quilter alter ego beltquiltcon night quilter alter ego belt — Can you tell what my favorite colors are these days?

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl proposed a fun idea a month or so ago, where we dress up as our QuiltCon Alter Egos for the Moda Dance Party Thursday night. The idea was to dress like your blog name, since everyone will recognize blogosphere monikers far more easily than actual names or faces. I decided to make a belt reflecting my new Night Quilter logo (see business cards and pins below), and I will be wearing a navy blue shirt with silver star stickers all over it. Night Quilter? I hope it works!

Business Cards and Pins

My business cards from Moo and pin-back buttons from Button Arcade finally arrived today! Now I’m feeling like I’m REALLY ready to head to QuiltCon!! There is an official-unofficial pin swap going on at QuiltCon, so I’m looking forward to swapping! I love that Kyle at Button Arcade was able to put my blog url on the back/side of the pins. What an awesome feature!

Here’s my updated QuiltCon to-do list:

~~Order pin-back buttons~~
~~Download QuiltCon app~~
Prep for classes
–~~Buy fabric for Alternate Grid~~
-Make blocks (5 finished)
-Cut scraps for Playing with Value
~~Make Super Tote~~
~~Make quilted belt for QuiltCon AlterEgo~~
~~Order business cards~~
Make Noodle-head pouch for holding buttons
~~Buy a new moleskin notebook & micron pens~~
~~Make a lanyard?~~ (both Sarah at Smiles Too Loudly and Daisy at Ants to Sugar offered to make me a lanyard! I’m SO grateful for awesome quilter blogger friends! Woohoo!)
Make a list of people to meet (It’s ongoing!)

Up I go to cut scraps for Playing with Value, then perhaps I’ll make a couple more blocks tomorrow for the Off the Grid workshop. Tonight is date night with my hubby for Valentine’s Day, so all sewing comes to a halt when he arrives home from dropping the kids with his cousin!

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.