More Abbey Bag Finishes: Housework Whenever

Housework whenever, quilting forever!
-The Quilters' Motto

A long time ago {like last September}, my cute friend Angie sent me a fat quarter of the sassiest and most appropriate fabric ever. The women printed on the fabric say lots of funny {and sometimes snarky things} like:

• Happiness is relaxing after the shop hop.
• I told him it was unwise to make me choose between him and my fabrics. I will miss him though.
• Said over a sink of soapy dish water: Will the glamour never end?
• Dating? I’d rather be sewing!
• If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.
• I sent my son to college so I could keep my fabric in his room . . . expensive storage.
• If you can’t say something nice, come sit next to me.
• I got a sewing machine for my husband! Good trade, huh?
• When I learned to sew, I forgot how to cook!
• If I sit here long enough maybe they will fix their own dinner!

And my personal favorite
• A clean house is the sign of a broken sewing machine.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. It was perfect for an Abbey Bag! So I ordered some coordinates on-line {I hate to pay shipping, but the shops around here didn't have any} and started making plans. When my fabric arrived, I discovered I had enough for three Abbey Bags, so I got them all cut out and then they sat. And they sat. And they sat. Until this week when I have a pressing project that I'm procrastinating strategically planning. While I was procrastinating planning, I decided to occupy my hands and so I set to work and got these cute Abbey Bags done. Hooray! Three more July finishes!

I gave one to my mom for her birthday {Happy Birthday Mom! I ♥ you!}! and that left me with two.

Then I sent one to my cute friend, Wanda, because it was her birthday too. That left me with one. It was supposed to be for me, but I changed my mind and made mine out of Frolic instead. I wonder what I'll do with this one? {Hmmmm . . . my 200th blog post is coming up next week (Tuesday-ish) which may or may not involve a giveaway. You know bloggers and ‘events’ and giveaways. I’m just saying.}

These little Abbey Bag pincushions are so fun to make. I love mine and I think they make really great gifts! Here are a few notes on them.

• I think my favorite part about these are the covered buttons on the top. They are so stinkin' cute and really fun to make! Sewing them on is the tricky part because you can't go easily through the shank on the back more than one time and keep the stitches tight. To solve this problem, I used five strands of thread on my really long needle {the 6" one, so it had a pretty big eye}, doubled it over {so I had ten strands} and went up through the pin cushion from the bottom, through the button shank and then back down through the pin cushion, pulling the threads tight and tying it in a square knot at the bottom. I figured that ought to hold.
• I used crushed walnut shells to fill the pincushions. It makes them nice and heavy and they keep their shape well. The bag of walnut shells I bought was enough to make five pincushions and I think I have enough left to make at least three more. The pattern suggests emery sand as an alternate filling, which is supposed to keep pins sharp. In my research I discovered that emery sand isn't really necessary because pins and needles today are plated and they don't rust or get dull like the old ones. In fact, emery sand is more likely to dull these new-fangled pins and needles.
• The instructions call for fusible fleece. I had a hard time translating that in my head to fusible batting, so I bought Pellon Peltex 71F. It was really stiff, which gave a nice shape to the flowers, but it made the bag stand at attention {sorry, Iris. Yours was the guinea pig. If you want to send it back to me, I'll fix it. xo -E} instead of being all puffy and cute. Once I figured out what I was doing, I stuck with the Peltex for the flower, but used a bit of Warm and Natural in the bag itself and just used a walking foot for stitching up that part {using what I had on hand instead of hunting down some fusible batting}.
• The instructions said to glue the pincushion to the little flower it sits on and also to glue the bag to the connector strip that attaches it to the flower. I wasn't sold on that idea, so I stitched the connector strip to the inside of the bag before I sewed the band around the top. I also sewed it on the bottom of the flower and then hand stitched the pincushion onto the flower. I thought that would be more secure and hold up better.
• The instructions call for rubberized shelf liner. This is another one that I had a hard time translating in my brain. I bought a stiff, plastic shelf liner thinking that it went in the bottom of the bag {between the liner and the outside} and that is what made the bag all puffy and open and cute. After I finished the first one, I realized that what they really wanted was the no-skid grip-pad kind of shelf liner. {Another der moment. I really did read through the instructions before I started collecting supplies}. I used glue to attach it to the bottom of the flower, covering up the stitches holding the pin cushion on and the end of the connector strip, finishing everything off nicely.

For some really amazing other finishes this week, click on the buttons below.