Monday, August 23, 2010

Abbey Bags: A Fix and A Finish

Sewing: A creative mess is better than tidy idleness. -Unknown

I made my first Abbey Bag as a gift for my cute friend, Iris. The instructions were a little bit hard to follow in a couple of places, so I interpreted them the best I could and the pincushion/bag turned out reasonably well. The only problem with it was that the bag sort of stood at attention instead of being all puffy and open and cute. When I went back to make a couple more, I had a few der :dunce: moments, when I realized where I'd gone wrong. The pattern calls for fusible fleece, which I had difficulty translating in my head to mean fusible batting. I used Pellon Peltex 71F, which worked really well for the flower, but was too stiff for the bag. When I decided to make a few more of these cute little pincushion/bags, I just used some Warm & Natural I had on hand to line the bags, using my walking foot to sew that part. The result was much better.

Iris mentioned in passing that she'd had kind of a hard time getting really good use out of the bag part of this pincushion/bag combo. Later, after I realized my mistake with her bag, I asked her to send it back so that I could fix it for her. I pulled the bag apart and then ran an iron over the fabric that was fused to the Peltex and it easily came apart. I put it back together with some batting and was so glad that I could fix her bag so that it is all puffy and cute. It sits open like it is supposed to, so hopefully she'll have no trouble at all using it.

I'm kind of fixated on these little pincushions. I get that way sometimes. It is really fun to come up with different fabric combinations and make the same thing over and over in different ways. But since I don't really need more than one pincushion {although the jury may just still be out on that one . . . two couldn't really hurt, could it?}, it is fun to make them as little gifts in fabric combinations that I think will suit the recipient.

Around Easter time, I made a new blog friend. Her blog is called Pink Suede Shoe. How could I not investigate? In her post that day, Pink said she loved black jelly beans and I commented that she could have mine. We were fast friends from that moment. Today we met for the first time. We were all set to go to the Quilt Show at the Springville Art Museum. She brought pie {and let me tell you, it was delicious :drooling:. It will be gone before dinner} and I had a little something for her too.

I did a few aprons using this adorable Apple and Pears fabric and have since decided that I'm going to make an ironing board cover for my big ironing board out of this fabric. When I went back to get some more, however, I couldn't find it. I went several times, and mentioned that I wasn't having any luck finding more. Pink told me that she'd been in to JoAnn's recently and they did, in fact, have some {it turns out that they just moved it and I wasn't looking in the right place} or that she had some in her stash {because she has a thing for pears} that I could have. A little light turned on :idea:. I pulled my apples and pears aprons scraps as well as the left-over ruffle fabrics in green and pink and added in the striped fabric {which seems totally made for the apples and pears}, and voilá. An Abbey Bag for Pink. And a finish for August :clap:.

As it turns out, the Museum is closed on Mondays :lol:, so we'll have to schedule another play date. I wonder what I could trade for some more of that pie :confused:?

10 comments:

pinksuedeshoe said...

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! and you are right, that stripe was made for those pears. Thank you so much, I can't wait to sew something so I can fill it up with my scraps. THANK YOU!!!

Unknown said...

These are really great! Glad to hear of your tips. This is something that is on my list of things to do - it is number 159!!

quiltmom anna said...

Elizabeth,
I do love the beautiful pin cushion and bag that you sent to me. I thought you might like to know that I have posted a short thank you with a link to your blog. I am having a few problems with technology these days so I did not take my own photo of the bag.
Thank you for your generosity- I am going to love using my very fun thread bag and pin cushion.
Warmest regards,
Anna
http:quiltmomsjourney.blogspot.com/

Just JaiCi's Crafts said...

I didn't even know the springville museum had a quilt show...guess I know what I'm doing sometime this week! Thanks for letting me know :)

Barb said...

Your bags are just wonderful....totally cute fabrics...just love them.

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

The pin cushions are just so gorgeous....

Shay said...

Firstly you can never have enough pin cushions. Let's just get that straight right now!

I have a confession- I cant follow patterns at all...i get all flummoxed and confuzzled and lose the plot totally. I just look at things and sew them. Sometimes they even turn out right, so the fact you can follow patterns impresses me no end.

Threeundertwo said...

I love these! That pear fabric is so fun, glad to see you've found another way to use it!

amylouwhosews said...

Hello! I just found your blog through Facebook! I've been checking out the folks who are linking to my page. :) I made an ironing board cover out of that apple and pear fabric and it is, in fact, adorable. you should totally do it!

I also saw on FB that we have several mutual friends! (in real life, not on fb) AND my cousins grew up in Roy and my mom is from Mapleton. I think we might have been meant to be friends! your blog is fun! Thanks for the tip on the free-motion quilt along. I totally need to do this. I feel the same way you do about it. I kept nodding my head, uh huh. yeah. I totally understand. The whole time I was reading that post!

have a great day!

amylouwhosews said...

Aaaaaaand, now I see you have my sew & tell button and I've probably been here before. you'll have to excuse the foggy newborn-in-the-house-brain. :)