A Bag for the Summer

How fantastic to see the sun out properly over the last few days - and it's set to continue this week so I've got windows open and letting the sounds of evening bird song fill the house.

At the start of the year I made a little list of projects I wanted to make and techniques I wanted to master in 2013. One of the frustrating things about learning new skills is that I always want to run before I can walk, and I prefer real projects to testers so sometimes things reach a standstill because I just don't dare ruin something by experimenting.

One of my frustrations has been accurate piecing, getting those corners or points to line up and sit nicely. I saw Katy's picture recently which got me thinking about a ton of little squares that I cut up last year so I started playing, sorting low volume and brights like this:

and then wondering what I could do with them... it was definitely time to do a little experiment and just see where it led.
I selected the low volume pile, added a few prints from more recent purchases and started sewing together into pairs (actual chain piecing!), and then into little strips. With the help of some careful cutting, a 1/4" foot, and matching up the seams, the accuracy was much improved!

Quite quickly I had a piece of patchwork fabric about 20" x 12" and just knew that this had to be a bag, so I checked my pattern downloads and found the Noodlehead Sidekick Tote which I'd bought a while back and have seen many scrummy versions of on-line. I made my fabric choices based on what I had in the stash, got some interfacing and off I went!

I did actually get it all sewn up in a day - which is really not long once you've done the school runs and a couple of chores - and I'm really pleased with the result.

Funky lining!

So I can tick off Bag from my list (although this won't be the last), and I have worked on precision piecing and zip insertion and following a pattern (!), and I have something fab and useful to show from it rather than an experiment that I keep in a box under the desk.

So what next? Bags...Fat Quarter Retreat...Travel...I know where this is leading...do you?

More soon,