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Last week, while my husband was away on business, I ventured of the quilting path and into the world of bag making.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of the Miranda Day Bag pattern by Lazy Girl Designs. I also gathered up the required yardages and other materials that day. It became a matter of having both the motivation and the time to create the bag.

I was very pleased with the written instructions and the diagrams in this pattern, and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is intimidated by the idea of making a bag. (I like it so much that I’m making at least two more.) The final product is just the right size for toting around a knitting project.

Check out the photos of my first Miranda bag, which I’ve made for my friend Jess:

The finished bag

Zoom of fabrics

View inside the bag

Total work time: 9 hours

I have worked on several quilts recently, usually after school (the joys of being a substitute teacher!) and some on weekend mornings. I don’t have a good place to take photos of larger pieces yet–not without making them look like they’re trapezoidal instead of square or rectangular–and I positively loathe photos that show the fingers of the person holding up the work. I added a terrific and simple green border to Flower Boxes, and I created a dramatic black-and-white Bento box wall hanging. I’m also experimenting with a possible reversible quilt, based on a Courthouse Steps block (or Log Cabin block variation). Photos soon!

Next up is my take on another pattern from Atkinson Designs. If I can find my copy of Nickel Quilts, I might crank out one of those, too. As much as I love the drama of queen-sized quilts, I am enjoying the speed at which I can complete lap-sized quilt tops, too.

Coming soon: quilt shop reviews!

(Originally posted 3 March 2008.)

Every once in a while, I get inspired and turn out a quilt top in no time flat. That happened this weekend.

Not too long ago, I purchased the Slide Show pattern from Atkinson Designs. It looked pretty simple–all squares and rectangles–and I saw a lot of potential in it. While at the shop, I thought about what fabrics I have and decided on a floral theme. I chose the background fabric (a subtle white-on-white print) and made a choice for a border fabric that, it turns out, won’t really work with the florals I chose.

From my stash, I chose a dozen 1930s reproduction floral and spot prints. All of the prints are non-directional all-overs. Honestly, the fabrics kind of scared me when they were sitting right next to each other in big pieces, but I had faith that the addition of the background fabric would help soften the look.

For the test run of the pattern, I chose to do what they call the “baby” size, although I think it’s more like a small lap quilt. (What do I know?) The cutting took almost no time at all–just 8″ squares, some 2″ by 5″ strips, and some 2″ by 8″ strips–and the same for the assembly of the basic units. (The pattern instructions give you the exact numbers of which pieces, as well as construction information for the basic units.) I deviated from the instructions a bit, in that I used more prints than the baby size instructions called for, so I wound up doing a little bit of math to figure out how many of what I needed to make.

After assembling the basic units, I laid everything out into rows and maneuvered the units around until I was generally happy with the layout:

Layout of Flower Boxes
(Pardon the clutter around the futon.)

From that point, it was a matter of sewing the units into rows, pressing the seams in the right directions, and sewing the rows together. Here’s the final result:

Flower Boxes, without outer border

Zoom of one large square, with borders

Zoom of one corner

I’m quite pleased with how the top has turned out so far. (I still need to add the outer border.) Total time spent on this project so far is about 10 hours. Most of that is in the pinning/sewing/pressing stage.

I will definitely make another quilt using this pattern. Next time, though, I will sketch it out and make a more thorough plan of what fabric will go where.