"Nicole" bag

I am glad to show you my latest bags!

I modified my bag patterns and I made two extra large totes. These are my gifts for the new moms in our family.

This is the "Nicole" tote bag. I named it after the name of my youngest sister. My nephew will come into the world tomorrow so she needs this bag.

You can see its size, it's really big.
17.5-22'' (top and bottom) wide x 14.5" tall x 5" deep.

The main fabric is a heavy cotton from Ikea. The only solid color I had was this beige denim.

I am in love with the white+beige combination ! I use it for the first time, for a long time I had the idea that they don't look great together, but I was wrong.

The zippered pocket on the back is large (10"),

and the lining is a beautiful orange print. The interior pockets are large too.

This is the tote for my cousin Kitty. This was the first one I made and the shape of the front pockets is slightly different.

I know I said I keep the miniature bags for me, but I will give the baby bag to Adelina, Kitty's baby girl. It 's her size. :)

If you brought my bag patterns you already know how to stitch this type of bag.
If you like the new large tote you could make your own because I will send the templates to all my customers .

For the next ten days, the templates for the large tote bag as well as the ones for miniatures are free with the purchase of my bag patterns (instructions or material list are not included).

I hope you will enjoy it ! How I wish to have time to make one for myself !

Crocheted snowflakes

I am ready for Christmas ! Look at the fabulous snowflakes my friend Marion sent me.

As they are incredible stiff, I asked Marion what she used to stiffen them. She told me that she doesn't use starch because it yellows but Alene's Fabric Stiffener. I don't know what is this but it does a great job.

Every pattern is unique. They will look wonderful hanging in the Christmas three.
Thank you, Marion !

The quilt for my hubby

He waited for it for 10 years !

But the waiting was worth it !

I used cotton batting, I ordered it a few weeks ago from ASding.com . For 5.5 yards of 96" wide batting and 5 spools of thread ( they did not exceed 2 kilos) the shipping cost was only 10 BP ($15). I am more than happy that I found a shop where I don't have to pay more for shipping the batting than for the batting itself ! And in seven days the order arrived at my door.

I love the look of the quilts made with cotton batting after washing .

The quilt is huge, 80x92 (2x2.3 m)

and stitching all those pebbles took me 3 days,

and a lot of thread. I used the three green spools of King Tut.

When I received the order I did not know if I should laugh or cry. I wanted thread in different colors and look what I bought. How obsessed I am by the green color!

Detail of quilting.
It was very easy to quilt the square following the stripes in fabric.

For the back I used a green poplin which is thinner than the chiffon I usually use for backing. The batting was thin too, still the quilt weights a lot...

My dream of painting the walls and decorate the bedroom in green and red is over...My husband loves blue...

We are wainting for fall to use the quilt. Now here is a hot weather, it wasn't a pleasure at all to keep the quilt in my lap for three days until I finished it.

Do you like the quilt ? My husband loves it.
Have a great week.

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Tutorial for piecing this quilt - here .

My sewing machines

On Monday I started to work on my husband quilt. I made the top in February and since in two weeks will be his birthday, I want to finish it until then.

I thought I will quilt it in a day, being helped by my friend Jack. But I was wrong, I forgot that quilt measures 80"x92". I worked three days on it and still I have to wash it an add binding.

Meet my friend Jack, my industrial sewing machine !
It's very speedy and I like it! But what I like most is the large space under the arm of the machine.

You can see in these pictures how much of a block can fit under the Jack's arm and how much can fit under the needle of my domestic Pfaff.

While the difference in inches is not so big (10.25" the space under Jack and 7"- at Pfaff), in reality, when I quilt, this difference is HUGE !!!

A few years ago my Pfaff needed a small repair and a mechanic came home to do the job. He was amazed by the way I used the machine - for free motion quilting.
After he repaired the machine, he asked me :
-"Why don't you buy an industrial machine?"
I asked :
-"Does the machine have a foot for free motion quilting ?
-"No, it doesn't, but I will adapt one for it".

That smart young man lives in my town (and works here ) and after a few months I bought the machine. And since then I happily free motion quilt with it.

I love my mechanical Pfaff too, but it is old and it runs like a tractor- it's very noisy.

With Jack I could easily quilt even a larger quilt !

My weekend

Hi everyone,

I hope you spent a wonderful weekend, mine wasn't wonderful at all.
After I made a beautiful quilting on the center of a quilt, on Friday evening I started to quilt the background.
I will never take decisions on Friday evening ! Especially after dinner ! After a half hour of work I decided I don't like the quilting so I started to rip out the stitches. But it took me 8 hours to remove all the stitching !

I am still happy because I don't use too often the seam ripper for such things. It happened the second time.

A few years ago I made these two quilts. And on both I placed a few patches wrong. You can see below (sorry for the bad pictures).

It was the first time I worked with a metallic batik and I was so excited that I did not pay attention the way I pieced the blocks (there can't be another reason)!

Unfortunately, this one is still an UFO...

Have a wonderful day !