Yet another week has just flown by! I’ve been working on a bunch of different quilting projects, plus a couple of life projects too.
For quilting projects, I’m in the middle of the Southern Stars quilt pattern by She Quilts A Lot. As you can see, it’s a cute and fairly straightforward pattern. If only there weren’t 288 stitch and flips to make for the little stars!!!
I’m also trying out Anna Graham’s Maker Tote. I’ve made quite a few of her other bags and loved them all, so I’m anticipating that this will be as enjoyable as the other projects. Right now I’ve picked out fabric for a couple of totes and am waiting on my separating zippers to arrive. I’ve never sewed with a separating zipper before but don’t anticipate any issues. In March, I’ll be leading a class on this project, so if you’ve ever wanted to get into bag making but are intimidated by the zippers, handles, and hardware this is a great opportunity to learn those skills. There’s a huge variety of bag and totes (even free patterns) out there and once you are confident about the fundamentals, you can make any bag.
This week’s free pattern is a beauty from Ella Blue. If you’re not familiar with this fabric line, it’s a family-owned business out of Australia and the fabrics are printed in Japan. I love their basics, but don’t see the fabric very often here.
As you can see, there’s nothing terribly complicated about this pattern – it’s pairs of HSTs arranged in a chevron-style pattern. The quilt finishes at 60×60″, but if you wanted something larger, you could make your HSTs larger than the called-for 6.5″. The pattern is 10×10 HSTs – so 100 total. Nothing too traumatic and totally doable if you’re whipping up a quilt on short notice. However, the impact of this baby is impressive and I also love the potential for using SCRAPS, although it would take some careful planning to get the rainbow effect.
Have a great weekend!
Becky