Travel Essentials 2.0 with By Annie and Island Batik

The October Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was to make a By Annie pattern in Island Batik fabrics.  We got to choose the bag we wanted to make as well as the fabrics we wanted to use!  We were provided with all the hardware and notions from By Annie as well.  I chose to make the Travel Essentials 2.0 bag because I am way overdue for a new toiletries case for traveling!  

I was really excited to see the pretty fabrics in person!  I chose to use fabrics from the Shadow Blooms collection, they are so beautiful - I love blues, purples and greens together!  Creekside Quilts in Oregon has the Strip packs and Stacks available, they always have a great selection of Island Batik fabrics.

This project used a lot of hardware and zippers!  It also features vinyl and mesh pockets, so used a lot of different techniques.

Diagonal grid quilting always looks good on a bag project, so that's what I did!  I used a pretty aqua 40 wt from Aurifil left from my September challenge.  I just had enough to complete the quilting, so I switched to a medium blue for the rest of the sewing.  I used a Schmetz size 14 Microtex needle for the entire project.  I love that these needles are sharp and strong enough to go through the multiple layers involved in the entire project.  

There were also a ton of tabs and straps involved - all of these use webbing inside to make them strong and durable. 

Once I start a By Annie project I usually get so engrossed in the process that I totally forget to take pictures!  I got to the binding without getting any process shots of the pockets! The large pocket was a little tricky, but the add-on video for this bag was super helpful for that part, and made it a lot easier to understand how it all worked.  And it's so nice that you can always access these videos later once they are added to your account - when I make this bag again I will definitely take advantage of that!

This pattern also includes a sleeve for your styling tools!

I did straight line quilting for this one.  It went together in no time at all!

This is nice and roomy with double layers of soft and stable, plus a pocket for the cords!

Here are both of my finished projects, all ready to pack up and take on my next travel adventure!  Aren't they lovely?  The organizer also features a removable and adjustable shoulder strap. 

This is the outside pocket, which houses the strap for hanging, and is perfect for anything you want to access without opening the whole bag up.

 Here are the inside pockets in vinyl and mesh!  Perfect for keeping the smaller items easy to see and access.

And the super roomy bottom pocket, which can hold your larger items.  My previous bag wasn't big enough for my electric toothbrush case, but this one holds it easily, with room for all of my other needed items!

You can hang the whole bag up from the hanging strap and have everything easy to access, which is a super nice feature.  

Now I have it all loaded up and ready for my next trip!  It's beautiful and practical and I am super happy with it!  You could also make this bag and use it for sewing supplies for on the go - so I think I might be making another one for that purpose!  

Thanks to Patterns by Annie for the supplies for this bag, Island Batik for the fabric, Aurifil for the thread, and Schmetz Needles for the needles I used!  This was a fun, and useful addition to my collection of bags from the By Annie collection!

A New Juki in the House!

 I was very sad last month when I took my beloved Juki in to be serviced.  When the technician was working on resolving my issues with tension and thread breaking the plug in for the foot cord broke apart and created a power surge in the machine.  The plug in had broken back in the spring of 2023, and I had forgotten to inform him of this issue.  He proceeded to repair the plug in again, but some damage appears to have occurred in one of the circuit boards, and he was unable to determine where the fault was.  I was advised that I could take it to an authorized dealer and they could diagnose and repair it, but it would probably cost nearly what a new machine would.  It wasn't a hard decision for me.  I quickly decided that my best and quickest option would be to order a new one.

Sad to say goodbye to a hard-working machine - I don't name my machines, but I still appreciate them.

I actually had bought this one used on eBay, and I am sure that I have made at least 200 quilts on it over the 10 years I have owned it!  And lots of drapes, valances and duvet covers, too.  It's hemmed and altered dozens of wedding gowns, and I'm sure over 100 prom dresses as well!  Well worth the price for sure, as I am sure the new version will be.

Yes, I bought the same model brand new!  Oh, I am so happy with it, and really wish that I had made the move earlier.  I had been fighting the old machine with tension issues and problems free motion quilting for at least the last year.  This new machine stitched like a dream right out of the box.  I quilted my first quilt on it last week - a friend made this cute quilt for her grandson, but needed it quilted.  I am happy to say that it never skipped a single stitch or broke the thread once, stitching through fusible applique, satin ribbon and sew on patches without missing a beat!  Yahoo!

I also love that there is a new throat plate with marks in inches!  The quarter inch line is perfectly accurate, which will be lovely for piecing.  I was surprised at first that the throat plate was different, but it turns out that I really like it.

In other news, we've made good progress on our bathroom remodel and have a functional shower after two months!  I tell you it's been a battle every step of the way, but I think the worst of it is over and done.  I haven't blogged about it because it's been such a stressful project.  It started out with the first shower that was delivered having a hole in the side of the seat!  That set us back by three weeks, and we had already done the demo work, so no showering in our house for the duration (luckily, we have some good friends who let us shower at their house!) 

When the new shower arrived,  we got the bottom installed, and attached the drain, then discovered that the back panel was too large to go up our stairwell.  We had to hire a contractor to come remove our bedroom window to get it in that way.  After that it was a struggle with adjust the plumbing to the depth of the shower, which we resolved last week.  This week we got all the panels in place and fastened down and were able to use it at long last.  We installed the grab bars this afternoon.  We have sliding doors to install, but opted to put up the shower curtain so we can use it in the meantime.  I'm planning on painting on Monday, then we'll be ready to get those done.  We still have to figure out how to trim it out to look good, but we are getting there!  Unfortunately, old houses aren't level or plumb, so this has been quite a project!  Oh, and there is new flooring to put in as well!  This has been one of those never again projects for sure - but it's so much nicer than the old bathtub and I know we will be glad we did it in the end!  The good news is that our plumbing is all in good shape, and there was no dry rot!  

And as we have watched the devastation caused by Helene and Milton we appreciate the fact that this is just a small bump in the road for us and not a major catastrophe.  But it sure is nice to be able to shower in our own bathroom again!

I am looking forward to October being a little less stressful, and to having more time for projects!  I've been working on the project I started for National Sew a Jelly Roll day, using my Reflections quilt pattern.  Maybe I'll get that finished this week!  I'm looking forward to doing the free motion quilting on it now - so many designs I've been wanting to try but haven't been able to do without issues!  

I'm definitely feeling thankful today!

Adventurous Applique - Island Batik Ambassador Challenge for September

 This month's Island Batik Ambassador was an interesting one - we were tasked with creating a project using the applique technique used in the Full Bloom quilt by 4th and 6th design.  This is a great project to highlight the beautiful Aurifil thread and new fabrics we received in our Ambassador boxes!  

Truthfully, I don't typically enjoy applique, I'm more of a piecer, but I am always game to learn something new, so I gathered all the things I would need to try out this technique.  I watched a video, and it seemed pretty simple, so I was encouraged to jump in with both feet!

I received the lovely Geometrica collection designed by Jerry Khiev - love the colors and the fun geometric designs!  (You can purchase this at Mill End Store and Creekside Quilts here in Oregon!)  It was fun to lay them all out and start dreaming about how to put my quilt together.

I used some flowers and a butterfly from EQ8 - there were so many choices!  I really love how easy it is to make the blocks the size you want them to be.  I made most of my blocks 12 inches, but did make one flower larger at 18 inches.

It was a little tricky to remember to put the freezer paper on the right side of my fabric!  Luckily, with batik it often doesn't matter much which side you use!  After ironing the templates on and cutting them out the next step is to use glue to attach your templates to the background.  This was a little sticky at times, but worked great to secure the pieces.  So far so good!

After everything is ironed and glued down, it's time to choose thread!  Aurifil provided me with some nice choices that worked so well with my fabrics!  These small spools are so great for a project like this!

I used a size 12 Schmetz Microtex needle, and it worked perfectly!  No sticking or shredding at all!

See how nicely the stitching accentuated the edges of the pieces?  It's super simple to go back and forth, building up a nice layer of thread for the outline.  It doesn't matter if you get a little messy - and it looks great!  The stabalizer on the back keeps puckering at a minimum.  For my machine, I found that using my normal straight stitch foot worked best - I did get more puckering when using my free motion foot when I tried it.  I think the thick stitching almost looks like a narrow cord around the pieces.

After finishing my blocks, I set to work cutting out 6 inch squares to add to my design and bring it up to a lap size.

I thought it was pretty, but it needed a border to pull it all together.

The Oliso iron I received was perfect to use with the Fusible batting by Hobbs!  Nice and hot so it gets everything fused the first time!  This batting is definitely a favorite of mine - it's so nice to not have to baste with pins.

For the quilting I did wavy lines with my walking foot across the width of the quilt.  I like how it doesn't stand out, even using the 40 weight teal thread from Aurifil!

For the back I used squares of the fabric - so it's a two sided quilt!

Here's a good shot so you can see the stitching - so pretty!  I love this method of raw edge applique and will definitely use it again.  Glue basting was a neat technique to discover, and I hear it works great for attaching binding as well.  The tear away stabilizer really improved the look of the applique as well and kept it from puckering.  So, I learned a lot from this challenge and discovered some great products that I'll use again in the future.  And I made a lovely quilt!

Thanks so much to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, Oliso, and Schmetz needles for the wonderful products I was able to use for this challenge!

Make sure you visit MaryMackMadeMine and Pink Tulip Quilting to see what they made with this gorgeous collection!

This is the final day for the blog post, I hope you will go check out the other great projects by the 2024 Island Batik Ambassadors!