Snow Day!

All our snow had melted with our record high temperature last week (13C) and continued mild weather. I finally got myself out the door and ran some errands yesterday. It was so nice only having to wear running shoes this time of year. 

However, the forecast was for a big dump of snow overnight and well into today.  This was the view out my bedroom window at about 9am.

This was the view out my front door a little while ago. You can kinda see the step down from the porch.

In the meantime a neighbour has snowblown the sidewalk. My snow clearing service will be very busy today so I'm hoping they won't come before the plow has cleared the street and deposited a pile in my driveway. 

I decided to treat myself this morning and have a latte with breakfast. I hauled out my little espresso moka that I haven't used in a couple of years. Thank goodness I remembered where I had put it after my kitchen renovation. 

Also making a re-appearance was the Capresso milk heater/frother. The foamy milk acts like insulation and the coffee stays warmer longer in the mug.

After breakfast I lazed around and did a couple of crossword puzzles then decided to tackle a sewing project I'd been putting off; knowing it would be somewhat intricate.

A couple of months ago I purchased the Lori Holt Zippy Bag II panel. None of my local shops had it in stock so I found it on Amazon. The fabric is decorator weight - a twill.  There are printed pieces for 4 large bags and four small bags. Plus little tabs which I didn't use.

I prefer a bag with a vinyl window in the front so I had to pick one of the larger ones that would look OK with only part of the front showing below the zipper. The only one that wouldn't have hacked up the design was the one on the bottom left. 

However, I wanted the bag to be lined and quilted. Thank goodness I had a couple of Lori Holt fat quarters in my stash (thank you, Poppy) so I picked the one that I thought would go best with the printed panel.

I didn't have matching thread for the quilting so I thought I'd try invisible thread - which is basically clear polyester. I used my walking foot for all the layers but it really puckered. I had the whole back (pink side) quilted when I decided to take it all out and try regular sewing thread. After selecting a neutral off-white, things went a lot better. Using fusible batting the quilting was done on the non-fusible side. That way I could fuse the batting to the back fabric later.

As there wasn't enough of the fat quarter to both line the bag and provide a binding, I decided the quilted floral print was going to be inside the bag and the fat quarter fabric would be the outside of the back. If I cut it so it is 1" bigger on all sides, I could do a folded binding as demonstrated in this video.

I attached the zipper to the striped strip and lined it with the fat quarter fabric, then inserted the batting and topstitched everything in place. Then did the same for the fabric below the zipper. I then cut the lower fabric about the same width of the upper fabric, inserted the batting and topstitched everything as well. 

I then cut the vinyl a little bigger than I wanted and sandwiched it between the layers below the zipper and stitched it into place. After trimming all the edges evenly, I zigzag the edges all the way around to anchor everything securely in place. 

After cutting the fabric for the back 1" larger on all sides, I fused it to the batting, then folded the edges in half then over the edges of the bag.

There were several 'issues' as I tried to sew the binding in place. Thread kept breaking, I re-threaded the machine a few times; checked and re-inserted the bobbin. Then I tried switching from my walking foot to a regular presser foot, fearing the fabrics would 'bullnose'. Still problems with the thread breaking. I tried a bigger needle. Finally I inserted a needle for denim fabric, rethreaded the needle and was on my way. Thank goodness because for a while I thought I had broken my trusty Bernina and didn't know how I was going to finish this last step without. Crisis averted.

The green fabric was all that was left of the fat quarter/backing fabric.

It was also used to line the pieces above and below the zipper.

The little sunflower tab is my little 'trademark'. It's just cut from a roll of ribbon and folded to fit in the seam when I secured the folded binding. The neutral thread that I used for the quilting looks OK. That was a tip from one of the Lori Holt videos I had watched.

Then a coordinating zipper pull was created using beads from my stash.

Ta-da!

It turned out OK but if I ever get around to making the other three big bags, they probably won't have vinyl windows.

Yay! The snowplow has been by and my snow clearing service just arrived.

In crochet news, I got all the granny squares and octagons sewn together. I still need to attach the edge granny triangles, and crochet the last two corner triangles and attach them. I should be able to get that done tonight. All that will be left is the border.

I took a photo yesterday in natural light out on the deck. This is before I got the rest of the octagon and squares attached. Said deck is now covered with a foot of snow.

This would be such a good project to use up a variety of colours of yarn of the same weight. However, I do have my eye on another one of Janie Crowfoot's crochet designs. It's the Mystical Lanterns blanket.

I will be investigating the kit offerings from Wool Warehouse in the UK.

In the meantime, you can have fun with this jigsaw puzzle. When you open it, click on the icon on the left (9 little squares) to change the number of pieces. It's a tricky one!