Allium & Renegade #2 (Bag)

Last year I made a lot of bag projects just because I wanted to, with no consideration of usage (though they almost *all* ended up being used!) but this year, most of the bags I made had a specific purpose, and I intended to use them. These two bags are my last two of the year, and yes, I've used them both enough so they have been field tested! Once again, all patterns by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness.

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The first bag I made is the Allium Bag. I intended to make the Allium Bag my theme park bag. I used to carry a bigger bag to parks, but I realized just how annoying it was, on rides that required me to put my bag away, to stuff a bigger bag into a tiny locker. Now, with Allium, it fits into the lockers great, and it carries all my theme park essentials.

I absolutely love this fabric, which I picked up on a trip to Missouri Star, and had been saving it for a long, long time. I was a little nervous to use it with an untested bag pattern, but I'm really glad I did!

And then there's the Renegade Bag. This is actually my second Renegade Bag, as I made my first one a few years ago, and my mom has it now. One thing I wanted to remedy on my second Renegade Bag is actually using rivets on the straps.

Due to my inexperience, I actually messed up the rivets positioning the first time, so I had to recut and resew the outer panels, luckily I had enough fabric. Though it cost me a few extra hours, it was worth it, as I plan to carry this for my daily carrier for awhile, so I needed to be happy with it!

And I am, I am so happy with these projects. Usually at the end of a bag project, I'm sweating and swearing, and I say to myself, I'm gonna need a break before I do another one. But usually, mere hours later, around the time I've photographed it, I'm already wanting to start my next bag ...

Polaris

I went through a phase a few years ago where I was completely obsessed with star quilts, so naturally when I saw the pattern Faded by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, I was intrigued. It was a star quilt, but modern, and the sample was made using her lovely fabrics.

However, when I went through my fabric collection, I found something else I decided to use instead ... a collection I picked up from my local quilt shop (back when it existed) that I didn't know the name of. It had lovely greens and blues with whites, and mixed with a near-solid black, I knew it'd be perfect for this quilt.

Since the pattern is basically half-square triangles, this was a super easy quilt to put together. What made it so fun was the pattern itself, as it's called Faded, so parts of the star "faded" away in random locations, making it look like it's missing pieces.

With blocks like these that are "missing" sections, I always like to use the quilting to give those sections back. I used a similar quilting technique in Dawn Star that I finished earlier this year.

This is a really special quilt to me and I wanted to put in the work, so I filled the background of the stars with swirls, but since I'm using a darker thread to match the background, I absolutely kept the quilting minimal on the foreground blocks, as I've never liked the look of dark thread on lighter fabrics.

Half of this quilt is negative space, so I decided to draw a big intricate star, and then surround it with wavy lines. I named this quilt Polaris because the star I drew reminded me a bit of the North Star.

And wow, I love this quilt! I already named a favorite for the year (Star-Crossed) but I'm starting to wonder if this quilt is a close second place.

It's A Bit Supernatural

Recently I bought some Spoonflower fabrics inspired by the TV show Supernatural, and I decided to make some projects with it.

When I found this panel fabric of symbols from the show, I knew that mug rugs were the perfect project for it. I loaded the whole piece on my longarm and since the background has a wood-grain design, I quilted a wood-grain for the first time ever. I think it turned out well!

I ended up with a dozen that I had to bind one-by-one (not very fun), but they will make great gifts for my friends at the conventions I attend several times a year. Oh, and I will be keeping one for myself, of course!

I also found this black fabric that's inspired by the Angel / Demon tablets on the show, and I decided to make another convention tote bag with it. I decided to use the Tudor Bag pattern from Sew Sweetness for this purpose, as it allows the focal fabric to shine beautifully, has a front zipper pocket, and has both handles and a shoulder strap for extra versatility.

The interior has a recessed zipper and built-in pockets, though I'd no doubt still use it with one of my Mustang Purse Organizers. I've sewn a lot of Sara's bags at this point, and though I've gained a lot of experience, I can still say this was one of the easier bags I've made.

Now, I'm ready for my next convention!

Chroma

So far in 2025 I've been going at a pace of finishing one quilt on the longarm a month. I thought that it would be no problem to continue that trend in July, but then once the summer slump finally settled in, it became really, really difficult to get anything done. Before I knew it, I realized there's just a few days until the end of July, and in that time I had to finish and bind a rather large quilt, Chroma.

Chroma's pattern name is Color Block, and it was designed by Carl Hentsch. I saw it presented on the now defunct (but still much beloved by me) Midnight Quilt Show that Craftsy produced, hosted by Angela Walters. I pieced the top in late 2018, so it's been almost 7 years. (And it's by no means my oldest unfinished quilt top.)

I generally don't like to set deadlines because I didn't want quilting to feel like a job, but at the same time, I respond really well to deadlines. So I set myself a challege to longarm the entire quilt in a week and bind it that weekend.

It took a ton of effort to get started quilting (I have serious start-itis) but once I finally started, I enjoyed this a great deal. All the solid color plays are really beautiful, and the consistent quilting I applied over the whole quilt means it's a fairly predictable quilt path. So once I finally got started, it was a pretty quick job.

I kept the quilting quite simple throughout this quilt, but my favorite part is definitely the diagonal lines I did in all the corner blocks, because parallel lines always create beautiful texture, and it connects the blocks too.

Since there's not a lot of quilting on this quilt, it doesn't look like much up close but when I step back, that's when the beauty of the quilt shines through. That expression, the sum is greater than its parts, really applies here.

City Fusion

City Fusion is a free quilt pattern, originally named Shutters, by Art Gallery Fabrics. AGF created this pattern to promote the City Loft Fusion fabric line, and as soon as I saw the pattern, I fell in love with it. After all, I've never met a striped black / white quilt I didn't love. In order to make sure the stripes are absolutely perfect, I actually used paper piecing to make the striped units.

I enjoyed piecing this quilt a lot because of the beautiful fabrics, but the real fun in this quilt is the quilting.

I split the entire quilt into triangle units, and treated the background as such. At times I quilted them separately, and at times I fused them together. I really loved designing this ahead of time, and I just had to execute it once I got onto the machine.

One concept I had from the beginning of quilting is to extend the striped units to some of the background, and I did some dense back / forth quilting to simulate the stripes. I really love the way that looks!

I kept the quilting a bit simpler in the foreground fabrics so that it doesn't overwhelm the fabric.

This has been another 5-star off my pile of quilt tops, and it's been such a joy to finally work through so many of my favorite quilt tops!

A Quartet of Minikins

I simply love, love, LOVE Sew Sweetness's Minikins collections. Sara's designed 4 volumes of these so far, I've sewn a lot of them over the years, and I look for excuses at every juncture to make one. In fact, I get excited when the need for some kind of mini bag or case comes up, because I then dig through the patterns to find the Minikin that's appropriate for the item I need a cover / case for.

The first item I finished is the Friesian Pouch. I used up some of my precious Avant Garde (from Art Gallery Fabrics) fabrics that I've been hoarding for years, along with some rainbow zipper tape to make this. The bag has a beautiful structure, and it was surprisingly easy to put together!

Here's a peek at the inside: the mesh pockets and 3 separate compartments makes this bag very practical.

The second project I finished recently is another Partridge Bag. I previously made a Partridge Bag and though I made it just to make it, over the last year it ended up being one of my most surprisingly useful bags. It's small but mighty, truly! Even though my first bag is still working great, I decided to make another one because I love it so much, and it's a really fun sew.

The third project is yet another Grab 'n Go case. This is my 3rd one, because I decided I needed yet another laptop case. The first one I made is still going strong, but at the time I picked a fabric I was only so-so about as I wasn't very confident I wasn't going to mess it up. But now that this is my 3rd, I feel pretty good about this project, so I decided to remake it using a fabric I actually am crazy about!

The last Minikin is the Enigma Pouch, which has an interesting shape. When I was looking for makeup pouches on Amazon, I realized that the one I was eyeing is almost the exact shape and size as the Enigma Pouch, so of course, I had to make my own!

I love how this bag can open up and lie flat, and it is a great organizer! I mostly use it to store makeup for travel.

Finally, I can't resist a beauty shot of all the items together:

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I always get excited when Sara announces a new Minikins collection, and though I don't know when she'll release the next volume, the 4 she's released so far has given me many hours of joyful sewing, and I know I will make many more in the years to come.

Star-Crossed

Is it too early to call it? I'll do it anyway: Star-Crossed is my favorite finish of the year! I know the year is not even half-done, but I just have a feeling about this one.

The pattern is Star Plus and the pattern designer is Quiet Play. But perhaps one of the reasons this quilt is so precious to me is because it is absolutely non-repeatable. I have no idea what fabric line I used for this, so there's just no way I can make another one just like it. I know, however, that I purchased this fabric bundle quite awhile ago, before I learned that I should buy multiples of what I love, so this is it ... and I have no idea what it is.

I call my blog Savor Every Stitch but let's face it, sometimes it's hard to do that. But not this quilt, I know I enjoyed every part of putting it together, from the piecing to the quilting. The star attraction of this quilt is the fabrics, so the quilting is really minimal in comparison. I mostly did geometric dot-to-dot design that is quick to execute.

Since the scrappy nature of this quilt is the reason it shines, the quilting is consistent in every block to tie it together. I couldn't resist however quilting a little dense swirly design in the Grunge white fabrics. I had to quilt the swirls blind as it's virtually impossible to see the quilting when I'm doing it.

So here's a happy coincidence ... I named this quilt Star-Crossed because I like the phrase "star-crossed lovers", and the original name is Star Plus. It wasn't until I was almost done quilting it that I realized Star-Crossed is a very fitting name because the blocks are a bunch of colored crosses. Wow, I can't believe I never saw that the whole time I was piecing!

Just like last year, I hope to turn out one quilt a month this year, and so far I'm still on track for the year. Although my summer and fall seasons are quite busy usually so we'll see. I'm quite excited about the lineup for the year though, but as I said in the beginning ... I do think this is my favorite for the year, the unicorn nature of the fabric makes it kind of hard to top, and to me, fabric is king.