It's been awhile since I've had something to share at Kathy's Quilts for the weekly "Slow Sunday Stitching" showcase!
In the last two weeks, I had two big cross stitch "Fully Finished" projects. They were not big stitch designs in size per se, just big in my cross stitch heart! First is that I made my first quilted project bag!
"Just Fudge It" Project Bag featuring Pat Sloan's "Sunday Drive"
While project bags are big in the quilt world, they are HUGE in the cross stitch world! While you can buy inexpensive vinyl bags for your projects, a lot of cross stitchers add to the fun by buying or making pretty fabric bags to hold their projects.
Many CSers use bags where the fabrics used for it may coordinate to the theme of the piece they are stitching on: for example having a bag made up in Halloween fabric to hold a Halloween stitching project. I had resisted the urge to go there since I am trying (fairly unsuccessfully at this point) to keep my cross stitch projects to a minimum. So I didn't mind the plain vinyl bags since I can reuse them for any project. That said, I do admit to getting a variety of them, each with a different colored zipper and then have been known to coordinate THAT with the project in it, LOL!
In this case though, making a bag was a chance to make and utilize a CS pattern I really liked. As I have noted in previous posts about CS, I am particularly fond of the "snarky" designs. I had loved this one by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread and was turbo charged to make it once I found one of Pat Sloan's older fabric lines while on a shop hop and realized that the fabric colors coordinated perfectly with the cross stitch piece. Then I lucked up that the shop I had bookmarked as having the pattern had it on sale when I went to get it!
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| At this point I couldn't "fudge" that "G" -- I had to "rip it"!! |
Since this CS design spoke to an aspect of "the process" of doing cross stitch, I didn't mind creating a bag and putting it on it since it could be used for any project I might store in it. An added bonus is that the theme of the fabric line will be really appropriate if I use this bag to carry projects in it while travelling.
I have seen various tutorials for making project bags but in the end decided to make this one just like my favorite kinds of vinyl bags. This one has two zippered sections because I like having a clear vinyl front pocket for storing the pattern and "in progress" piece and then a big top load pocket for all the project supplies and stitching notions. The only thing I forgot to do was to add an additional divider inside the big pocket. Oh well, something to consider for the next one!
And now that I've opened that flood gate, I've since kitted up two more CS patterns to use to make two more bags!
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| This is one of them! |
The other cross stitch "fully finish" is also another of my snarky projects:
Maker/Crafter/Badass
As I've done for other framed cross stitch pieces, I laced it around the frame before popping on the outer frame edge. With it in place I then had to determine how much to draw up the backing fabric in order to hand stitch it in place so it fit snugly (if not terribly neatly) around the back.
It remains how ironic it is to me that when I started quilting I swore I would do no hand work and yet every new thing I pick up related to quilting has pushed me in that direction! Even better it is now hanging in place!
I have a few other stitched finishes that still need to be "fully finished" however at this point and I am not sure that will happen before the end of the year. But two down still feels good!
Linking Up With Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts
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