This post is going to have a lot of pictures. Because when you spend a week making the daunting Amy Butler Weekender Bag, you take a lot of pictures. Those of you that follow me on Instagram got to watch this bag come together a bit more each day. That was a lot of fun, instant support group!

If you aren’t familiar with this bag pattern, it’s kind of notorious for being a {naughty word} to put together. Many people are starting to make this bag using the Quilt as You Go (QAYG) method to avoid all the interfacing required. I might try that next time but for starters, I wanted to stay true to the instructions (with a couple minor changes that I will talk about below.)

I have had this bag on my to-do list for awhile. I almost consider it some sort of sewist rite of passage. I heard it was a challenge and I wanted to see if I could do it. My only holdup was I could never find a fabric I wanted to use. The pattern recommends home dec weight and that is pricier than quilting cotton, so I wanted the fabric to be something I loved. Fast forward to the Sewing Summit. Joel Dewberry was a speaker one afternoon and he brought samples of his new line Notting Hill. As soon as I saw this fabric, I was in love. And then he said it was a Cotton Sateen/Home Dec weight! I knew immediately I was going to use it for my Weekender.

My choice for the lining and piping was a bit of a surprise for me. I know almost everyone out there seems really excited about all the plaids that are coming out in fabric collections lately. I’m not really a plaid person. (ducks for cover) But I just felt like it really complimented the floral print, so I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and decided to use it.

When I first opened the pattern and cut out the pieces, I thought “Only 4 pieces? This is going to be so easy!” LOL Don’t be fooled. Not only do you cut out multiples of each out of your outer and lining fabrics, you also cut multiples out of 2 types of interfacing (not pictured). I spent several hours cutting.

Based on Stephanie’s weekender, I decided to cut my handles a bit wider (6″).

I was really lucky to have been loaned a cording foot (#60c) for my Bernina by the wonderful Catherine Redford from my local modern quilt guild. This made everything involving the piping SO much easier! I highly, highly recommend using a cording foot rather than a zipper foot for your piping. I’m actually going to buy my own now, it was that awesome.

Also, a general note: I used the pattern-recommended jeans needle for my machine. You have a lot of layers to sew through, and you need the extra strength.

The side panels came together easily, even if applying all the interfacing took forever.

For my second change to the pattern, I once again followed Stephanie’s example and used a shorter zipper, 24″. It was easily available at JoAnns and works just fine for the bag.

So, up until this point, I wasn’t sweating this bag. You make the large front and back. Then you make the top/sides with the zipper and sew that piece to the bottom to make a big circle of fabric. Then you have to sew this circle to the larger front and back panels. I know I’ve read of other people having this problem…they weren’t an exact fit. Now I’m not sure if the problem was I wasn’t using exact seam allowances or maybe the pattern is wonky, but it was a bit frustrating. Add in the fact you are sewing through a LOT of stiff interfacing, well you can see where one might start cursing.

I highly recommend getting some binder clips to hold your pieces together rather than pins. I only had 2 binder clips on hand so I was forced to use pins and now they are all bent and ruined.

Again, I used the cording foot to guide my sewing and it worked great!

So I’ve finished the bag. I’m not sure if I’ll ever make another one. LOL But I’m super excited to have it and I’m very happy with my fabric selection. As my husband told me when he saw it “they certainly will see you coming with that.” Yep, it’s not subtle. But I love it.

I’m pretty embarrassed to post this quilt today. Not because I don’t love it – I definitely do. But I finished this quilt top over 1 year ago and it sat for that long, waiting patiently to be quilted and finished.

I’m not sure what exactly took me so long. Other projects with deadlines mostly. Forgetting it was in my pile of quilt tops as well. It wasn’t until the Naperville Modern Quilt Guild did a tangerine/aqua challenge that I was finally motivated to finish it!

The fabric for this one is from Joel Dewberry‘s Heirloom collection in the Citrine palette. The sashing is Kona Solids in Stone.

I cut my squares to 7.5″ (unfinished) and my sashing is 1.75″ wide (unfinished). I love the on point, simple look of the design. The finished quilt measures around 61″ x 75″, so it’s a good size for cuddling under on the couch.

It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to quilt this one. In the end, I decided on a free motion meandering. I kind of wish I had done straight lines, but I really wanted to get it done by the NMQG challenge meeting deadline and honestly, I felt like the quilt top had sat for long enough and I needed to just get it done.

I’m still deciding what I will do with this quilt, but I’m leaning towards giving it as a Christmas gift this year. I think I know just the person.

I should really title this post, “What I was working on when I should have been packing for the Sewing Summit.” But that is a bit wordy. After cutting into my Heirloom fabric for the Dresden mini quilt, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to make something larger out of it. I first saw this design on Ashley’s blog. It’s such a great pattern to showcase prints.

I cut my squares to 7.5″ (unfinished) and my sashing is 1.75″ wide (unfinished). The sashing is Kona Stone. I think it’s just a beautiful quilt for fall this year, which has arrived in full force here in Chicago. This is the Morton Arboretum.

I hope to finish this quilt when I return from the Sewing Summit! I leave bright and early Friday morning and won’t land back in Chicago until midnight Sunday night. I can’t wait! I plan on blogging all about it when I return, but for those of you that can’t wait, I’m sure I will also be updating on Twitter while I am there. Have a great weekend everyone! (And don’t forget to enter the Pure Elements giveaway – I’ll pick a winner tonight!)

Is September nearing an end already? Today is the last week of Mini Quilt Monday. I hope you have enjoyed spending the month challenging yourself to try new things. This week I decided to try my hand at Dresden Plates. I’ve wanted to try these since I first saw the cover of the book Material Obsession. That quilt is *so* beautiful.

I followed Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. She makes everything so easy to understand. These were a lot easier to make than I thought they would be. (I did purchase a special ruler at JoAnns for about $5.) The center circle could use some practice, but overall I’m happy with how this mini turned out and definitely wouldn’t shy away from making more of these. I used my collection of Joel Dewberry’s Heirloom fabric, such pretty colors and designs.

I quilted straight lines 1/4″ on each side of the dresden seams and continuing to the edge of the quilt. It produced a pretty star in the center. The binding is actually closer to red, Kona Cayenne, but I thought it looked quite nice with the Heirloom palette. The final size is 16″ square.

So there you have it – now let’s see what you made this week!