On Wednesday nights I have quilting class. I am still working on the brown messenger bag. It is remarkable how little one can get done in two hours.Here's what I managed to do:
- Trim flap to 14 3/4 x 12 3/4. Here's the first place where things went wrong. My piece somehow didn't measure 12 3/4. No idea how it happened, but I had to talk to the teacher before I could move on. And she had machines to thread (Really? Still? Isn't it week 5?) and other questions to answer before she got to me.
- Round corners on one long edge in same manner as bag front. No issues.
- Sew flap to flap lining, leaving opening for turning. Turn and press; sew opening closed. This would have gone a lot smoother if I could have figured out which piece was the flap lining. Why didn't I label as I cut? Once I pinned the two pieces, I realized I hadn't "machine quilt flap with a wavy line along the length of each strip" which was part of the instruction before the one I started on. Unpin. Quilt wavy lines. Repin. Sew flap lining, leaving opening for turning, turn, press, sew.
- Machine quilt in the ditch between 4th and 5th strips and 9th and 10th stripe to hold layers together. Remarkably easy.
- Sew straps together; trim to 52" long. No problems.
- Press one long edge and each short edge of strap 1/4" to wrong side. center strap fleece on wrong side of strap. Fold raw edge of strap over edge of fleece. Fold pressed edge over edge of fleece, covering long raw edge; press. Topstitch folded edge in place. Argh. Fifty two inches of a quarter inch fold. Then the fleece was too wide. Cut. Still too wide. Teacher tells me to fudge it by folding the fleece to fit. Then I decide to pin it in place. I finally sit down to topstitch and the bobbin thread bunches up under the strap. Sigh.
At that point there were about ten minutes left in class, so I just packed it in.
I can't believe that I'll be working on this for a third week. And I still have another bag to do! Not to mention the quilt(s) I'm supposed to be working on. I might have to get out the machine at home.
6 comments:
Love the new background on your blog!
Mary in MN
Hey! Where's the pix of progress along the way? Love to see what you are doing.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised at how little one can do in two hours. Here's another vote for progress pictures.
I am sure that once you have made all the mistakes you can, and learn what NOT to do, the next bag and then quilt qill go much quicker.
At least I hope so. :)
I'm sure the next bag will go quicker (after all, you will probably label the pieces next time around--right??). I can attest to how little can get done in two hours since I took a quilt to my guild's UFO workday. It only needed two strips of sashing, a border and a backing sewn, and that took me all day.
And, by the way, if you won't join us at the Delaware Valley Sampler Guild, you might want to try my quilt guild which is much closer. Just let me know!
Sheesh, you sound like me. Sorry you had such a bum session. I hope the next one goes more smoothly.
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