The Penguin Bag

Flickr Photo

I made this bag in a class given by Kathleen Murphy. She did a great job teaching it, we had a great time and got plenty of great bagmaking tips. Love the inside with all those great pockets. I also went to the hardware store and had them cut me a piece of plexiglass for the bottom so that it will sit up nicely.

I got that cute penguin fabric on my trip out to California at an awesome store in San Francisco called Britex Fabrics. This is a Japanese imported fabric made by Kokko (same fabric maker as the pig hat). Such a great combo - orange, polka dots, stripes, and penguins - how can you beat that? That big wooden button (carved in Africa I think) is from The Button Box in Wellesley, MA.


Flickr Photo

Black and White Quilt

Black and White Quilt

The "Look to the Cookie"* quilt I made for Jill and Jon. As you can see she likes the monochromatic look, but will allow a touch of red. Also made the pillow cases.

Had a great time picking out the black and white fabrics. I tried to pick out things that Jill and Jon would like - the French influenced ones, some hawaiian prints, some cat prints, some Escher-like ones, and one that I thought looked like coffee beans. The black and white quilting fabrics are very in right now, so there are lots to choose from. I found a bunch at Charlton Sewing Center (they had the fabulous Eiffel Tower fabric and the white I used for the background) and at The Quilter's Stash. Got the red backing at Quilt and Cabbage in Sturbridge, MA.

The pattern was designed by Mabeth Oxenreider and was in the August 2006 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting (picture of original quilt).It was an easy one to put together. The only issues I had were cutting the long strips accurately (always a challenge) and then sewing the long strips without shifting - for that I used my walking foot and it helped a lot.

This was quilted by Kathy Sperino. We had much discussion over the design. The most challenging part was the thread color. Because you're working with black and white you have the most stark value contrast possible. So if you choose white, it's not going to show up in the background, and if you choose black it's going to show up really strongly in the background, but get lost in any of the black squares. And the grey tended to get a bit lost in the black too. She ended up doing an all over swirl in white, then did the outside border in grey in a tighter swirl - you can see it in the photo if you go to the bigger view of it. She also made an inner border in the grey swirls two blocks in - so it looks great bordering the top of the bed. I think the quilting came out fabulously!!

Also made her hat (the same one Olive models in some of the other pics on flickr).

*Seinfeld reference to Black & White cookies, or as we call them in Upstate New York "Half Moons".


The quilt in progress with help from Olive and Puddin.