Dilly Bag-A-Long

My daughter Raylee sent me a link to this fussy cut group doing a bag-a-long, with just one word, ‘Interested’.

Well… being hexagons of course I was.

So here we are taking part in the Dilly Bag-A-Long, and as long as Raylee helps me with the blog we are sailing.

Next was to get the pattern, that was easy, there was a link on Angie’s blog.

Next deciding on fabric, I was looking to fussy cut, so digging through the many boxes and tubs of fabric was the next challenge. In all honesty this was bigger than sewing the bag!

I have done a couple of things with the French General range, so pulled out all the bits but there was not enough of any one piece to fussy cut six pieces for the ‘flowers’.

I had also a group of fabrics I had been given by my ‘secret angel’ in another group. They were looking promising with red fabric being quite dominant.

I LOVE red, but once again there was not enough of each piece to fussy cut the flowers.

So the final choice was my favourite red, black and white. I like this combination and it always just works.

I did have a photo of the fabric pre-cutting, but it is on my phone, so here are my final fabrics. The top stripe is the top of the bag, the red is the lining and the spot is the base. The other fabrics make up the ‘flowers’.

I must have about 10,000 1” hexagons and about the same in ½“ hexagons but none in the size required. I did think of using the 1” hexagons but wanted the bag to be a useful size. 1” would have been quite cute, and ½“ would be really cute. I also have ¼“ hexagons, now that would be ever so cute!

I like the EPP (English paper piecing) method.

I went on to the computer and had a wild notion that I would print my own, but could only get three hexagons on a page this would have been a bit wasteful of paper and time was a bit precious so thought ‘just buy the papers’.

So off to my local patchwork shop and get some 1½“hexagons.  There I saw the iron on ones, they iron on to the fabric and stay there after the project is completed.

I thought being a bag these would give it a bit more stability and as I had not used them before this seemed a good opportunity to try them out.

I have still tacked them the same as the paper ones, not sure if this is right or not but that is what I did.

Next I planned the layout, there were 4 ‘flowers’, there would be 2 red and 2 black. The top is black and white stripe, the base is black dot. I have got two ‘background’ fabrics, one is plain black the other is a black and white swirl, not sure which one I will use until I get the flowers together and lay it all out.

So that is about where I got to before packing it all up and heading to Adelaide with Raylee for the Australian Machine Quilting Association Inc. Quilt Show which is held every two years in conjunction with the Australian Machine Quilting Festival, (they are two separate organizations working together).

It was a bit of a mad rush beforehand, my husband and I manufacture model trains, AR Kits and the long weekend in October there is a big exhibition in Sydney, the same weekend as AMQF in Adelaide!

A neighbour looked after the chooks and cows. Left is Henry with a couple of the girls and right is Benjamin and Millie with Ken at the milk bar, Kelly and Kevin. Ken and Kevin are twins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sally did the trip to Sydney with Hubby and our son ‘doggy sat’, so with all the animals sorted we both went our separate ways.

 

Isn’t she beautiful!

My trip south was a stop start affair, we had our sons children here for a week so I got a flight from Brisbane to Sydney with them and saw Son and Daughter in law for about a half an hour then got a flight to Canberra and spent a couple of hours with Raylee and family, then Raylee and I got a flight to Adelaide.  3 states and a territory in one day.

 

Did all the quilty stuff and at night I stitched my hexagons together, nearly had my bag in one piece, (only had 6 more edges to sew together), I was getting a bit tired, decided I would have and orange and go to bed. Slicing up the orange I sliced a bit off the end of my thumb, more than a bit, like all the layers of skin! I did take a pic and put it on Instagram and Facebook, it looked a bit bloody and gruesome so won’t add it here. Needless to say a band aid on the thumb does not make for easy sewing, as I used the iron on hexagons I am whip stitching them together.

 

When I tacked the hexagons I left the ‘top seam’ open. This is my seam allowance when stitching the bag body to the base and top of the bag.

 

Home again and the thumb has settled enough to be able to stitch, so my bag body is in one piece. Should have taken a pic while it was flat, but was so keen to get it together I did not think of that at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the pics I went with the black ‘background’ for this one, version two will have the black and white background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stripe flower on the left is version 2, the first one I did (pic on the right)the stripes just would not line up and being iron on hexagons they can’t be ‘shifted’ quite as easy as the paper ones. This flower I will use on version two of the bag, one for me and one for Raylee. It will be pretty much the same layout as this bag with some embroidery over the ‘wonky’ seam’.

My thoughts on iron on hexagons… they did not come with instructions, so I ironed them on and then tacked the seam as you would for the paper ones, don’t know if this was right or not but this is what I did.

I whip stitched them together and found them not to be as ‘crisp’ as the paper ones. As I have ironed the stitched together bag I find the hexagons have ‘bubbled’ a bit, maybe my iron is too hot, once again no instructions. I am not downgrading the product as I may have not used them as they were meant to be used, but my preference is for the paper hexagons.

So this is where I am at now 12^th October… tomorrow is my day to blog, so I will send this all to Raylee to do the blog for me. I will do a follow up blog with the finished bag and also version two.

 

Happy stitching

Barbara

Thanks Angie for organising this Bag-A-Long, you can see Angie at her blog and read all about the Fussy Cutters Club here.

Rachel will show everyone her Dilly Bag next and then the final show this Friday at Gnomeangel.

It’s time to dilly…