Quilting- some totes and wall hangings

Still on the bags/totes for conversation topic.

Beside the raggedy ones

(rag quilt technique)

I've already told you about,

and the knitted and crocheted ones

I also told you about,

today

I would like to tell you a little bit about the quilted ones,

or as I like to call them, my essays for quilting...
See..., I am a self-taught quilter.

A machine quilter that is.

Though for so many years I've been fascinated with quilting,

my personal and professional life wouldn't leave me much free time
(I was a teacher for about 20 years the last 10 of them in special education ).

Anyway,

as a self-taught quilter
I'm quite sure one will find flaws on my work

but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

My first quilt was somehow naive

(not good colors combination or border print selection)

but boy!, was I happy when I finished!

Like always, my husband would brag about it
and make me smile!

This next one was my first big project

and it was a gift to my husband

on Valentine's Day

(the last Valentine's before everything changed).

It's a very special memento to me.

This one

is a print panel that I quilted and embellished

and I call it "Teddy on the Deere"

and it's almost like a tribute to my husband

and his John Deere mower

with the overalls and everything...

Father's day used to be just was another excuse for quilting,

and so one year I made one wall hanging

with our kids pics

and the next year

I made another one with the grand kids.

Useless to say, he loved both of them!

This next one was also one of my first projects

(I was still experimenting the applique technique).

You can already imagine there's not much

white wall left in my home... :0)

Well, when I see all those wonderful quilts on my favorite TV craft shows, I really feel very small and ignorant... but I don't give up and keep quilting...

Anyhow,
let me show you some more quilted wall hangings...

These two are very similar...

First I made the top one
(which hangs in my bedroom)

and the second one is quite close, with the same applique patterns;

I made this second one for my God-daughter.

This poor quilt has already traveled back and forth to Portugal

(it's now back in Tennessee... (:0 ... incorrect address...)
(Fofinha, este é o teu quilt!)

Of course I've already talked about the angels wall hangings (post of August 27th),

which are in fact printed panels that I adapt, quilt and embellish.

The Teddy & the Bunny here are another example of those panels;

as a matter of fact

this one was a baby quilt panel that I cut out.

Another with angels, this time applique angels.

and another with some more applique.

The long legged bird was another essay, this time almost like a painting or landscaping with fabric, the motifs being ironed on using double sticky interface.


This one is made of three log cabin blocks
and some applique motifs.

I particularly like this one, it's a totally different technique that I watched on a quilt TV show. First I built the strips with ribbon and fabric; while sewing it I used several different stitches, and then the fabric is cut into long strips, which were then sewn into a background fabric an embellished with different cords.

I think the finished product is somewhat unexpected and unusual.

I love it, and it sure draws visitors attention... :0)

And for today I think this is it.

But I will come back to quilting, I have some more stuff to tell you about.

Bags, Totes, Pocketbooks, Purses, Backpacks...

Like so many others

I love bags!

Purses.

Totes.

Pocketbooks.

Backpacks.

As a matter of fact one could easily state

I am a little bit obsessed with it!...

:0)

Everything started

a few years ago...

Mercy of terrible life circumstances,

I found myself staying at the hospital with my husband

for long periods at a time...

For those of you who have ever been there

you'll know what I'm talking about...

when life as we know it changes

in a matter of seconds for ever.



Anyway,
getting my thoughts back together,

a few years ago, as I was saying,

I started knitting pocketbooks

while at my hospital stays.

I really felt like I needed to be doing something

just to be able to hold myself together,
and knitting seemed to be the most practical thing

I could do while waiting at the hospital.

And that's how really it all started.

My knitting got better and better,

everybody seem to love my bags

and
people started buying them.

These type are knitted, front and back separately,

and lined with matching fabric prints.

After they are all done the fun really begins

with all the embellishments,

and really it's only a matter of letting your imagination fly:

I mainly use buttons, charms, beads, whatever I can find and think it'll look god.

The furry yarn and the bag's shape (I think)

is what attracts people the most for this style of bags.

With the Tunisian crochet

we can also make some quite pretty...

Everything depends on your mood and your imagination.

This one tote was made with regular crochet and a ripple/wave stitch...

Just added a ladybug charm... et voila!

About a couple years ago I found out about needle felting...

Useless to say

I totally felt in love with the technique...

So,

after poking myself quite a few times

and watch some very interesting

YouTube tutorials

(once again, thank you all of you who post

these wonderful things

and share it with everybody else!),

I was able to make some impressive embellishments

on my my bags...

Needle felting also works really good

on the little pouches I make and use to keep

everything

and

anything.

I think I might come back to this bag subject later on

to talk about it a little bit more!

Bye for now!

It's (almost) time to start planning...

Lately I don't know where does time go!

It's already September!...

I know we still have to go

through

Halloween and Thanksgiving,

but

Christmas will be here in no time,

so I better start planning

what am I going to make

for gifts this year.

Last year I made this lap quilt for my husband

with all the christmassy ladiesI really thought he would enjoy it!

It came out really OK,

don't you think?

For the girls,

I made some journals out of composition books

and I do believe they enjoyed it.

Anyway ...

... yesterday I finished another quilted tote.

I used the same idea and technique from my Babouskha wall hanging

(as on one of my posts in August)

thinking it would be great for a tote bag!

I had seen a cute doll pattern at http://freebiesforcrafters.blogspot.com/

so I used that same doll pattern for both boy and girl.

As in the Babouskha,

the background is made out of scraps

pieced together and then quilted.

It's lined with a

tiny pretty purple (of course!) flowers print.

Now that is finished

I don't think it will make a Christmas gift!

I'm definitely crazy about it

so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna keep it for myself!

I've also finished another

raggedy quilted tote

a couple days ago.

(I've already talked about them earlier last moth)

This one is the biggest I've made till now,

big enough to carry everything

I would need for one or two days.

Also some time ago

I made this Sleeping socks,

out of basic granny squares!

Each sock takes 1 big square and 3 smaller ones.

I might make some of these

for some of my Christmas gifts for this year.

I hope I succeeded on my intent

if you came here to look for some ideas or inspiration for making Christmas gifts.

And also in my blog's spirit of sharing,

I leave you all for now with

a pic of my latest super cute little friends...