Yoga bag

For some time, my yoga-loving husband Barry had been hinting that I should make him a bag for his yoga mat. Inspired by some pins I saw on Pinterest, I decided to make him a fun but masculine bag, using a pant leg from a pair of old jeans.

At first, I was going to use blue denim, and then find a nice fabric to use as a contrast cuff and strap. But after going through my stash and finding a couple of lovely black and gold koi print fat quarters, I opted to switch to a retired pair of black denim jeans.

I sliced off one leg from the jeans, cut it open along the inseam, then squared it up as best as I could (even "straight leg" pant legs are much more tapered than you might think!) The main thing was to keep enough fabric to easily fit around a rolled up yoga mat, including plenty of room for a seam.

I cut a circle out of the koi fabric and used it to decorate the bag; I then stitched the tube closed again, securing the two ends of the shoulder strap (also made from koi fabric) in the seam.
To finish the closed end of the bag, I cut a circle of black denim of a slightly larger circumference than the end of the denim tube. I wanted to personalize the bag, but preserve that "yoga look", so I googled the Sanskrit word for "Bear", Barry's nickname. I printed out the Sanskrit lettering, used an exacto knife to slice out the letters to make a stencil, then marked the word out on the denim circle. Denim is pretty thick fabric, so my sewing machine worked slowly to trace the lines of the marking in a satin stitch, using gold thread. It was the hardest and slowest part of the hold project, to tell you the truth. And since I don't read Sanskrit, I have to trust that this word actually is "bear". 

I inverted the tube of the bag and meticulously pinned the end circle in place, then stitched around the circumference three times. At the open end of the bag, I made a cuff of koi fabric, stitched it in place, then top stitched.

What do you think? Does this bag scream, "I am a Yoga man"? Well, hubby is happy with it, so I guess that's all that counts!

Quilts at Joseph Schneider Haus

The only thing almost as fun as quilting, is looking at other people's quilts. I can never resist a quilt show or display.

I'm partial to antique quilts, in particular, and enjoyed walking through Joseph Schneider Haus this spring during their quilt festival display. You get to see some lovely antique quilts on display in this period home.

I really liked this quilt, which reminds me of the swirly hard candies my Mom used to buy at Christmastime. Somebody did a lot of careful handpiecing to make this beauty! Very pretty and colourful. It makes me think of the lines, "The children were nestled, all snug in their beds/ While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads."

I also love antique log cabin quilts, with the traditional red square in the centre of the block, to represent a fire burning in the hearth in the heart of the cabin. So I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this lovely old log cabin quilt as well.

I'm not sure how I would do with the swirly piecing in the circle quilt, but a log cabin quilt could be a fun project. In this quilt, I like the really strong contrast of the bright red centre square and the muted "logs".

I could imagine making a similar log cabin with flannel fabrics -- really cozy and cuddly for a winter night, don't you think?

More inspiration for future projects!

... and a quilt for my Mother-in-law!

First of all, I want to show you the completed quilt top I made for my father-in-law, with the borders added. When Barry and Connor held it up in front of the window, it had a great stained-glass effect! I think it turned out well -- FIL seemed happy with it -- and now it's just a matter of getting it quilted. I have to pick up some batting and backing this week, and the machine quilter has promised me that she can get it done in late May, so that's exciting.

Next, it was time to finish up the quilt I'd planned for my mother-in-law, who is also turning 70 this spring. I wanted to use pinks, purples and blues because I understand those to be her favourite colours, so I had my son Scotty come with me to the local quilt store to pick out some batiks. He knows that Grandma likes gardening, so he looked for batiks that had flowers in them, and we decided to go with curved piecing, to suggest a bed of pretty blooms. What do you think? Does it look like flowers popping out all over the place? Or maybe moons in the garden?? 

Because our house is currently under construction, I ended up doing a lot of sewing in the classroom of my local quilt shop. It was amazing how many people, upon seeing the blocks go up on the design wall, said to me, "Wow, you must really love your mother-in-law!"

This quilt is also due to be quilted in late May, and I'm glad both MIL and FIL will have their quilts before summer.

Deep breath, stretch... and on to the next project!