Sewing update

I feel like I've been sewing up a storm this week, but really its just one project that's been keeping me busy...that and some knitting for my niece's birthday.  The sewing project I've been working on is a flag banner, based on the idea in Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family.  Growing up, we always had paper versions of these decorating our kitchen for our birthdays.  They were one among a small collection of decorations that my Mom brought to the States from the Netherlands and I really liked the idea of creating one out of fabric so that it would be more durable than the paper ones we had always used. 

I started the project this spring with the goal of having it done for Gus' birthday mid-November.  It's been a long project, but good in that it has really (in hindsight) gotten me thinking about ways to make my sewing more efficient - like using a rotary cutter and mat, instead of scissors - that I just never would have thought about otherwise.  My Mom helped me in the beginning with washing and pressing all the little fat quarters that I picked up to use for the flags.  Since then, I've made myself a pattern based on our old paper banners, cut all the fabric (this is what took me the longest) and sewn the flags.  With the help of my wonderful husband, we turned the flags right-side out, poked out the tips, ironed them flat and then sewed them onto the bias tape - late last night after getting home for my niece's birthday...and just in time for celebrating Gus' birthday today.  :)

I ended up being very happy with how the flags turned out and ended up having enough flags to make a second banner.  Just need to pick up some more bias tape and then sew them all together.  

The knitting that I've been doing has been some legwarmers for my niece's birthday.  I'm just realizing now that I didn't take a picture of them.  Darn!

My other current sewing project is another Amy Butler bag, the Sophia Carry-All.  Thankfully I have Hilda from the Fabric Tree helping me out with this one in class because the piping and zipper have definitely been new territory for me.  Here's a picture of the work in progress (still need to make the lining):

The fabric I'm using (both the grey and the orange) are from Ikea.  They are a nice lightweight canvas which seems to be working well for this bag so far.  They have so many great prints at Ikea, but most end up having designs that would have been too large for the size of this bag (better as curtains or some other large thing).  I'm happy with the way this one turned out.  I like the little bit of pattern variation that shows up on this side (and the other side as well). 

...and last, a couple of pictures of the baby quilt I finished up last month:

I used cotton flannel for both sides of this quilt, as I couldn't find any cotton sherpa at my local fabric stores.