I recently have been diving into piecing and quilting. Really going down a rabbit hole about it. Its a bit relaxing in a different way than apparel sewing. Maybe its all the layers of material like a new blanket in your hands as you work.
My latest quilted bag is this black shibori hand dyed canvas knitting bag. I love the shape and the dye turned out really well. Instead of using batting rems for this one, I unearthed a decent amount of felt yardage I got from somewhere. I really have no idea where. Since I also am not sure on how to use all of this either, I experimented with using the felt in place of batting. It has some challenges though not completely impossible. I was concerned with the density of the felt and that is exactly where I ran into a little bit of problem. As the layers added up with the side seams and binding got a little tougher. I switched to a microtex needle and that fixed it very quickly.
My prior quilted bags had stitching patterns planned out with just using my rotary ruler. I did a 45 degree angle at three inches separated to create a diamond pattern for the quilted stitches. I am not one to be a spectacular visionary artist with a pencil but I figured a simple daisy silhouette would be doable with my skillset. I drew one on cardstock then took it to my basted fabrics to outline with tailor’s chalk.
For the inside I combined a few gingham remnant pieces with a printed binding I made from a random fat quarter. The fat quarter was made of vintage looking notion labels, so I thought it would be perfect for a little knitting bag interior. I actually ended up once again loving the inside of the quilted bag just as much as the exterior. And if I had any reversible zippers on hand for one of these, it sure would get some use.
So all in all. The felt worked out well! I can’t think of a more useful way of me working with felt than covering it up with cute prints and holding yarn with it.
Sister of the Soil 