New York City Bag - Pattern release!

I'm so happy to be able to release this clever bag! The New York City Bag is the perfect big city companion! You can wear it around your waist or across your shoulder as needed for security and comfort. You can choose to be hands free with your valuables safely towards your body. It's available in two sizes, small and large.

The New York City Bag pattern has both INCH and CENTIMETER measurements and is available in both English and Swedish HERE.

This is the small version of the bag, it's sewn all in cotton and the pattern uses foam interfacing. 

It's very light and retains it shape so well. I love how comfortable this bag is to wear.

The interior is fully lined and you can easily choose to add a slip pocket or why not even card pockets?

The back has a zipper pocket for your valuables. 

The small bag is ~6” (16cm) high, ~9” (23cm) wide and ~1 ¾” (4.5cm) deep at the base.

While the large bag is ~7 ½” (19cm) high, ~9” (23cm) wide and ~1 ¾” (4.5cm) deep at the base. It's sewn in black and gold cork fabric and lined with cotton. 

It fits more than one would think, and I love the gold and blue bubble cat fabric in the lining, got it from my mother at Borlänge Sycentrum =)

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As always, this pattern wouldn't be without my amazing pattern testers! 

Thank you all!  Here are their gorgeous bags.

Annette - Made this stunning Disney version! Perfect for those visits to the Magic Kingdom when you want your hands free and valuables safe. She chose to add a slip pocket to the bag.

Barbara Dörig - Whom can be found here on instagram made this super cute dotted one, with the most stunning flamingo lining! She also opted for a slip pocket in the back of the bag. 

Cheryl Wright Simmerman - of Adarra Handmade made TWO beautiful bags! I love how she mix and matched the outside for the pretty cork version, and that red vinyl and black one is just so darn cool! She used the card pockets from the Loule bag for the red one, brilliant move!  

Eva Arthursson - made this awesome faux leather one, I love the dotted surface and those grey straps goes so perfectly with the binding!

Gillian Woronko - made this awesome denim look one. To match the binding with the lining was such an awesome idea! So beautiful!

Lori Peoples - whom can be found here on Instagram made this super cool cartoon print version! 

Michelle of MEW Designs Australia - whom can be found here on Instagram and  here on Facebook made this super delish looking (I can't be the only one wanting a candy cane after seeing this beauty?) version. The striped binding is pure perfection!

Pia Jestin - whom can be found here on Instagram made this super pretty furniture fabric version, so stylish! Love that she also matched the binding with the lining!

Anette Lundin - made this super pretty paisley version! She added a safety strap for her card holder, such a great idea!

Kristin - whom can be found here on Instagram made this stunning knitters version! Love the red biding, makes such a perfect contrast! 

Baby Ebbas Thicket Quilt

My sister Anna had her first baby this august, an adorable baby girl named Ebba. She's the love of our entire family and naturally I had to make her a quilt! It's made in Katie and Birdies beautiful Lullaby fabric line matched with Kona Cotton in white. It's based on the free Thicket quilt pattern available here.

I'm super happy with how the appliques turned out, they're all trapuntoed by adding extra batting behind the animals to make them protrude a little extra from the quilt, and make them more appealing to a baby. If you want to know how I do this, it's described in my Summer Squares tutorial on Moda Bakeshop: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/06/summer-squares-quilt.html 

And below comes the little fellow that started it all, the fox! Baby Ebba got a small fox toy some six months before she was born from her parents - and it disappeared when me and Erik visited! There was a lot of investigation surrounding (and allegations I might add!) this and I decided I had to make a quilt featuring the fox, should it not turn up. 

I looked for several months for the perfect fabric for this quilt (my sister and her husband have fantastic taste and I didn't want to make something they'd feel didn't work in their beautiful apartment) and when I stumbled on Katie and Birdies beautiful Lullaby line, I knew that's the perfect one! Of course it was out of print and near impossible to find someone who would ship to Sweden! I found a layer cake and ordered it to my mother's place. It arrives and when we're going to our quilt retreat this summer - it turns out it was only the border fabric that had arrived, not the layer cake! The horror! 

Me and my mom made another quilt for baby Ebba in the meantime (the one with only Kona Cotton and the applique baby feet if you've seen my social media). A number of months later, after Ebba was born, the layer cake just suddenly shows up in the post! And this quilt could finally become reality! Luckily the fox toy had been found by then ;)

The after much auditioning of different animals, the hedgehog and bunny was included because there's adorable such on the fabric, and they're too cute not to be included with the fox. 

The bunny being assembled, you can also see a little of my "pretty" bunny sketch in the background. Luckily I'm much better at sewing than drawing.

When making this quilt, this was the first time I sewn a full quilt on my beloved Juki 2200 QVP mini (that I just realized I haven't introduced here yet, ohhh gosh!), and I'm so happy with how it was to work with. Sooo easy! Sooo much space! I'll make a proper post with a review of this machine shortly. As "what machine do you use" is one of the most frequently asked questions for me.  

The back turned out great too, and the little animals show so sweetly.

Freemotion quilted it with all over swirls with hearts thrown in for extra love for baby Ebba.

Anna says they all love the quilt, and honestly - nothing could make me happier to hear! =D 

Setting your seams - or how to get those perfectly flat quilt blocks

I published a photo of a quilt block I'd sewn, and I got quite a few private messages on Instagram asking me how I get my seams so flat, so I made a little video to show the importance of setting your seams, and how to do it. This is the photo that I posted, a cute simple square in a square with fabric from Kate & Birdie and Kona Cotton.

I highly recommend clicking the "Watch on Youtube" link in the video as this low quality won't allow you to see what I'm talking about. Video is available here: Watch video.

When we sew quilt blocks, we usually do not sew with a dual feed presser foot, which causes a slight stretch/tension in the fabric on top compared to the fabric being fed at the bottom by the machines feeders; which is why the top piece usually comes out longer than the bottom one, despite being totally equal in length when the seam was started. This causes the fabric, when the seam is sewn to have a slight "waviness" to it, as the fabric has been stretched slightly. This can be made worse from improper thread tension. Adjusting your presser foot pressure (usually reducing it) so your seams come out as flat as possible, while still retaining enough pressure to make a nice seam will help this. However, a slight waviness is difficult to get rid of.  Starching your fabrics with spray starch before you cut it is a great way to reduce this issue too. However for baby quilts such as this one, where you don't wish to spray the fabric with a bunch of chemicals is not desirable. This is where setting your seams come into play.

Setting your seams is something the old school quilters amongst us will say is such a standard thing to do that it doesn't warrant a post, but I've found a lot of new quilters don't know to do this, and it makes such a difference!


Set your seams: 
Start with your block in the same position as when you lifted it from your machine, don't open up the fabrics, just lift it from the bed to the pressing table. Here you can see the little waves in the fabric.

Put your iron on the cotton setting. With or without steam is a personal preference, have you pre-shrunk your fabrics properly with a hot iron with steam, you can use steam here to without danger to distort your block. Set down your iron on the block and give it a good press. Here you can see how flat it becomes, the waviness is gone!

Next press your block like you normally would (I'm pressing the seams open here which I normally don't, as it's for a baby quilt so I want it as flat as possible).

And enjoy your perfectly flat, beautiful block!

In the video there's a comparison with a block with the seams not set. Leave your blocks to cool flat on the ironing board, preferably even under a heavy book or a quilt ruler to let the fibers set in place flat before moving them.

Hopefully this will help you to get your blocks properly flat and beautiful!

Periodic Table of the Elements fabric - now available for order!

After I showed my Periodic Table of the Elements quilt I made for my beloved sisters graduation 2012, I have received so, so many requests to have the fabric I designed for this made purchasable through Spoonflower. It was a very personal quilt this, so I was hesitant to do this for that reason, but now, 6 years later - I've finally edited, updated and uploaded the design! It's now available on Spoonflower for anyone who's interested: https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/8232173

The original has been corrected and all elements have been added (no more Uut, Uuq etc) and the slight design issues with the elements not lining up perfectly (especially in the Lanthanoid and Actinoid series) have been fixed. It's the perfect gift for the science interested in your life!

There's a 1/4" space between each element and they're ~5 5/8" x 4 3/4" big. How big your finished quilt will be will depend on your seam allowance and how you place the Lanthanoid and Actinoid series.

This is how your 3 yards will look when they arrive, you need to buy 3 yards to get the full design, the layout have been optimized for minimal yardage so you need to cut it up and sew it together to make the quilt (it's not a printed panel quilt).

This photo gives you a nice idea of the feel of the quilt I think, for more photos, see the original post.

If you order this fabric, I'd LOVE to see what you make, so make sure to tag me in social media!

Swedish quilters association Rikstäcket's annual meeting and 30th anniversary

I had the pleasure of being invited to release a special pattern especially for the swedish quilters association Rikstäcket's 30th anniversary and annual meeting a little over a week ago. The pattern was kept secret (except for to my amazing pattern testers whom tested and then hid their bags until the release, love you all!) up until the first day of the event and only then revealed to the attendees and the world, including those whom had signed up for the "Secret Bag Class" on the Sunday.

The Beijing Bag was revealed and a special Rikstäcket 30th Anniversary Edition of the paper pattern totally sold out during the event. Thanks everyone who bought it! And I'm so sorry to those whom wasn't able too, I totally hadn't anticipated how appreciated it would be.

We ended up being 17 (!!!) people sewing the Beijing Bag on the Sunday (a few more than I normally allow in my classes) but we still had an amazing time! Such amazing students!

My awesome mother was helping me the entire weekend with the classes, and as we had brought the store with us, dad was working one floor down selling fabrics. We had a great weekend all three of us!

All fabrics, hardware and interfacing is from my parents store: Borlänge Sycentrum

Here are the beautiful, finished Beijing Bags that I managed to photograph. Sadly some were in a bit of a hurry to get home so I didn't manage to take a photo before they had already packed their bags.

Look how great they look with their lovely bags!!

But we didn't just sew Beijing Bags this weekend, we also had a Loule Bag class! In this class we were 10 people, but sadly I didn't manage to photograph all the bags finished as a few had to run and a couple had a few seams left when we had to end the class. Here are their stunning bags!! 

Thanks everyone for an AMAZING weekend!! <3