Another Mondo Bag

You already know that I made a Mondo Bag for quilter friend Becky in our Frankfort Girls quilting group. Read all about it here. In that post, I explained that I'd made a total of 4 Mondo Bags, but that wasn't exactly the truth. However, telling the truth would have revealed other secret sewing, so I told a Christmas fib.

Now the truth: I have made 5 Mondo Bags!

I could not divulge at the time that I was secretly making a Mondo Bag for Sharon.  Because of our schedules, my traveling, illness in her family, and miscellaneous holiday obligations, we never did coordinate gift-giving. 

So I dropped by her place one random day well after Christmas when she wasn't even home, and left this at her door. Merry Belated Christmas, Sharon!

This was a bag that very nearly DIDN'T get made. I knew when I made Becky's that I was using my last pattern, so I ordered a couple online. I would use a partial jelly roll of that luscious fabric line Roman Holiday (we both love it so much!) - I knew I had it somewhere in my stash. It would be perfect for Sharon's Mondo. When the new patterns arrived - well after Christmas - and I was ready to start Sharon's bag, I could not find that jelly roll anywhere! Waaaa! I searched and searched. 

And get this audacity - after I'd exhausted my extensive searching efforts, I asked Sharon if she knew where it might be in my sewing room! 

I finally gave up searching and decided that I'd use another beloved fabric, French General. It's still gorgeous and it's definitely a worthy second option.

The construction was as straightforward as ever; and in about an afternoon I had the bag finished. The panels are created with random 2.5-inch squares, and then magically when sewn together a fantastic bag results! Ingenious!

Sharon sent this pic yesterday, indicating that she is using and loving her Mondo Bag! Yay!!

Now, in the meantime, I think I have figured out when I must have used that partial Roman Holiday jelly roll. "Roman Holiday Jelly Roll quilt" is a picture file I found on my laptop while searching for evidence of my missing jelly roll - ha! The jokes on me! Am I becoming forgetful?!

Made in 2021, I vaguely recall intending to use lots of Roman Holiday remnants. I am sure that all the 9-patches in this quilt are made from that jelly roll.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Mondo Bag

Missing so many days of posting was not my plan, but alas, the days lately have been full-to-brimming with Christmas preparations, parties and Baby Cate.

And very little time sewing or quilting.

 I can now reveal one gift that has been given. We Frankfort Girls had our Christmas gathering last Friday with a lovely breakfast at a quaint primitive cabin in town, and later our gift exchange at Sheryll's festive home. Sheryll's husband Bill took our picture.

In a recent post, I mentioned some secret sewing I'd been doing. No longer a secret, I was making a Mondo Bag for Becky. As the months passed since we drew names, I overheard Becky say she'd love to have a Mondo Bag. And since I happened to have a spare pattern, as well as a healthy stash of 2.50-inch squares, this was a no-brainer!

The squares I used were all Becky's! We had a 2.5-inch square exchange earlier and as luck would have it, I got Becky's - what a coincidence! I stitched up a Mondo Bag for Becky with squares acquired from Becky.

 

By my calculations, this makes the 4th Mondo Bag I've made over the years. Besides one for myself, each of my daughters have one, and now Becky. When we had our family Christmas celebration here on Saturday, Emma actually used her Mondo Bag to carry gifts.

 Click here to see my first MB, and you can also read about my making the second and third.

Hopefully, I can get back to more regular posting now that the busiest of my holiday obligations are completed. I have been sewing at last and have a few more things to share.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Varied Use of Mondo Bag

Going through old text messages, I found these two pictures from about a month ago. We were joined by all the kids for dinner in Columbus and went back to Erin and Jeff's apartment afterwards. Erin then demonstrated a new and innovative use for her Mondo Bag.

 

This is the Mondo Bag I gave Erin for Christmas. Who knew that it would serve in this capacity??

 

 

Doesn't every stylish chick need a stylish bag for carrying her cat? I don't think Rocky is too thrilled with the concept. He's got a bewildered look on his face.

I did make a good bit of progress on niece Abby's quilt. I am also going to start a little quilt that I saw pictured on Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. Click here to see a picture of it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

The Gifts Have All Been Given

Much of what I've worked on lately has been intended for gift-giving, so I was limited in what I could share here on the blog. With all of my gift-giving behind me, I will at last be able to show you some things I'd previously been hiding. Sprinkled in, there will be a couple of things you may have already seen; some gifts were made prior to deciding that they would become gifts.

Back when I was sewing for the bazaar through the month of October, I came across 4 log cabin blocks. It occurred to me that if I were to sew them together, I could have a right nice looking little wall hanging or table topper. So that is what I did. I also knew that Mom liked her little wall hanging from last Christmas, so I sewed these together and did a simple hand quilting on it.

The squares were left over from a quilt top I made several years ago - the Dressmaker's Quilt. Do you remember it? It's from February of 2011, according to my records.

I can see this new wall hanging going up on the wall beside her first wall hanging. Here is a rerun of this, and I think you will agree that they will complement each other nicely.

Emma, DD2, got a Mondo Bag. I did share this a month or so ago when I made it when Claudia was here making her own Mondo.

Emma also got a little clutch bag.

Mom did, too.

I have a couple of other things which became Christmas gifts. If I can locate pictures, I will share those soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another Mondo Bag!

I have not said anything about the second Mondo Bag I was making because, of course, it was to be a Christmas gift. Well, that gift has been given, and the recipient was quite pleased.

I used Kaffe Fassett fabrics, mostly scraps from previous projects. Only the lining and the handles were cut from large pieces. Here's a look at the lining:

I've said before but it bears repeating, I love my linings to be light-colored so that stuff in the bottom can be seen and found. Dark bag linings hide things too well.

We had a wonderful evening at DD#1's having our Christmas with them. They will be traveling out of state for the coming week, so we celebrated early. Dear Erin and her hubby Jeff had a lovely dinner planned; we took a walk over to the Scioto Mile in downtown Columbus; and finished off the evening with opening presents and dessert.

Our hosts prepared a delicious ham with all the fixings - carrots, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole with salad on the side. Yum-o!

For a new downtown apartment, they have really high ceilings, so the tree is a tall one - 9 feet, I think. In the year and a half that Erin and Jeff have been married, they have gone overboard on collecting interesting ornaments, too. At some point, a second tree is going to be necessary.

Christmas is almost here! I have most of my stuff done. I plan to spend a bit of time in the kitchen today and tomorrow, but I don't have major preparations to manage, thankfully. I have not mentioned that DS is home from Oregon for a couple of months. That is a nice surprise; we hadn't been planning to see him this Christmas. I will definitely be ready for DD#2 to come home late Christmas eve. It promises to be a warm Christmas this year, but when it's filled with family, the weather is inconsequential. A white Christmas would be nice, but family is nicer.

Merry Christmas, Quilting Friends!

Sewing Classes

Claudia and Denise were here yesterday for another fun day of creating wonderful treasures. We worked on Mondo Bags - Denise made a Bitty Bag and Claudia made a Mondo Bag. It was lots of fun.

 As we began the day, Denise came with her 2.5-inch squares fused to the interfacing. She immediately got to work with stitching the panels above.

This is the fabric Denise used for her lining.

Claudia had been doing some practicing at home and came with her bag parts all ready to sew together. We made the handles, and with her panels already constructed, she sewed the seams that formed the bag. Then it was a matter of putting all the parts - outer bag, lining and handles - together.

You may recognize Claudia's fabrics. They are leftovers from the 9-patch pillow we made back in the summer. If you missed it, you can click here to read about it. Under the bag is a second Mondo Bag Claudia has in progress using the leftovers of the Three Charms Quilt she finished the same day as her pillow; it's covered in that same link.

Here is Claudia's beautiful finish. What a great-looking bag.

And Denise, too, has a beautiful finish. Hers is the Bitty Bag, made by the same designer, just on a small scale.

I've been away from the blog for awhile. I've not been getting  much accomplished in the sewing room, and what I have done is of a secretive nature. Couple that with a health scare for my mom on Thanksgiving Day which lasted a full week. Turns out that she has an enormous gall stone which has been a heck of a thing to try to remove. She goes back in a month to try again. Then my computer was acting all weird for awhile; that appears to be fixed now, thankfully.

Tomorrow, I plan to sew at Terry's; hopefully I can get a lot accomplished.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Making Mondo Bags

Class was in session Monday when Claudia came for more sewing lessons. The plan for the day was to make a Mondo Bag. Years ago I made one (read about it here) and I have had a second pattern for a long while. Claudia had purchased her pattern, and so we devised a plan to work on making this bag.

Claudia selected a patriotic pack of fabrics, and had cut her 2.5" squares ahead of time. Here is one of the 4 panels ready for stitching.

This is the result of Claudia's work on Monday. The outer bag and the lining are both to the point at which the sides are sewn together which will make these strange shapes become a Mondo Bag.

I used a Jelly Roll of Neptune by Moda and Tula Pink. I have had the Jelly Roll for several years and really didn't have any other ideas for how I'd use it. This will be perfect. My first panel, above, is sewn both the width and length seams.

On Tuesday, I went back to work to finish my bag. These are the strips I selected for my handles - the greens are the under sides; the blues are the outer sides.

Mondo Bag construction is the strangest, most convoluted I've ever made. How anyone figured that the odd shapes shown above in Claudia's picture could be turned into this awesome bag is totally beyond me. Above is my lining and batting.

My bag is finished and Gracie's inspection is complete. I guess it earned her seal of "a-purr-val."

I really like the Mondo Bag - both this one and my first one. However, I noticed through all of this that there are some differences. The handles are shorter on this bag than on my first one. Now, maybe I just opted back then to make longer handles; I just don't remember. I sorta' wish I'd made the second bag's handles longer, too, but it's too late now.

And there are differences between Claudia's pattern and my pattern. Hers is newer and that newer version has smaller panels. It took quite a bit of study to figure out why her measurements were so far off mine. She will still end up with a very nice bag, though. She is coming back on Monday to finish her bag, and we are going to try to make a quickie table runner, too.

Hope you have a great Thursday!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Little Mondo

Christmas is long past, but I have intended to write about a gift I received from my dear friend and former co-worker, Kay. She is a proud member of the Frienzies group, and while we don't get to visit as often as we used to, we still have our monthly Frienzies get-together. She is a real gem. I hope everyone has a friend like her. She is so giving, caring, thoughtful - well, I am grateful to call her friend!

Kay has been a quilter since way back, and we found our common interest early in our teaching careers. She has made many, many quilts - some have worn out, and she's made replacements! She is prolific! And the trips we have made together to various quilting-related destinations! Oh my gosh! The stories we do tell! From lost keys to lost quilters, we have definitely had some adventures. Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and of course Ohio. We have been to a lot of places for a lot of fun quilting experiences.

Oh, yes, the Christmas gift. Well, I want you to see what she made me for Christmas! A little Mondo bag!

Of course, it is made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Kay was the original KF girl in our group.

I have used this bag so much since receiving it. It is the perfect size for taking a project to Friday morning quilting with the Frankfort girls. I have taken it overnight both times I stayed with Mom when she had the cataracts removed. I just love it.

I'm holding the straps up here so you can see the shape better. The sunny window has distorted the color a bit, but you can still see its size.

Here is my original Mondo bag. I use it all the time, too. It has gone to the beach numerous times, and even just dashing over to my friend Cheryl's pool, it is handy to grab and go.

I made it with batiks - I had a package of Bali Pops, and just cut a gazillion 2.5" squares to make it. The pattern is offered in three sizes, I believe, and I have to think that it is popular with a lot of seamstresses. This post about my original Mondo bag gets the most frequent visits of any post I have ever done here on this blog. I think that when people do a search for 'Mondo Bag,' my blog post pops up.

Awhile back, Kay gave me another pattern for a big Mondo. I ought to get busy and make another one. She has a blue one in KF fabrics that looks very nice. But I can't do one, too, or we're likely to get them mixed up. Well, anyway, I just wanted to share my new little Mondo bag, and tell you a little about Kay.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Beautiful Blue Bags

Is there anything more wonderful than really awesome bags? Well, yes, probably a lot of things are more wonderful, but in accessory universe, awesome bags rank right up there. *grin*

I received the following pictures via text message Friday morning from my friend Kay.

 

Isn't it fantastic? My love of KF blues is well documented here on this blog, so you know this caught my attention! The bag was for the bridal quilt we Frienzies made for my DD Erin. 

 The bag is called Tabitha Jane, and Kay assures me that it is the easiest bag ever to make! I can't wait to get my hands on the pattern to see for myself! 

As if these two pictures weren't enough, she then sent two more! OMG! She made a KF blue Mondo Bag!!

The lining is even awesome!

The Mondo bag I made last year is one of my favorites, and I would so love to make another one. I used it as a beach bag on vacation at Myrtle Beach, and I often use it to carry "stuff" back and forth to various sewing days. It's a BIG bag and carries a lot of necessities.

The story gets better. Get this: Kay made a trip to Waynesville's Fabric Shack before coming to the bridal shower in Wilmington, and, unbelievably, she found refill patterns for the Mondo bag! She bought 3 - one for herself, one for me, and one for another friend. I might just make my own blue KF Mondo bag.

I will be sharing pics of the bridal shower soon!

Happy Quilting, Friends!