My Mondo Bag

After seeing the pattern around on the internets for a while, blogs and instagram, I bought myself the pattern for the Mondo Bag. (my blog record shows I bought it way back in November)  It is a Quiltsmart pattern if you're interested.  I've had the pattern since before Christmas.  I was waiting until I had some selfish sewing time to get it started - which was in February.  It was also a chance for me to get to know my new Singer Featherweight.  More on it in another post.

I started with a bunch of strips from a couple jelly rolls of Gooseberries.  They were originally purchased for a signature quilt, but I have a lot of left over.

If you have purchased or made this pattern, you know that it comes with preprinted interfacing on which you are supposed to fuse your 2.5" blocks.  Well, I sort of hacked the pattern.  You see, I didn't want to never be able to use it again.  I also didn't want to cut all bazillion 2.5" squares.  So I strip pieced into fours.  Then cut 2.5" strips across and laid them out according to the picture.  Then I sewed the strips together into the right sized rectangles for the pattern.  After each rectangle was pieced - THEN I fused (my own-unprinted) interfacing to the whole rectangle and proceeded to follow the instructions from there. (mostly)

The inside - looks like a flower opening up.  This being my first bag I didn't do any extras like pockets or key tabs.  I tend not to use those anyway, however well meaning I am.

The strip piecing made more of a pattern of the squares than random, but I think it looks pretty good.

This is the bottom where the four rectangles meet up.  Doesn't bother me that the squares meet up.  Its the bottom, after all.

I confess that I did not consult the pattern for the length of the straps, so I think mine ended up rather long in comparison to the bag - but at least I know they'll fit over my shoulder!

Mondo Bag

So would I make another Mondo Bag?  Definitely - it was a fast and easy project. I did it all on my straight stitch feather weight.

True Confession: I thought it would be bigger.  After all the hype written in the pattern about the size - I couldn't actually fold up an entire queen size quilt it in.
On the other hand, now that I understand the basic concept of how it goes together, I could make any size I wanted......
After all, I've got more jelly roll strips!

Signature Quilt - Finish

Just over a year ago a friend of mine announced that she and her husband would be adopting a second girl from China.  I, of course, needed to make a quilt for newest child.  You see, I made one for the first girl they adopted and you can read all about it here.

That was a huge undertaking, and while I enjoyed putting it all together, it asked a lot of the people who wanted to participate.  Its hard to go buy fabric for a project if you are not a sewist.

So, for this quilt I wanted to make it easier for our church family to be a part, so I decided on a signature quilt.

 I started with the Falling Charms pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co - I got mine out of the Block Magazine that they put out.

 As you can see, I did planned the fabrics opposite of the pattern.  I used the charm squares as the signature blocks and the jelly roll strips in between. 

 I'm very happy over all with how it turned out.  I ended up buying two jelly rolls of Gooseberry by Lella Boutique.  This allowed me to get seven blocks with the same fabrics.  In hindsight, I suppose I could have made less blocks of each fabric and used more fabrics.  Eh. Whatever.

 A little bit about signature quilts, if you should ever think of doing one: Control is good.  I had all the charms cut and marked on the 1/4" line with clear instructions that anything over that line would not be seen.

 The fabric squares are ironed to pieces of freezer paper for stability in writing.  I purchased Pigma pens in a few colors and black and made sure that they were the only pens used for the signature blocks.  I tried to make sure everyone signed them in front of me - but two people actually managed to abscond with blocks and pens!  I did get them back, though.

 There is a single layer of Pellon cotton batting as this will be a wall hanging, mostly.  The quilting is a simple wavy stitch along the seams that make up the steps of the blocks.  I didn't want to worry about quilting over anyone's signature.  (also no close-ups of the quilt - privacy, you know)

 This is the back.  I have had the floral fabric for a long time.  Easily 10 years waiting for something special and this was it.  The colors matched perfectly.

 The green gingham strip is left from my three year old's baby quilt!

 Also a green gingham hanging sleeve across the top.  I used a leftover block for a label on the back.

 Binding is a matching pinky/red Kona Cotton.  I forgot to look at the name when I bought it, but its perfect.  I actually had a border on this originally that I took off.

  Finished size:  52" x 80"