Happy January! It's time for December's monthly report. See past reports here.

Took a couple photos of my Giant Vintage Star Quilt in my sewing room recently, it's such a happy quilt. Find the pattern here.


I spent most of the month prepping for the holidays, including make a number of handmade gifts! I'll share the rest soon, but for now here is a pillow that I made for my Dad. This churn dash pillow matches a quilt I made him a few years back: Deer Sparkling Cider Quilt. It also matches a star pillow I made for him earlier in this year, so now he has a pair to go with the quilt.


It seemed fitting that the last project I made in 2019 was a pair of matching lined drawstring bags. This is the project size from the lined drawstring bag pattern, my personal favorite. These were for Michael and his Sister, made from this cute cherry pie fabric that once belonged to their grandmother. I have a good amount of the fabric left, so I'll probably make a picnic table cloth or something with the rest. The accent is from my Mom's stash (I made them in OH while we were visiting) and I picked up a blue solid to match for the linings.


I managed to finish a quilt among all the other things going on! My scrappy pineapple quilt is now finished. I took photos while I was home visiting, so I'll be sharing those later this month.


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I track my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track here. Here is how I did in December:

December Fabric
Used up: 23.75 yards
Brought in: 5.75 yards
Net: -18 yards
Year to date: -107 yards

December Yarn
Used up: 0 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: 0 yards
Year to date: -426 yards

Brought in a little fabric this month, almost all of it was used for gift sewing, so I feel okay about it! I was hoping to finish up a knit project over the holidays, but it just didn't happen. Hopefully I'll finish it this year!


Early in the month we had quite a bit of ice, I had to capture everything covered in it!


I made a new sweet recipe this season, Cinnamon Harissa Caramel Corn. It was surprisingly simple to make and really good!


George the bunny, looking so handsome!

I'll be back next week to share my 2019 wrap up and 2020 goals!

Expansion Pattern Introductory Price Ending

Happy Monday! Just wanted to pop in quickly for a quick reminder! The introductory price of $7 for the Lined Drawstring Bag Expansion Pattern ends tomorrow night, 12/31/19!

Starting January 1st, 2020 it will be $9. At that time it will also become available in a bundle with the original Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern for $16.

Find both patterns in my online shop here:
Lined Drawstring Bag Expansion Pattern
Original Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern

Happy Sewing!

Patchwork Essentials: Perspective Quilt

Photo © 2015 Lauren Hunt for Lucky Spool Media.

We finally made it! Today I'm sharing the last quilt from my book, Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle! You can find all the posts about Patchwork Essentials using the MY BOOK link at the top of every page, or here.


We are in the block chapter, which is the last chapter in the book. All the quilts in this chapter use blocks (or parts of blocks) from the 60 block chart in this chapter. Read more about the block chart and the three free quilt settings here. Today we're chatting about the Perspective Quilt.

For more on how the book is structured see this post.


Need a copy of the book? Buy a signed one here: Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle


Photo © 2015 Lauren Hunt for Lucky Spool Media.

Ta-da! We've finally reached the end of the book and the very last quilt. This sampler quilt uses 32 blocks, all from the block chart. The color scheme for this quilt is a nod to my very first quilt, which you can see here. I actually celebrated 10 years of quilting just last month! So the timing of sharing this quilt now feels right! I also used a lot of my fabrics from Dreamin' Vintage* in this quilt.


This is a big quilt, approx. 72"x96". I sent it over to Melissa Kelley of Sew Shabby Quilting. Kept it nice and simple with some swirls!


I love the backing and binding that I used for this one. The binding is a Leah Duncan print from Tule*, and the binding is one of mine from Dreamin' Vintage*.


Photo © 2015 Lauren Hunt for Lucky Spool Media.

Thanks for sticking around as I raced through the last few quilts this month. I've been dragging this show and tell out long enough. Hope you enjoyed seeing all the quilts!



Happy Quilting!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Upcycled Lined Drawstring Gift Bags + How to Cut up a Button Down Shirt

Happy Thursday! I have a fun pair of upcycled lined drawstring bags to share today! Plus a little how-to on cutting up a button down shirt.


A couple weeks ago I picked up two button down shirts at the thrift store. They were half price, so they were a bargain. I knew I wanted to turn them into holiday gift bags, so I picked out two that felt festive. I ended up with a red and white stripe and a muted green.

I was inspired to make drawstring bags with shirts by Leigh. She made a bunch of drawstring bags using thrifted shirts (see them here) and I just loved the idea!


I wasn't sure exactly what I'd do until I cut up the shirts, but I'm so pleased with how they turned out! I decided to use the pockets on the fronts of each bag, as an extra spot for a gift! I cut around each pocket leaving about an inch of the background fabric. Then I used the method outlined in the lined drawstring bag expansion pattern to center the pockets and figure out the borders needed to create the bag exterior.


This is the Project size bag, and I featured the stripe fabric as the main exterior fabric. It was a little fussy working with the stripes, but I think it looks pretty good!


For the second bag I featured the green shirt fabric and made an Artist size. Both bags are lined with Essex linen and have natural cotton twill for ties. I interfaced all the shirt fabric with a woven interfacing to give it a little extra weight. The green fabric probably would have been fine without it, but the stripe was pretty thin.


The backs are plain! There was enough fabric from both shirts that I could have made them plain on both sides. It's such an economical way to make gift bags. These sizes are available in the Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern.

Now, for a little how-to on cutting up a shirt! There are many different ways to go about cutting up a shirt for fabric, this is just the way I did it. I knew I was going to use this fabric for drawstring bags, so these steps made the most sense for the project I was making. Think about how you're going to use the shirt fabric before you start cutting so that you can get the most out of it.


First, find some shirts! Use up shirts that have stains, holes, or were headed to the thrift shop. If you don't have any on hand, stop by your local thrift store. I started in the men's shirts, working my way from the largest sizes to the smaller sizes. I choose shirts that were discounted, which means they had been there for a while.

Once you've got your shirts, give them a good wash and dry!


Cut away the collar and button bands down the front of the shirt.


Next, cut away the bottom hem.


Cut the sleeves off at the shoulder seams.


Cut off the cuff from each sleeve.


Cut off the seam on each sleeve.


Cut the side seams off of the shirt body.


Cut each front panel from the yoke at the shoulder seam. Cut the shirt back from the yoke.


Cut the sleeve seams from the front pieces and back piece.


Here is the shirt all cut up! You'll end up with two front pieces, a back piece, and two sleeves. Plus a bunch of leftover pieces that were cut off like the cuffs and collar.

Happy Sewing!