When a box full of florals, creative prompts, and new-to-me supplies showed up at my door, I knew this project was going to stretch me in the best way.
I am so excited that this year I have been invited to be a Maywood Maker for Maywood Studio. Maywood is a wholesale textile company founded by EE Schenk founder Stan Gray to bring quality cottons to independent shops. The company was started in Maywood, California and is family owned, now run by Stan's daughter Brittany.
As a maker this year I will be making three projects with fabric and notions that are sent to me and hope that my creativity inspires your own. The first project has just launched and I wanted to share a bit of my process with you.
The Assignment
All of the makers were sent a box which contained:
- Floral Fat Quarter Bundle (Maywood is known for their florals)
- Shadow Play mini charms
- 2 yards of a white blender (in my case, a white solid)
- Set of 4 Creative Tiles
- Maywood Grid Pad (for sketching)
- Kimberbell Quilt Label Panel
- Magic Pins Quilting Pins
- Schmetz Quilting and Piecing needles
- Magic Premium Quilting Spray & Crafting Spray (3 oz)
- Hobbs Heirloom Bleached Cotton Batting (36" x 45")
- Clover Seam Ripper
- Blooming Pins
- Guttermann Poly Thread 50 wt. in white
- Guttermann Cotton Thread 50 wt. in aqua
- Gelato Sticker (who doesn't love a sticker)
- 2026 Maywood Studio Calendar
As you can see it was extensive, and we weren't expected to use it all, but there was enough in there to get anyone started.
For our first project we were asked to use at least one of the floral fabrics and the Creative Tiles, which are a new product for Maywood, to create a mood board to reflect our current creative voice. We were asked to include a sewn element, a word or phrase, creative inspiration as to how we arrived at our board and finally, place, where we live or create.
My Floral Inspiration
Of all the floral fat quarters I received, I was immediately drawn to these two. I went through this phase in my early 20s where I loved everything denim, feminine, cowboy boots, pearls and cozy sweaters. These two prints instantly took me back to that time. I knew that I had to do something with them, but now the question was what??
Putting Together A Mood Board
I had never really worked this way before, but the idea intrigued me. I have a large design wall in my sewing space, so I knew I wanted to find another way to use the creative tiles. At first, I considered using them as individual design boards, but I kept coming back to the idea of something larger—yet still portable. I had seen someone on instagram use a frame that she picked up at a thrift store and repurpose it as a backing for an art piece she was doing, I thought maybe I can do the same.
I must have gone to 3 or 4 different places. I started at our local HomeSense store which is the equivalent of Home Goods in the US. Then I went to Michaels' where I found a large cork board in the framing section that wasn't too expensive. I decided to hang onto it "just in case". I hit a couple of thrift stores but on that day they were a bust, although, I did get an adorable jean jacket that I thought maybe I could embellish. Lastly I went to this fabulous store in Vancouver called Urban Source.
Inside this magical place is all kinds of found objects that are just waiting to be used in your next art project. I first found this store through a friend when my oldest was in elementary school and she needed supplies to make a project for school. It was pure heaven for the both of us. I struck out finding a board for the Creative Tiles but I found all kinds of items to add to my mood board.
So in the end I went back to my Michael's cork board and I attached the 4 tiles to the right side of the board leaving myself a clear section of cork. In the future I can pin up fabric or sketches and then use the corkboard side for notes. I was pretty pleased with myself.
My First Effort
So as intimidated as I was it ended up being super fun adding things to my new design board as a mood board.
I was so busy having so much fun! I found this floral garland at Michael's that I knew I would use over and over again. At Urban Source, I found these lace doilies, 45 RPM records as well as little mushrooms, wood ornaments and even a fairy door!! You can see the jean jacket I picked up thrifting and finally I went to the Dollar store and found these super fun giant mushrooms and some floral stickers.
I'm inspired...but what to make?
I realized pretty quickly that the fat quarters were all florals but without fabric that could tie them together there wasn't really enough to make a quilt. This meant thinking a little smaller. We were able to use other substrates that weren't quilting cotton but that still had me thinking smaller.
I decided right away that I would include the shadow play charms to give vibrance to the project. If you have been following me for awhile you know I'm in my curved piecing phase of life so that was definitely going to be included in the design. I have an entire bin of old denim that I have kept for years. I am pretty sure that about 20 years ago I had planned to use it to recover an old couch and I can assure you that it is long gone! So since the fabrics were giving denim vibes, denim was clearly the answer for the alternate substrate.
First things first! Start with the block.
Choosing 18 different charms I created two nine patches that would be the centers of the blocks. My original plan was to create a log cabin around the outside of the nine patch using the two fat quarters, the white solid and denim. However, the word I chose was vintage and the phrase I chose was "everything old is new again". To me this denotes some softness if that makes sense and the sharp corners of a log cabin block didn't feel right. This is where the curves came in. I stuck to the log cabin structure but I created templates that would round the edges. This also gave it a more modern feel to me.
Mood Board Take 2!
You can see how the board evolved with the sewn pieces now done and the words added. I loved this way of working and I can see how the first board might help me channel my year of creativity but this second one feels like I've narrowed down the project at hand.
The Analog Bag
Lately, I have heard lot about the analog bag and I was intrigued. The premise is that it is essentially a tote bag that you use to put anything that is not tech related into that you could have with you while you are out. So this might include notepad and pencil to sketch, a book, crossword puzzles or some hand stitching that you could have with you in the car or on the go that you can turn to when you have a few minutes so that you are off your phone and engaged in a different way. This might mean while you watch your kids at swim class, wait in the pick up lane or even on the bus on the way to work. What a great way to marry two ideas of a "vintage" project with an analog bag.
Thrifting tips!
I decided I wanted to make the inside panel of the bag out of denim but I wanted to have a little fun and not all my old denim was going to work for this. I headed out to Goodwill to find something to work with. Not all thrifting is equal. I was very concerned when I decided I was going to use consignment that I was thoughtful of what I was picking. I chose items that had massive tears that would need to be repaired, had stains that were not appealing or that might be deemed "cool" and items that were stretched out and not likely to sit nicely on anyone. I am often shocked by the items that are donated to these stores and maybe something to think about. While we don't want clothes to end up in landfills, donating clothes that really are intended for the garbage is not really a donation. However, they are perfect for my purposes.
Making Panels
I decided to incorporate some of the Shadow Play charms in the side panels to coordinate with what I had done on the blocks. I decided to add a layer of batting and lightly quilt the blocks in order to give them more weight once the bag was finished. I didn't bother with a backing for the blocks since I knew that the bag would be lined and you wouldn't see the batting and then it wouldn't be as thick when putting it all together.
The bag can be made with any size block. The side and bottom panels should be the height of your blocks x the width you would like your bag. I knew I wasn't going to do anything fancy when putting this together so mine was 4 1/2" wide to give the bag a little more width for holding more items. (If your blocks are not square then the bottom should be the length of the bottom of your block x the width of the bag).
Since I used denim and I felt this had enough weight I did not use any batting but you absolutely could.
The inner panel is made up of the same elements as the exterior. Two interior panels the same size as the blocks and two side and one bottom panel same sizes as the exterior.
Lessons learned
Now you might be thinking why are you addressing lessons learned before telling us how you put the bag together. Well, I think without knowing what I did wrong or could have done better, it is hard to put the bag together in a satisfying way.
- If you are going to add any embellishments to your blocks do it before adding the side panels. This might sound intuitive but I kept going back and forth about adding the vintage doilies that I had found to the bag. I knew it would probably look great but I wasn't sure I wanted to cover up the nine patch. I love the way it turned out but I had already added one of the sides so it was cumbersome. Also, the side where I decided to make the doily a pocket I had to remove and put back on because I had mixed up the bottom and side of the bag and ended up with the pocket facing the side. Not very useful!!!
- Not all denim is created equal. If you decide to work with this material check the stretch of the denim. The older jeans I had didn't have any lycra in them and very little stretch so they were easier to work with and didn't require any prep. However, all the denim that I used that had some stretch to it I wish that I had used a light stabilizer on the wrong side to keep it from moving around too much. If I had treated it the same way that I do when working with t-shirts I don't think I would have had as many issues. My preference for t-shirts is Pellon SF101 and I think it would have worked great here.
- I created a panel for the inside lining in the same way that I go about doing my improv piecing. I cut up the pieces as I went so that they worked together and I could get the most out of the cool parts of the jeans. There was some fussy cutting involved and also preserving the pockets from a pair of jeans where I liked the embellishment that had been on them to use as interior pockets. This is where I ran into problems with the point above with stretchy jeans. Even though I cut the pieces with math that should have worked some of the pieces still kept going wonky on me. And then there was the adding of the side panels that no matter how many times I put them on and checked and re-checked my math they were still too short. I re-did them three times and finally made the side panels too long, added them and trimmed them down when I was done because I was going to throw my seam ripper across the room if I had to pick it up even one more time.
This is why I have given you the directions above to do all the panels separately unless you want a major headache. There are other ways I could have put this together but at the time this seemed the simplest. Had I only known.
Making the straps
My best advice for making straps is to go into your closet and find a bag that you like and put it over your shoulder. This is about your comfort so find one you find comfortable. Measure the length of the strap and add 1/2 inch at either end. This is how much will be embedded in the stitching of the bag.
You can use a webbing that you can find at many local quilt stores or any other pre-made strap. I decided to continue the use of denim and I was at Michaels' and found this adorable crocheted ribbon which was the perfect addition to go with the florals on the bag. To get enough length I used the entire length of a leg from a pair of jeans. I cut the strips the same length and sewed them along the longest edge wrong sides together. (Did I do one wrong sides together and have to use my seam ripper? You know I did.) Then press the seams open.
You will now need to flip the tube to the other side so that the seam is on the inside. This is one time that having lycra in the denim was a plus since it made it easier to turn without using a tool. I lined up the ribbon along the centre of the denim strap and using a thread that I thought would blend with both I sewed it down going in a zig zag so that I avoided going over the flowers. This also created kind of a cool effect on the back of the strap in case anyone sees it.
Also, if you would prefer to make your straps from fabric my friend Jennie from Clover and Violet has a great video that I'm sharing the link to here. I am sharing her video for an adjustable handbag strap because you can use the same technique and just not add the hardware but this way if you ever want one you will have the video to use.
Putting your bag together
This blog was more supposed to be about process not product so I'm going to wrap it up so you aren't here all day. There are so many good tutorials on Youtube using the method I did to complete this bag. I followed the same method as the pattern by Thai Charm Quilts for the Stellar bag which you can get here.
I found for you on YouTube this video from DIY Olga that uses the same method I did and she is also using denim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1X8tLZfzPA
This project was always more about the process than the finished bag—and honestly, that’s what made it so rewarding.
I absolutely love how it turned out. It feels like a true reflection of the mood board and the ideas that inspired it.
More than anything, I love how it pushed me creatively into something I might not have explored otherwise.
Now I’m curious—would you try working this way?