Dennis and I are the “proud” owners of a new trailer. So I have been working on putting all the trailer stuff back into the new storage areas. There is minimal kitchen type storage in this new trailer so I have had to rearrange where things belong. We have a set of BBQ tools that stay with the trailer and they are pretty big and bulky. So I needed a storage solution that will work for the under floor storage areas. (The small white door under the front window in the photo above is such a storage area.) It gets kind of dirty under there so I needed something to keep the tools in one place and clean. Here is a photo of one that is much fancier but you can see what I mean. 

This is the type of project where I don’t want to spend any money and I know that there must be something in my stash that will work. I thought it would be quilted to give it some strength so I needed larger pieces of fabric and some batting. I found this printed cotton fabric and I had enough for the 30″ x 30″ size I needed. But no quilt batting. I did have some black felt so I thought I could use that for the cushioning instead of batting. I am not a quilter or a seamstress so I was heading into a bit of unfamiliar territory but how hard could it be?

So I put two pieces of printed fabric with print sides together and added a piece of felt to one side. I was going to do this “pillow case” style so that I didn’t have to bind the edges or do anything else too complex. I was given a new to me Bernina sewing machine (Thanks Christina) as my trusty Pfaff died and could not be repaired. (Insert some swearing here.) The Bernina has a walking foot which I have never used before. But I thought this would be the project for it as it is supposed to keep the layers from shifting as I sewed it together. I am sure that I should have basted this all together but I just pinned the layers together. Then I stitched around the edges leaving one area not stitched so I could turn the entire thing right side out.

Here it is after stitching.

Then I took the pinking shears and trimmer around the seam edges so there would be less bulk at the edges.

Here it is after turning it right side out. You can see the area of the seam that was left open on the right hand side. Suddenly I realized that I needed something to keep the roll tied up after the tools were inside. I was hoping to find some elastic to use but I had none. So instead I decided to make straps with the same brown and black fabric.

I tore off some strips of fabric, pinned them together lengthwise and then stitched them together. Once I have turned them right side out, I decided that they were too wide. So I folded them in half lengthwise, ironed them and then stitched some more to make the straps more narrow and also sturdier.

Here is the piece that has been folded up from the bottom to make the pockets for the BBQ tools. They seem like they will fit nicely.

Then it was time to attach the straps and sew up the remaining hole in the “pillow case”. The next step was to “quilt” the three layers together. Back to the walking foot on the Bernina. I got two lines of quilting done, I’m just doing straight lines, nothing fancy and I was out of time. These projects that seem like they should take an afternoon always seem to take longer than I think. I will have to show you the rest of the project in a future post.

Registration for Helene’s Hanging Felted Spiral online class opens today. Click here to register.  This is a great class to learn about creating a complex sculpture from felt. The results are fantastic and you can see other students work here. I hope you will join Helene for this October session of Hanging Felted Spiral.