The Baby at the Bachelor Party

{I'm taking this opportunity to do a little #latergram style blogging. This post is brought to you by August 2013...}

Apparently not everyone has gender-inclusive bachelor parties, complete with the attendance of a baby (neither mine nor the bachelor's, for the record). At least, that's what Jenny and I gleaned when we served as chief participants in Joel's bachelor weekend. We got a lot of odd looks when we told people what we were doing. Which mostly involved gallivanting in a park, eating really good food, imbibing delicious drinks, going to a spa, attending live theatre, eating amazing cookies, and hanging out.

Did I mention the cookies? They're amazing.

I took this opportunity to multi-task and give Elody her baby quilt. Improvisationally-pieced with (mostly) Modern Meadow prints plus a little magenta and yellow for pizazz, this quilt came together quickly over a couple days. Lots of vertical movement and negative space, just how I like my quilts.

And Elody seemed pretty content as well, even as we wrapped her and unwrapped her for our high-class on-the-couch photo shoot. The back has 2 prints, both with lots of blues and purples. It's all straight-line quilting, at random intervals. I can't really remember why I chose to quilt it like that, but I like it.

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Scattered Color Pop (Mini Tutorial Included)

There's nothing like a quilt show & sale to make quilt tops jump off the shelf and get themselves backed, quilted, and bound. I might have played a little role in this process, but the importance of deadlines in my life cannot be overstated. I made this quilt top last winter, after which I dallied finishing it. Most of my sewing projects arise with a recipient in mind, whereas this one started with an idea and no recipient, which is where the no deadline issue arose. But finished it is. And love it I do.

A few people asked me about size, fabric requirements, and the like so I'm going to provide a mini-pattern-tutorial. As half-square triangles represent the entirety of the block-making, and the layout is random, I'm really only providing some numbers and measurements. This particular version finishes at about 54" x 58.5" (12 rows, 13 columns), but it's super easy to upsize or downsize: make more (or fewer) blocks. In other words, figure out the dimensions (rows/columns), multiply, and the product = necessary HST blocks.

Supplies
1 charm pack (42 5" squares)
25" of 3 coordinating solids, cross-cut in 5" WOF strips

Cut 5" strips into 38 5" squares (if you cut all the strips, you'll have 40 squares of each solid. You could use 40 each of 2 solids and 34 of another, thus only requiring 4.5 5" strips on one color (if, say, you have solid scraps and not quite 25" of one). I think I used 42 5" squares of the off-white and khaki, and 30 of the gold, but I can't recall and I'm too lazy to count HSTs in the quilt itself. The point is: this is a versatile, flexible design. Use what you have!

Divvy up each group of squares into thirds. You should have 12 piles. As 38 does not divide evenly into 3, the groups won't be the same size. Then pair up the piles as follows (substituting whatever colors you're using): (1) charms/off-white, (2) charms/khaki, (3) charms/gold, (4) off-white/khaki, (5) off-white/gold, and (6) gold/khaki. Make sure each pile consists of full pairs. The piles with the charms should have 14 charm/solid pairs, while the solid-solid piles will vary depending on how you divided 38.

Sew squares into half-square triangles, using your preferred method. I draw a diagonal line down the center, stitch a scant 1/4" on both sides, cut on the line, and voila, 2 HSTs ready to be pressed. Trim your blocks. With 5" starting squares, I usually trim down to 4 5/8" but you might be able to eek out 4.75" or prefer to play it safe with 4.5".

Lay it out -- I start by grabbing squares randomly and then rearranging to get a reasonable distribution of color. In the end, it is not random in the mathematical sense, but visually it feels random. Sew it up. Take a break, have a drink, eat a treat, and admire your lovely quilt top.

Since this quilt is now finished, it has a back too. I pretty much adore this quilt back. It's got bright colors, birds in cages, ugly ducklings, and a slight little angle that I'll pretend was completely intentional. Totally planned. Because that's how I do it. I pulled stash prints that coordinated with the charm pack (It's a Hoot), at which point I realized it needed a red binding.

So I made one. Bright red Riley Blake circles. Works with the front and the back.

Perhaps you'd like to see this quilt in person and possibly even buy it for yourself or a loved one? If you're in SE Michigan or NW Ohio or South-Central (???) Canada (what's the Windsor, ON region called?), it will be at the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild Show & Sale this Thursday (November 15) at the Corner Brewery in Ypsi, 5-9 pm. You should come. If I don't know you, I'd love to meet you. And if it doesn't sell at the show, it might make its way to a little pop-up quilt, challah cover, and clutch sale here on the blog, in the near-ish future.

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Triangulate: Complete

I took pictures of this quilt over a month ago, when my backyard had only a sprinkling of leaves on it. There are many silly reasons I didn't post this quilt until now--and one serious one. It turns out that transferring pictures from the camera to the computer is somewhat essential to the blogging process, and not misplacing the cord that connects said technological devices is, well, somewhat imperative. But the cord has been located, the pictures moved, and the blog (is being) updated. This process has also revealed to me that these pictures are not, shall we say, the most amazing. I think I need some new photography angles and venues, and a human helper wouldn't hurt. But for now, they will suffice.

Way back when (in March), I asked the members of do.Good Stitches: Empower to make some triangle-in-triangle blocks. I had a vague notion in my head that they would be cool, and wrote up one way to make the blocks. But I had no real plan beyond that. After fussing with a number of possible layouts on my brother's living room floor, I built the quilt around triangles and lots of Kona charcoal. And then paused while I lived sans sewing machine and pondered the quilting options.

Echoing triangles -- a term I just made up -- won the quilt pondering (who knew it was a contest?). I wanted simple and non-distracting. If I were a fancy quilter, which I am certainly not, or owned a long-arm, which I definitely do not, I could imagine filling the charcoal with awesomely intricate quilting and doing something else I haven't really figured out in the triangles. But absent radical, magical changes in my life, neither of those things were happening. And since I hope this quilt will be well-used by whomever Alternatives for Girls gives it to, I wanted it to remain soft, which minimal quilting helps achieve. To bind it, I used a mixture of Terrain prints in orange and pink.

This is my second-to-last quilt for do.Good Stitches, at least for now. In September, the lovely Empower ladies made fantastic neutral log cabin blocks that I'll be putting together...soonish. I've truly enjoyed getting to know the other crafty women in my group, and love the concept of do.Good Stitches -- working with a group of people to make quilts and donating them. Last year, as I was traveling to archives for dissertation research, this project was one of several things that kept me grounded and provided a certain amount of regularity in a peripatetic (I just love that word!) life. But this year, as I'm sitting down to write, I've found that feeling grounded requires fewer obligations and more flexibility. As a result, after some hard thinking and internal debating, I decided that it was time to let dGS go. I have one more quilt to wrap up, and I look forward to seeing all the incredible quilts the group continues to make, but for now, watching from the sidelines is where I need to be. 

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Berry Lime Sublime

It's true: I'm naming this quilt after my favorite Jamba Juice drink. Which I haven't had one for several years because I'm rarely near a Jamba Juice. But I passed a Jamba Juice yesterday (no, this isn't a plug for the company or a sponsored post despite the use of a corporation name three times in three sentences), and had a naming epiphany. So back to the quilt itself....it emerged from two complementary interests: 1) a desire to use off-white (Moda Snow, I believe) as the neutral and 2) a stack of yellow, orange, and green fabrics (the purple inserted itself later -- fabric having a mind of its own, after all).

Square-in-square blacks may be my favorite go-to block. As per usual, I started with a stack of fabrics cut into strips and some sense of which fabrics might serve as the center focal points. Of course, the size of the starting square and variation of surrounding squares can make the center more or less of a focus per se, but that's just another reason why I like the improvisational nature of this block.

The first three blocks were made from only yellow, green, and orange fabrics. Then a piece of the reddish-purple fabric I was using in another project landed on the square and I knew that purple was an absolutely necessary addition. In keeping with my current proclivities, negative space was a must. I made 9 blocks but discarded one when I decided a rectangular layout spoke to me more than a square one (the voices, sometimes you just have to listen to them).

The quilt also grew from its intended size, which meant that my initial plan for the back (which is to say, sans framed panel in the middle, would be too small. A problem, indeed. It was not until I rummaged through my stash to modify the back that I realized the Laura Gunn Lantern Bloom prints matched perfectly. This oversight arises from my stash organization: although most of my fabrics are stored by colorway, I have a separate box that houses the few fabric collections for which I have the majority of prints. Lantern Bloom lives there.

In one of my rare efforts at quilting forethought, I carefully measured the purple tile mosaic print (the big stripe above) to make sure I could use some on the back and have enough left over for the binding. That way, the color-coordinated front and back would also share some fabric. Well, technically the two sides already shared the yellow (from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom) and green (from Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden), but Lime Sublime lacks the pizazz (and taste) of Berry Lime Sublime, so the purple was necessary.

Assuming my courier did his job, the quilt made it to a baby shower for my friends Trevor and Allison last Sunday. Allison's due date is the day before my birthday, but I'm all for sharing birthdays, since the July 27th is such a fine day. And when they head to the hospital, I get to borrow their amazingly sweet and well-behaved dog, Cricket, so it's a pretty win-win situation for all.

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Spring Green

 

This quilt started with the green (Moda's Dill, possibly?). I had visions of a very green, a very spring quilt. The idea came to me in February -- seeking spring, I suppose -- but I didn't act on it until April (there was a touch of travel and work and whatnot in between). It took me a while to decide on what colors to use with the green, and in the end, more green -- lime? -- won out. With a touch of yellow and white.

This quilt was all about play -- with color, with shapes, with ideas, with lines. I started piecing and let it develop. The small lime rectangle was a fairly last-minute addition, when I wanted some oomph. It took a few nights for the quilting plan to gestate. I felt the improv piecing needed some structure for balance. The single chevron-esque quilting is the result.

This quilt is a classic case of looking more simple than it is. It's not that the piecing or the quilting were complicated, exactly. But the piecing had to feel right, and the quilting, well, getting straight lines the same distance apart is not all that easy. I got impatient midway through and let it settle, returning to it the next night, when the quilt + sewing machine + sewing machine operator were a little more in sync.

This quilt back started with about 4 other pieces of fabric. Only the bright turquoise was a constant. I began with a focal print that was white with colorful gear-like wheels on it. But it felt off. Then I remembered the Laura Gunn's lemon tile mosaic (except it's not called lemon), and it hit just the right spot. It adds a little texture but keeps the color scheme united around green.

This ripply picture makes me chuckle. I'm not sure why, I just like it. And after I mailed it off to a friend whose baby is coming any day now, I realized that Dartmouth is the Big Green and she teaches there, so there's that. But it still started with wanting to make a spring quilt for a spring baby.

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Warm Spring

 

I got stuck -- in a good way -- on improv curves. As in, I couldn't stop making them. When I needed to make a baby quilt, what else was there to do but dive into my stash of warm solids and curve away. But I've also become a huge fan of negative space, so it was time to combine improv curves and negative space into one magic quilt top.

One improv quilt block + one border + a bunch of Moda Snow (which is a touch off-white and looks best with warm colors). This moved from vision to reality pretty quickly, which is one of my favorite things about baby-quilt-making. Deciding on how to back the quilt was also an exercise is serendipity, or at least in serendipitous eye-falling-on-perfect-stash-fabric-not-noticed-for-a-while. {Note: Blogger's spell-check is super unhappy with my German-esque noun-creation.}

I purchased these cuts of Rio flowers and squares (from Marcus Brothers) years ago. Well, maybe about 4 years ago? I had used a small piece of the flowers for a scarf -- which I planned to link to but named the post something clever that I can't easily find right now -- and let the rest sit around for years. I really like the fabric, but its palette isn't the easiest to work with as it's more subdued -- that is, more shaded -- than most modern fabrics out there right now. But never fear: all fabric can be used. The right project will come along. And suddenly, it becomes necessary to use just that fabric (and maybe a little fun orange solid) to back a quilt.

That little purple triangle might be my favorite part of the improv section. It's tiny but noticeable, in a  good way. I quilted it with straight-ish lines about 1-2 inches apart -- off-white thread on the front and orange thread on the back. Except for the one line of maroon thread on the back after I ran out of orange thread. My thread-remaining-on-spool calculations were pretty good, all things considering. Or the fact that I lack x-ray vision considering. "Warm Spring" -- which understates the freakishly warm 10 days we had in Michigan in March -- has made it to San Diego, where Mina will get to enjoy it and where it's warm all the time, I'm told.

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Amidst the Wildflowers

My phone battery is dying. This is not really a big deal, except that it aggravates me. And it bothers me not because every night my phone emits a low-grade whine, alerting me to its wounded state, a mere half-day after it juiced up overnight. That is indeed annoying. But what agitates me is technology's forced obsolescence. The phone -- a Samsung something for Verizon -- is a year and a half old. I use it to make phone calls and send an occasional text. I don't surf the web or take pictures or check my email on it. It replaced a phone I held onto for over 5 years. Because the only thing I want my phone to do is make phone calls. And have a battery that lasts longer than 12 measly hours. Especially when I am traveling. I mean I'm just walking around today, as I'm staying about 12 minutes away from the archive I'm using. But I'm away from home and like staying in touch with people. Actually being away from home is sort of irrelevant as most of the people I talk to on the phone regularly don't live where I live. Whatever. I just want manufacturers to make batteries that last for more than 18 months. I'm sure they are all listening to me and will get on this immediately. Because I asked so sweetly. Or something.

So my little rant above has next to nothing to do with sewing, crafting, or that lovely photo above. About that.

I'm in Cincinnati right now, and I was lucky enough to coordinate my visit with a friend whose Bubbe (Yiddish for grandma) lives here, and I stayed with my friend and her Bubbe for 4 nights. Obviously I needed to bring a gift, and I sent a few emails to my friend to ascertain what might be appreciated. And then ignored the options of flowers and chocolate in favor of playing with fabric. I made a challah cover using Rachel's improv curves Rainbow-Road concept. I took all the 5" solid squares I had handy in my scrap bin, chopped them in half-ish, and started to sew. All very random and improv-y, just the way I like it. Since spring wildflowers are my favorite part of my front yard, it seemed only right to photograph the challah cover in their midst and show off those cute yellow flowers, whatever they may be.

I actually made 3 challah covers in this style, with different color schemes, but the others are being transported to their destinations, and will therefore remain hush-hush for now. This might be the 2012 Challah-Cover style, since it's good to have a yearly go-to. And why not be a trendsetter in the dashing world of crafty Judaica? Ok, the archives have made me a little punchy. But with that, shabbat shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

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Gentle Curves

Even I can be a delinquent student. The one who shrugs off an optional assignment as unnecessary. The one who figures "I've already done that" so why redo it. The one who prioritizes other things. In this case, the class is Rachel's Curves class and I confess that I waited until the "Rainbow Road" project to do anything more than watch the videos and read the project instructions. Because I don't need any bibs (though they would make a nice gift) and I had already made a scallop quilt, I passed on the first week of projects. Also, I was in Kansas sans sewing machine, which made it somewhat impossible to sew anything.

But I knew I would try my hand at improv curves and this project in particular. Never one to exactly follow instructions, I turned to my scrap bin instead of a rainbow of solids, and came up with this orange and aqua meandering path. I also started piecing the orange and aqua scraps together before the instructions were posted so I constructed each row a little differently, but to no ill effect. I think it's going to become a challah cover once I bind it (perhaps in a reddish-purple?). I also think it will be gifted to a friend, but that's a surprise for now.

This week's classes focus on precise curves -- which I really want to figure out. But I'm reclaiming the sewing slacker label for the next week as I'm off to Utah for research, sans sewing machine yet again. However, I am under the impression that there are amazing quilt shops on every corner of every street in Utah, so please point me to them! I'll be in Salt Lake City for the most part, with a possible day trip to Provo for some material held at BYU's library and special collections. Of course, restaurant, sight-seeing, and other recommendations are always welcome...

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Put A Bird On It

Sometimes it's really tough to pick which pictures to post of quilts. In this case, I kind of wanted to show the back first since, frankly, it's my favorite back ever and possibly my favorite quilt ever. I've had the opportunity to look at, pet, and lust after this quilt for a while now, as I finished it last winter and I've been waiting for just the right recipient. This is a quilt that I really wish I made bigger. It's a large baby quilt that I should have made as a lap quilt for me. But I didn't realize it until I finished it and fell in love with it and, moreover, I didn't have enough fabric to make it any bigger.

The front combines batiks my friend Katie gave me, some Aracdia scraps, and two favorite solids (the cranberry and the orange). It was the addition of the solids that really made me love the quilt. The orange, cranberry, and teal together really make me happy. I don't use batiks that often, but these were beautiful, luscious, saturated batiks. And they didn't have weird wax-relief images (I know that's the point of batiks, but I prefer the ones that are just dyed fabric). I made as many square-in-square blocks I could with the little amount of Arcadia I had and then cut 6" squares out of the other fabrics for the bulk of the blocks. I played with the arrangement until it felt right to me and then sewed it together.

A few weeks ago, my friends Sarah and Daniel came over for dinner. My roommate and I were in the midst of deciding what color to paint our living room and trim (because while I love cranberry as a color, it is a poor poor choice for trim. Consider that my PSA of the day: don't paint your trim cranberry. Future occupants will question your sanity). Anyhow, Sarah expressed her preference for painting everything white, whereas I'd paint everything a deep version of whatever color I most like if I had my way. She joked about making sure the baby would be surrounded by white. At which point I realized I had the perfect quilt to offer as the punch of color.

And the back -- my favorite part -- is really white (off-white, really) with little punches of color. I've been collecting shot cottons in the colors of this quilt, and I think I'm going to make a lap-size version of the above as a quilt for me. But I digress. The back is improv + negative space, all pieced with leftovers from the front and an off-white solid from my stash.

I quilted it with diagonal lines, in a cross-hatch pattern, but sometimes doubling and tripling the lines (randomly). I'm finding that as much as I love modern quilts (and I do), I also love modern quilts with variations of more traditional quilting. There is something about the random single/double/triple cross-hatch that appeals to me. And not surprisingly, I bound the quilt in the orange solid, another feature that contributes to my love of this quilt (and yet I have no idea what orange this is or who made it. I had about 1/2 yard in my stash, and I know it's not Moda, but that's all I know). Although I was away and couldn't attend the Sarah's shower on Sunday, my agent delivered it for me. I figure I need to start corrupting this child with splashes of color as early as possible.

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Watermelon Slice

My partner's favorite colors: check.
Improvisational: check
Somewhat wonky: check.

My plan for my partner's solid swap item changed a lot in my head. Working off her mosaic, I came up with several ideas. But none of them felt right. Then I was looking through some of my Flickr favorites and came up with a new plan. The pieced piece above represents the start of that plan.

I always forget that wonky/improv piecing almost always takes longer than planned piecing. This step took most of yesterday to cut, sew, and press, and it's about 15" x 27". There's another little surprise to come, but as I worked on it, I dubbed it "watermelon slice" because of the varied greens with a tiny pop of raspberry pink. Plenty more work to do before the deadline, but it's taking shape and I think the remaining steps will be quicker.

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A Little Glimpse

It's been a crazy week: last weekend I drove back to Michigan, where I spent 3 days unpacking and moving back into my place, and then I left for the Twin Cities. I stayed with my friends in Minneapolis for a few nights, and now I'm house/catsitting in St. Paul for the week. The weather here is beautiful, and I'm learning how to get around by bus, bike, and foot. After I booked my trip, I realized that the US Gymnastics Championships were taking place here while I was in town, and I was able to catch both days of the women's competition (and see some coach friends of mine). And I've been at the archives during the week. A busy (in a good way) time indeed.

But given this moving back and around, it's also been a time of transitions, and I'm not always best at transitions. So I started making a quilt in my brief sojourn at home. This was a little nuts -- and I very ambitiously thought I might even be able to start and finish it in three days. By day two, I realized that wasn't happening. But I finished the quilt front, and started the quilt back.

And I let myself be content with that. I say "let myself," because I'm prone to being hard on myself when I don't meet self-imposed deadlines or make silly mistakes (hell, I'm prone to getting annoyed with myself when I miss a poorly labeled turn, or rather take a turn I shouldn't have. See: last weekend's drive from DC to Michigan. Don't worry, I'm over it now).

When talking to a friend a week ago, she reminded me "to be kind to myself" -- something I'm not always good at (I have a certain ascetic tendencies after all) and something I'm often terrible at in moments of transition. This quilt, I realized, is one way of being kind to myself, materially and mentally: it's been over a decade since I made a quilt for myself. I've made a challah cover, a scarf, and a bag...small things, but I'm placing this quilt at the head of the queue when I return. I've long wanted a summer quilt for my bedroom, and this will be it. It's a little more planned than usual (which is to say, there was a sketch and measured dimensions), but also a little bit improvisational, which represents my piecing and quilting style well. The product and the process, therefore, are both for me, and I'm really happy about that. Only a week and a half until I return to it....lots of Twin Cities exploration to do in the meantime, including the fabric shop 2 blocks from my housesitting gig. Sweet.

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Signs of Spring

I'm still wearing a coat, but I didn't need my hat or gloves over the past couple days -- either in the midwest or in DC. I spent a long weekend in Chicago and Ann Arbor, catching up with friends, taking care of a few things, and watching Stanford's women's gymnastics team eek out a win at Michigan. Go Card!

A little over a week ago, I sent this quilt across the country to California. While it was still cold over here, the quilt makes me think of spring. I made it last spring, out of some of the scraps and pieces from this quilt. "Signs of spring" refer less to the time of creation and more to how the bits of color offset the gray -- the "it" solid in quilting and home decor for the past few years.

I alternated between larger color blocks and smaller ones swimming in gray, offset with a little white. Other than the solids, I didn't add any other fabrics; it was fun figuring out what I could make with a set pile of fabric. I don't recall the exact dimensions, but it turned out to be something like 40" x 60".  It turns out a lot can emerge from a small pile of scraps.

The frogs and tiny mushrooms are some of my favorite little pieces in this quilt. I used lavender thread to quilt and created wavy lines every couple of inches -- all with a standard piecing foot.

A little Echino found its way into the quilt. I find the the warm pinks, oranges, and yellow striking against the cooler gray. I backed it with a layer of colorful flannel, the same flannel I used to back this quilt. This quilt stayed with me for about 9 months before its recipient materialized. I rather liked pulling it out and looking at it during that time, often thinking I should have made it just a touch bigger so I could keep it for myself.

But sometimes you meet friends of friends and they're just awesome. And these days, even if you don't see people all that often, facebook allows for staying in touch and knowing what's going on in other people's lives. I actually think the biggest benefit of facebook is staying connected with people who might otherwise fade away because of distance or business. And when Sadie was born, I just knew this quilt was for her; while I don't yet know her, I know her parents are fantastic, interesting, and engaging people who will raise a really cool daughter.

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On the Farm

Chickens! Eggs! They're all on the farm. The Metro Market chickens link Molly's quilt to her twin brother Andrew's quilt. I wanted the quilts to be distinct and unique, yet connected in some way. Fabric in multiple colorways provide some congruence, though the colors, design, and layout of each differ.

I started with squares and rectangles of the chickens (and one other non-farm animal -- can you see it?) and added layers to them. I tried to pick the subsequent fabrics at random, though admittedly I adjusted to ensure that they were all represented and there weren't major clusters of fabric or certain ones that dominated. The black fabric with white "beads" (3rd row down, center block, 3rd square layer) continues to be one of my favorites -- alas, I only have a bit left and I have no idea where I found it. I'll be using it sparingly in the future. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Michael Miller black/white ironworks worked as a frame (bottom right, for example).

I used a hippo from the IKEA hippo fabric I have as the label. I've been meaning to do this for a while but often forget. It coordinates perfectly with this quilt...

 ...because one center block is not a chicken, but a hippo. Not so much a farm animal or even a domesticated animal of any sort, but I couldn't resist. Some ladybugs and bees made it in as well, though they're certainly not limited to farm life.

I backed the quilt with bright yellow fleece. For those who wonder, I use a regular universal needle for quilting with fleece. There may be a needle I'm "supposed" to use but I've always had good experiences with my standard ones. I created a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, but interspersed some closer and farther apart so it's not a standard grid. I really love this quilting and expect to use it again in the near future.

Washed-up and sun-dappled! I used a red fabric with black and white dots for the binding, and I think it brings the quilt together well. I've been incorporating a lot more solids in my quilts of late. This one uses red, yellow, and white, all of which please me. It's hard to pick a favorite block out of these, but I do love the mostly black-and-white with the small yellow chicken center. But then there's the second row, left block with all the different colors in it which I also love. I like that it's hard to choose a favorite! I'm also pleased with the mix of business (blocks) and order (layout). There's lot to look at it, but it's also possible to focus on one block.

Molly's quilt nestled in its own bag. Unlike the handles of Andrew's bag, which required a little manipulation after I sewed them on wrong the first time, I remembered (and double-checked) how to sew these handles on correctly. I also used some thin interfacing to give them a little more heft and make them sturdier. I started with a 5" wide piece of fabric, interfaced it, folded it in half and ironed it, and then folded the edges to the middle and ironed it, and then sewed down the 1.25" handle. I think they'll hold up well to wear-and-tear.

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