ByAnnie Top Voted
WINNER: Tammi
ABOUT: Tammi made this awesome Bowl Me Over 2.0 and showed it off on the pier.
THEIR STORY: “I had made a Bowl Me Over 2.0 out of wool. It is my favorite bag. Perfect size, lots of pockets and I love how it looks. But a wool bag just doesn't fit in summer.
I had the main fabric in my stash and I wanted to try a bag with cork on the bottom. Now I have a summery bag and the pier seems like a great place to take my new bag."
WHAT WE LOVED: We loved seeing Tammi's oceanic pictures. One of our team members said, "I liked the material and it's a cool bag!" We can't help but agree!
WHAT THEY WON: $50 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com
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Storyteller Award
WINNER: Sylvia
ABOUT: Sylvia told us a wonderful story about her experience sewing Petit Four Baskets to hold repurposed items.
THEIR STORY: "Waste not, want not — Maybe I got this from my depression era grandmother who helped me learn to sew, but I’ve always hated waste and love to find creative ways to repurpose and upcycle things for practical purposes.
I’ve found few projects more fulfilling than turning something heading to the dumpster into something attractive, useful, and valuable.
My daughter’s roommate (both in last year of grad school) has learned this about me and and sent her old towels saying “give these to your mom, she’ll do something with them.”
Their school colors are orange… what to do with high quality, bright orange towels with raveling edges? Hmmmm… searched Pinterest and saw that people have upcycled towels to make face cleaning cloths.
The small cloths are washed and reused, reducing the amount of cleanser used and eliminating waste of disposable cloths. I had seen the “Petit Four Baskets” pattern but didn’t have a plan for how to use it when I had the revelation I could customize the size of the face cloths to fit the basket. I determined I could cut the fabric and towel 3.5x4.5” to have a finished size of 3x4”…. Perfect fit for the basket!
15 thick cloths fit neatly in each basket which stores the clean cloths attractively on the vanity. In the same way our washers/dryers seem to “eat” socks, I read that these small cloths also disappear in the laundry process so I decided to sew a zippered mesh laundry bag.
The bag hangs on the door to collect the dirty ones prior to washing and after laundering, they are replaced in the basket and the bag back on the door knob. The binding on the mesh bag was much easier to sew using ByAnnie’s stiletto, one of my favorite and most used tools in my arsenal of gadgets!
I was able to sew two basket/cloths/bag sets, one for each girl. I can’t wait to see the expression on the roommate’s face when she realizes I’m giving her towels back to her…. Repurposed in a way that she will continue to use for many years!
This was the first time I have used my “stitch in the ditch” foot on my Singer 301 and I was pleasantly surprised at perfectly the seam is hidden in the faux binding.
I also found the walking foot to be essential in sewing the thick towel cloths. And the zipper foot was necessary for the mesh bag construction. Most of us wear many hats, but in this case, my machine wore many feet!
The Petit Four Baskets pattern is such a simple yet practical basket with countless uses! It was a great way to use small pieces of soft and stable which I pieced together with strips of interfacing.
Some very clever members of the ByAnnie FB group had suggested this trick (referring to it as “Franken-stable”) and it was my first (but not last) time to do this. It is so “seamless” that I can’t even feel which side is pieced on the basket… a brilliant way to use the scraps… like I said, “waste not, want not!”
Many thanks to the ByAnnie team for the free download…. Free pattern, fabric from my stash, scraps of soft and stable, and discarded towels means I was able construct clever gifts for ZERO cost!"
WHAT THEY WON: $50 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com
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Quilt Shop Highlight
WINNER: Fay S. of Around the Block Quilt Shop
THEIR STORY: According to Fay, "We sell your patterns at our store. Bag patterns by Annie are our favourite!"
"I needed an excuse to buy new golf shoes (can't put old ones in a new bag!!). I only needed one zipper on the outside for my gloves and one in the inside for my tees. It was easy to adapt."
What a great reason to sew and embroider a Take A Stand bag.
WHERE IS THEIR SHOP: Alberta, Canada
WHAT THEY WON: $50 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com
WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM ONLINE:
Instagram: @AroundTheBlockQuiltShop
Facebook: @AroundTheBlockQuiltShop
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Honorable Mention
WINNER: Amanda W.
ABOUT: Check out Amanda's Divide and Conquer she made to take on a trip to a sewing retreat!
THEIR STORY: "I haven't had a trip away from my kids in over 7 years and with a sewing retreat booked for July 2022 I wanted to make it extra special by making my bags to take with me!
The Divide and Conquer bag definitely challenged me (it could have something to do with being left to last minute before I left for the retreat?) but now it's completed I LOVE IT!!
I left out the internal pockets as I wanted to be able to put hand sewing supplies and other tools in each page and pull them out where ever I am! So upsizing the page templates from the A Place for Everything, I made singular pages and they worked a treat! They slip inside the compartments and inside the main bag perfectly when it's zipped up!!!
This bag was amazing for my retreat week and was used as my plane carry-on, handbag, EPP project holder, supply case and tool organizer!!!
It holds so much and I didn't even fill it!!
I received so many compliments, with my bag and pages being pulled all over by fellow enthusiastic fabric fondlers. The local quilting store actually sold out of these patterns that week!"
WHAT THEY WON: $15 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com.
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Honorable Mention
WINNER: Debbie B.
ABOUT: Debbie cheered up our team in the office with the photo she took of her Back At Ya 2.1 with her dog!
THEIR STORY: "I love to use backpacks as purses as it keeps my hands free and they hold a lot of items.
I purchased Got Your Back pattern as it was the perfect size to hold everything I needed for walks/hikes with my Bernese Mt. Dog.
I love the side pockets as it’s a perfect fit for water bottles for both Chloe and myself.
Inside is large enough for snacks (human & pet), a collapsible bowl and waste bags.
I love that the front flap pocket is easily accessible and closes with a magnet.
When I saw Tula Pink's new tiny beasts fabric line I knew it would be the perfect match up."
WHAT THEY WON: $15 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com
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Honorable Mention
WINNER: Suzi H.
ABOUT: Annie herself said, "What an amazing job Suzi did of combining her Sue Spargo pieces into an amazing A Place for Everything 2.0 bag to hold her Sue Spargo embroidery." We think it is so impressive that Suzi was able to combine two patterns (A Place for Everything 2.0 and Hold Everything) to make this beautiful work of art. Great work, Suzi!
THEIR STORY: “I LOVE ByAnnie bags! They are the best bags to keep me organized! I took at class by Sue Spargo and worked up these embroidery panels on wool. I really wanted to use them on a ByAnnie bag to hold all my embroidery supplies.
I had to get creative with combining the two different patterns because I couldn't use the outside pocket detail on the new "A Place for Everything 2.0" I just left off the front pocket and followed the instructions for the handles on the Hold Everything bag and it worked perfectly!"
WHAT THEY WON: $15 coupon to use on ByAnnie.com
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A special "thank you" to everyone who submitted to this photo contest. We had a wonderful time viewing submissions and reading your stories. We look forward to sharing as many of them as possible on our social media.
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July 2022 Photo Contest Winners