I am so excited that my latest pattern The Calathea Crossbody Bag has just dropped!

I designed The Calathea Crossbody Bag to be the the perfect bag for showing off your 10″ completed blocks. These blocks form the front feature pocket on this bag and are the focal point for this design. Your 10″ blocks could be: quilted, paper pieced, handstitched or simply your favourite fabrics.

In this blog post I will share some of my favourite 10″ block ideas with you. This is just a starting point, don’t be afraid to try a new skill!

Some of my favourite 10″ Quilting block ideas:

If you know me well enough, you will know that I am not great at quilting. So when I was searching for quilt blocks to play with I got scared at what Dr. Google was prescribing in the search engine until I came across these hearts. I highly recommend these sweet hearts by Cluck Cluck Sew, they are seriously fun to make and I loved making a heap of different sizes. You can read about them here. 

You can’t beat a star! I found this one on the Threadbare Creations website. 

Let’s talk about foundation paper pieceing….I have never done this before the Calathea Crossbody Bag and boy did it test me. I am not the best person to explain how it works but you basically sew on the reverse of your fabrics using paper and get super precise shapes as a result. It took me a bit to get my head around but I seriously love it and am amazed at what can be created with this technique. So here are some paper piecing designs that you might like to try…

I am so in love with all the foundation paper piecing designs by Aussie Designer, Kristy Lea from Quiet Play. Here is the first one I tried which is this sweet star design.  I loved making this so much that I commissioned Kristy Lea to make a ‘Calathea Leaf’ which is a bonus extra included in the Calathea Crossbody Bag pattern. It is super fun to play with. There are loads of YouTube videos that can help you learn how to do this technique, here is one I found helpful. 

Kel from Curtiepie made this gorgeous Calathea Leaf using the bonus pattern included in the Calathea Crossbody Bag pattern and turned it into this gorgeous bag at a class with me at Quiltopia!!

Pictured is Kel from Curtie Pie and Tanya from Sewvolution at Quiltopia following on of my masterclasses.

Diamonds are a girls best friend….well at least as the saying goes. My beautiful friend Beck from Not Made In China Sewing made this amazing diamond using the Electric Diamond block by Libs Elliott. I nabbed it off her and made it into the most amazing Calathea Crossbody Bag! Isn’t it fun!

Megan from Ink Soul Creations also fell in love with the designs from Quiet Play and made this amazing paper plane!! I just love it.

Applique is another technique you could use on your front pocket. My absolute favourite applique designs are by the fabulously talented, Mandy from Sew Quirky. Mandy’s designs are fun, fresh and best of all quirky! So many of her designs are perfect for the Calathea here is a couple.

Check out this amazing budgie version made by the most beautiful lady, Danielle also at Quiltopia using another Sew Quirky applique design.

Another fun idea to try is fabric weaving! How awesome is this version by Totes Adorbs. 

You might like this video from Mister Domestic a great starting point for your fabric weaving journey. 

If you don’t have time to make a block up you can just use your favourite fabric like I have here and get a beautiful effect. I added a smaller clear vinyl pocket on top of the fabric pocket for an interesting look.

I made this gorgeous Frida version using pre-made Kantha fabric while I was on the Bernina Stand at Quiltopia.

As you can see there is SO much you can do to customise your Calathea Crossbody Bag, this is just the beginning! If you know of other amazing patterns that we could use for the front pockets, please share them below so we can check them out.

You can check out the other Calathea Crossbody Bags my testing team and customers have created by joining my Facebook group. 

Happy Sewing.

Kylie. xx