Two More Zippered Pouches

I made a couple more of the Noodlehead Open Wide Zippered Pouches this week.

For one of them, I used the leftover squares from my niece's quilt, ripping out a fabric I didn't like for this purpose, re-sewing, cutting to make some of the shapes smaller and sewing back together to get fabric in the size I needed.  I only had to cut a strip of one fabric to add to what I had in order to make the panels large enough.  

Then I cut some batting and quilted the panels with vertical lines using a Mettler green variegated thread.  This made sewing the zipper in a bit more challenging because of the bulk, but it worked out.

The other pouch uses a purple print from another niece's birthday crown.

For both linings I used some Hello Kitty fabric.  And both used the YKK zippers I bought from Zipit.

I feel like I'm getting better at sewing zippers and I'm getting faster at putting these together.  I want to make a box-style case for myself to replace a makeup bag that is falling apart.  I'm thinking quilted outside for sturdiness and vinyl or oilcloth for this inside.

I've never sewn vinyl or oilcloth - does anyone have any tips on working with that material?


Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Back in the Saddle Again!

As I was finishing my niece's quilt back in early April, my Bernina 750QE locked up while I was cleaning the thread catcher and was giving me this weird screen whenever I restarted the machine.  After taking it to my dealer, they consulted with Bernina USA, who wanted to see it in person, so my beloved Bernie went to Chicago.  Nearly 2 months later, and apparently waiting for a part to come over on a boat from Switzerland, Bernie returned home!

Besides taking my last Mastery Class on a loaner machine, I hadn't sewn since I finished the quilt in early April.  I decided a small project would be good to get my feet wet on, so I made my first zippered pouch!  I used the popular Noodlehead tutorial and some scraps from Sophie's quilt.  It took me a few hours, and I was nervous about the zipper, but I did a very respectable job on it.

Now I feel an addiction coming on.  I have lots of scraps and just ordered some colorful zippers from Zipit on Etsy.


I just wanted to mention that Massdrop has a deal on Liberty fat quarter bundles in the next few days.  I learned about Massdrop a couple of months ago from another blog and had just missed a Liberty fabric bundle offering.  I signed up for the site and even voted for some potential offerings and a couple of days ago I received an email that they had Liberty bundles (2 different options of 10 fat quarters).  The price starts at $85.99, but will drop more if they get 20 or 30 people to commit to the buy.  Currently, they just need 9 more to hit the lowest price of $78.99.  You can upgrade to half-yards, too.  They also have an offering for six various neutral spools of Aurifil that now has enough commitments to get the lowest price of $45.99.  I'm waffling on that one as I've bought quite a bit of fabric lately for a quilt project, but it looks like that one is a good deal, too.  These offerings are for a limited number of days, so I wanted to share this info with others who might be interested.

What summer projects do you have planned?  I want to make some more zippered pouches and try the fabric baskets from Sunday Morning Quilts.

Linking up on Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday.

Teyla's Quilt

My second twin-sized quilt is completed!  And on time! Woo-hoo!

It's another Yellow Brick Road, but done in greens & blues, for my niece Teyla's 8th birthday.  I found a lot of the fabric from Intown Quilters in Decatur GA.  Some also came from my local store, Gina's and a couple came from my stash.

The sun was pretty harsh for my finished images.  Maybe this in-progress shot shows some of the fabric in better detail.

The back is pieced from 3 different prints, I found the Hello Kitty fabric online and the other two came from Gina's. Teyla likes Hello Kitty, peace signs and purple, too.

Things went faster the second time around.  I'm still working on my machine binding skills, but I only had to slip stitch a couple of missed areas.

 

Something happened to my Bernina 750QE when I had finished quilting.  As I was cleaning a stuck thread from the thread catcher, it locked up.  It went to a weird screen that's not in the book and I only found one reference to it online, but couldn't get to the related post on a FB page.  After hard booting and unplugging attempts failed, I took Bernie into my local shop and stumped them, too, so Bernina USA wants to see it.  Gina's loaned me one of their classroom 550 machines and I was able to finish the binding over 2 weeknights and have it ready for Teyla's birthday!

The 550 (above) is a very nice, solid machine, but I'm really glad I splurged on the 750.  I like having the extra harp space.  I'm also so used to the thread cutter.

I'm taking a break from quilts for a bit and when my machine comes back, I want to do a couple small projects mentioned my Jan 10th blog.

What are you looking forward to working on this spring/summer?

Posted on Finish It Friday:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/04/rockets-and-robots-quilt.html?m=1 

Sophie's Birthday Quilt

My first twin-sized quilt is finished!  It's a birthday present for my niece Sophie, who's turned 5 last week.  She and her sister recently upgraded into bunk beds, so I wanted to make them quilts to celebrate.  I chose the Yellow Brick Road pattern and picked an assortment of pink, purple, B&W and a bit of red fabric.  There's some sophisticated fabric, like the chevrons and plaid mixed with fun prints like Hello Kitty and skulls.

For the back, I found this multi-colored hearts fabric (4 yards at end-of-bolt 40% off sale pricing!) and used the 6 leftover YBR blocks pieced with extra pieces of fabric from the quilt top to make the middle section.

I used a different approach in applying the quilt label.  No turning edges under and slipstitching.  I zig-zagged the label on the back after pinning, and before quilting, so it's really secured on there.

I used a pink & purple Mettler variegated thread for the quilting and used the BSR for free-motion swoopy circles and the occasional heart.  My free-motion still needs more practice, but with the Queen Supreme Slider and Fons & Porter quilting gloves, I had an easier time moving the quilt around.  It helps I put a folding banquet table in front of my sewing table and moved my cutting table to the left side so I had extra surface space to hold all of that fabric, too.

I used the pink polka dots for the binding and tried this machine binding method.  I had better success with this one than I did on the method I used on the 3 smaller quilts I made for Christmas.  I still need to  work on it, but I like having machine binding for kids' quilts.

The Clover Wonder Clips I received for Christmas were great for holding the binding in place.  Much better than having pins poke you as you're maneuvering the quilt through the sewing machine.

This is the front, where you stitch in the ditch to attach the binding to the back.

My stitching on the backside of the binding is uneven at times, I even somehow ran off the binding in a few spots and had to go back and re-sew those areas.

 Here's the backside mitered corner.  I slip-stitched the mitered flap so it wouldn't get accidentally pulled or caught on anything.

I wasn't sure about the thread selection going in, so I patched together scraps of all 18 fabrics and tested it out.  I also had a wonky strip I had cut for the binding and used it to test doing the new method first.  Better to try it out this way than have regrets and be picking out stitches on the real thing. 

The quilt was well-received and now it's time to start on her sister's birthday quilt.  That will be a combo of light blues and greens.

How are your spring projects coming along?

Linked up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict

New Stuff for the New Year

I was in Atlanta last weekend and finally had time to visit three area quilt stores: Tiny Stitches, Little Quilts and Intown Quilters.  I bought something a each, more at Intown Quilters, which is in Decatur and has a very modern vibe.

I did have a bit of a mission - finding light blue and green fabric for my niece Teyla's quilt.  I had some success and bought a few things for me, too!

 

 

At Little Quilts I found fabric based on Downton Abbey by Andover.  I bought a couple of pieces that I liked.  The Dowager's Paisley in black is really interesting up close.  And now I'm realizing that the bright blue one on the right isn't part of the Downton collection. It must have been in the collection next to it.  Oh well, it doesn't mean I like it any less.

All of this is being displayed on my new cutting table. It's a Galant desk with A-legs: birch top, silver legs.  I went to IKEA with the intent of getting a Norden gate-leg table, which has been mentioned on multiple crafting blogs and pinterest boards.  It would be a great table for crafting, with the drawers and compact, fold-up design, but it wasn't tall enough to be a cutting table and I didn't want to deal with figuring out how to make it work.  I looked at some table tops, but I couldn't get a big enough one with legs that would adjust to the waist-high height I needed.  One of the IKEA employees suggested I take a look at the desk combos around the corner.  Boy, she nailed it.  The top is large enough for a 23x36" cutting mat and leaves room on each side to lay cut fabric.  I just cut strips for a twin-size quilt and my back didn't hurt like it did when I was using the shorter dining room table this fall.  No drawers, but it's sturdy and easy for me to slide around the sunroom.  It also went together fairly quickly.

 

I also want to share a few faves from my stash.  The 3 similar prints are metre cuts I got at Liberty when I was in London in 2002.  It was all I could afford at the time, and haven't found anything worthy of cutting it up for.  The other print is a half-yard of Lodden B Tana Lawn from Liberty that I saw at Purl Soho in October.  Interesting how they seem to go well together.  Maybe there will be a project for this fabric in the future...after I get some more Liberty fabric :)  I did see a mini quilt that was really cute on Modern Cozy.

 Then when I was in Florence in 2008, I couldn't resist buying some trim at Passamaneria Toscana.  I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it called to me.  Not shockingly, it seems to look good next to the Liberty fabric.  Can you tell I like a certain shade of green?

Do you have anything in your stash that you can't bear to cut into?

Posted to Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash

Fresh Start Friday?

I've had bit of a break from sewing since I finished up the Christmas & birthday projects, some of that time off planned, some of that forced on me by a bout of the end-of-the-year crud.  Now that I'm on the mend, I need to get going again.

I'm not a big resolution/goals person, but here's what I'm hoping to accomplish this year:

• I've got 2 more days of machine mastery classes to get all trained on my new Bernina 750QE, which I've named after Blues great Bernie Federko.  I'm a bigger Cardinals fan, but I just couldn't call my machine Yadi.

• 3 twin quilts - 2 more nieces and a nephew to keep warm.  These are due in February, March & April for birthdays, rather than Christmas. 

• I've just picked out the fabric for the first one - a mix of pinks, black & white, red and a bit of purple.  I'm using the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  

• The second is for a 9-year-old boy so I was thinking of something with strips.  Unfortunately the quilt will be wider than WOF, so I'll have to piece horizontally or run them vertically.  Still thinking on that one and open to ideas.
• The third recipient is almost 8 and was into purple pretty heavily, but now she's moving more into light blues and greens.  I've got tons of green & blue batiks, so hopefully I've got a good start at picking fabrics on that one.

• I want to make some of the fabric baskets from Sunday Morning Quilts. First, I need to organize my scraps.  Wish I had some of those baskets completed already to put them in. :)

• Make a couple of charity quilts for little ones.
• Learn how to make a zippered pouch.  I've bookmarked some great-looking ones I've seen on other blogs.
• I read in someone's blog that they always cut a couple of 5" charms and  2.5" mini charms from most or all of their fabric as they go.  That's a great idea in order to build of stock for scrappy quilts, so I'm going to try to get into that habit, too.
• To not spend all of my free time at the sewing machine - I need to get my ass on the treadmill if I want to go somewhere abroad this year.  
• And I need to figure out where I want to go. 

What projects are you hoping to accomplish this year?

Posted on Finish It Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts