Congratulations

Congratulations go to Jeanna of the Slammin' the Screen Door blog. MJ picked her as the winner of my fun pouch and pincushion.

Congratulations go to Jeanna of the Slammin' the Screen Door blog. MJ picked her as the winner of my fun pouch and pincushion.

I've contacted her for her shipping info and hope to have a package out to her this week.

300th Post - Pouches, pouches, pincushions and a giveaway.

As I mentioned in my last post I was fascinated by the Zipper in the Becca Bag pattern by Lazy Girl.
In that post I showed my first 2 attempts (successful). I had been talking about them so much that I ended up promising a few friends from out of state that I would send them each one.

This is a picture of how the zipper looks.  You only use one side of the zipper and the tab and you sew it all in at once and skip the seam on that side of the bag. VERY easy to do.

So on Saturday morning I cut 2 contrasting 6 inch by wof strips for the outsides and 2 strips of lime green solid for the lining and started my pouches.  The first one was shown in the previous post.

I didn't follow the pattern except for the zipper portion where the instructions for deconstructing the zipper and then using only one half and the pull for the closure are explained. Very clear instructions.

I cut each of the strips into thirds and charged on.  I wanted to make 6 little bags.  My finished bags are about 5.5 by 5.5 give or take.  The size was determined by the zippers I had on hand.  I practiced improv curves for the outside of the first 4 bags.  Loved how they turned out. I got bored with that process before the last 2 bags so I just cut the last 2 sections into strips and went from there.

Love how they turned out and will get them in the mail sometime this week.

When I chopped the wof  I ended up with 13.5 in. sections. I quilted the sections before cutting to the size I needed for the bags. This left some nice size chunks of quilted fabric that I couldn't toss out so I whipped up some pincushions. There is always someone around who could use a pincushion, right?

And since This is my 300th blog post I think I will give away one of my little bags and a pincushion. I'll pick a name from the comments list on Sunday, May 15. I'll ship anywhere.

Thank you all for stopping by for these 300 posts. I appreciate you, one and all.

Baby quilt, vacation crafts and pouches

Last week was a very happy week in our family.  My niece and her husband had the good fortune to adopt a beautiful baby boy.  This joy has been a long time coming and we are so happy for the 3 of them.

I've been waiting along time to quilt this for the newcomer. The alphabet pattern is by Temecula Quilt Company.

This was a great place to use some of the fabric I got on my trip to NJ last week for the backing.  It's all little gears.  

Hope he feels the love coming from this aunt every time he snuggles in it.

This week we went to Disneyworld for 3 days. 1 day it rained and the next day MJ wasn't feeling very well.  This left me with a lot of time on my hands.   Good thing that I always travel with things to do.

In between the reading of 200 pages of a new book I crocheted this hat for Angel Snugs

and stitched up 6 circle blocks for my Quilty 365 project.

Going to Disney meant that the girls had to spend 3 nights at the kennel. They are way more active at the kennel than when they are home so when they get home catching up on sleep is a top priority.

Sleep on the couch is only second best to sleeping on the bed and since I was trying to share that bed while they were sleeping there are no pictures.

We all got home by dinner time yesterday and I really had to make one of those Becca Bags by Lazy Girl that I mentioned in my previous post.  The one where you use only one side of the zipper and the pull.

I only used the pattern for the how to on the zipper.  This pouch is just my dry run using one of my curve class blocks and previous pouch making experience.

Last month I received a whole bunch of crochet hooks and thought this odd shaped pouch would be perfect.

The only problem I had is that I lost my grip while taking pictures to capture the zipper and I had all of those wonderful hooks all over my sewing room floor.

This morning I got up and before breakfast I did stitched up another pouch.

From the pieces below to the pouch above took 17 minutes.   The pouch is about 5 x 5.  As you might notice the outside piece had already been quilted before I decided to time the project. If you used fusible fleece and minimal quilting you might add 3 minutes to the process.  Again I didn't follow any particular pattern for the pouch itself.

Since the zipper is sewn straight along the entire top of the pouch, you only have 1 side seam and the bottom to close.

This is the back. I'm showing it so you can see how my curve wrapped around the bag.

I don't like raw edges that are zig zagged on the inside of my bags if I can help it. The Becca pattern called for that type of seam for the bottom and side.  That would probably have cut down on the time needed to make this bag by a couple of minutes.

Wrapping up.  I love the zipper. I love the speed of the project.  (not sure why I am so obsessed with the time it took to make this)  I need to make up at least 3 maybe 4 more today. I think I will try changing up the pull tabs and the zippers, Maybe a black zipper with a gray pull and vice versa.  Should be a fun couple of hours.