In the Mail Monday: ZipIt!

I love bag projects with zippers. So much that when I buy zippers it seems I'm buying them by the pound.

Sadly, you can't actually buy them by the pound, but you can buy them by the dozen. Or the 25 pack, or the 50 pack, or even the 100 pack. A for an exceedingly reasonable price, too. I buy my zippers from Zipit Zipper Supply. Great prices and excellent service.

I quickly sorted these into the appropriate bags. I sort by size instead of color. I always know what size zipper I want. I like to be able to easily audition several colors when selecting a zipper.

What do I plan on making with some of these zippers? I am working on the goodies for my swap partner in the "all that and a bag of handmade" swap hosted by The Nosy Pepper and Sey Donna Made. They host some of the best swaps on Instagram. You should totally check them out. I'm going to be deciding which of several zippered projects to make. On my short list: Open Wide Pouch by Noodle-head, the Dumpling Pouch from Michelle's Patterns, and a zippered coin purse, or eyeglasses case like this one from Craftsy. So many great projects out there and only so much time. Now that I have all these zippers I can focus on the projects.

Random Projects: 1 Hour Basket

A couple months ago Kelby Sews posted this 1-Hour Basket Tutorial.  Somehow I managed to put off trying this great little project for weeks after everyone else had gotten in on the fun.

One Sunday afternoon I found the pattern I had printed out (you can find it through Kelby's site and on Craftsy) and decided it was time to round up some fabric and give it a go.  I don't have any progress photos as I was pretty much on a roll from the get-go.  I pieced the outer panels to fit.  My start to finish time was 54 minutes.

I really like the finished basket.  This would make a great gift basket for new mothers or quilters or... well almost anyone.  Imagine the possibilities!  You should totally go check it out.

2012 Block of the Month - Finally Finished!

Some quilts just take longer than others.  Nothing can be done about it.

According to the date on this photo, I started this quilt in September of 2012.  Well, I picked the fabrics in September 2012.  This Block of the Month from 2012 was a free Craftsy class.

All twenty blocks are provided, each block type done two different ways.

Some of the blocks challenged me, and when they were done they sat in a bin waiting to become a quilt.  When I got to the end of the year I wanted to finish up projects to clear the queue for next year.  I still have many quilts hanging around, but I've also finished loads and moved them on to new homes.  I didn't have enough yellow fabric left over to do sashing but that definitely didn't break my heart since I'm still not a fan of sashing.  I played with layout until I settled on this.

I did have enough background fabric to nicely frame the entire quilt.

I thought about the quilting and after the holiday print quilt I just wasn't in the mood for custom quilting.  I ended up just going with this fun flower motif.  Two blocks may have the flower motif centered.

I still love this quilting motif.  I quilted it as an all-over design.  Quilted with Superior Threads Magnifico as the top thread and a coordinating spun poly in the bobbin.  I used yellow thread for this one.

One bonus was that while I was making the blocks, I would cut a strip of each of the fabrics for the binding.  Scrappy binding is still my favorite.  Scrappy binding that is pieced, pressed and ready to go is even better!

After washing this quilt has the most amazing hand.  It just asks to cuddle.

Finished size:  52" wide by 62" long.

Do you have quilt blocks that have been hanging around for years?  Put at least one of them on your list to finish next year.  You'll be so happy you did.

Spring Swap

I participated in the Springtime Mug Rug swap hosted by Michele at the Quilter's Gallery.  These are the two mug rugs I made for myself. 

Here are some pictures of the front and back of both mug rugs.

In hindsight, I can see that the label works so much better with a dark color thread on these batiks.  I still love the batiks for this project.  Bright colors are just so much fun!  I fussy-cut some of pieces to make the fabrics work for me.  I love these flowers.

Both patterns were designed by The Patchsmith.  You can find her patterns on Craftsy in her store.  They are reasonably priced, so click through and check them out.  The butterfly trail was free-motion stitched before I layered the top with the batting and backing.

The appliques were stitched down by machine with Masterpiece from Superior Threads before I layered the top over the batting and backing.  

While Masterpiece is not intended for quilting, I did quilt with it in this case.  Since I did all the quilting free-motion on my sewing machine, I could stitch slowly and get good-looking stitches without thread breaking.  I don't think I could get this good a stitch with the long arm with this thread.  I would have used So Fine! #50 for long arm quilting with this level of detail.

The binding was attached by machine on the top and hand-stitched to the back.  I don't usually use a narrow binding, but these mug rugs finish at 5.5" by 9" and I thought a binding cut at 2.5" would be entirely too wide.  This binding was cut at 2" and finished just a hair over 1/4" on the front and right at 3/8" on the back. I could have cut the binding at 1.75" and gotten a great result on the front and back.

Soho Chic Tinker Tote

A few months ago I decided to give the Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags Craftsy class a try.  Tara Rebman made it easy to follow along and learn her technique.  Last night, I managed to finally finish the binding on this one.

As usual, I didn't follow the directions exactly.  We all know that directions are there to be used as a guide.  

I think it came out great!   The fabric is Soho Chic by Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics.  I used part of a 5" charm pack, a 2.5" charm pack and three 1-yard cuts of coordinating fabric. I wish I had more of this fabric.  I really like this line.The bottom of the bag is some linen I picked up at the thrift store a couple years ago.