Curved Zip Pouch

So I saw this tutorial for a "Two Sided Zip Pouch". Super cute! 

http://www.sewcanshe.com/blog/2014/3/22/2-sided-zips-a-handy-case-tutorial-from-sewcanshe

It's a very well written, easy to follow tutorial. 

It also gave me a chance to use some of the Cotton and Steel fat quarters that I love so much. I wanted to use the gold and peach fabric, but I only have silver fittings, so I used the pink and silver fabric. The tutorial called for fusible fleece on the exterior. I'd like to try just medium weight stabilizer on all pieces next time to see how it will turn out. 

I probably have about 100 zippers. Only 2 of them were 9 inches. One in black and one in white. I obviously went with the white one as you'll see below. I did order some cute 9" metal zippers. I'll make the peach and gold pouch with that. 

Inside:

I love the metallic fabrics. Fun and quick little project. I cut the fabric one night and sewed it up the next, but if you have a couple of free hours, it could definitely be done in a day. 

Soccer Ball Rag Quilt

Last night I cut up all of the fabric for my husband's soccer rag quilt. I had some soft minky style stuff as well as some soccer ball flannel. I cut 32 - 8  1/4" squares of each. I figure that if I sew 5 rows across and 6 rows down, it'll be a 30 block blanket and a pretty good size. I can't wait to get started on the sewing!!

Though my 'sandwiches' will only contain the topper and the backing, I will be using the sewing method demonstrated in this tutorial to make this rag quilt:
http://www.quiltingintherain.blogspot.com/2012/02/baby-boy-rag-quilt-diy.html

I don't know how people continually work with fuzzy fabric. I feel like I'm probably going to have to get my machine cleaned after I sew this guy up - which isn't a bad thing, but I just hate getting fuzzballs everywhere. I wonder if there's a secret to sewing with this stuff that I don't know. Hmm... With the four left over squares (and the fabric remnants from cutting the squares) I bet I could make him a rag pillow, too!  :)

They aren't much to look at right now. At this point, I need to sew X's on each sandwich. I'll probably do that in black thread. 

I chain stitched a diagonal line though all of the pieces, sewing the front to the back. Once done, I turned them and completed the X through the middle of all 30 blocks. 

This blue stuff was so fuzzy. Horribly fuzzy. It was a bit of a nightmare to work with. 

Next I started sewing all of the blocks together, first a row, then I sewed the rows together. To get the seams on top, I sewed them with the backs facing each other. 

Done! Here's the back. I don't know why it looks black here. 

Here's the front. I snipped the fabric (as detailed in the tutorial I linked) to make it rag up in the wash and washed it. 

I've come to the realization that if I want this blog to be easy to follow, and I do love easy to follow, that I'll need to combine my future project posts. From now on I'll simply add any work done to the relevant post like I did here. It'll make linking and following a project from beginning to end that much easier.

Table topper done for the most part

I top stitched the edge with a red thread and glued down all hexies. If I feel up to quilting one day, I'll do it. But it's done for now. 

Before gluing the hexies on:

Up close:

All done!

Hexie table runner - the hard part is done!

I finished the Y seams last night! Yay!

I placed the top on some batting and backing fabric. Crudely traced around it, leaving 1 - 2 inches extra width on the batting and backing. 

I placed the back and top right sides together with the batting on the bottom. I then stitched around the outside of the top, securing all three layers. 

After stitching, I trimmed the excess fabric and batting. I also snipped the corners to reduce bulk. I cut a 3 inch hole through the bottom and batting for turning. Once turned, I pressed the project. 

I still have the fun stuff left to do at this point. I need to top stitch the edge of the table runner and tack down and quilt the EPP hexies. 

Here are some photos. 

Done sewing all hexies together. Back and batting is actually sewn on at this point. Ready for turning. 

The batting side:

Snip! I then reached through this hole and pulled the right side out. 

I placed the EPP hexies on top so that you can see what it'll look like when it's done. I can't wait to top stitch and tack everything down! :) I plan to use the method in this wonderful tutorial to do the quilting:
http://modernhandcraft.com/2013/11/hexagon-mini-quilt-tutorial/

First table runner, then...

As you saw with last night's post, I'm working on the hexie table runner. Two more rows to sew!! :)

In this post, I'm only going to talk about plans. I have not done anything yet today to share.

After the table runner, I'm going to sew up a soccer and minky blanket for my husband. I've had the fabric for a couple of years and last night he asked if I could make him a blanket with a soccer ball on it. Why, yes I can! I don't know if I'm just going to make it simple with the soccer ball flannel on front and the soft stuff on the back, or if I'm going to quilt the soccer ball flannel with something. My best bet will be to ask him what he wants. I have a feeling he'll want something simple. Best part about his request?!? I'll have that fabric out of my sewing room! :) I'm trying to clean things up.

I also need to get back to the secret garden quilt (what I was calling cathedral window - found out that I'm making secret garden blocks) once I'm done with those two projects. I got side-tracked when I discovered the joys of English Paper Piecing.

That's all for now. I do have a much longer list of to-dos, but I need to stay focused on one or two things for the moment. I mean, I'd love to make some other little projects as well, zippered pouches (I have the cutest chevron fabric), and a folded wallet, but those will have to wait until I finish another project or two. :)

Hexie Table runner

Wow, Y seams are tedious. I only have 14 more Y seams to go. I'm too tired to sew any more tonight. I can't wait to finish so that I can cut the back and batting and put it all together! I can't wait to appliqué the EPP hexies on top!

I have to figure out what color fabric to back it with. I can't wait to be done with the Y seams. (So much so that I keep repeating it) hehe

Here's the white base so far. You can see that the two left most rows are not yet connected. Y seams are definitely easier to perfect with hand sewing, but that works best with the EPPs. Obviously it needs to be ironed. 

Hexie land

And yet... More hexies. I decided to sew a bunch of larger white hexies together as a base for the paper pieced charm pack hexies I made. Well... I forgot how to properly do Y seams, so I fudged it. I've since re watched and pinned this quick and good video on the topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQA28NnH_S0&amp=&autoplay=1&app=desktop

There's my layout. I wish it wasn't so late or I didn't have work tomorrow because I want to sew. 

Here's an up close of my not so great Y seam job:

The charm hexies aren't tacked down. I'm going to have to decide what I'm going to do as a border. I think I'm going to make this into a table runner. If I buy another large Hexie pack, I can easily back it with that, but I just realized that it'll be a thousand times easier to trace the shape of the top onto a piece of fabric and batting, cut it out, sew them together (right sides together), and turn it. I'll tack down the little hexies after I've done that because of seam allowances. OMGosh all of the Y seams I have ahead of me though. 

I bet I can finish this thing in no time at all now! Most exciting part? The quilting!!  I can't wait to do that. It'll be fun! I'm going to top stitch around the outside. Then maybe through each hexie. Hm... I love quilting. Oooh I wonder if I can pick up some rainbow variegated thread to do the outer border with.  I'll use white through the hexies. So much fun! I can't wait to work on this again tonight!

It's now an actual Hexie Pouch!

I sewed my first Hexie up into a pouch. I added tiny pockets to the inside. I don't know why I never did that before. They're the perfect size to hold finished hexies. Though I'm sure they'd hold unfinished ones as well. ;)

I did what I could to counteract the unpretty hexie fabric. 

Inside:

Here's the pouch I'm using to hold my hexie kit. I'm not sure if I ever shared a photo of that. 

Inside:

Now I'm working on a mini charm hexie pack. I already have over 20 done. I'm currently sitting at a soccer game (local non-pro / semi-pro team). It's half time and I wish I brought my kit to pass the time while they're not playing. 

My first Hexie flower!

I finished my first Hexie flower last night!

I also went to Joann's and picked up a smaller needle and some paper piecing thread. Who knew that there was paper piecing thread?! Oh, and I bought a 2" Hexie paper cutter. :)

I have a mini charm pack that I'm going to make the 2" hexies with. 

Here's the Hexie flower:

Before cleaning it up:

The back:

After snipping threads:

If you look closely (especially in the first photo), you can see stitches on a couple of the sides that border the center. I was trying a couple of different methods to attach. I finally found that if you do a ladder stitch instead of a whip stitch, you can make it so that the stitches don't show. Just make sure to flatten and tighten the stitches before tying off. Here's a link to the cute blog that taught me this method: http://www.afewscraps.com/2010/07/to-work-with-hexagons.html
I left the original stitches because I felt they were a part of the learning process here. I like that.

The background fabric looks different in all three pictures. It's a hot pink. I had poor lighting and was playing with flash/no flash. The first pic is the best representation of the color. Sorry the pics are so bad here.

I'm going to make this into a zippered pouch (are you surprised?). I plan to do some quilting on it. I really didn't like this fabric, but this project was about learning something new. 

Hexie Fun!

I put myself on a strict no sewing until I finish my chores rule.

That didn't last. I did most of my chores, but I did give myself a little bit of sewing time while watching tv with my husband after dinner.

Which means hand-sewing. 

Whoa.

Hand.

Sewing.

I'm not a huge fan of sewing by hand most of the time. I do like to hand sew some things, though. About a year and a half back, my mom went to a show, or class, or maybe it was a class at a show. I can't remember. Well, my mother is awesomely sweet and she and one of the ladies hit it off. The lady she hit it off with had taught a class that my mom and I took together. Well, she gave my mom a hexie trial kit (7 hexie card cutouts, 7 - 2" fabric squares, and instructions on how to make a hexie) to give to me. I looked at it once, but it looked too complicated at the time, so I put it away.

Fast forward to now. I came across some hexie tutorials the other day, and they showed a different (easy) method that doesn't require basting the card into the hexie. The tutorial got me jazzed! 
Here are the two tutorials that I found: 
http://modernhandcraft.com/2013/11/hexagon-mini-quilt-tutorial/
 
http://www.thezenofmaking.com/2013/06/tutorial-english-paper-piecing-hexies-part-1/

There are so many cute hexie projects out there, I was dying to try one. I ordered a hexie kit and remembered the kit that my mom gave me. So last night I made my first hexie. I see why they say it's addicting.  It's crazy easy. 

My only issue was that my needle is definitely too big.  I need to see if I can get some smaller needles at the store. I can't wait for my kit to come in. The fabrics are bright and wonderful! 

When I was sewing last night, I wanted to keep my goodies together, so I sewed myself a little zippered pouch out of some fabric that I had been saving. Urgh. I love this fabric. It's blue and white and has flowers on it. So, I have my little hexie kit to bring with me! :) I didn't finish the flower that the seven little hexies will make, but I probably will tonight. 

Oh! and I ordered some gorgeous fabrics from fabricworm.com today! They'll be for quilts for my nieces and nephews. :) I'm thinking something simple for the boys, like HSTs or flying geese. I need to think of something for the girls.

Guess that's all for now!   

On to the next UFO.

I'm going to try to not work on anything new until I get some of these unfinished objects done. Tonight, I decided that the blue and white quilt will be my focus for now. My aim is to work on at least one square a night. I did the one for tonight and laid out the fabric for tomorrow. The wavy line block is the one I just did. I think I'm going to cut them all up and make proper cathedral windows once I'm done sewing up all of the layer cake pieces I have. I've had this layer cake for several years. I love the blue and white and didn't know what to do with them until I tried this while I was working on the pinwheel quilt. 

:)

That's all for tonight. 

Coffee Cup Appliqué.

I found this wonderful coffee cup appliqué online!

She has a fabulous tutorial and FREE template here: http://believeninspire.com/2014/09/cutesy-cups-mug-rug-tutorial-homemade-gifts.html

I created my own little 'hot sleeve' by drawing it on a second copy of the template and cutting it out.

First, I cut out all of the template pieces. I chose my fabrics and took a piece of double sided fusible. I removed only one side of the backing on the fusible and stuck the three pieces of fabric to it and ironed.

As you can see, there's room to make several cups on my 8.5" x 11" piece of fuzed fabrics.

 
Next, I traced and cut out all of the pieces. 6 would fit in each panel. I used a wash away fabric marker. The only issue I encountered was that when it dried completely on the green, I couldn't see it. So for that part, I traced and immediately cut each one before moving on to the next.

All six sets are cut and ready to wash!

Up close:

To wash them, all I did was wet my finger tips and splashed a little water on them. It didn't take much to make the blue go away. Remember to always test your fabric and disappearing marker before starting your actual project.

 


I didn't grab a pic of the next step, but I took the lid template and traced the sewing lines on it. I then removed the backing to the fusible web and stuck it to the cup. I removed the backing from the cup and stuck it to the project and finger pressed them both in place.  The stickiness of the fusible made it so that I didn't have to pin the pieces in place while I sewed the cup lines. Ironing over disappearing ink can sometimes make it not disappear, so be careful! I didn't iron any of these pieces until the blue was washed away. I went with a tone on tone look for the lid and sewed it at a very sloooow speed.

All done with sewing the lines on the lids. Next up, wash away the ink, add the cup sleeve, and iron all of the pieces in place.

 



































Washed:

 


















Fused and ready for decorative stitching:


Cups are stitched and the rug is ready to be sewn to the batting and back, turned, and edge-stitched:







Here's the back after sewing, turning, and sewing around the edge:



And the front. Please disregard the bit of water. I noticed that I had missed some ink. Luckily it wasn't set in by the iron:

If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to ask! :) 

I did forget to add that the 'background' for the front piece was just a mug rug topper that I had made from some scraps the other day. I really enjoyed this project. I may still try out my echo quilting foot on this one. I enjoy making these rugs to try out different techniques. They are a fantastic way to do that.

Finished Mug Rug

I finished the line quilting on the mug rug. Didn't get anything else done, but I'll have more time to sew tonight. 

And after it's ironed:

It is quite wonky. The upper left corner was due to laziness and bad planning - I left the turn hole at that spot instead of in the middle of a side somewhere. Bottom right got all bunched up. I can probably fix that up pretty easily. I wasn't going for perfection here - none of my work is ever "perfect", but I did get done what I wanted to try; the pebble FMQing. That was fun! :)

Free Motion Quilting

So I've been wanting to try some free motion quilting (FMQ). I thought what better way to play around with it than making a mug rug? In the past, I've done a bit of straight stitch and wavy line quilting, but I've never really "drawn" with my stitches. I am always drawing circles, so I figured that pebble FMQ would feel the most natural. I liked it! I still need to get a hang of when and how to move the fabric, but it's not too bad for my first time. I need to finish the straight and narrow lines through the center - it's too late to continue right now because I have work in the morning. 

I love straight line quilting. I don't know why but it is my favorite. 

I also sewed up another mug rug top. I'll have to figure out what kind of quilting I want to do on it. I have an echo FMQ foot, maybe I'll use that to make some sort of design. We'll see. I think I may appliqué something on here. I don't know just yet. 

No Pictures to Post.

Happy Monday!!

I have no pictures to post right now, but I did create some "fabric" from a layer cake I had sitting around. I literally just sewed a bunch of the pieces together, no fancy quilt piecing. I am making a liner for a basket that my mom left at my house (once I'm done, I'll give her back the basket with the new liner).

I have the details of how to construct the liner written out, but I need to construct the pattern. I'm thinking of drawing it out on a couple of manilla folders taped together.  I'll be happy to post the instructions I devised once I get a chance, though they are rather crude.  I created enough 'pieces' for both the exterior and the lining, but I'm thinking of making the lining solid. The fabric I'm using is from an older moda collection called Wicasset. 

Here's the Google image search for that collection: https://www.google.com/search?q=Wiscasset+moda&biw=1024&bih=627&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-mFsVfvZMsjutQWF-YDwAw&ved=0CB0QsAQ

The Moda Bake Shop has a cool journal cover they created with the Wicasset collection. When I saw how the pattern looked against the linen, I realized I really needed to make part of the basket liner solid: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/11/journal-covers.html

It has a very country feel to it.  If I go that route, I'll either have enough to make two liners for her basket, or a liner and a test piece. ;)  Hopefully the former.  If the first one comes out well, I can make the second with a different color solid inside. Oh and due to the nature of the basket liner, it's totally reversible, so if she wants a solid outside and a patterned inside, she can just flip it out. 

I am rather excited about this project.  I think it'll turn out nicely - especially if I do make half of it solid. Oh! and I'm going to make the ties (for around the handles) out of the Moda ribbon/tape that comes with their layer cakes!  That'll be cool.

I guess that's all for now. I hope I have time tonight to work on it and take some pictures to upload. My goal for today is to get the pattern piece drawn out. I also still need to do the math for the bottom circle. (It's a round basket).

Done for now

Just need to add sashing to the top and bottom.

For those that are joining me from Pinterest, as mentioned earlier in the blog, I used this tutorial to make the pinwheels: http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/2013/04/spring-pinwheel-potholders-and-giveaway/

The fabric is Kate Spain for Moda's Sunnyside charm pack collection. This was my final post for now on this quilt top. If you want to see the process, click through the rest of my blog.  I did a day-by-day update on what I was able to finish (which given the amount of free sewing time I have, it wasn't much). If someone has several hours to kill, this quilt top is incredibly easy to create.

Sashing added and it's done for now. I'll need to get some matching fabric for borders, backing, binding and such. 

All blocks done!

All blocks are now done. Now I just need to sew them all to each other. :)