Getting those zippers right!

I've been making pouches again...not a bad way to spend time on the weekend.  Nothing fancy, but it was good zipper practice.  I was determined to get the corners right on these, and I made a lot of progress on that front.

So one thing I've learned is to cut your fabric one inch bigger than the zipper length and sew with a 3/8 inch seam.  This seems unnatural for us quilters, but this gives you 1/8 inch of room between the seam and the zipper ends. If you do it this way you don't need zipper tabs, your corners come out nicely and you shouldn't hit the zipper stop.

Love this lining fabric!

So the second thing to watch on these types of pouches is to make sure that the seam allowances and the zipper are folded towards the outside pouch fabrics, away from the lining fabrics.  Once you fold so that the outsides are facing and the lining fabrics are facing, the seam allowance and the zipper sections should all be down facing the outside fabrics.  Stitch in place with a few short stitches, then sew around (remember to leave the zipper open and the bottom of the lining open for turning.)

I'd like to thank Svetlana over at S.O.T.A.K Handmade for sending me these amazing 2.5" squares from her screen printing work.  I worked them into a new laptop case.  You can find two great posts on her sidebar, 33 free zipper pouch tutorials (you can perfect your zippers!) and 33 free tote bag tutorials.  Thank you Svetlana!  You can find her patterns and screen printed fabric here.

Anyone else out there have a great zipper tip to share?

Interested in more zip pouches, check these posts here and here.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and Finish it up Friday.  

Scrappy Trip Progress and Tips

Summer's gone by so quickly!  I've been working on my scrappy trip quilt with mostly Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  This is part of my Quarter 3 list for the 2016 Finish-A-Long.  I have a feeling I won't make the completion deadline for Q3, but that's okay, I'll just add it to Q4.

Making this has been a learning experience.  Since there isn't a true pattern, there are a lot of decisions to be made that you might not think of if you just follow a basic block tutorial.  I was inspired by this quilt in making my own.  I used seven strips for my blocks, which makes cutting the tube a little tricky.  I also didn't think carefully enough about contrast when I was putting all of my cut strips into groups of seven.  So here are a few pointers if you think you might work on a scrappy trip.

1. If you make the block with an uneven number of strips, be sure to lay the tube flat and even prior to cutting or you will get wonky strip sets.  
2. I found it easier to iron the already cut strip sets alternatively and then sew them back together with nested seams.  This is different than ironing the strips alternatively as the tutorial shows.  I know some of these will need to be pressed again, but it made matching the seams more precise for me.  
3. Pay attention to placement of your contrasting fabric...for that matter, make sure you use contrasting fabric!  I know this seems obvious, but it took me a while to figure out what looks best, and that's because when I grouped my strips together I didn't always consider contrast, but was considering more of what strips would look good together by color families.  You need contrast for this, otherwise it's just a bunch of two inch squares.  
4. If you are like me and need to find order in things (even in scrappy quilts) then you might want to think about your final layout and your contrast fabric.  In my finished quilt I've decided to do a vertical zig zag layout.  I realized (late) that it would be good to put a single different contrast fabric in each column of the quilt.  Since I decided this after making 12 of the 24 blocks, I'll need to resew or rearrange a few blocks to achieve the layout I want.  

 ....16 blocks done, 8 more to go!  Happy Sewing!

Linking with Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

Quick and Easy Baby Quilt

Do you find yourself making baby quilts when there's no baby in sight to gift them to? Yeah, me too!  I have this thing with making something quick, easy, fun and with fabrics I love. I'm also happy that I'm practicing my FMQ skills on these low pressure projects, that's a win.

This is a fun pattern that uses just six fat quarters for the baby size and you can cut all the pieces out at once with the six layers stacked together...super quick!  There are no seams to match and the hardest part is getting the fabrics in the order that you want for each block.

I did a medium meander stipple all over this quilt.  The texture on this quilt is so nice because the batting is Warm and Plush from the Warm and Natural company.  I've heard mixed reviews on this batting, but I'm in love.  It's just a little bit more loft than the regular version and it has a lot less of the little dark bits in the cotton.  It quilts up beautifully.

The fabrics are from the Pippa collection by Ana Davis for Blend fabrics, I've had them for a while and I'm so glad I found this great pattern to use them with.

Here's to a fast first finish for the 3rd quarter of the 2016 Finish-A-Long.  Also,  a big thank you to the Finish-A-Long hosts and to Sara Lawson at Sew Sweetness for the awesome Windy City Bags prize!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

2016 Finish-A-Long Quarter 3

Quarter 2 of the Finish-A-Long was a success with five out of seven projects finished.  You can read about the five projects here.  Now onto Quarter 3,  here's my current list of hopefuls!

First up is an (mostly) Anna Maria Horner scrappy trip around the world quilt.  I've got all the strips cut and seven out of twenty-four blocks completed.  It takes a good bit of time to make one of these blocks, so I work on it here and there.

Next is a new quilt that uses a fun pattern from Quilt Basket, a local quilt shop in NY.  They have a great concept with fabric bundles called Cutie Collections along with a selection of patterns to use them.  I'm making the Follow My Lead pattern with some Alison Glass fabrics and solid background fabrics.  I don't use a lot of solids so I'm excited to see how this combination works out.

I'm using a bunch of Ana Davis's Pippa collection to make a quilt using a pattern called Big and Tall by Sunnyside Designs.

I've got some new stash treasures from Anna Maria Horner, her Mod Corsage collection.  I got it as a kit with a pattern called Grandma's Garden, so I'll be working on that.  I LOVE these fabrics!

Last on the list are a few zipper pouches using these fun Cotton and Steel fabrics.  I've made a few totes with these fabrics here and here, so matching pouches it is!

This list is pretty ambitious, but it's great to have something to work towards, we'll see how it goes.  I hope you are participating in the 2016 FAL, looking forward to seeing what everyone makes!