Pay It forward Handmade

Several months ago I was the happy recipient of this fantastic #payitforward handmade gift from @eileenpaints. 

For my part in paying it forward, I chose to make these 3 zipper bags using the Open Wide pattern from Anna over at Noodlehead. 

I've made a number of these since they are fun and pretty quick to put together. This time around I also added a handle to them using this tutorial over at busybean which was easy to follow. I like how the handle looks with the bag.

They'll be in the mail this week and continuing to #payitforward :handmade! What a great experience and way to meet some fellow crafters via instagram.

Linking up for Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts today.  So nice to have a finish to share!

Use the Force

Excited to share with you dear readers my finished mini quilt for the #maythe4thmqs swap on instagram. After the initial inspiration mosaic was posted, my partner also expressed a love of bright fabrics and inspiration struck! My thoughts went right to Andy Warhol style pop art so that's what I tried to capture in the quilt. 

I drew the outlines/faces on paper first, then copied them onto fusible web before ironing the fusible to the fabrics. It was fun choosing color combos and prints to use for each square. I zig-zag stitched around each element in a matching thread to make sure they stayed in place before free motion quilting different designs in each background.

I also made a triangular zipper pouch & the photo shows both sides, since I used a different fabric for each side- one rebel, one empire. 

My quilt went winging off to Australia and was happily received by my swap partner. Phew! It was hard to part with but I'm eagerly stalking my mailbox to see what shows up for me. 

Linking up at RedLetterQuilts for my April OMG finish too. 
Linking over at Crazymomquilts for Finish it up Friday as well.
Linking at SloStudio for Quarter2 finishes - original Q2 list found here.

zip bag link up

I've posted about this bag before, but realized that it needed it's own post so I can link it up for the Quarter 1 Finish Along link up.  Original Q1 list here and linking up to the Q1 finishes with Slo Studio.

Zipper bag for my coworker L as a thank you for scoring me a free ticket to see The Force Awakens on opening day! (the rest of the story) It was fun to make and try out a new-to-me zipper bag style and gift it to an awesome coworker.

Thank You Bags

I made these two bags as thank you gifts for a couple of my coworkers. This was my OMG project for January (read more here) and they are also on my Q1 list for the Finish Along 2016.  It's nice to start out with an early finish w/a purpose. 

A drawstring bag for L in batiks -her current fave. While purple is 'her' color, I was looking to get away from that at first and try something different. Of course, I then found this perfect fabric and I just went with that! Q1 FAL link post bag 1 found here.

Zipper bag for the other L - a new to me way of making it which turned out fairly simple to do. I chose something I thought she'd like and ta-da! Q1 FAL link bag 2 is here.

Linking up at the following when available!
Crazymomquilts for FinishItUpFriday
RedLetterQuilts for One Monthly Goal January
Finish Along 2016 - Q1 original list

May Finishes

Nothing like a deadline and a goal to get me to my sewing room. These will be gifts in the coming weeks so they had to be done. It helped to make my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes to make both of these oval bags & here's my goal-setting post. It's always fun to choose fabrics I think the recipients will love.  

 This one is a graduation gift for a music lover! I had fun going through my music fabric stash to pick just the right combo.

Number two is a moving gift for one of the girls in a program I run at work. Hopefully she'll like the bright butterflies as much as I do!

**Edited 5/20/15:: pattern is from Aneela Hoey when it was a free tutorial, now available for sale in her shop.

Linking Up: 
Fiber of All Sorts for ALYOF:MAY
CrazyMomQuilts for Finish It Up Friday
A Quarter Inch from the Edge with TGIFF

May Projects

This month I have a couple work programs, 2 weddings, a workshop at work to manage, & a graduation in the coming weeks! It's gonna be crazy so I'm setting my May goal for ALYOF as a mostly simple one. I'm planning to make 2 oval box bags as gifts: 1 for the aforementioned graduation and 1 for one of the kids in my program at work who will be moving soon. I don't have the fabrics picked yet - but they will be the same style as the one in the picture. (this one was a previous graduation gift!)

These are fun to make and are easy to assembly line while watching Netflix...I've discovered they have select episodes of Ace of Cakes now - YAY! Linking up with Fiber of All Sorts for this month!

January Party Goal

With all the craziness around the holidays and people going in & out of town, my friends & I decided to have our holiday party after the new year.  Now that I'm back from vacation and slowly getting back into work schedules, I'll have some time to make the few gifts before we have said party.

My plan has been to make several zip bags since these are fairly quick to pull together and really fun to gift!  Right now, I'll need to make several oval box bags and maybe a large aid mouth one as well.  I scouted some good zippers and have started to pull fabrics, looking for that right combination.  My January goal is to make and gift 3-4 bags and I'll be once again linking up at Fiber of All Sorts as we start the 2015 Lovely Year of Finishes!  Also linked up at Freshly Pieced for the first WIP Wednesday of 2015!

zip - zip - zip

My January goal was to finish up some zipper bags to bring along with me.  I finished them up this weekend and wish I could keep them all!  Aren't they fun?

I'm linking up this finish over at Fiber of All Sorts for the Lovely Year of Finishes 2014 goal.
This is also a finish from my Q1 list for the Finish A Long at the Littlest Thistle - #223!

January link ups

Happy Year!   I've got some holiday recaps coming soon.  This whole back to work thing this week has thrown me off a bit - I'm trying to get back into my schedule and alarm clocks and it's been slow going so far.  Meanwhile, we had a brief snow flurry tonight which was gorgeous!  I love how still and silent it gets during a snowfall. 

As I get back into work I'm also getting together my quilting goals for 2014 and first up is joining in for A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014!  I've got some zipper bags to finish up this month as my project. It shouldn't take too long as they are halfway started as you can see. 

Linking up for the start of a good quilting year at Fiber of All Sorts and looking forward to finishing up more projects.

December goals for WIP :: 12/4/13

So this weekend included lots of great food, good company and lots of quilting - hope yours did too!  I got to finish up some goodies for retreat which was a nice *short* break from quilt wrangling.  Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced again this week to keep the momentum going now that I'm back to work post-vacation.

zip bags!

Once I finished up the Christmas quilt, I wasted no time in pulling out the next quilt top from the pile to be finished.  This time it was my outdoors challenge quilt top and I got it basted and into the machine.  I had some definite ideas for the quilting in mind and pulled out matching thread colors before starting to stitch.  

quilting detail - sunshine

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the quilting on this one before the holidays creep up as this is my December goal to finish up A Lovely Year of Finishes in style!  Linking up with Fiber of All Sorts and making it official that I've participated in it for 11 months this year.  Glad to have made so much progress in finishing up a good number of quilts this year with the help of deadlines and public accountability.  Good luck to all on finishing your December goals!

WIP :: 11/6/13

It's been a rain-filled day today and would have been perfect to stay at home and quilt.  Sadly, work gets in the way on those days!  So here's what's been happening when I can get in some quilting time.

raindrop filter

finished::

Zipper bag:  Momm made me this wide mouth zipper bag for my camera & cords with just the right fabrics!  I finished up stitching the lining and adding the zipper tab to finish it this week.  It's too cute.  This was on my Q4 list for the 2013 Finish a Long and linked up accordingly. 

Pinwheel Quilt:  All finished and ready to be packed and shipped out.  More story about this one can be found here.









DS Improv quilt:  I took a workshop with Denyse Schmidt, mentioned here, and have the whole top put together!  Can't wait to get it all quilted!

in progress:: 
Christmas Quilt:  All I need to do is find some free time and start quilting this pretty quilt!  See more here.

Challenge Quilt:  I have the batting and backing cut and ready, so this one needs some basting, quilting & binding.

Swoon:  I have the batting and backing all ready to go on this one too.  I'm almost decided on the quilting and will need ALL the basting pins for it!  :) Really want to see this one finished soon.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday and checking out all the other great projects.

hello again

Summer is here!  These last couple of weeks I've been feeling all the summery vibes brought on by warm weather & sunshine, the pool opening, last days of school tours and holiday weekends.  Great vibes really and they are inspiring me to make some summer-type plans and adventures.  What they are not doing is making it easy to be inside all day at work and getting things done around the house!

In any case, there has been lots of thinking about chores, hockey playoffs, shopping and a little bit of sewing sprinkled in here & there.  At work I've been making up some samples for our June Quilt Camp and am super excited!  It's always a fun time and I even scored some bating donations too which will make life a whole lot easier. The next few weeks will be prepping materials: cutting fabric, changing rotary blades, cutting batting & backing fabrics and winding bobbins.  Hooray!

A couple weeks ago I also pieced together my backing fabric for my Roman Stripe quilt and got it basted!  This was my May project for the Lovely Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts.  Another month finished & here's my original link up for May. 

quilting in action

 I have started to quilt it and that is taking me longer than originally planned due to all those summer vibes mentioned above.   :)  Perhaps this will be the June project...

I also managed to work in a graduation gift for one of my Junior Quilters who is awesome!  It was fun to pull some purple fabrics together and whip up this oval box bag (using Aneela's great tutorial).  It's one of my favorites so far that I've made.  

It's so much fun to create things for friends and family and a wonderful way to use my skills.  Creating something for others in need, like the blocks for Boston, is just as rewarding and definitely brings the online community together.  This week I sent off a quilt and some pillowcases to the Oklahoma guild collecting for those impacted by the tornado in Moore.  Check it out if you have a quilt that needs a good home!

welcome to Quilt Week

side 1

Hi readers!  It's Quilt Week here in Paducah - the AQS show starts tomorrow and we've had quilters from all over visiting the Museum already this week.  The weekend was full of errands and cleaning around the house, the Symphony and helping to set-up the Antique quilt show put on by the Rotary club.  Awesome quilts there this year - all Signature quilts covering about 50 years.  Tonight I got to attend the Awards Show & Sneak Peek and see all of the amazing quilts in the show!  We'll have busy days ahead at work and it's a fun time of year across town.  

side 2

Amidst all of the prep and long days I managed to finish up my April :: Year of Finishes project: an Open Wide zippy bag using Noodleheads tutorial here.  I made the medium size bag this time around and used some fun scraps for the outside paired  with Michael Miller Ta-Dot in black and the inside is a grey Dear Stella print.  It's good sized and I'm not entirely sure what will go in it yet, but that's okay.  :)  It's pretty just sitting on my cutting table too.  





Adding the finish to the link up over at Fiber of All Sorts - making 3 months of project finishes.

interior view

April goal setting

Whew - coming in under the wire for the Lovely Year of finishes Goal setting link up as well.  

It's been helpful the last couple of months to have the link-ups for extra motivation and inspiration!  This month I need a quick/easy project because I won't have much time for anything larger.  AQS Quilt Show here in Paducah is at the end of the month so it's crazy busy at work until after that's over!

I want to make a wide mouth zipper bag using Noodlehead's tutorial this month.  I made one for a Christmas gift and decided I want one for myself too!  :)  Here's an image of the one I made previously - can't have a post without pictures!  So that's my goal - be sure to cheer on all of us linking up.

elf projects

Here's a look at the zip bags I made for gifts this year.  I didn't want to post them earlier and give away the surprise since the recipients sometimes check out new posts.  ;]

**fair warning, this post is picture heavy

It was exciting to figure out fabrics for each person and try out some new tutorials.  I also made turtle bark and put some in each envelope before mailing these zipps out to friends.

all of them together!

Just ignore the fact that I'm addicted to the oval box bag tutorial - I just couldn't stop making them!

I made zip pulls for each with a charm and beads. This one's for C so, of course, the charm is a crown! This print is so fun in everything I've used it in.

Next up was this coffee themed one for L! Her charm was a sea shell to remind her of the beach and I really love the colors.

 

It was a bit trickier to find fabric for S but I really hope she likes it! I loved this one too and used a heart charm for the zip pull.

front

Next up, my first triangle bag for Snaps - in the coolest fabric ever! I love these llamas and used the matching Peruvian blanket fabric from Laurie Wisbrun for the inside. Her charm is a turtle.   :D

 


Then I made one for L after pulling her school colors!  Hers also got a sea shell charm and I dropped it by her desk this week to lots of smiles.

Lastly, I had extra time on my hands since my flight home was cancelled due to high winds & storm.  My apartment is super clean now with all that extra time and while catching up on Psych episodes I tried my hand at the wide mouthed bag tutorial.  

It was lots of fun to make! I used scraps to piece the outside panels and used a fun Snoopy fall-themed print for the lining.  I also fussy cut Snoopy for the zip tab. Momm loves Fall and I thought this bag would be perfect for her.  Especially since she hasn't tried this tutorial yet!

Well, that's all of the homemade gifts I made this year and I hope everyone loves them as much as I do.  Merry Christmas!