Broken Frames for Christmas

I finished a Christmas quilt and it's not even October yet!!  You might remember back in May, during the May is for Makers campaign, I purchased the Broken Frames pattern from Meadow Mist Designs. But it wasn't until I made my list of projects for Q3 of the 2016 FAL, that I decided I was going to turn Broken Frames into a Christmas quilt.

I chose two charm packs of Cherry Christmas by Aneela Hoey, some Kona White and Kona Red, which I also used for the binding.

For the quilting, I debated just doing some straight lines echoing the seams, but in the end, I went with two different FMQ designs: flowers and square spirals.

I love all the yummy texture this quilting creates!

The finished size is about 50" x 68" before washing - so a pretty good size for the couch.

If you're in the market for a really quick and easy quilt - the pattern comes in 3 sizes (baby, lap and twin), I highly recommend this one.  It would be perfect for that charm pack you've been hoarding or you can use scraps.  This pattern is perfect for some fun fussy cutting and would make an awesome "I spy" baby quilt.

I will be linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and at for Crazy Dutch Bird Quilts for TGIFF.

And this is project number 7 on my 2016 FAL Q3 list so I'll be linking up for that too at the beginning of October.

A Handmade Lunchbag

On Sunday last week, my daughter Marianne asked me if I'd be willing to make her a lunch bag for school.  She's tired of cafeteria food and wants to bring her own lunch.  I told her I would be happy to make one for her of course...

If you've been following me  here for a bit, you might remember the lunch bags I made for Christmas last year.  It would have been so easy to just make one for her, but no... I had to try a new pattern!

I found this one and got to work right away.

I used some Cherry Christmas (by Aneela Hoey) charms I had leftover from a quilt I'm working on now and paired it with Little Apples fat quarters (also by Aneela Hoey).

I didn't have interfacing on hand so the handles are a little bit "floppy", but other than that, I really like this little bag.

I used a matching red zipper...

And this super fun print for the lining.

Unfortunately, the size turned out a little bit too narrow - the bottom isn't wide enough to fit containers.  So I decided to keep this one and make Marianne another one.  I'll probably just end up using the same tutorial I used for the Christmas bags...  :-)

Do you have a favourite tutorial for a small bag?

I will be linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts and at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts for TGIFF.

Color Block Pouch

I think I may have a problem...  I just want to keep making zipper pouches!

I'm working on a Christmas lap quilt this week, but I'm at the stage in the quilt making where I have to sew rows together and I'm not crazy about that step (all those loooooong seams!)  So I decided to take a break and make something small.

Then I remembered I saved a post from s.o.t.a.k. handmade at the beginning of the month.  She gathered 30 free tutorials or patterns for zipper pouches and put them all together in one blog post, which is awesome (she did the same thing for bags if those are more your thing!)

The Color Block Pouch tutorial was part of the list and I remembered that Debbie from A Quilter's Table made that pouch a little while ago.  The design is very striking and it looked easy enough so I pulled some fabrics and got started!

I found some leftover Curiosities by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery on my cutting table (I'm using it to make the Meadow Mystery Quilt) and then went through my solid scraps and found the perfect matches - Kona Charcoal and Kona White.

Debbie was right - the tutorial is super clear and the pouch is easy and quick to put together (about 2 hours from beginning to end).  I didn't have a 7" zipper on hand so used a 12" one but I think I might have cut it a bit short...

See that little gap at the end there? I don't think it's supposed to be there!

The other end looks pretty good though :-)

I used the Curiosities fabric for the back of the pouch too.

I don't really have a purpose for this pouch yet, but that doesn't really matter does it?  Maybe I could use it to carry my sewing supplies for the Montreal MQG sew-in days!

So that's my small finish for the week!  I'm going to link up at Crazy Mom Quilts and at Quilt Matters for TGIFF.

Week 2 of #100days100blocks

I can't believe I've been able to keep up with this challenge!  I got through week 2 and posted my block every morning.

I'm done with the orange scrap bin now and moved on to the purple one (purple is my favourite colour so I'm really enjoying sewing these up!)

Some of these scraps are 7 or 8 years-old - I used them in one of my very first quilts.

I put them all up on my design wall just now and they look amazing!  I'm so excited about this quilt.

I saw that a few participants in the QAL are sewing borders on their block in preparation for putting the blocks together in a quilt.  I think this is a pretty good idea and I might start doing that too.  Although I'm not quite sure if I want to go with pure white, off white or light grey.  Any thoughts?

State of Being... in Jamaica!

If you're a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, you probably received the State of Being pattern back in June 2016.  It was designed by one of my favourite designers: Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. As soon as I saw it in my inbox, I immediately added it to my list for the Summer.

I had a large cut of Kona Jamaica so decided to use that as the background.  The other fabrics are Kona Ash and Kona Kumquat.  I just love the contrast of the Kumquat against the Jamaica.

For the quilting, I went with something quick and easy - wavy vertical lines quilted with the walking foot.

I'm very happy with this finish - I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the quilt yet. And that's a little bit strange for me.  I typically know who the quilt is going to be gifted to when I start a project. But this one doesn't really have a destination...  I made it just because I fell in love with the design.  So maybe I'll end up keeping it for me.  :-)

This is project number 5 on my FAL list for Q3 of 2016.

I'll also be linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts and at Anja Quilts for TGIFF.

Week 1 of #100days100blocks

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when I saw that a super fun and challenging quilt-along would kick off on August 17.  The goal of this QAL is to make one block a day for 100 days.  And which blocks you might ask?  The Tula Pink City Sampler blocks!

I bought the book about a year ago and I've been wanting to sew with my scraps so I just had to jump on this one.  If you would like to follow along, just search for the #100days100blocks hashtag on Instagram.

I plan on making the "Skyline" quilt with my blocks and will be using a different colour for each "column", starting with orange.  I even created a Pinterest board for inspiration.

And here are blocks 1 through 7 of my City Sampler:

And here they are arranged in a column, the way they would appear within the sampler quilt:

I'm having so much fun making these blocks and posting to Instagram!  There are already more than 4,500 pictures tagged with #100days100blocks - so much eye candy - so much inspiration!
 

A new zipper pouch for Marianne

It's back to school time!  I don't make a lot of handmade items for school, but every year, my daughter Marianne asks for a new pencil case.

She has lots of pencils and pens and a huge scientific calculator which also needs to fit into the case, so this year, I made her pouch a little bit bigger than the typical pencil case.

I used this tutorial, which I also used to make my Sunny Zipper Pouch a few weeks ago.  I had fun fussy cutting some of the 2" squares (isn't that fox cute?!).

I love how neat the zipper tabs look.  And I'm getting so much better at sewing zippers!

I just love those Avalon dots (by Fig Tree & Co for Moda).  And every last bit of this zipper pouch was made with scraps, which is the best part!

And I'm happy to say Marianne was thrilled with her new pencil case!

I will be linking up Crazy Mom Quilts when she comes back from her social media break and at The Quilt Journal who is hosting TGIFF this week.