Pouch Crazy

Last week I wrote about the pouch I made for my sewing buddy. Well it didn't end there.

I made a three pocket pouch for my grandniece for her birthday. 

See... three lined pockets with matching zippers. I followed this tutorial with a few modifications.  I don't usually sew from other people's patterns as I like the design component so much. However, I learned some really neat tricks working with that pattern, which I was able to incorporate into the pouch for the guild swap.

And as my reward, I received this adorable thank you note. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that there are still kids who write thank you notes.

I had no sooner sent this pouch off and received the sweet note when my guild announced - you guessed it - a pouch swap. Because it was for someone in my guild, I wanted to make something original, so I went to the drawing board.

First I tried to think about a type of pouch that I would really use, and hope I've hit on something others will appreciate. 

Here in Atlanta it is festival season. Every neighborhood has their own festival to raise money for parks, and other improvements that taxes just can't cover. Ours is called Summerfest. Typically a festival is held on Saturday and Sunday and kicks off with a parade and road race in the morning. Key streets in the neighborhood are closed off to set up an artist market, food trucks, a stage for bands, beer sales, and did I mention an artist market? You get the picture. Me wandering around listening to music, sipping a beer, and needing a place to keep cash, ID, and a credit card - 'cause did I mention the artist market? 

Based on that need, I came up with this idea for a zippered pouch with a very long strap so it could be worn cross body.

As you can see, I used English paper piecing to make a fabric piece about

nine inches wide by 20 inches tall. The finished bag is closer to eight by nine. 

There it is all pieced with the papers still attached to the back. You can see that I used two different shades of orange combined with some gray scraps all left over from another project. The fabric shown here is from the Spot On and Metro Living collections from Robert Kaufman, and they differentiate the colors as orange and tangerine.

After I removed the paper templates, I fused a lightweight piece of interfacing to the back of the fabric to give it a bit more body and stability - I don't honestly trust my hand stitching all that well, but fusibles can fix anything.

Next I squared up the fabric, 

and cut it in half. 

Fortunately I had purchased a bulk package of YKK zippers a couple of months ago, so matching zippers were in my stash. You can see with this photo where this is headed.

I love this neat technique found in the triple zipper pouch tutorial for finishing the zipper ends. 

And I was able to line each pocket (one shallow pocket on each side and a large full sized pocket down the middle) with more Spot On (snow on white). The instructions for how to insert the zippers and line the pouch pockets in one fell swoop are included in the tutorial from Debbie at A Quilter's Table mentioned above. And yes, Debbie is a much more prolific quilter and blogger than me. Hats off to that, and to her awesome quilts.

The exchange happens on Thursday, so I really hope whoever gets this one likes it. And I have full plans to make another for myself. I'm noodling with using up some prized selvage strips for mine instead of the hand sewn hexies. What do you think?

Until next time!

Kay Stephenson for Stitching Times

And goodnight to the Old Lady whispering "hush"

Don't you love Margaret Wise Brown's classic bedtime story? The illustrations by Clement Hurd

are brought to life in a new collection of licensed prints by Cloud 9 Fabrics. When I saw the fabric being offered by one of my favorite retailers, I thought immediately of a friend with a new baby and decided I needed to make something for her.

In the past, I've made quilts for baby showers, and then followed up with a gift when baby is born of some bookends and a starter collection of board books. Goodnight Moon is always among them. 

This time I decided to make something that would work as a baby quilt, but also hold up to rougher use as a playmat as baby grows through toddler stage.

And I love that Cloud 9 produces only organic cotton fabrics using low-impact dyes, so you know it is safe for baby.

How is that for bright primary colors?

There's little bunny....

and pesky mouse.

Clementine Glory. What a perfectly  Southern little girl name!

 

I used this dark teal solid for the back, which coordinates with the prints, but also won't show stains as much as a lighter backing. We are talking children playing on the floor in a house with dogs.

If you are looking for a quick and easy gift for a new baby or a toddler, this is it. This play mat is made up in the wonderful “Goodnight Moon” collection from Cloud 9 Fabrics. The design is a very simple large block patchwork that even the most novice quilter can easily master. Consisting of only three sizes of blocks, it’s also really quick. You can cut and pieced the top in an afternoon, and the quilting design (a simple diamond grid) is just as straightforward. No special skill required. Find the pattern here.

The Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge

Quilt Front

Last fall I signed up for the Riley Blake Challenge with the Modern Quilt Guild, and today is the day! All quilts have to be finished and photos posted on the guild website. today. I finished mine a couple of weeks ago and posted it there, but waited until today for the big reveal here.

Quilt back

Fabric I was given

I was provided initially with this stack of fabrics. There were six cuts that were each ten by ten. Though others have made quilts for the challenge that used all of the fabrics, I just couldn't wrap my mind around including all of them, so I pulled the blue check and yellow dot and decided to work with the rest, plus more fabric I purchased and pulled from stash.

Fabric I used

A couple of these fabrics are ombres, which means that they shade from light to dark and back to light across the width of the fabric. As you can see in the finished quilt photo, I tried to leverage that gradation in the quilt so that the background values are lighter at the top shading to darker at the bottom.

You may also recognize the design of the quilt as a simpler version of Tetris Hex that I made for one of my nieces. I've finally managed to write the pattern for that one, and you can find it here, along with comments to make this Riley Blake quilt as well. 

Isn't it great to start the week writing about something that has been accomplished? Now on to the next.

The Stash That Keeps On Giving

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I had a pretty good size pile of remnants and scraps left over when I finished the latest Wonky Log Cabin quilt. The technique of building wonky log cabin blocks can also be applied to building a larger piece of fabric which is then cut using a pattern to make something else. I've used the technique to make everything from scrappy holiday oven mitts to bags.

Wonky Crisscrossed Bag

Basically you start in the center and just continue to add on strips of fabric until you have a piece large enough for whatever you want to cut out. For this project I built up about a half yard of the aqua colorway and another of the lime. For the lining I had pieces that were large enough to cut out of whole cloth, which is probably a good idea. I’m not sure how well a pieced lining would hold up with sharp items like pens and keys going in and out.

If you want to try something similar with your leftovers, the pattern for my crisscrossed bag can be found here.

Conventional Crisscrossed Bag

The downside of buying 11 yards of fabric because you love the entire line is that I’m still left with all of this.

Yikes!

I’m thinking about making some wonky pillow shams!

My Cotton Bole Quilt

Was it seriously September 11, 2012 when I posted this picture on Facebook with a promise to have the pattern together in “a couple of weeks”? Indeed it was and despite the fact that I don’t enjoy writing up the patterns for the pieces I design, I have to admit that is a bit ridiculous. Nevertheless it is finally here.

I do love this quilt which I find fresh and modern even though it’s based on a very traditional block. I call this my Wonky Log Cabin because the strips are all different widths and it doesn’t hold to the light on top and dark on the bottom pattern for a traditional Log Cabin block.

I also call it my Cotton Bole Quilt because for the life of me I can’t think of anything other than big old cotton boles ready to be picked when I look at the focus print I used for the center blocks and the backing.

Much like this earlier quilt, which I wrote about here, it was made as a quilt-as-you-go project, which makes it ideal for hand quilting on road trips or while attending those tedious community meetings. Did I say that out loud? With quilt-as-you-go, you quilt all of the blocks separately and then join them together For the earlier quilt I did, in fact, do all of the quilting by hand – mostly while sitting on the beach watching my husband learn all about surf fishing. This newer Cotton Bole quilt was in fact machine quilted and I can’t tell you what a joy it is to machine quilt on a block that is only 12 ½ inches square.

I really like the wonky log cabin technique for using up leftover fabric too. With the fabric I had left from this quilt, I made a crisscrossed bag which I will hopefully get photographed and show you soon.

Do you ever start a project thinking it will be a gift for someone and then find that your family has appropriated it before you can give it away? Such is the case with this little gem. Well I guess being able to claim your work is all done in a pet-free environment is overrated anyway.

Post-Holiday Catch Up

It seems I've been so busy preparing for, celebrating, and dismantling the holidays that I've forgotten to blog about it. Lest you think I'm a total been slacker, here are a few of the things I've been up to since Thanksgiving.

Back in the spring of 2012 I mentioned that I was taking Amy Gibson’s Block of the Month class on Craftsy.  Well in due course I finished the quilt. Because I chose holiday colors (if not necessarily holiday themed fabric) it seemed essential that I get it finished and hung before our annual holiday party on December 15^th. I made it with a few days to spare and even managed to get our tree up and decorated to show it off. In hindsight I wish I had used a bit less aqua in the background and more white, but all in all I liked it well enough.

Speaking of that party, I also always make ornaments for our guests to take home as party favors. In October I had the opportunity to meet Natalie Chanin, (please watch the video at this link). Natalie is the founder and head designer at Alabama Chanin, and I talked with her about her work. I was wowed by this phenomenally talented entrepreneur, designer and author. After looking at her current collection of handmade apparel, I knew I had found my inspiration for this year’s ornament. Like her apparel line these ornaments are all hand stitched and embellished with simple monochromatic designs. Most of the techniques can be found in her book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design.  The ornament shown at left is just one example. I always ensure that each of my ornaments is bit different. Some of the ones for this year included embroidery, beads and a variety of embellishments.

I wish I had some good pictures of the party to share but the truth is that I cook for a week straight to get ready for the party and by the evening of I just want to relax, drink a few glasses of wine and talk with friends. Somehow I never remember to pick up the camera. I did have good pictures of the ornament I made last year. Remember these? I leveraged that one for the invitation this year.

One final holiday sewing project to consider for next year – or any time of year depending on your fabric – is holiday tissue box covers. We keep tissue boxes all over the house since I have allergies and I’m also prone to boohooing over everything from true tragedy to cute commercials on TV. In past years I've found cute holiday themed boxes to scatter about, but this year nada. My solution? I made some covers to go over a standard Kleenex Ultra Soft tissue box. This is a really simple project and you should be able to make one cover out of a fat quarter or regular ¼ yard cut left from another project. Just follow these instructions.

Find an empty tissue box and take it apart.

Cut out two pieces of fabric that are 5 x 5 inches for the top and four pieces that are 5 x 6 for the sides.

Fuse a piece of heavy weight interfacing to the back of all four side pieces and one of the top pieces.

On the reverse side of one top piece of fabric trace the opening from the cardboard box top.

Place your two top pieces with right sides together and stitch around the line you have made.

Trim away the material in the center of the oval opening leaving about a ¼ inch seam allowance.

Clip the curves on the oval and turn and press the fabric so that right sides are now out.

Stitch the side pieces – one to each side of the top – and press these seams away from the top of the cover.

Turn the cover inside out and stitch down the side seams making sure to back-stitch at the top and bottom of each seam. These are pressure points so you want to make sure the stitches won’t pull out.

Turn up the base of the cover toward the inside to make the cover approximately 5 ½ inches tall – measure with your tissue box to ensure it fully covers the cardboard. Stitch around the base to hold the fold in place.

That’s all there is to it, and now that you know how to do this with this particular box, you can see how easy it would be to do with any size box of tissue, just measure your box, make sure to add sufficient fabric to leave seam allowances and use the box top as a template.

Now about those toilet paper covers…

Is it Fall Yet?

Having grown up in Northern New York State, I still expect cool weather and turning leaves to arrive in September.  Here we are days before Halloween in Atlanta and the maple in the front yard is finally starting to turn. I even had to turn the heat on for an hour this morning to take the chill off the house. Two days ago I was still wearing shorts and sandals, but I know that fall is here because the Bottle Gentian Gentiana andrewsii is blooming.

As are the New York Asters Symphyotrichum novi-belgii

And the Virginia Creeper Parthenocissus quincquefolia that rambles over the fence is turning such a lovely shade of red.

Just never mind that the Plumbago Plumbago auriculata still thinks it’s July.

Despite all those green leaves out there, in two days munchkins will be ringing the door bell and I’ll be wishing I could still eat enough candy to make me sick without gaining an ounce. In anticipation of the fall colors that will eventually come to the maple tree and the pumpkins pies that will be topped with real whipped cream (no cool whip in this house), I made this simple table topper.

Want to make one too? It’s pretty easy. I had about a yard of a fall themed focus print fabric that a family member had left over from another project.

From this  I cut a rectangle that was the size of the repeat with an extra ¼ inch on all sides – in this case the repeat was 12 by 12 inches, but yours might be smaller or larger.

Next I dug through my stash and pulled out a variety of solid and small print fabrics that echoed the colors in the focus print. With these I started building up borders. In addition to the solid black and white borders, I cut the assorted fabrics into three inch by the width of fabric (WOF) strips. These were sewed together and then subcut into more border strips. I cut four corner squares from the focus print, picking out details (in this case leaves and sunflowers) and assembled all of these in a design that was pleasing o me. I love improvisational projects like this, figuring it out as I go. Don't you?

Oh, and while I was at it, I made this…

to hold a nice bottle of cognac for a friend. Sidecar anyone?

One Last Blast for Winter!

With the temperature predicted to clime to 80 today here in Atlanta, I must be mad to be writing up a pattern for a wool scarf. I guess sometimes I just like to be contrary. The truth is, I finished this scarf at Christmas time, but it was such a simple pattern, it hardly seemed worth writing up. Today though, as I was packing up some of my winter accessories it occurred to me that some of my readers up north are still hearing the wind howl around the corner of the house and watching snow fly by the window. So for all of you, I've written up the pattern and posted it for free on Craftsy.com, and here. If not this spring, perhaps in the fall you will decide to pull out the hook and have a go. Enjoy!

Chunky Ribbed Scarf Pattern

Project Specifications

Description:

Looking for an easy crocheted scarf for beginners? This one couldn’t be simpler.  The whole scarf is made with back loop single crochet and works up in a few hours. Chunky yarn and a large hook size are part of the magic. Best of all, this scarf is extra long so you can wrap it around and around to keep you warm and look fashionable.

Skill Level:

Beginners will learn single crochet stitch and to crochet in back loops.

Finished Dimensions:

Scarf is approximately 5 inches wide and 96 inches long.

Gauge

13 stitches and 15 rows – 4 x 4 swatch

Materials

Yarn

3 skeins KnitPicks[1] Wool of the Andes Bulky (100 grams, 137 yards, bulky weight). This is a 100% Peruvian Highland Wool yarn that can be hand washed and dried flat. The color I used was Vinca.

If unavailable, any bulky weight soft wool yarn will do. On the yarn label look for yarn that calls for size 10-11 knitting needles[2] However, substitution will make checking your gauge even more critical. To achieve the desired dimensions, you may need to go up or down a hook size, and add or decrease the number of stitches and rows to achieve the finished dimensions of the pattern.

Tools:

Crochet hook US size K/10.5 (6.50 mm)

Abbreviations and symbols used in this pattern[3]

bl – back loop

ch – chain

chs – chains

fl – front loop

lps - loops

sc – single crochet

st(s) – stitch(es)

tch – turning chain

yo – yarn over

*__ * repeat directions following * as many times as indicated

Special Stitches

The single crochet stitch is quite straightforward. With a foundation chain started, turn back and insert the hook into the 2^nd stitch from the hook. Yarn over from back to front (that is, take the ball yarn and bring it from back to front over the hook) and pull that loop through the chain. You now have two loops on the hook. Yarn over again and draw that loop through the other two loops on your hook. This completes the stitch. When you come to the end of a row, you will turn your work, chain one for height and insert your hook into the first single crochet stitch in the row below, continuing in this manner across the row. 

The back loop single crochet is worked in exactly the same manner with the exception that the stitch is worked in the only the back loop of the stitch below leaving the front loop untouched. As you work back and forth in successive rows, this use of the back loop only will create the ribbed texture of this scarf.

Crochet Directions

Chain 301, turn.

Row 1: sc in 2^nd loop from chain, sc across, turn.

Row 2: *chain 1, sc in bl of first sc. sc in bl across, turn.*

Row 3 - 19: repeat * to *

Fasten off and weave in ends.

Finishing

Generally I would recommend blocking your finished crochet project. However, due to the texture and weight of this scarf, I didn’t find any blocking necessary. If you do find the corners curling a bit and want to block the scarf, try this method. Heat a steam iron to the highest temperature. When it is warm enough to make abundant steam, lay the scarf out flat on your ironing board. Pass the iron a couple of inches above the scarf being careful not to actually touch the fabric. The steam should help to set the shape of the scarf and eliminate curling. Allow the scarf to cool before handling. Also, I generally store hand crocheted scarves loosely doubled and then hung over the rod of a sturdy coat hanger (wood, aluminum, plastic) rather than stuffing it into a drawer or hanging it on a hook. This keeps the weight of the scarf from stretching it too much and helps the scarf to retain its shape

---

[1] KnitPicks is an online store which can be found at www.knitpicks.com

[2] This will correspond to a US size K or M crochet hook, but recommended crochet hook sizes are rarely noted on yarn labels.

[3] This pattern is written in American terminology. For British users, treat single crochet as a double crochet.

W00t

Craftsy Patterns has launched and I have already sold two patterns this morning. What a great way to start the day!

Now back to the salt mines of pattern writing. Arrgh. Love to design; like to make up the samples and photograph them; not so thrilled about writing up the patterns. Today I'm working on the pattern for a crocheted set of hand warmers and a matching cowl or neck warmer. The set is all done up with cute post stitch cables and columns. Pay no attention to the model in the picture. We are going to be working on that before we go to print. In the meantime, go have a look at all of the patterns on Craftsy, or just check out my store!