WIP Wednesday - Just a Little Progress

Another week down, man it passed fast!  I can't wait for basketball season to be over and family life to return to a sense of calm....hahaha!!  Not even sure I know what a sense of calm looks like!  Anyway, I have only been able to make a little progress this week on my EPP project.  It's about 1/2 the size of a lap quilt now....about 45 inches at the longest point.

I was thinking of making this queen sized for my bed....but I am not sure now.  Do I keep going??  or just finish the lap size?  Thoughts??  I really love how it's turning out, and I love having a portable project to keep my hands busy.

Please excuse my sad, dead winter grass.  Kinda ready for spring!  These little beauties are in my sewing basket, ready to made into stars...I love my sewing basket!  It's black with white Eiffel Towers and flowers all over it!

So...for my WIPs this week...NO progress on my Swoon quilt, sad to say.  I have not had a chance to sit at my sewing machine to start working on getting the top together.  Maybe this week??  I am also making great plans for a sewing room re-do.  It is gonna be awesome and I can't wait to start posting pics!!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced:

Birthday Weekend Re-cap

Birthdays are always a big deal in my family!  Yesterday was my birthday...can't believe I am another year older!  My husband is just awesome, and planned an entire day just for me.  I felt so special!  Saturday morning, we dropped my girlies off with Nana.  Then the hubs whips out a list of 6 quilt shops in the area that I've never been to...along with their addresses.  He told me that we were going to all of them and I could get 1 yard of fabric from each!  He is such a doll.  So, we plugged in the first address into the GPS and were off.  It was just the best day, spending time with my man all day, having fun in the car driving to each new place, and he helped me pick out some pretty great fabrics.

We went all over creation, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Cary, Apex.  There were 2 shops that I just loved.  I also got to try out a long arm quilting machine...squeal!!  I have always wanted to try one and I finally did it!  The last shop we went to offered lessons and quilting by the hour.  It's a 4 hour class, and then you get 2 free hours on the Gammill long arm.   I am definitely going to sign up for that one!

We ended up getting cupcakes at Gigi's Cupcakes, did some more shopping, and then went to get the girlies for dinner.  I had no idea what the plans were for the day, so I didn't bring my camera! oh well.  My husband is absolutely the best, hands down.

WIP Wednesday

I finally finished all of my Swoon blocks for my bed quilt!!  I wasn't so sure about some of them, but it's really growing on me!  I am thinking about swapping out the mustard one in the bottom corner though...and making another block closer to others' colors.  Anyway, for now, this is it!  I still have a lot of work to do to get this one finished, but it's progress for now.

I am also making some progress on my English paper piecing quilt.  So far, this piece is about the size of an oversized table runner....a long way from a lap quilt.  I've been taking these diamonds with me everywhere and have been making at least one star a day.  So at this rate it will be another 6 months to get the top done.  Oh well, this is going to be a relaxing project and I love that it is going to be entirely hand pieced and hand quilted!

This morning as we were heading in to and stopped at a light, I glanced over at the next car.  This woman was just staring at me as I was happily stitching some diamonds.  No sooner do I look over but she turns to the passenger and he pops his head up and looks at me too...guess no one ever sews in the car anymore, sheesh!!  It was pretty funny, I just laughed.  I'm sure they thought I was a little off my rocker, but that's okay!

My LQS had a great sale on fat quarters this week (in honor of Fat Tuesday, hehe!).  I bought a couple of FQs of Kaffe, something I honestly never thought I would ever purchase!  I always like how Kaffe fabrics look in quilts, but I just have never bought any. 

And more Paris fabric...I just love this fabric!!  It's so kitchy and I love the paisleys and flowers.  What am I going to do with all this fabric??  I have no idea...but I am sure it will be fun!

Linking up over at Freshly Pieced...love seeing everyone else's projects every week!!

Fancy Notions - Eiffel Tower Scissors

Ever since I can remember, I have been obsessed with Paris and everything about it.  Actually, obsessed with everything European.  So, when I saw these scissors, I knew I had to have them!! I've been doing a lot of hand-sewing lately, and these would go perfectly in my Eiffel Tower sewing basket! They are coming all the way from a shop in Singapore, so it might take a few weeks to make it here :o)

Eeep!!  Aren't they gorgeous???  

Ruffled Zipper Pouch Tutorial

So, I know there are a TON of tutorials online for making pouches, purses, cases, etc.  I'm just adding one to the list :o)

Isn't this fabric yummy??  Aunt Edna by Denyse Schmidt...love her!!  By the way, what is up with how much the price has gone up for her fabrics at Joann's??  Used to be $9.99 a yard and not always on sale so you could use a 40% off coupon and get it at a pretty decent price...now it's $12.99 a yard and always 30% off, making it $9 a yard and you can't use a coupon, very shifty, I tell ya!!  Anyway, hopping off my soap box!!

Materials you'll need:

1 ~ 7" zipper (I have recently started buying my zippers at Zipit on etsy.  The quality, price, shipping are unbeatable)

2 ~ 8"x6" outside fabric

2 ~ 8"x6" lining fabric

1 ~ 3" x 18" strip for the ruffle

2 ~ 8"x6" pieces of batting (could also use interfacing but I used what I had on hand)

1.  Fold over and press 1/4" of the ruffle fabric along the long side of the strip.  I hate frayed edges...it just annoys the crap out of me.  I hate how it ends up looking so ratty...so this is my solution :o)

2.  Once you have both sides pressed, start folding your pleats/ruffles.  I pin both sides because I don't like my ruffle looking all shifted when it gets sewn down...picky, aren't I??

3.  Layer ruffle, outside fabric, and batting.  Sew down ruffle, along the top and bottom of ruffle.  I pin the crap out of the ruffle and then don't pin it down, not sure why.  Pin it if you want to :o)

Sometimes you have to let out the last ruffle just to lessen the bulk on the side seams.

4.  Lay your zipper, face down, against the outside fabric.  Check your zipper placement to make sure you like how the pouch will open.  I like my pouches to have the zipper open to the right, close to the left.

Lay the lining fabric, print side down on top of the zipper.  Pin in place.  

5.  Using your zipper foot, stitch along the pinned portion of the zipper, removing pins as you go.  Go slowly, making sure the fabrics don't pucker and shift.

6.  Once you're done with the first side, repeat with the second side.  The outside fabrics will be right sides together and the lining fabrics right sides together.  Your layer will look like this ~ lining fabric, zipper, outside fabric, batting.  It was a little tricky to get a picture of the layers.

Here is the layer again top to bottom ~ lining, zipper, outside fabric, and batting.  Pin in place.

7.  Stitch down.  Careful of shifting fabrics!  If they every make a zipper/walking foot hybrid, that would be awesome!!

8.  Trim excess batting above the sewn line.  This will help eliminate the bulk around the top of the bag.  

9.  Just for an added touch, you can top stitch along the zipper. Use the zipper foot and pull sides apart as you stitch.  I pull pretty tightly since fabrics like to shift under the zipper foot.

9.  Here we are!  Ready to put the pouch together!  Unzip the zipper about halfway.  You will hate your life if you forget to do this!!

10.  When you start to line everything up, you will need to make sure your zipper sides push downward into the lining fabric. Do this to both sides, and pin all the way around.

Push the zipper down into the lining of the pouch.  It gets all funky if you don't.

Everything is pinned and ready to sew together!

11.  You're going to leave a 2" hole in the bottom of the lining fabric.  Start stitching about 3 inches from the corner.  I back stitch when I start and at every corner since I seem to be pretty hard on these pouches!

CAREFULLY sew over the zipper ends...I have snapped many a needle at this exact point.  Not safe, my friends, not safe!

12.  Once you sew all the way around, trim up the batting edges, clip the corners, and get your bag ready to turn inside out.

13.  Turn your bag, pushing out the corners.  You can either slip stitch, or machine stitch your lining opening.  I just machine stitch...again, hard on pouches!!

All done!!  Here it is, all ready to be filled with goodies!!

I'm crushing big time on the color grey at the moment....you'll have to forgive me if all of my sewing project have grey in them these days!

Nerds Rock Zipper Pouch

More pouches....it can't be helped!!  I am diggin these ruffly zippered pouches, even more because I use several each day.  One is for my makeup, one for inside my purse and holding my ZILLION lipsticks/glosses that oddly all seem to be the same color....don't judge!  One of my fave fabrics that I bought a few years ago is the Nerds Rock fabric.  I have no idea where I got it, but I bought a couple of yards, you know, "just in case." I'm finally starting to use it.  My daughters are both self-proclaimed nerds, which I adore.  They are both little book worms, reading absolutely everything they can.  Recently had to explain what "sanitary napkin" meant to my 8 year old.  My answer?  You wear it to stay clean.  She was baffled at why we would even think about wearing a napkin in underwear.  Don't want to have the talk with her just yet.  If she found out the real reason, she would FREAK out. Ah, ignorance really is bliss at 8 years old!  But I digress....here are the new pouches I finally got pics of:

 I got this grey fabric at Joann's recently...I bought about 6 yards of it because I just LOVE it!! And the diagonal stripes are just yummy!

 Aren't those little faces adorable??

There are so many tutorials out there, but I am thinking about making one for these cute little pouches...we'll see!