One Monthly Goal At Elm Street Quilts

In an effort to keep me a bit more focussed this month I am going to link up at Elm Street quilts for their September OMG Link -Up.

The quilt I would like to be working on is Elizabeth Hartman’s Kitten quilt. I started this inexplicably while doing another project and it is already in danger of falling by the wayside (as, of course, I am already working on something else!)

So my goal for September is to do at least 10 cat blocks which should be achievable if I do 2-3 per week. The fabric is already cut and ready to go

The inspiration for this came from our cats...got quite excited about being able to match the fabric to the cat’s fur. This stack of fabric has been sitting in my stash forever waiting for that special project to come along.

This should be fun! 

Linking up to the September OMG Link-Up over at Elm Street Quilts. Hopefully I can show off my 10 cats by 24th September for the finish-up party

Karin

Leftover Pouch

OMG...I have been bitten by the bag bug. Still making little pouches, ever since I heard about the Bag It Link Up up over at Elm Street Quilts.
I promise, this is the last one for a while...I mean how many pouches do I really need?

Could not resist though. I used the same pattern as for my last pouch (Pattern a la Carte from The Wooden Bear) as I liked its easy construction. Very quick to make and turned out just as nice second time around.

I used some of the last bits from my Drifting Leaves quilt and just sewed some strips together, using bits and pieces. Also used leftover small bits of fusible fleece and stitched them together for use, so felt particularly frugal.

The pouch is very pretty with two different sides

So cute...found some beads and a thin leather strap in the cupboard so I used this for a bit of fun embellishment.

Linking up my little pouch to Bag It Link Up over at Elm Street Quilts. Elm Street Quilts is running this event right into December and you can link up any bag which gives you an entry in the event. Really enjoying this event, but that's it...no more! I actually need to get going on some other quilts.

Karin

Patterns a la Carte Pouch

A while back I won a Pattern a la Carte from The Wooden Bear through the FMQ challenge run by Quiltshopgal in 2015.

I finally got around to making this pouch.

With this pouch there were several themes that you could choose from  the web site. I chose the following

 I printed them on Matilda's Own Printable Fabric Sheets (you need two sheets if you want to include the side label) and cut out the bits that I needed super carefully. The pouch pattern was fantastic...there were three different options to change the look of your pouch and the instructions were easy to follow. The only thing I changed was the batting...I used my trusted fusible fleece.

Here is the completed pouch

The only issue I had was that my printable fabric did not like the heat that much and got slightly singed in parts. Had this problem before when making labels and ironing them...something to watch out for next time. Apart from this, this is one of the best pouches...the zipper is inserted with a casing on either side which looks fabulous, the pouch itself is very quick to put together and best of all, the lining sits like a glove.
Definitely will be doing another one of those once I get some more of the printable fabric sheets...this time paying more attention to the heat or maybe I should hunt around for a different product (as this has happened before with one of my labels).

Linking up my little pouch to Bag It Link Up over at Elm Street Quilts. Elm Street Quilts is running this event right into December and you can link up any bag which gives you an entry in the event. I might even do another one out of the leftovers of my Shannon Brinkley fabrics!

Karin

Zip It Up Craftsy Class

Got a free Craftsy class thanks to the Ultimate FMQ Challenge that was run by Quiltshopgal during the summer.

After much searching and considering I got the 'Zip It Up' Craftsy class with Joan Hawley. While I have done zippers before, I definitely struggle with them and thought it was time that I had a bit of a look on how to do this properly. There are three bags to choose from in the class, all with different ways on how to insert the zipper. I rather liked the Bendy Bag...a small bag with an interesting shape where the zipper was cut and a casing was attached.

So I bought some psychedelic zippers

I am so easily distracted...I have so many other things to finish and to start...little bags were not really on my radar, but this was just too enticing.

I finished this little bag in a day (so satisfying!), having watched the 'Zip It Up' class in its entirety when I first got it.

Well here it is...the Bendy bag

Very sturdy little bag. It uses Fusible Fleece for stabilising. I quite like that product. Easy to work with and gives little bags like this a lot of stability and form. For the fabric, I grabbed what I had...these two Fat Quarters came from my goodies bag that we all got at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival. Nice and bold and the combination of green and purple looks great.

...and another shot. Very impressed with this. This uses a casing for the zipper which was easy enough to do following the class with every step. I literally hit the repeat button again and again...Actually I had very few issues other than pressing ahead and not listening and then finding out that I was supposed to do something different, like for example trimming all the seams to 1/8in. Completely missed that but for the last seam, so all the others are 1/4in which obviously worked just as well.

Cute little bag. Actually beginning to realise what I have been doing wrong with zippers in the past...while this zipper is not perfect, it is looking pretty good, i.e. it is sewn in straight for a change and fits in perfectly.

Highly recommended class...would not mind getting Joan Hawley's other class 'Zippered Bags with a Twist: The One-Zip Way' class. That looks really interesting as well.

Linking up my little Bendy bag to Bag It Link Up over at Elm Street Quilts. Elm Street Quilts is running this event right into December and you can link up any bag which gives you an entry in the event. Great!

Karin