My First Zipper a.k.a. the One With the Boxy Pouch

 I am no longer scared of zippers...well, at least I am less scared of zippers than I was earlier today!

 So I am mostly a quilter but occasionally I like to try something new and different.  Up until now those "different" projects were always selected with NO ZIPPERS!!  Today, I put in my first zipper, and it wasn't too bad, really...it actually was pretty easy and came out really nice.
Thanks to this tutorial by Pink Stitches I have successfully made a Boxy Tote.  Of course, I used my favorite material ever...Sweetwater's Sewing Guide from Mama Said Sew.  I made three changes from the tutorial and used a 13" zipper, fusible fleece for interfacing, and some cotton webbing for the handle...these were the supplies I had on hand and I think they worked great with the pattern.

This is the bag with a pincushion I stitched last year...they make a good pair!

Here it is holding some of my favorite Aurifil spools...so pretty!

Now, I am ready to try another zipper project!

Doll Quilt Swap 14 Finished

I joined the latest round of DQS on Flickr and the mail date deadline is approaching, so I am glad to say I am finished!!

DQS14  Mini Quilt Swap

I love to add a small width binding to a mini

Aurifil 12 wt for the hand quilting

Quilting sneak peak

A few goodies thrown in for fun

 My partner has similar tastes to mine with texty background fabrics and a love for Denyse Schmidt fabrics so this was a chance to use some of my favorite bits  :)  This quilt is 14 inches square with 4 1/2" tiny granny squares.

A Snowstorm Equals Progress

I have made good progress on my Hello Luscious Celtic version of  Bonnie Hunters Mystery QAL.  Very glad to see that there will be enough contrast in the fabrics and I can see the circular pattern developing.  This has been a fun QAL, even if I was sick and fell behind a bit :)  I made the green and red block segments at Christmastime and now, with all the red and pink...I can think Valentines!

We, along with a lot of the country, were hit squarely with lots of snow (around a foot) and very cold temps this last week.  I think the low was around negative 20 degrees F.  We have a half mile gravel drive and it was a struggle to get "out" this time around as the old plow truck decided it needed a new distributor...my poor long suffering hubby at one point had to use a walk behind snowblower to clear about a 1/4 mile of said driveway in order to get out to get parts for the truck.  Fun times...I haven't gotten as much sewing done during this fun weather diversion as I would have thought as I am still fighting the remnants of a rotten cold and my son has been out of school all week and has had other plans for me :)  We made a snow igloo, a snowman, and a snow dalek...all are in danger this weekend though as rain is predicted tonight and tomorrow.

Snow Dalek

Linking to http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/01/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

Last Minute Christmas Sewing

 I decided to use today to play with a pattern I bought from Wendi at Shiny Happy World...you can find it here...

 She turned out pretty good, the pattern was easy to follow although with my newest cold my sewing has been slow going...

 Her tutu and wings are removable and sparkly...

I also have been plodding along on my hst's for Bonnie Hunters Mystery QAL...many more yet to go...

Hope you all are having a good day and finding time to sew...it's very foggy today...raining and our white Christmas hopes are melting away. 

Quilting Along in Between Getting Ready for Christmas

I am sorely behind on quilting projects but there has been an abundance of Christmas cookies flowing from my kitchen...so I'm going to give myself a pass :)

These are for the Quilty Fun QAL...find all info here...

And I am most of the way done with the geese...but..ummm...I'm supposed to be working on chevrons for the QAL this week!!

 The thing is, I started another QAL to use up a fat quarter bundle of Hello Luscious by Basic Grey that I have had for quite a while.  It told me it needed to be made into a quilt...NOW!  I won it from the wonderful Fat Quarter Shop during another QAL so it seemed fitting to use it for Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice QAL...the thing is...this seems to be fairly ambitious for a Christmastime QAL.  I am doing the small 75 x75 version (her large is a KING size!) and I have found it to take a day to cut and a day to piece for each week's installment which is a bit more than I have been able to shoehorn into my schedule.  Oh well, here is where I am right now...all pieces are cut for week one and week two...

 Funny enough, chevrons are this week for this QAL too and I have 10 of the 100 needed done...I like that these have a red and green Christmas theme though it wasn't on purpose.  I changed Bonnie's suggested colors from Orange to Pink and Yellow to Red because that was what I had in the bundle to work with...the other two colors are blue and green and I am using those as Bonnie suggested.

 And I have week one's triangles using the Tri Recs tool done...there are 188 of these...

Another clue (yes, this is a mystery quilt) will be out tomorrow so I may be officially behind on this QAL as of tomorrow unless I sew like a fiend :)  If you want to do this one, you can find the info at Bonnie Hunter's site here (look under Celtic Solstice).  It is only posted on her blog for a limited time, so be sure to print it out soon so as not to miss out.

On another note, I joined the DQS14 and this is my start...my partner's taste of colors and style are my inspiration but it seems to be universally popular within the swap group so I'm glad I picked well.  Hope to get this done soon after Christmas, it's due in January...it will probably be a 4 x 4 mini.

Having A Bit Of Quilty Fun

So I have been a crazy lucky girl this week...I joined the Quilty Fun SAL hosted by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet and The Fat Quarter Shop...the link to the Flickr group is here.  The first block/section and probably my favorite in the whole quilt was the Apples

 You need both the pdf download and the book to get all the info for making these sections as this quilt along is making a Sampler Quilt which is a bonus quilt not included in the book. You can order the book here and the free pdf link with the additional necessary info is on Kerry's blogpost.

The Fat Quarter Shop is hosting great giveaways every Monday as we go through completing this sampler and your entry for each giveaway is posting your sections in the Flickr group.

I was lucky enough to win the first giveaway...I know, so lucky...Thank you, thankyou Fat Quarter Shop!!!  It was a Rolie Polie from Lori's Gracie Girl line and I was thrilled to find it in my mailbox yesterday...The Fat Quarter Shop has amazing quick shipping!!  I was really pretty stunned at how quick it came!

 This strip set contains  3 1/2 strips of the Gracie Girl collection...I was planning to use my Polka Dot Stitches fabric from Lori's earlier line for this Sampler and adding this Rolie Polie to the mix will give me lots of Lori Holt fabric goodness to choose from.

So late last night I got straight to work making my stars for this week...care to join us?  If you get your stars in the Flickr pool by Monday maybe you will be crowing about your win next ;)  Good Luck!!

So Let It Snow Already...I'm Gonna Quilt!

 I guess it's November so I shouldn't complain about an inch of snow...just play with triangles instead of rake the leaves, eh?

I think I like where this is headed...