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