A Zip Bag For Any Occassion!

This month, a granddaughter had a birthday. Usually, we send money to the grands, but this year we decided to send a gift.  She is an arty kind of girl, so I bought her some Prismacolor pencils and a sketch book along with a book on how to draw cute animals.

After it was finished, I was thinking about how to wrap and ship and it occurred to me that a zip bag would provide decorative 'wrap' and I could put it all on a padded envelope to send.  I only had a couple of days before the shipping deadline for it to arrive on time, but I decided to make a prototype with some solid charm squares before I used a print charm pack.

I wasn't sure of my size conversion, but once I got some squares put together and the size confirmed, I liked the look of the solid squares.  I decided to embellish with her name embroidered on one side, which provided a central motif to echo.

For the back, I used some 'dot-to-dot' quilting ala Angela Walters.

Despite a post office holiday in the same week, it arrived exactly on time.  I think she liked it.  Sometimes it is hard to tell with 'almost teens', but she sounded enthusiastic when we spoke on the phone.

I love these little fast projects!  I think I may try some half square triangles or other, more complex piecing down the road.

Who knows?  Maybe all my holiday gifts will be 'wrapped' in a zip bag!

Better Than The Sum of The Parts

I am on a roll with zip bags.   I don't know why, but Julie's tutorial just made it seem so easy, and it really was. 

This one was made from 5" squares, so it is four times the size if the originals.

I used a stack of squares that I rescued from a very poorly pieced lap quilt top I bought in a bunch of stuff at a church sale. The squares were cut perfectly, but the seams were the wonkiest ever, so I 'unsewed' them. The fabrics were not ones I would likely purchase, but my goal was to use it to practice some "dot-to-dot" quilting from Angela Walter's Craftsy class. 

The squares were a great size for the designs that Angela teaches, and now that I finished it, I don't even notice the individual fabrics. They just all kind of become a color pattern. 

After I filled it, it began to take on a box shape, so I am thinking about possibly adding a snap to the ends so that it would stay that way.  

One change I made with this bag is that I quilted the lining to the pieced shell so the seams inside are raw edged.  I don't think that will matter, though, as this size will more likely be used for closet or shelf storage.

I plan to make a couple more of these bags. I think they will be good fmq practice and since they zip, they will keep the dust out of whatever is inside. 

How  do you use 'ugly' fabrics?

Stash Update - Week 34

There was lots of quilt related activity this week and even a tiny bit of fabric used in a finish.

I finished the top for our guild challenge. The reveal is next month, so I have a couple of weeks to get it quilted and bound. I will wait to show you until it is finished. It is not really too exciting, but I did try a new technique, so that is a plus.

After putting the top together, I really wanted something with more immediate gratification, so I used Julie's  Moda Bakeshop tutorial to make this little zip pouch.   I used a mini charm pack from QuiltCon and a fat eighth from my stash for the lining.   I practiced some free motion feathers in the quilting.

It was so fun, I used some extra squares from the challenge quilt to do another one!  I used an orange peel pattern for the quilting in this one.

But, the big news is week was the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild fall retreat on Saturday!  We sewed from 9am to 8pm with short breaks for lunch and dinner. So much inspiring fun!  

I worked on some string blocks for a Quilts of Valor project, organized by Alycia at Alycia Quilts. I finished 20 and they are packed and ready to send to her on Monday!

I also worked on my Penguin and Fish blocks. I finished all the ones I originally stitched, but I purchased a few more this summer and I am going to add a couple more before I stitch them onto a quilt top. 

It was loads of fun to sew with friends and so inspiring to see what everyone was working on!  I didn't sign up for last year's one day retreat and I remember thinking that it seemed like a lot of trouble to pack up all my projects so that I could sew somewhere else for a day when I have such a great sewing space at home.   

Now I know it is totally worth it!  It requires project organization and commitment to work on what you take and that means progress on long neglected WIPs!

Used this week-  3 yards for foundation and strings in the QOV blocks and a half yard in each of the two zip pouches.   Next week I hope I can report the challenge  quilt and make a bigger dent!

Fabric added this week - 0 yards

Fabric added YTD - 75 yards

Fabric used this week -4 yards

Fabric used YTD - 64 yards

Net Stash change -+11 yards

I am linking up here, just to stay on track!