Zippy Pouch Love

Fun to have a long weekend for Labour Weekend here in NZ and some unexpected sewing time on Saturday to whip up this zippy pouch for a friend's birthday yesterday.

I used Anna's tried and true Open Wide Pouch tutorial.

I had a canvas like remnant with these whacko trees from Ikea which is so whimsical and fun.

And I lined it with an Architextures piece, with an accent for the zip pull from another one of my favourite colours and prints. Love Carolyn Friedlander's fabrics! I managed to resist buying her last range (Doe) since I haven't used up the Architextures and Botanics yet; but I may come to regret that decision, since she's about to bring out yet another stunning collection. I'm just trying not to buy too much fabric which I don't have a specific plan for... On the other hand it's so great having something perfect on hand when inspiration strikes.

I think the wee gift was well received and these pouches are so useful so hopefully it'll be put to good use.

What's your plan for an ideal stash? How do your intentions work in reality? What size cut do you buy and do you make rules for yourself? Do share!

Open Wide Pouch

I was delighted today to have a painting reprieve and get together with Liz and have a bit of time for sewing.

So satisfying to complete a small project all in one hit and make this zippy pouch for my mother-in-law, to cheer her up a bit after long months of illness, culminating in an operation this week.

 

It's Anna's Open Wide Pouch tutorial in the 10" (medium) size  and it does open nice and wide to fill with a few pampering goodies

This great Ikea print is so cheery, it has a few incarnations at our house!





I like the way you can fold the sides down to make a more boxy shape too.

The other day I had a lovely couple of hours with another friend and managed to make a start on this month's "do.Good Stitches" bee blocks; for which two 12 1/2" blocks in green and cream have been requested.  Being a bit short of time just lately meant I didn't look too far and enjoyed making another x and + block like the ones that were so successful for Kirsten's solids' quilt

A bit of a press and a trim wouldn't have gone amiss...

I chose the fabrics for the other block, but didn't quite manage to finish the cutting out. Will have to make time to finish this off shortly...

Since this is Slow Bloggers link up week (see that nice snail in the sidebar?), I thought I'd edit this to add what else I've been up to/justify myself as a slow blogger! 

Some of you may know we're shortly heading home to NZ (via Cambodia, as you do...) after a 6 year sojourn here in Australia. So life has been supplemented by such fun things as: clearing out cupboards, showing moving companies around, preparing house and cars (not that we've done much on that yet) for sale (entailing painting, extra gardening and getting around to those gazillions of little jobs, one doesn't for oneself). It has been a fun diversion planning the Cambodia itinerary actually! Also, the day job (which seems to have had a burst of busyness lately) serves very well to keep life in perspective, (since the day job entails consulting with people about problems they face); next week a quick new school surveillance trip is planned to NZ, just after a 24hour Pedal Prix event next weekend with our son's school team,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=UUorrxaDL1jO1ZZoRCBJe0Yw&v=CqpLZJcGvi4

(how do you put the actual video in the post?!)

which will require earplugs to drown out the noise for snatches of sleep-can catch up on the plane we figure...

So sewing? Blogging? Not so much...

Spring Colours

 I had never seen a lily (I presume it is) like this one before. It was so thick and large it looked like it was moulded from plastic. The bud you can see behind was also most unusual.

These, just growing by a busy, dirty noisy roadside in a business garden, were prolific and so vivid too. The centre of that flower looks like it's designed especially for pollinators to me...!

I managed a bit of sewing a couple of evenings this week and was impressed with my aging machine's capabilities in sewing this leather pouch for a friend's birthday. 

Lined with some lovely orange feathers from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study collection

I made another pouch too, which I might keep under wraps for the time being.

And here are a few more pictures of my finished improvised quilt previously posted here and here.

I like the effect of the scrappy binding and for the quilting I used a thread a few shades darker than the aqua as I wanted to reduce it's clean brightness a little. I had mis-identified the blue I'd used in the centre of some of the squares as Kona Aqua, when actually on closer examination in better light I think it was Dusty Blue- the perils of 1" swatches on a card...

At least I think it's finished, I'm considering adding some dark aqua and blue hand quilting in between some of the wider lines...?

And last but not least, look at the lovely needle case Liz made me to match the pincushion at the end of this post! I suspect she used this pattern?

Camera Case

We recently bought a new compact camera, just to have in a pocket or bag to save lugging the big one around all the time. We didn't buy a case for it, thinking I could make one. I've dithered for a few weeks waiting for this fab fabric to arrive:

and trying to decide on the best design. I'm not sure that this is the best design for this, but at least it protects it and it's simple.

Just a lined pouch, boxed at the base, and with a little batting for padding.

Ideally I would have like to find a silver flex thingy, but I couldn't without waiting longer to order on online and so I decided that this one, available locally is OK.

I adapted Ayumi's tutorial which was really clear.

All in all I'm pretty pleased.


Joining in today over here