My First Zip-Up Tray Pouch

In August I won a giveaway by Sandy from the blog Upstairs Hobby Room. The prize was a kit and pattern for making the Zip-Up Tray Pouch by Aneela Hoey The kit contained two beautiful prints and a green solid, in addition to a separating zipper.

I had to go shopping for heavyweight fusible interfacing. It is essential for the pouch to be very stiff, so it is not possible to use regular interfacing or batting.

I chose to use the rose fabric for the exterior and the solid green for the interior. It is much easier to keep track of all the stuff you put inside if the interior fabric is not too busy, and the green is perfect as a contrast to the rose fabric. The pink binding (from my stash) completes the pouch very well.

Most of the construction of the pouch is pretty simple, the pattern is well written with lots of instructive diagrams. The last part of hand sewing the binding to the pouch was a bit tricky, but it turned out pretty good. I have bought extra interfacing for at least one more pouch, and I plan on making another one soon.

The zip-up tray pouch is very practical the way it pops up to become a tray when the zipper is opened. That gives a great working space for small hand sewing projects when on travel or at guild meetings, for instance. I know I will get lots of use of my new pouch!

Keep on quilting!

Christmas Came Early

It is only October, and here I am posting my finished Christmas quilt, what's going on? This quilt is made from the blocks designed by Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts. In January this year she started the sew along 'Have a Jolly Little Christmas' with 15 free blocks, the last one published in August. I made all 15 blocks and put them together to make a colorful quilt. All fabrics are from my stash.

The block setting made a long and skinny quilt, so I added a red and a blue border to get a better sized quilt.

I took the quilt out for a photo shoot on a beautiful fall day. My husband is the quilt holder.

The old barn is a beautiful backdrop for the pictures.

Beautiful fall colors in the surroundings.

I used my precious Britten Nummer from Ikea as the backing. For the quilting I had fun with FMQ, a stars and loops pattern on the main part with the white background, and experimenting with new designs (for me) on the red and blue border.

Here is a detailed picture of the quilting. I am trying to get more confident with free motion quilting, and I am going to take a class in "experienced" FMQ in a month's time. I feel I have to get some more practice before that time.

Here is the fabric I used for the binding. It gives the quilt a lovely 'icy' finish.

I have had this fabric in my stash for a long time, as you can see it is an old one from Ikea, designed by Kazuyo Nomura in 2009. 

Now I hope that we will keep this nice fall weather for some time, I don't need snow before December!

Keep on quilting!