A little bit of hand sewing

After a recent clean up of my little sewing space I found an old, neglected project that I started possibly over 5 years ago and then the poor little thing had been forgotten about at the bottom of a drawer!

So it was time to get it finished!
It is a felt sewing kit pattern from Eternal Maker, I think I bought about 5 years ago from the Knitting and Stitching show. I didn't follow the pattern exactly and changed some of the designs and pockets etc to suit my sewing needs and equipment and I am really happy with the way it turned out and also reminded me how much I love doing blanket stitch!!

It's a great little size for sewing on the move!

Linking up to crazy mom quilts finish it up Friday! and Amy's Crafty Shenanigans TGIFF

Zippy pouches

Remember the QAYG panels from yesterday?
Ta-da! Here they are made into new zippy pouches!

Big and little make a cute pair :)

These were so much fun to make and I'm kinda in love with them :)
I used the open wide zippered pouch tutorial from Noodlehead, although I went with my own measurements based on the panels I made and added a little divided pocket to the large pouch. They have a really good firm structure due to the wadding from the QAYG method, and although the QAYG method did take a bit more time than using a single fabric I really like the finished texture and feel of them.

Front of large

Back of large

Inside with a divided pocket

Some people on IG and Flickr asked how I managed to get the stitching so neat. If you look really closely it's not perfect! I used Coats Cotton in white to sew with both as top thread and in the bobbin, stitch length 2.5 (on my Bernina 1005) and my 1/4 inch foot. When I get to the end of a row all I do is keep the needle in the work, lift up the presser foot, pivot, carefully raise the needle and move the work over so the edge of the stitching lines up with the edge of the foot, lower the presser foot and then I'm ready to sew again. Hope that all makes sense! Maybe I'll try taking some photos next time?

Little zippy pouch

Off to raid my scraps for more panels :)

QAYG love!!

I'm addicted!!
I love Quilt as you go - selecting fabrics, deciding on placement, straight line stitching and then voila QAYG panels ready to be made into something gorgeous!!

Pretty fabric scraps :)

Stitch, stitch, stitch!!

Large panels ready to go!

Small panels too!

Just one little quilt block ....

So August is my month for my quilting Bee "Bee Europa" and I've chosen the Churn Dash quilt block. I quickly made up a sample block to test the tutorial, which is a fab one by Sew Me, and made sure I had enough fabric, snapped a quick photo on my iPhone, uploaded it to Flickr and that was me done.

Bee fabric prep, Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille ~

My practice Churn Dash quilt block ~

Then the next day I started to get several likes of the photo from people who were not my contacts and seemed to have no link to quilting or sewing!? I was puzzled so logged onto Flickr to check the photo and activity and was amazed with what I saw!!

I was shocked - I know my photos get a few views generally and the same goes for the blog - I know there are a handful of peeps that find me and what I do somewhat interesting, most of the time :) but I was amazed at how many views this little old photo had!
I then found out I had been "explored", sounds kinda weird in so many ways! Shows how much I actually don't know about Flickr. It was a lovely surprise to have my photo added to Explore and that a little old quilt block was so popular!!! Current views 3603!
Bee Europa pretty piles ready to be sent out ~

Aeroplane bag love!

Ever since I saw the Sew Sweetness Aeroplane bag popping up on IG and blogs I knew I wanted to make one, and I am so happy that I have!
Luckily enough I won the Aeroplane bag and Petrillo bag pattern through an IG giveaway by Sew Fantastic and with a click of the mouse the PDF patterns had arrived!

Constructing the top panel sections!

A bit of late night sewing :)

The pattern is super easy to follow with great instructions, the only bit I did struggle with was the tapering of the zip, but it turned out all right! I decided not to add the internal zip pockets which I think did save me a bit of time, but the completed bag didn't take as long as I thought to make from start to finish!
I had loads of different ideas about fabric choices and was going to go down the route of quilt as you go but as it was my first go at the bag I went with a bit of piecing using a charm pack for the top and lovely Essex linen for the bottom.

It's nearly done!

The bag is a great size and I was amazed at how much I could squeeze into it for the FQ retreat! The handles are just the right size and I wasn't worried that they wouldn't hold the weight of all my stuff jammed in!
Another one is definitely on my to do list with a few minor alterations. Having seen lots of lovely versions at the FQ retreat I would add a pocket to the outside front in between the handles for a little extra separate storage, definitely take the time to add a zippered pocket for phone and key essentials, add bag feet to stop the bottom getting too dirty and try to find something in the UK stores to insert as a bottom to give the base a bit more structure. My heavy weight interfacing was not that heavy!!
I would definitely recommend making this bag!!

Sneaky peek of the lining!!

Can't tell you how much I love this bag!!