You guessed it - zippy pouches!

Lo and behold this week I've made another couple of zippy pouches!  These are for two student teachers who have had fantastic school placements with us and who we are preparing for their "proper" teaching jobs in September with lovely stationery.

There are so many pluses for me when I make these pouches.  First, I get to raid my stash and reacquaint myself with fabrics I may have forgotten.  Then I really love finding a perfect zip colour and then there is also the joy of finding a beautiful thread.  Ah, happy times!

They are both receiving their gifts at a meal out on Sunday.  I'm glad that they look distinctive and they complement their personalities.

At least I have something to show off for a Friday finish!

A Friday Finish - 2015's first quilt

I love a Friday finish.  I always feel I've met a deadline, even though the deadline is imaginary.  I think I like it because it means the weekend is ahead of me to let my creativity go wild and to devote time to a new project.

Today's Friday finish is my rainbow quilt which I only started last weekend.  It's not been as quick to make as I had hoped.  There was so much quilting of those tramlines, and then I quilted a fold (probably because I had not basted it properly) so I had to undo lots of quilting and re-quilt it.  It was a little frustrating.  I think my sewing machine got frustrated as well - the needle kept falling out and the tension went off.  I was panicking a bit because my warranty ran out last month, and isn't it always the case that electrical things break just after your cover runs out?  Anyway, I did some troubleshooting and I think I have solved the problem.  Here's hoping!

This is a big quilt (81" x 43"), but I wanted to include all the colours in the jelly roll.  I quilted using matching threads.  Some were exact matches, some less exact.  I know I have a lack of orange threads in my collection, so the orange strip was quilted with more of a golden brown colour.  It seemed to work.

I love the backing fabric and binding I chose.  I think a delicate grey works wonderfully against every single colour and is worth remembering for the future with other bright combinations.

This quilt will eventually be in my craft room.  There is a rainbow theme being developed in there.  We still don't have the storage from Ikea (grrr!) but when we do I will take photos of the room and this quilt in situ.

Keeping with the rainbow theme, my next project is going to use these fabrics:

As I mentioned on a previous blog post I am taking part in Project Leesa's Sew My Stash 2015 and there is a Weekend Challenge taking place now.  In summary, you have to make a project by Sunday from at least 75% stash and it has to have a "heart" theme for upcoming Valentine's Day.  I'm going to use all stash (promise!) and make a rainbow heart mini quilt to hang in my craft room.  I'm sure there are people making things for loved ones, but I've just made my fella a quilt so this project is going to be for my lovely craft room and is a homage to my beloved hobby.

I'll be posting updates on Instagram (I'm @stitchandpieces) but pop by on Sunday to see the finished piece.

Enjoy your weekend!

A Friday Finish

Whenever I don't blog for a while it's usually because my sewing has overtaken me and that's definitely been the case recently.  I have so many sewing projects on the go at the moment and I am determined to get some finished this month.

First up I can show two finished Kaleidoscopic cushions that are based on a quilt by Reene at Nellie's Niceties.  These have been fun to make and use up lots of scraps.  I'm going to make a couple more in different colour combinations soonish.  I fancy orange being the main colour in one of them.

I am still working on the scrappy quilt to go with these cushions in our living room.  Initially I was going to produce 16 scrap blocks and then add sashing, but I realised that I would have to buy the sashing and that seemed at odds with my determination to sew as much stash as possible this year.  Instead I have now decided to make more blocks and to make this one giant quilt.  I'm now anticipating making 49 scrappy blocks.  So far I've made 25, so I have just edged over the half way mark.  Psychologically that is significant - I feel I can repeat what I have made so far!

In the meantime I am also working on another project.  Someone has requested I make them a duvet cover.  I've never made one before, but I am making good progress.  As it's someone else's request I am having to use their fabric choices.  They fell in love with this fabric:

I would not have touched this fabric; it's not my thing at all, but I am having fun sewing the bits together and it's good to have a challenge.  I'm hoping to have it finished for next Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Scrapisfaction Quilt - Four Star Quilt

My obsession interest in scrappy quilts continues!  I enjoyed making my large scrappy star so much that I decided to make a quilt with four scrappy stars, though on a smaller scale.

I used the same technique as before, making a slab of fabric and then cutting it to make half square triangles and then doing piecing as you would in any other quilt.  It really is scrapisfying!

I have a lot of pink fabrics in my stash and use it regularly, which creates lots of lovely scraps.  I have seen other scrappy quilts which are very strict in their use of colour, but I like to put lots of different pinks side by side and even have plenty of white backgrounds as well.  The great thing about working with scraps is that it is much less controlled and the finished quilt a lot less predictable.

The quilting was easy and looks particularly good on the back.  I quilted the stars a couple of times and then quilted each of the eight points in each star individually.  This did create plenty of ends and the finishing off was tedious, but I can do that and justify watching tv.  On the front I quilted in a deep pink, but on the back I quilted with a variegated thread which goes from light baby pink to deep crimson.  I've used it plenty of times before and I think it makes the back that little more interesting.

Last month I linked up with Mrs Sew and Sow and who hosts a Scraptastic Tuesday along with She Can Quilt and I got lots of visitors and lovely comments.  I'm linking this blog post to Scraptastica Tuesday (yes, I do know it's Friday.)  Here's hoping the fellow scraptastic quilters like this quilt.  As it's also a Friday Finish, I am also linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Thank you for visiting.