Tag Archives: open wide zippered pouch

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The products featured in this post were given to my by Aurifil and FreeSpirit Fabrics.

As an Aurifil Artisan I was invited to participate in an Anna Maria Horner Showcase. I was given three fat quarter's from Anna Maria Horner's Meandering Colorway of her Passionflower collection.

This ended up being a plan A turns into plan B turns into plan C... kind of project. I might be on F. ;-) Initially I was considering ways to use all three fabrics together and then decided I would add some solids. I wanted to lighten up the palette and add some contrast. Then I decided I really liked two fabric pairings with one fat quarter and one solid. I decided I would make a two sided mini quilt with planned improv log cabins, using the third fat quarter to bind.

But after I started piecing my log cabins (which I'm happy with individually) I decided that if I made it two sided I wouldn't be able to do decorative quilting in a way that I would be happy with it from both sides (since my log cabins are constructed differently and not mirror image of each other). So I switched gears and opted for an Open Wide Zippered Pouch. I've made a ton of them and they never disappoint!

I considered a patchwork exterior and finally settled on simply using the Passiflora in Heather for the panels of my pouch.

I chose Aurifil 50wt Dusk (#6733) from the Pastel Collection to do a little thread painting to stitch around the elements in the print. I love the simple detail it adds to the fabric. I think my new open toe free motion foot has really opened a world of possibilities, because this would have been really tricky with the darning foot I've used for FMQ for the last 8 years.

My pouch is slightly smaller than the small size in the tutorial and I backed my outer panels with SF101 Shape-Flex by Pellon. This worked well for the outline stitching/thread painting, though I wonder if I would need something more robust for thread painting if it were more dense. If you have experience with thread painting, what have you used?

Thanks for visiting!

 

Check out some of the other projects being shared with Anna Maria Horner's Passionflower Collection.

Mel Beach

Cassandra Beaver

Cheryl Brickey

Kristina Brinkerhoff

Kim Lapacek

Wendy Welsh

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Bay Area Modern Quilting hosted a swap for guild members, due at today's meeting. The theme was Mini + Metal. We had to create something that was 6" or smaller... could be a bag, a needle book, pin cushion, mug rug -- the possibilities are endless. And some component of the item/gift had to include metal. This could be part of it's construction, or an addition, like needles in a needle book or pins in a pin cushion.

My head spun with possibilities and I decided this would be a great opportunity for making a zipper pouch with a metal tooth zipper – something I hadn't ever done. (This was a popular choice in the swap!) I decided to size down the small size Open Wide Zipper Pouch by Noodlehead and ordered 8" black zippers with silver nickel teeth and donut zipper pull from Zipit Zippers on Etsy.

I was making for Rhonda and wasn't quite sure about her style. I decided to pick a bold floral print from my stash to drive my color palette. The outer fabrics were all chosen from the floral that I used to line the bag.

My panels were 5" x 8" which was sized down from the small size by Noodlehead. The bag has a 3" box corner. The front panel features my Planned Improv: All About Angles technique. The back was a single cut from The Lovely Hunt Unicorn fabric by Lizzy House from my stash. (Since the bag was so small, the unicorn from the print wasn't included in this project.)

The final details was to create the zipper tab from the Lovely Hunt fabric. I chose to hand stitch it in place with running stitch using a 12wt cotton Aurifil. I always have a bit of a struggle to sew the tab on by machine. With the metal zipper I didn't want to attempt machine stitching.

I love how it turned out, though I might try making a 2.5" box corner if I make this size again. It was so fun to deliver the gift today to Rhonda. :-)

I'm linking up to Brag About Your Beauties.

 

 

 

 

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It's week two for Project QUILTING. Voting is now open. This week's theme of Triangulation has so many possibilities. So many that I think the options are a little overwhelming. Last challenge I made a list of about a dozen options and picked one. This week I just kept thinking about more (and bigger) possibilities. And too bad I didn't make this one this week!

I've set myself some goals for my design work, and I'm trying to keep those goals and my plan to work small for these one-week challenges in mind when choosing my project for the week. I also happen to have another deadline this week. So, I had to keep dissuading myself from ideas that would be a bit too much work. I landed on some pieced equilateral triangles and decided to use them to make a small gift for a lovely friend who I was seeing today for her birthday. My plan was set by Monday night, and I finished my project with some late night sewing Tuesday evening.

 

I decided to make the Noodlehead Open Wide Zippered Pouch. I've made it numerous times and it's a great tutorial and a fast make. For this challenge I decided I'd work in the triangles with piecing on the front of the bag. But then I got a little bit paralyzed with indecision with regards to the fabric choices. I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to make a small dent in my box of mini charm squares and chose this pack of ColorWorks microchips from Northcott, a giveaway I received at QuiltCon.

I cut the biggest equilateral triangles I could from these 2 1/2" squares using the 60 degree angle on my ruler. They were about 2 1/4" on each side. Once I decided to use the solid rainbow for my triangles, I easily decided on a couple black and white prints to pair them with.

I arranged my fifteen triangles in rainbow order and pieced them in a row, adding my black on white print to the ends of the row so the strip would reach the full width of my panel.

This is the largest size from the tutorial, and I like to line these big ones with fusible fleece, Pellon 987F (affiliate link), so they stand up nicely on their own. I chose a light print from my stash to line the bag. The finished pouch is about 8 1/2" tall and has a 14" zipper. It was pieced with 50wt Aurifil thread.

 

Voting is open. Check out what everyone made and vote for your ten favorites! Mine is #16. Made in San Jose, California.

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