Happy Monday!

My first (finished) zipper project! I have started a couple of projects with zippers, but I usually start quaking with fear over the zipper and setting the project aside indefinitely. After making this pouch, I feel silly for avoiding them for all these months! I used the zippered pouch tutorial at Make it Perfect for the actual pouch construction, but I did my own thing for outside.

I used Colorful Turtles/Tortoise on Blue (How cute are those turtles?!) and Amy Butler Full Moon Polka Dot in Cherry for the outside and Hello Pilgrim Dusty Blue Stripe for the inside. I added a ribbon and monogram. I wanted to add charms on the zipper and found the cute turtles at Hobby Lobby. I also found crystal beads I liked and used a headpin to make them into a beaded charm. This 8"x 6"pouch now lives in my purse, being useful. 

I kind of want to find a way to incorporate a zipper into everything now. ;)

I seriously underestimated the amount of time hand-stitching class would consume...and I signed up for Wild Olive's The Embroidery Project Re-sized too! I am about 2.5 projects behind on the first class and the second class started today. I'll have a lot of time to myself this week, so I hope I can catch up!

For the Handstitched Class Sashiko Coaster project. I used Essex Linen in Dyed Black, Hot Pink, Medium Aqua and Lime. I am obsessed with the dyed black right now. I think it has great texture. I am still having a terrible time with transfer paper, so I ended up taping the template on a window and tracing it onto the fabric with a disappearing marker. I decided not to use high contrast embroidery thread because my stitching is still wonky, but my favorite one ended up being the pink one with the most contrast! The Sashiko embroidery is really relaxing and I felt as if no time had passed when I finished the embroidery for each coaster. I would love to work this embroidery into a quilt someday!  

I also did a few sewing room updates this past weekend. My rulers are now on the wall! This has been great, because they usually end up on the floor ready to be stepped on or lost under disorganized piles of fabric. There is still one missing ruler, hopefully I find it someday so I can fill that space! The Command Utensil Hooks ended up working the best for me. I originally found the generic Command hooks, which worked fine for the flexible rulers, but not so great for the thick plastic ones.

I spray painted the ironing board. I don't have a before picture, but it was an awful powder blue color. I spray painted it Grape and got a new ironing board cover. It is much more fun ironing on a board that doesn't have interfacing plastered all over it (OOPS!).

As for quilts, they are still in the sewing together phase! I will be taking a pictures when they reach a more photogenic stage!

Don't forget to visit this weeks stops on the Let's Get Aquainted Blog Hop!
July 10: Jenelle from Echinops and Aster & Julie from Bedsheet in the Kitchen
July 12: Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade & Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

A Few Things I've Been Working On

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

My brother FLIPPED his car a few days ago! Thankfully, he is all right. He just has a few cuts and a Honda logo emblazoned on his arm.  Seat belts rock! I wanted to make him a brother appreciation gift and I knew pretty quickly that I had to make a weird stuffed animal for him (for protection, of course). He is 24, but he appreciates the cutesy and unusual! Mister Bunny from Sewing in a Straight Line by Brett Bara wasn't the weirdest stuffed animal pattern I found, but he was definitely the most dapper.

Mister Bunny has a flannel body and a felt face and ears. I would have totally used one of my husband's flannel shirts, but I already cut up a perfectly good piece of clothing for Handstitched Class and I didn't want to raise his blood pressure even more!  Mister Bunny and his partner Miss Kitty are great quick sewing projects if you need a gift for a child or a weirdo, like my brother ;D. I made a tag for Mister Bunny using printable fabric. I sewed it on with the blanket stitch on my machine. It took me a few tries to get it looking remotely normal, but it was fun trying a new stitch since I mostly stick with the straight stitch or the zig-zag stitch, if I am feeling wild!

---

I decided I was going to be good and wash all my fabric for Rachel at Stitched in Color's Handstitched Class. As my luck would have it, my front load washing machine managed to dump all the water that was supposed to wash the fabric onto the floor.

LESSON LEARNED: Make sure no Shout Color Catchers (or anything else) find there way into the soap dispenser drawer! My husband took the machine apart and there was a Color Catcher blocking the pipe between the soap dispenser and the drum. I told y'all I was accident prone!

After everything got washed for real, I was able to begin The Flocked Tank ( the first project for Handstitched Class). I love this tank top and I am wearing it right now as I am typing this post! It is made from an Old Navy jersey stretch tank in Heather Charcoal & Clothworks Floral Folio Dark Orange Wavy Stripe.

I had the worst time getting my transfer marks to stick so I free-handed a few of the shapes. It was so much fun cutting up the tank to reveal the fabric! I have trouble keeping my stitches even, but I really enjoy the process of hand-stitching.

---

This is Block One for the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month. The block is named Laundry Days and it was designed by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. I was so excited when this came in the mail last Tuesday, can't wait to see the next one! Vintage Modern makes me smile. 

I always hate it when the camera reveals some horrible mistake I did not see with my own eyes. When I looked at the picture I uploaded to the Fat Quarter Shop's Flickr Group, I noticed that the block didn't look square on the lower left side, and I was really irritated with myself because I had spent so much time on this block! Luckily it turned out to be a case of bad ironing instead of bad cutting!

Besides that, I have been working on WIPs, but none of them have changed substantially since the last time I photographed them!

The latest news on the Let's Get Acquainted blog hop is over at Plum and June. Be sure to stop by there and enter the giveaway! AND don't forget to check out the following blogs on the hop!

June 14  Debbie from A Quilter's Table  Sarah from Silly Banana Sewing

June 19 Jennifer from Sewlandia  Nicole from Mama Love Quilts

June 21 Suzanne from SuzClaas Mina from Kindaquilty

I am now going to hop off the computer to go trim some HSTs! Woo!