Friendship and Fabric

Another project completed before the deadline, this is in danger of becoming a habit!

My quilted bag for the Friendship Bag Swap has been filled with goodies and posted off. I really enjoyed putting the bag and package together, and given the cost of the postage to the US I am really, really pleased that I didn't make a bigger bag :)

One package out, another one in.

I ordered the blue vintage fabric with houses from Karen's Etsy shop and look at all the extras she included in the package!

I have had my eye on the vintage blue fabric ever since Karen added it to her shop, so I am delighted to finally have some in my stash. It may not be there for long though, as I have asked my fellow Star of Africa Bee members to make house blocks for my month in the Bee and this fabric will be perfect for the quilt backing.

So this is what my WIP list looks like now

• In Color Order HST BOM - Top Completed
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (way behind schedule) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks completed and sent 
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule just!)
• Friendship Bag Swap - Bag made ready to be filled COMPLETED AND SENT
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round - partner details received
• Triple Zip A Long pouch  COMPLETED
• Curved Seams Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And And Sew On BOM - first block completed
• Just my Type paper-pieced block  COMPLETED
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - no progress

 Maybe, I will manage to get around to some of these long outstanding WIP's soon, but then again maybe not!

Hope you are having a productive week.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday  and We Did it Wednesday .

Mine's a triple!

This week I have been a bit of a bag lady, in the nicest possible way of course.

I signed up for the Triple Zip A Long at a Quilter's Table, which kicked off last week. As my zip order arrived on the first day of the ZAL I had no excuses not to tackle my first ever Triple Zip pouch.

The last step for the pouch really had me puzzled, but a quick look at the discussions in the 3ZAL Flickr group where an alternative for the last step was posted and hey presto! a Triple-Zip pouch. I have already cut out the fabric to make two more of them!

There are over 70 pouches posted to the group already so it is definitely worth checking them out if you haven't already seen them. There are some brilliant combinations of fabrics and zips. Patti's  mixed-up zips will have you looking at your zip stash in a whole new way!

In my quest to keep ahead of things and not be frantically trying to complete projects just before the deadline I have been trying my hand at a quilted Friendship Bag for the Friendship Bag Swap I signed up for recently too. The bag is quilted before being made up so I took the chance to try out quilt marking with a Hera marker for the first time. The marking itself was fine but I had some difficulty seeing the marks under the glare of the light on the sewing machine. I wonder if it is time to finally admit that maybe glasses are called for!

The instructions for the Friendship Bag are available here

It was a joy to put together and I am really looking forward to seeing what my swap partner has come up with for me.

Speaking of partners my blocks for November for the SMQ Bee finally arrived a couple of days ago despite the best efforts of the US and UK postal system! The first time they were sent they were returned to sender but they managed to make their way through unscathed this time. Now all I need are the blocks from October, and they are apparently due to be sent out soon, and I will have the full set.

 

The voting is now open for Rikka's Curved Seams Challenge, which turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. You can check out the challenge entries here (Pam's curved seams dress is just lovely!) and maybe cast a vote or two whilst you are there ;)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Sew Cute Tuesday