a modern churn dash

I started this in April as part of a We All Sew quilt along hosted by Amy Smart.  

The first week was all about choosing fabrics.  After the l o n g winter we had I was in the mood for a bright springtime palette.  Most of these fabrics came from my growing (!) stash.

In this post I shared the finished blocks with you and the nested churn dash I used on the back.

Because this quilt is so bright and sunny I decided to use a thinner batting.  I experienced lots of tension issues and twice spent considerable time picking out quilting stitches.  Finally I decided to copy Amy.  I used my walking foot and quilted straight lines with an expanded zigzag style stitch.  

It was smooth sailing from then on.

All the frustration of quilting came out in the wash.  Now it's all soft and crinkly and a perfect summer weight.

And looking pretty in a field of early fall sunflowers!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

open wide pouches

I made pouches!  These are open wide zippered pouches from Noodlehead.  Find her excellent tutorial here.

I'm planning to make her Cargo Duffel soon so decided to practice with something simpler.  Good thing.  I learned newer sewing machines come with new fancy accessories.

The foot on the left is a new zipper foot.  While you can move the needle to either side based on which side of the zipper you're sewing, I couldn't seem to manage getting the zipper under the foot to continue sewing.  For the second bag, I used my old fashioned machine with it's old fashioned zipper foot (on the right).  With this attachment one can actually move the foot (along the bar at the top) to the other side of the needle and out of the way of the zipper.  This also allows you to sew closer to the zipper teeth.  It was much neater and required much less sweat and anxiety.

A great lesson because I love my new pouches and am not afraid to tackle more. 

This is making an excellent binding bag.  It holds everything I need: wonder clips, needle, thread, covered scissors, and a thimble!

a shooting star mini

A mini post for a mini quilt...

This is a pattern from Freshly Pieced.  I ordered it as a kit from Drygoods Design.  It was good paper piecing practice. 

I chose a different backing than came with the kit.  This is my first attempt at quilting swirls.  I think I read somewhere they are all supposed to be swirling in the same direction but I just couldn't work that out.  The winds around here swirl in all different directions.

Do you wish on shooting stars?