Friday, July 29, 2022

Three Popcorn Pouches, One Easy Zipper Project / Beauties Pageant 183


Please note: This is my last post of the summer. I’ll be taking a break in August, to return on September 2 with a series of finishes and giveaways!

 

For the past two years, a bag full of prepped Popcorn Pouches has been living in my fabric chest. Whenever I open the bottom drawer, I move this bag out of the way and carefully replace it before I close the drawer back up. It’s been so long since I selected the fabric for these pouches and cut the necessary pieces that I can’t remember my plan for them, but surely I envisioned something better than moving their pieces from here to there and back again!

There’s something to be said for having projects at the ready, though, because when my guild held its bimonthly sewing bee, I knew those pouches were the perfect project to cart there.

This is not my first go-round with the Amista Baker’s Popcorn Pouch pattern (available here). I did make a slew of these little numbers back in 2020, four of which are pictured in this post. I added some bling to that bunch and sent them off as Mother’s Day gifts and as thank-you gifts for pattern testers.

The latest round includes three pouches—one in the mini size and two in the small. If your zipper stash is getting unwieldy, this is a quick and easy pattern to put those zips to good use.

 

My advice for easy zipper installation is to use Steam-a-Seam 2, a double-sided fusible tape that’s a quarter-inch wide. I find that using this tape, and then adding some Wonder Clips for good measure, keeps my zippers in place as I stitch. The skinny adhesive gets hidden away in the seam allowance. I also use it to keep the back side of my binding strips on these pouches neat and tidy.

My other tip: If you’re making multiple pouches, try to find one thread color to do all the work. I used the same off-white Gutermann thread for everything except finishing the bindings. The limited number of bobbin changes and rethreading episodes made the process go faster.

For you fabric nerds out there, the selections represented here are all oldies but goodies. In the pics throughout this post, you’ll see Persimmon by Basic Grey, Turkish Delight by Josephine Kimberling, and Lark by Amy Butler.

I am signing off for the month of August. Come back in September for new posts, the latest linky, and some giveaways! Wishing you all a wonderful end to the summer!

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  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Friday, July 22, 2022

An Ombre Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt / Beauties Pageant 182

I am in love with my latest finish, an ombre version of my Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt

There was no recipient in mind when I took this project on; I simply wanted to see what a jelly roll of V And Co’s Ombre Fairy Dust would look like in REJR form. I think we can agree: It’s pretty amazing!

The hardest part of this project was getting it to the top of my priority list so I could finish it. At one point I decided to send it to a longarmer, and then I realized that I had spray-basted it months before, thinking that would motivate me to quilt and bind it. Getting it longarmed was, therefore, out of the question. (Blerg.)

In the end, I quilted straight lines that mimic the chevron shape, which I also did in this version. It was both super effective and super fast, and made me feel silly for putting it off for so long.

At the suggestion of my local quilt shop owner, I bound this beauty in the same hue of eggplant that appears in the strips. I think it was the perfect solution and better than the navy I originally had planned.

Truth be told, with all that navy, this is not a Golden Retriever-friendly color palette, so I’ll be selling or gifting this beauty. No worries … I am officially an ombre convert and have a jelly roll of V And Co’s Ombre Galaxy to sew up next with a light background. 

If youve made your own projects with ombre fabric lines, Id love to see them. Please post them in this weeks linky!

To read more about my process of sewing this quilt top, click here.

To sew your own Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt, click here.

Linking up to Favorite Finish!

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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Click here to enter

Friday, July 15, 2022

An Ameroonie Designs' Mug Rug / Beauties Pageant 181

 

My happy place is throw-size quilts. Why? Throw-size quilts are practical! Throw-size require less time to complete than bed-size quilts! You cannot have enough throw-size quilts in your house!

Every so often, however, I’ll take on a small project and think, Hey, that didn’t take long at all—maybe smaller projects are where it’s at. 

Consider the mug rug I made this week. Based on a pattern from Ameroonie Designs, it was a small and satisfying sew. In fact, I have a second, almost identical, one that’s in the home stretch of completion.

The challenges I encountered making this mug rug and its twin were minor. First, I had a hard time cutting the tiny pieces as cleanly as I would have liked. The issue may have been related to the scissors I used for that task moreso than my technique, though. Then there was the problem of keeping tabs on all of those little pieces. When I couldn’t locate one, I was never sure whether it was hiding somewhere on my sewing table or whether a certain naughty puppy ate it. (This dilemma pertains to many missing-in-action items in my life.) It was only after binding the mug rug that I remembered Yvonne’s recent Instagram post about making a quick and easy portable design board, which would have kept everything together.


I rarely incorporate any applique into my projects, quilts or otherwise, so the raw-edge applique strawberries were a fun departure from my usual piecing. I recommend this pattern—which also includes watermelons, lemons, and cherries—and instructions on different quilt-as-you-go options.

For more projects for Ameroonie Designs made by Beauties Pageant regulars Nancy and Bonnie, check out these links:

By Nancy:

By Bonnie:

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday!

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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, July 8, 2022

Camille Roskelley's Rain or Shine Quilt / Beauties Pageant 180

Today’s post merits some fanfare. Cue the angelic choir/ticker-tape parade/drumroll ... I finished my Rain or Shine Quilt!

Earlier this year, after completing my Gypsy Wife Quilt in Bonnie and Camille fabrics, I set out to use up the rest of my B&C stash. Rain or Shine is one of two projects that resulted from that effort (the other is waiting to go to the longarmer). The nexus for this project was a charm pack of Miss Kate I had on hand, and with the exception of the striped binding, everything came from my stash.

 
The quilt pattern is one from Camille Roskelley, the C in B&C fabric. My favorite part of the top is the 42 stars sprinkled along the sashing that transform the otherwise simple plus sign design into something special. The pattern instructions offer the option to sew regular cornerstones instead of the more time-consuming stars, but I chose to snowball 336 corners to create my star collection. It was well worth the effort.
 

The back features a large swath of one of the Miss Kate fabrics that also appears on the top. To get the cut to the length I needed, I incorporated some leftover Gypsy Wife blocks into it. (Do not underestimate the satisfaction of using orphan blocks in a humble quilt back!)
 

As time goes on, I’ve been employing the services of a few different longarmers to get projects over the finish line and focus on the designing and piecing stages of quilt making. But all these plus signs and stars were asking for something simpler, so I polished off this project myself with simple straight-line quilting on an angle.
 
As much as I am pleased with the results of this finish, From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters is bursting at the seams with quilts. The next item on my to-do list is to determine which friend or family member will receive this beauty. : )

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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Friday, July 1, 2022

New Projects Make Me Happy / Beauties Pageant 179

My quilty to-do list is growing, friends, and I have you to thank for it!

The first addition to my queue of projects is Sandra Walker’s Pop Star design. Like many of you, I love a good star quilt. At some point, I think all star quilts start to look the same, though—it’s why I’ve designed only one myself (you can read about that, a QuiltCon reject, here). Then I saw Sandra’s unique Pop Star pattern and fell in love.

The baby size is an easy one to sew from stash, but wanting to re-create the value placement from the cover quilt, I headed to my local quilt shop yesterday and bought focal fabric. It’s a beautiful floral from Riley Blake in shades of pink, coral, and taupe. I’m currently working on fleshing out the palette with fabrics I have on hand.

I recommend reading Sandra’s post about her cover quilt (it’s the version pictured at the top of this post). I am a straight-line quilter, but her approach to quilting this particular project may help me get more adventurous. : )

Then there’s the dynamic sister duo of Nancy (Grace and Peace Quilting) and Bonnie (Quilter Bonnie), who have turned me on to multiple new-to-me designers. One of these is Amy Chappell’s venture, Ameroonie Designs, which produces patterns for small applique projects, among other things. 

With a guild-wide swap on the horizon, I’ve homed in on Amy’s mug rug patterns. I am currently plotting summery strawberry mug rugs from this pattern.

You can see what Nancy and Bonnie have sewn up with Amy’s patterns both online and on Instagram. Check out these posts ...

By Nancy:

By Bonnie:

 I hope you find the Beauties Pageant as inspirational as I do each week!

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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter