Zippy Wallet

I recently made a small travel purse using noodleheads free Zippy Wallet pattern. I used a button instead of a snap so I made the fold down closure tab bit a little longer.

I really liked this pattern. If I make it again the only thing I would change is to only interface one piece of fabric in the closure tab, I found it a little too thick and stiff. I would also try harder not to pinch the ends of the zip!

I'm really pleased with the results of fussy cutting the fabric design.

The good news is that my brothers fiancée likes it!

Nuanced Neon Mosaics

Hiya

There's another Stitched in Colour mosaic contest happening at the moment! I love these and I actually won the last Ice Parfait contest and ended up with a lovely bundle of glacier fabric!

I instinctively started with a neon rainbow, however it was less nuanced and more in-your-face neon. I abandoned that plan and instead looked at three neon colours and the progression to paler and deeper colours.

I give you 'Neon Trinity'

I then rummaged around Mad About Patchwork looking for inspiration for another mosaic. I found it in the Ex Libris collection in the coming soon section. I know that my inspiration fabric is not really there yet to be included in a bundle but this contest finishes on the 25th of May and the collection is due to arrive in May so I figured it would probably be ok! I thought the central print I used here pretty much encapsulates Nuanced Neon all by itself so I based my mosaic around its stunning colours!

I give you 'Nuanced Neon Tessellation'

I loved taking part in this contest, hope you enjoy my mosaics!

Marsala - Colour of the Year

I wasn't immediately inspired by this year's Pantone Colour of the Year but I started a Pinterest Board and slowly found some inspiration. I was especially inspired by African textiles including bark and mud cloth. I like the black, white and Marsala-ish red/brown together. I sketched out my ideas and decided to make a sort of sampler quilt, challenging myself to work out how to make a variety of different designs.

I looked in my stash and started adding a bit of Marsala to my shopping basket if I saw it on sale. I ended up with a fat quarter from Allison Glasses Field Day, a fat quarter of Flight Canvas in Paprika, a skinny quarter of a Parson Gray print and my personal closest-to-Marsala fabric was a 1/2 yard from Oakshotts Lyon collection. I added 4 fat quarters of Marsala-ish Kona, some Kona Bone and a few metres of black Ditte fabric from Ikea.

I made two items for the Colour of the Year Quilt contest, a quilt and matching cushion. Except I ran out of time so it's a Top and matching cushion! The top measures 76"x58", it's the biggest quilt I've made so far.

I used a mix of different piecing techniques and really pushed myself!

The cushion has the same feathers that run down the left of the quilt. It's 20"x20" with the binding making the space for the cushion slightly smaller.

I tried out hand quilting for the first time to really emphasise the fletching section, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Thanks for looking, I really enjoyed making these!

Ice Parfait Mosaics

These are my fabric mosaics for the contest over at Stitched in Color. (Missing out the 'u' hurts me by the way!)

I adored the top inspiration image and created my first mosaic in homage:

My second mosaic is inspired by glacial ice:

Folksy Fabric Mosaics

Stitched in Color periodically runs fun fabric mosaic contests on her blog. This one is sponsored by the Intrepid Thread. I've created two different mosaics with my interpretation of the Folksy Fall theme.

This is my Folksy Autumn mosaic, maybe not enough colour variation but I love a colour gradient!

My second mosaic is my personal favourite. I based it around the colours in the two central fabrics and like to think of it as my Folksy Navy mosaic.

I love making mosaics for these contests, it's shopping with no guilt!

My Underwater Castle Bag

I wanted to share a project I completed a few months ago. I made it using the Underwater Stripes pattern by Sew Sweetness. This bag was my first proper bag with a zipper and has inspired me to make more since!

I was using scraps from another project and had enough diagonal pieced strips left to make the handles from those rather than HST's, it worked well and was much quicker! I rearranged the HST panels into my own design, giving a sort of 'Castle' shape. In order for my design to work I needed an even number in the panels so I sewed my HST's together with a scanty seam allowance and made my bag slightly narrower so I could get away with 6 HST's wide instead of 7. An unintended consequence of my scanty seams was that my pattern pieces also ended up fitting on 4 HST's high instead of 5.

Here's the other side, they don't match as I was using up the scraps I had on hand!

I am most proud of my zipper, I hadn't really used any before so this was an adventure. The instructions in the pattern were clear and helpful, it didn't turn out perfectly but I love it!

I used a leftover piece of grey linen for the lining with a pop of colour in the pocket lining.

I would certainly recommend this pattern as a great first bag pattern, especially if you're already a quilter. I'm certain it would look great with plain fabric instead of a the HST's as well, it has a lovely shape to it. The best thing about the pattern? It's free!

Tessellation Quilt

Well it's 11:30pm and I have just finished the Top of my Tessellation quilt. I participated in the SAL for the pattern by Allison Glass that was organised by Sara at Sew Sweetness. 

I really loved the pattern but my favourite bit was the star. Therefore I decided to rearrange the triangles to make more pretty shapes!

I apologise for the quality of the picture but I just finished and the deadline for the SAL is in less than 6 hours.

Time for bed!