Pyramid Pouch

This was one of my goals for the First Quarter Finish Along with Adrianne at On the Windy Side.  This makes 6 of my 8 completed.  Here is my list.  Thinking I should've stuck with my original 6, which would mean I am right on track... Note: I made this at the very end of January, but kept it under wraps until very recently...more on that later. This may seem a bit of a repeat post of Sunday's tutorial, but I wanted a simple post as the link to my finish!

Update: Simple post, yes, but the main reason was due to some technical difficulties in Oda May's email.  I did not get the acceptance email until 2 days after I posted the tutorial. I thought it hadn't been accepted, so used it for Cynthia's Oh Scrap! Feature post on me; then when I found out it had, in fact, been accepted, I thought oh no! I have to take the tutorial off, so I wrote up this post (have I lost you yet?!) for Cynthia to re-link her Oh Scrap! Feature, thinking I'd have to delete the original tutorial...and then found out, nope, Moda Bakeshop, unlike magazines, does not mind one bit if you've already shown a project before you submit it to them!  Sorry for all the confusion.  It's all good.

And I think I may have solved the issue with part of the two posts being written in Greek, or Klingon in some people's computer screens.  I inserted the degree symbol from Word, and then kept typing.  I see on the Preview of the post that the font has changed, yet I cannot make it go back to this Arial "Normal" no matter what I do!  It's still in English however, for me, and for several others (wonder if it's okay in Mac, which I use, but not on a PC?). So I am retyping this post, and I will work on retyping the tutorial from March 29.  Meanwhile, either click on the "I Was Featured on Moda Bakeshop" button on my sidebar, or here for the tutorial I wrote up for Moda! Phew! Thanks for staying with me if you did through all that!

Here are the two I've made.  The purple is the design I had in my head all along; the green is the prototype I made to see if it would work.  Would a bag with this narrow of a bottom and this wide of an opening be practical?  I think so!

It's made using 60-degree triangles cut from 2.5" strips, with no templates, no special ruler other than your 6X12" needed.  Sidenote:  I really want to make a triangle quilt!  Actually I've made a few; some of the Stack 'n Whack quilts are made with 60-degree triangles.  But I want one that is not Stack 'n Whack.

The purple bag is quilted and lined; the lime green has a stiff iron-on interfacing applied to the bag body and lined as well.  The top opens nice and wide to see your crap stuff inside.

It is made entirely from scraps.

It has undergone intense scrutiny from my QC department.

I made my own label.

I just love this purple and black batik. It's nearly all gone now.

It's a gift for my youngest daughter, Dayna, who has been the biggest supporter (well, she's tied with my sister, Linda) of my blog since its inception a little more than a year ago.  Here is the bottom:

Just love that symmetry!

Bag Stats:
Size:  11.5" wide at top opening by 6" high
Fabric:  scraps from my stash
Batting:  Pellon Nature's Touch Cotton Batting scraps
Threads:  sewn with Gutermann and top-stitched with Sulky Holoshimmer

Cue Black Sabbath

Or Alice in Chains.  Or Tool.  Metallica isn't always hard core enough for this man...

These bad boys lovely fabrics arrived in the mail today from Elkabees's Fabric Paradise.  Wow.  Speedy delivery, and promptly answered email queries!  Is that flame fabric not to die for?  Even if you're not a skull and crossbone and badass-themed type of guy.  Guy.  I've intended to make a throw-sized quilt for my husband for many years.  Even got some outdoor-themed fabric once to start...it ended up as curtains in a motorhome we had back then.  Here are the ones he recently found, and one I added in as a nod to his third daughter, our Rottweiler, Naala.

There are some more pieces on the way.  And I have a non-conventional, not quite symmetrical quilt pattern idea that he is okay with, as he is definitely not the "follows the crowd" kind of guy.


Cue Vivaldi.  Maybe some Enya.  A little Coldplay or Garou even...

These were my additions to the purchase.

This was on sale and the last .83 yard they had.  It is my Bella! Sassy/disgruntled, then purring contentedly.  It will be added to the growing stash of black and white fabric.

Speaking of growing...

After I wrote yesterday's post, I thought I'd just start two more blocks, so I'd have a leaders and enders project on the go.  Oops, four entire blocks later, and I now have six in total!  I'm quite liking this latest Scrap-a-Palooza quilt, from August of last year.

Brrrrr Park (yes, there are 5 r's in it) was frozen, ha, as far as being worked on over the weekend.  Sadly, it will not make it into my hoped-for finishes for the First Quarter Finish Along.  The deadline is tomorrow.

I'm linking this post to Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times.  First time for me for this party!  And also to Free Motion by the River, button on sidebar.

Pyramid Pouch Tutorial

Cyndy's blog, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, is one of, if not the very first blog I ever followed.  Her turquoise, lime and black quilt caught my eye, and I started looking through her blog, and was hooked.  Last year when she started her Scrap-a-Palooza series, I became a serious fan of hers, making six so far, and .... drum roll.... surprise! Here is the start of my 7th:

Scrap-a-Palooza Quilt #8 from August 2014

This will be one of at least two charity quilts I am donating to the seniors' residence across the road from our home in Ontario.  I also signed up to donate another quilt for the Canadian contingent in Hands 2 Help Challenge at Confessions of A Fabric Addict this year.  Of course, it will be a scrap quilt, but that one will be for a child.  As for the Scrap-a-Palooza series, now in its 14th quilt, I just love the ideas Cyndy comes up with for using your scraps, and the great results she gets.

A Few Little Tips (pun intended) and a Little Progress

Wait, what? Is this some kind of bad Michael Jackson parody of a post?

Nope.  There are a couple of badass tips here; I'm talking bad fingertips and badass quilting tips.

White gloves.  First up, I love my Machingers, and I'm not being paid or compensated to write about them.  I just adore them, and could not function as far as FMQ goes without them. Period. This is my second pair, already in need of a wash, as you can see.

Beauty

Another poem of Mary Oliver's spoke to me.  And tied so many drifting thoughts together.

Black Swallowtail

The caterpillar,
   interesting but not exactly lovely,
humped along among the parsley leaves
    eating, always eating.  Then
one night it was gone and in its place
    a small green confinement hung by two silk threads
on a parsley stem.  I think it took nothing with it
    except faith, and patience.  And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.


"small green confinement" Isn't that beyond a perfect description?  To borrow her phrase, here's a "small blue and red HST"

that is becoming a beautiful quilt for our bed.

Sharing

Happy First Day of Spring! Happy International Day of Happiness!

So sharing is a rather à propos topic for this day, and for this week for those of you who read Sew Fresh Quilts on Wednesday.  Most quilters share.  They share fabric, sources for fabric, patterns, quilting tools, tips, advice, designs, photos of our projects, the list goes on.  I have benefited from this sharing so many many times. I hope I have reciprocated as much in return.

I gave you a sneak peek at a cow muzzle a few days ago.  I have two entire cows done now! These are January (blue) and February (pink) blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at SoScrappy. Yellow is March, so she will have to wait until we are back home in Kingsville to be made.

Itty Bitty...

Knitting Bag!  Bet that wasn't the completion of the title you first thought of!  It started with a plastic bag which didn't quite cut the mustard for carrying around the fingerless gloves I've been working on.  I thought I should make a small bag for this small project, one I usually take in the car on the trips up to Sarasota for yoga twice a week.  I thought it should be scrappy.  I just happened to have a block left over from Scraps of Calm.  That is where it started.  I added a row to make a 16-patch, almost started cutting some 2.5" squares, and then I remembered!  I have a bunch already cut!

Do you see the scrap from the Seashell runner? Lower rh corner