A pencil case

Well it's pretty warm out today so this afternoon I am going to spend some time in my  sewing room before working in the garden later this afternoon. (by working in my garden I mean that I wander  around with a glass of something cold and water the plants.)

Anyway, I picked up some hand stitching the other day

I started this project last January I think. It is sort of like doodling on fabric.

It's totally inspired by a Japanese woman who has some gorgeous embroidery.  Yumiko Higuchi, (I blogged about her here

http://periwinklequiltingandbeyond.blogspot.ca/2014/01/milagros-embroidery-and-new-classes.html

After I finished that piece shown above I was still in the mood to stitch so I sketched out a simple row of flowers on the piece of linen.

They were pretty quick to embroider and as I was stitching I thought about  a project i had been wanting to make from a  book I have called Zakka Style, 

It features  little stitched on corners at the bottom and its made out of wool. I decided to just put wool on the back and use my stitching for the front of the pencil case.

I had an orange zipper on hand so I decided to make the lining orange.

I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm really happy to have a pencil case. It's a bit deeper than normal so I'm sure it will be handy for other things too. Now I think I'll try to find Something brown to add for a zipper pull....details, details....

Pencil Case, Version 2

Last week I made a pencil case using the book Sew Gifts!:

I liked how it turned out, but I couldn't help but wonder if I'd like it more if I quilted the exterior sides before sewing it together,

so this morning I made a second version. 
I pieced the front in pretty similar colors, except for using a darker brown for the wooden part of the crayons,
I picked a different fabric for the back of the pencil case because I had run out of the gray Essex linen I had used earlier. 

 For the batting and backing, I used some leftover pieces that I had cut from the edge of a quilt that I had had quilted by a long arm quilter.  It is nice to keep these edges around for when you need to try out a free motion quilting pattern before committing it to a real quilt.
I cut the pieces larger than the called for size so that they would be easier to handle, plus, they might get distorted or change size during the quilting process...
On the back piece, I did some parallel lines, about 3/16" apart.

 I love the way that quilting adds texture, all the little shadows,

 this shows how different a piece looks quilted and unquilted

I used an invisible thread,

 then, I trimmed the pieces down to the called for size,

 

 I finished sewing the pencil case exactly according to the directions in the book,

This shows both pencil cases together.

  

I am quite enjoying making these, I can foresee more pouches on my to-do list......

Art to Heart Basics

This is a group that we have in the shop, and I've been dipping into it quite a bit lately…

It's a basics group in that it doesn't have any strong focus fabrics, but a lot of really nice blender fabrics. The designer, Nancy Halvorson, has written a couple of books to go along with the grouping

This project is in the book called Table Please, Part One:

Then, just because the fabrics were so prettily sitting on my cutting table, I decided to use them in this pencil case, a project from another book called so gifts

I think I'm going to make this pencil case again, and this timeI will make the outside of it quilted.

I think I'll choose a different color for the wooden part of the pencil as well, since this one doesn't have enough of a contrast with the background gray fabric.

But I must say I do like the orange inside, especially as it contrasts with the bright blue zipper.

Oh yes back to the art to heart fabrics, I am currently sewing another project with them! However I will make a new post all about that another day...