Lily Pouches

We are so ready for spring at my house. With deer frolicking in the front yard and wildflowers blooming everywhere, it seems like it's finally here to stay. I love it when my sewing is a perfect match for the season, and these pouches made with the Lily collection by Sue Penn for Penny Rose Fabrics feel exactly right for this time of year.

Over spring break, I had the chance to fly back to California to visit my sister and her family. It was a lovely trip, full of sweet visits with family and friends. I brought these pouches along as gifts for a few special people. Whenever I need a quick gift, I almost always go with a pouch. They're simple, fast, and useful for just about everyone.

These came together in just two afternoons of sewing. I sewed small strips together and quilted on either side of each seam. I usually like to mix up my prints, but this time I decided to stick with a separate colorway for each pouch. Going with a more cohesive color scheme for each piece was a nice change, and I will definitely do it again in the future.

At about 4 x 6", these are just the right size to tuck into a bag. As always, I added leather ties as zipper pulls and twill tape loops to the sides of each pouch.

Happy sewing, friends -- and happy spring!

Merry Making

December has been the month of the never ending cold virus at our house. In spite of all the coughing and sneezing, though, I've been snatching a few moments to sew whenever I can. I finally had the chance to try out Kelby's fabulous tutorial, and it has changed my life, I tell you. Why did I never think to finish off the edges of my pouch linings with a zig zag stitch? As someone who adores the look of a structured case, that last step of binding the raw edges inside has so often kept me from making one. No more of that! The case you see above, made with Denyse Schmidt's gorgeous Hadley collection, has been sitting in my WIP pile for weeks because I couldn't face the time it would take to properly bind the lining. I'm thrilled to death to have this project done at last!

Using Kelby's tutorial, I made a Dopp Kit for my Dad using new canvas prints from Cotton & Steel.

I love that Tokyo Train Ride lining inside this pouch!

I also made a smaller version of the pouch using Melody Miller prints. This will be a perfect little makeup bag to fit in my luggage for our Christmas trip to Arizona this week. 

And speaking of Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful one. Hugs to you, friends!

Fabric Audition: Palm Springs

It's been a while since I've posted a fabric audition on the blog, but I'm hoping to share at least one or two of these each month from now on. Along with a curated stack of fabric, I'll be sharing a Pinterest board of photos to go along with the theme as well as a project made from the auditioned prints. I always enjoy auditioning fabrics, and adding these last two steps to the process has been so much fun!

Audition Stats (top to bottom): Barcelona City Map in Saffron by Zen Chic for Moda, Essential Dots Black on White by Moda, Modern Home Little Leaves by Monaluna, Nicey Jane Picnic Bouquet in Tangerine by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit, Sun Print Feathers in Onyx by Allison Glass for Andover, Botanics Foliage in Tangerine by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman

Today's stack is inspired by the sunny shades of Palm Springs, that famously lovely desert spot located just over an hour away from where I live. I've had some wonderful vacations there with family and friends over the years. The heat is intense, but beautiful views and great food make up for it. You'll find some fabulous examples of retro design there too, several of which you can see on my Palm Springs Fabric Audition Pinterest board.

I decided to make a simple striped pouch from this audition. These prints look great with yarn dyed Essex linen in leather, and I love the orange Aurifil thread that I used to quilt the front and back. The pouch is lined in the floral Heather Bailey print which is such a happy thing to see each time I open that zipper.

I have more fabric auditions in the works as we speak, but feel free to let me know in the comments below if you have any themes or color palettes that you'd like to see me tackle this year. If I put something together with your idea, I'll be sure to give you and your blog a mention in my post!

Chore Pack

Today we all went back to school again (my husband's school district gives everyone three glorious weeks off for Christmas break). We all agreed this morning that this is a mixed blessing. Everyone is sad to leave the joys of vacation behind us, but it feels so great to get back into a routine again. My girls were all excited to get their new chore assignments this morning -- heaven only knows how long that will last -- and I broke out some new sticker charts to encourage the enthusiasm. Normally this is the sort of thing that gets easily lost in the stacks of paper that endlessly multiply on my kitchen counters, but as it happens, I took about twenty minutes last night to play hooky from my sewing deadlines by making a little case just for fun. I had no idea what this project was when it was finished (aside from personal sewing therapy, of course), but now I know. It's a chore pack!

I love the way the leather yarn dyed linen, Midwest Modern print, Geekly Chic lining, and even that button all work together to give this a slightly mod 1960's look. I am constantly snitching rubber bands from my girls' hair kit to use as button/loop fasteners for projects. They make such an easy yet cute way to add a closure to a pouch or pocket.

So, yes, I'm loving this little pack today. It's small, happy, and useful...in other words, just perfect.

Charley Harper Pouch & a Winner

I made a little zipper pouch for a dear friend of mine last week who was having a birthday, and forgot to share it with all of you. These Charley Harper prints by Birch are so amazing. I love the colors and designs.

I did just two lines of quilting on both sides of the pouch, tracing the lines of this cheater print.

The lining is Country Twang in Pearl Snap from Eric and Julie Comstock's new Honky Tonk collection for Moda. I'm telling you, those Comstocks always include at least one "must stash" print in every one of their lines. I adore this design!

It was great fun looking through all of your favorite sewing book titles during this past giveaway week. Your answers ranged from vintage to modern, and I saw lots of titles from my own personal library tucked in among them. A very unofficial tally of the results seems to show that the two most popular books are Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison and Free Motion Quilting by Angela Walters. Both are highly recommended!

I wish I could send a gift certificate to all of your inboxes, but since I can only afford one, we'll go with Fiesta. I've sent you an email and hope to hear back from you soon!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Comedy of Errors

I can sew, bake, sing, play the guitar, even draw a little. Sports, however, have never been one of my strong points. This should have occurred to me on Saturday night when I saw the dog's ball sitting on the kitchen floor and traipsed over to kick it back to her. Two seconds later my feet were flying up in the air, and my back and head hit the floor -- hard. A few hours in the emergency room and some personal time with an IV and a head scan yielded the diagnosis of a mild concussion, and I firmed up my new resolution to leave any dreams of athleticism behind me for good. So many thanks to all of you who left such sweet comments on Instagram over the weekend. I haven't felt so achingly sore since my last c-section, but I'm getting a little better each day. It's hard to say, though, if I'll ever be able to wear socks on laminate flooring again without fear and trembling...

With that comedy of errors behind us, let's talk about sewing. I don't think I've ever gotten so much out of a fat quarter bundle as I did out of my stack of Fort Firefly: a baby quilt, an organizer, and now a set of activity pouches which I made for our church. Our Director of Christian Education plans to stuff these with all kinds of goodies that little ones can play with during the service.

Again, I love that this fabric is pretty gender neutral. Though there are definitely a few girly prints, most of the colors and designs work well for both boys and girls. Cotton webbing has become my new best friend. It cuts down on sewing time since I don't have to make my own straps, and it makes a project look just a little more finished at the same time. Believe it or not, I still have some Fort Firefly scraps left, but I'm setting them aside for some quiet hand sewing over the next few days while my body recuperates.

Of course, the real lesson here is to spend less time in the kitchen and more time at my sewing machine...right?

On the Sunny Side of the...Pouch?

Have you ever had a morning when you needed to sew? I don't mean "needed" as in trying to meet a due date for something, but more like "if I don't get a chance to play with my sewing machine today, my soul is going to wither and die?" That may be overstating things a bit, I suppose, but not by much for me this morning. There are many amazingly wonderful things going on behind the scenes here at Fabric Mutt these days which I unfortunately can't share with you yet, but sadly they don't include lots of free sewing time. Today, though, I just had to sew something for the fun of it. Since I've been needing a new pouch for my traveling hexagons, I grabbed the mini charm pack of Sunnyside by Kate Spain that's been staring at me from the shelf for over a month and got to work.

As I was laying out these little squares, Mouse scampered over to me and begged to sit in my lap. She took great delight in helping me put them in order, and since this wasn't a crucial design project, I let her help with it. I ended up deciding to split the two personalities in the collection to create a sort of "mood pouch," with sunny colors on one side and darker shades on the other. See, now it's not just a pouch, it's a public service announcement to let everyone know whether Mommy's a grump today or not...

The pouch is lined with Fairy Tales in white from The Land That Never Was by Lisa Congdon for Cloud 9 Fabrics. I absolutely love the simplicity of this print, and the playful words are a nice compliment to the exterior. On another note, I'm embarrassed to say that I've had a Clover hera marker sitting among my tools all summer long, waiting ever so patiently to be used. After finally pulling it out for the first time today, I could kick myself for neglecting it for so long. It works like a dream.

Am I happy with this little pouch? Let's just say that it's sitting next to me as I type this evening -- and the sunny side is up.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Sewing School: Zipper Pouches

My little sewing school is still in progress with the girls this year. About every third week we do a project of some kind together, and our latest one was sewing zipper pouches. They had a blast picking out fabric for these, going through every last print in my stacks for just the right pieces. Mouse, who is currently obsessed with ducks, chose one of Lizzy House's first collections for the exterior of her pouch and an unknown yellow print for the lining.

Bear was desperate to use those mixing bowls by Lori Holt on the outside of her pouch, adding a Briar Rose calico print for her lining. She faithfully uses that pouch to store her pencil every single day for school.

Bunny fell in love with these dogs by Heather Ross as soon as she saw them and lined her pouch with one of the most popular prints in my stash as far as my girls are concerned: Mr. Bear by Sarah Jane.

The girls had so much fun making these. While I sometimes find one left forgotten on the floor or table, heaven help the sister who touches a pouch that doesn't belong to her. Now I'm just trying to decide what to do for our next project. Any suggestions?

Playtime

It has been a lovely, lovely week of vacation here with my in-laws in Southern Arizona. Normally I'm not a desert vacation kind of girl. Broiling temperatures? Sharp plants? No, thank you. But there's something about the little retirement community of Green Valley that gets to me. The summer months are far more quiet than usual since half the population heads off for cooler climates, and there's a peacefulness here that speaks to my soul. The light is incredible in the evenings at dusk, softening the edges of the landscape and making everything beautiful. Since it's monsoon season in this part of the world, we've also been having nightly thunderstorms. I love to stand at the patio window and watch the lightning flash over the mountains.

My parents-in-law live in a complex that is surrounded by small stretches of desert wilderness which are full of little creatures: rabbits, quail, ground squirrels, and the occasional lizard. I do my best to catch them in motion, but they're quick. I'm afraid all these vacation photos are taken with my phone -- I just didn't feel like packing the fancy camera this year -- but at least you get a feel for the area this way. You can follow me on Instagram to see more.

Every night before bed, my daughters love to go exploring with us -- "bunny hunting" they call it -- hoping to catch a glimpse of those soft brown-grey rabbits playing games among the cacti.

With all the playtime, I've not done a stitch of sewing yet, though I brought some projects along with me just in case. Maybe tomorrow. For today, I'll share a few projects that I brought along as gifts for family members.

These patchwork wristlets were made using Ayumi's tutorial. To speed things up, I left out the inside pocket and used precut mini charm squares from the Posy and Baby Jane lines.

I love these pouches -- such a fun, personal gift and so useful.

I also made a throw quilt for my brother-in-law and his wife out of charm squares from Glimma and Bella by Lotta Jansdotter. It's a very simple design in layout and quilting, but that seems to suit these prints somehow.

I backed the quilt in that wonderful IKEA print I bought last month. I really need to get some more of that soon.

As I sit here typing, my little bunny hunters have finally fallen asleep after another big day, tired from the night's activities and excited about tomorrow's trip to the Tuscon Zoo. I'm tired too...and so very happy.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

The Week

Well, I'll tell you...it's been quite the week around here. Our internet service has been dying a slow death, which is why the blog has been a bit more quiet than usual. Every time the internet is working, I'm in the middle of something, and every time I'm ready to post, it's down. A new internet router is supposedly coming to our rescue and should be arriving by mail tomorrow. Unfortunately the old router and our car's transmission seem to have made a suicide pact when we weren't looking, so we're taking our minivan in for what will in all likelihood be the most expensive auto service appointment in history tomorrow morning. Perhaps all this explains why I suddenly wanted to burst into happy tears when I found this package in my mailbox today.

This is my California Road Trip blogger bundle that I put together for Jennifer at Tactile Fabrics, and I have to say, it looks even better in person than it did on the computer screen. I can hardly wait to start cutting out pieces for a summer quilt from this happy little stack of fabrics. It looks like the bundles are definitely selling, so head over to Jennifer's shop if you want to grab one for yourself before they're gone. You can get a fat eighth bundle for as little as $16.25, which should still (hopefully) be in even my price range after we get tomorrow's repair bill from the auto shop.



I also wanted to show you this wristlet that I made on Sunday night for a friend of mine. I used a navy print from Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky line, definitely one of my favorite fabric collections of the past year. My friend and her husband love to travel -- in fact, he just finished leading a tour group through historical European sites relating to the Reformation -- so I tucked a little travel journal inside just for fun.

My dad and I were commiserating over the dinner table this evening about the unending parade of disasters we've had this week -- did I mention that his recliner broke beyond repair last night? seriously -- and I couldn't believe the list as I ticked off everything that had died over the past seven days. My dad just shook his head, "Ah, the week of death..." Then he grinned, "Well, as long as none of us dies, I think we're doing okay."

And now I'd better press the "publish" button before my computer blows up or something...

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

A Little Vacation

The last time we spent a vacation in a hotel, I was pregnant with Mouse, Bunny was a hyper preschooler, and Bear still had to be carried around everywhere. In fact, the entire memory is one intense blur of exhaustion...so much so that I was a little hesitant about trying that sort of thing again. A few months ago, though, we decided to take the plunge and schedule a mini vacation of two nights in Carlsbad during this first week of June so that we could take the girls to Legoland.

I'm happy to say that it was a great experience all around. My girls (ages 2, 4, and 6) are exactly the right age for this park. Bunny and Bear could do almost everything in there, and Mouse was happy enough to watch what she couldn't do. Though it's not quite up to the production level of Disneyland -- and honestly, what else is? -- it's a great place to take kids who are 10 and under. Having been obsessed with Legos myself as a child, I was particularly fond of the Miniland U.S.A. section in the center of the park which features sculptures of various cities across the country.

And as a former Star Wars nerd back in my teenage days -- the original trilogy only though, mind you -- I was just a little excited about the movie sculptures in the park as well. I didn't get photos of everything, but if you want to see more, the L.A. Times has a great photo gallery here.

So really there wasn't much time left over for sewing this week. However I do have a quick project from a short while back, a pouch that I made as a gift for Carla who writes the lovely blog Grace and Favour. I absolutely love the projects that she has in progress right now, particularly her alphabet hexagons and Green Tea & Sweet Beans quilt. You should definitely stop by for a look.

The pouch is covered in some of my favorite scraps, paired with yarn dyed essex linen in leather, and lined in one of Denyse Schmidt's latest prints from her new Blossom Reel collection. I had so much fun putting this piece together.

I'll be back on Saturday with a special guest advice post to help kick off the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop. See you then!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Bear's Birthday Present

My little Bear will be turning four on Sunday, and my husband's parents are arriving in town any minute to spend the weekend with all of us. There are a hundred things on the to-do list, but I wanted to quickly share the patchwork case I made for Bear's birthday present, which is a Leapfrog Scribble & Write. So many toys and videos are designated "educational" these days, a label which can be widely overused as far as I'm concerned, but all my experience with Leapfrog products has been fantastic. I think we own every one of their dvds, and I can't believe how much my daughters have picked up from them. Mouse has learned all of her letters and their sounds, just by watching "The Letter Factory" a million times.

Using some yarn dyed essex linen in leather, a fat quarter from the Fox Hollow collection, and a few 2.5" patchwork squares, I whipped up a quick gadget case last night. There's a strap so she can carry it around with her, padding to keep the toy cushioned, and velcro for easy access. Best of all, I can give it to her in the case so it doesn't have to be gift wrapped.

Make that ninety-nine things left on the to-do list.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Three Pouches

After the prototype I made earlier this week, I was able to finish three more versions of my Office in a Pouch for Bunny's AWANA teachers in time for her to deliver them last night at the closing program. Bunny helped me pick out the exterior fabric for each one, and I had fun selecting the fabrics to complement the main print.

If I had to choose a favorite, it would be the Melody Miller pouch. I love the way it turned out with the fussy cutting on the front and back.

I ended up making these just a tad smaller than my first one -- 8 x 13". It's a perfect fit for the supplies inside, and it makes the pouch a little easier to slip inside a larger bag if needed.

For the zipper charms on these, I used paper airplanes. It just seemed appropriate.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.