Stitching in the Barn

 Tech pouch for a TI-Nspire CX II calculator. Project from this episode of Missouri Star Live by MSQC. Fabric from Connecting Threads. It's a little too snug but it'll do for now. Great project!    

I got my order in the mail from Connecting Threads Thursday and bought the supplies I needed that night to do the Zip Zip bag in Pen and Inked . I cut it out Saturday and constructed it Sunday. I took some shortcuts by buying black bias binding and using a strap that was in my stash from an old lunchbox. This area was a bit tricky to turn the corners and sew. I broke the tip of my titanium needle somewhere around this area. Fortunately, it didn't fly into my face and I was near the end. The ugly corners were folded to the back in the end so that hid it. This was an easy gratification project. I loved the easy construction and wished I had thought up of this pattern. I feel so accomplished!  It's a good size, maybe a bit long for me. As my kids have gotten older, my purses have gotten smaller. I transferred my purse contents to this one that night. It was a tight fit and I think I travel light. I think it's because it's so flat. I might have to hang

I did get our dice bags finished last year. This is the first one I did with a pocket on the lining and the paper piecing page for my next block.

I shouldn't have started this project on a day I wasn't feeling the best but I thought it would help spur me on to get something done. I started with the X-men symbol block because it was the simplest. I thought I knew what colors went where without looking at my notes and sewed on the wrong color. There were only supposed to be the medium blue and yellow up to this point, not the dark blue. I jumped the gun on the last color. I reprinted my block out & started over because I just didn't want to rip out what I had done and it wasn't much anyway. Then I set it aside until I felt better.

I'm making some dice bags for me & my son. You can find the links for the patterns and paper piecing on this post . I really started on this project a while ago up to this point. Then the woven hearts took me on a detour.  I had no problem picking fabrics for this project and they all came fro my stash! I had the red and black and white for Deadpool. 

I bought my son a game for Christmas: As you can see, it comes with a lot of dice and you get more in the booster packs.  We've been having a lot of fun playing it and we're thinking of taking it to the next level. There's a group that plays near us every Wednesday that we might go to. If we're going to take this on the road, and because I love geeky sewing, I gotta make us some dice bags!

In my son's middle school, they have restrictions on the size of the bag they can carry around. Last school year I made my own pattern thinking it would be easy but it ended up very involved. I used the one I bought from the school, at the beginning of the year for $15 that was coming apart at the seams as a guide. It was made from cheap nylon and no lining. My remake had a cotton print outside and a ripstop nylon lining inside with grommets in the corners like the original. I used some thick cording for the straps/drawstring and it worked. It took me all day to figure out and 3 hours to make but it held up the rest of the year and his friends wanted to buy it off him at the end of the year.  It was successful but this past summer I saw this pattern at a Jo Ann's and decided to buy it. It comes in mini to medium and the biggest size was within my 17" X 15" maximum limit.

Well I took a long unintended hiatus. If anyone is still following this blog, thank you. I'm glad to see the back of 2011. It was a long, hard, stressful year for me that I'm glad to see finished, though there were some highlights. I've made a new commitment to sewing this year and I've already started! So far this year I've made two pincushion thread catchers from the Abby Bag pattern . I bought the kit for these from Connecting Threads last Mother's day. The kits are no longer available and most of the fabrics are sold out also :o(