Summer of Sewing: Our Happy Pouch Tutorial!

It's summer and we're ready to sew! 

We'll be featuring regular tutorials as part of our Summer of Sewing series, all using our newest fabric lines that you can find at your local quilt shop! Our tutorials will include a chance to win a bundle of the fabric line being used, so make sure to enter each time! 

We're starting off the Summer of Sewing series with this cute little pouch. It's simple to construct, but with fabric this fun, who needs a lot of complex piecing?! The pouch measures 9" wide x 8" tall.

We're calling this our "If you're HAPPY and you know it" Pouch because it's made with our bright and whimsical Happy collection. 

Let's get started!

You'll Need:

1 fat quarter each large floral print, swirl stripe, and cream medallion print

8" long coordinating zipper

Fusible batting

Cutting:

From the large floral print:

One 10" x 9" piece (for pouch back)

One 10" x 6" piece (for pouch front)

From the swirl stripe:

One 10" x 3" piece (for pouch front)

From the cream medallion print:

One 10" x 9" piece (for pouch back)

One 10" x 6" piece (for pouch front)

One 10" x 3" piece (for pouch front)

From the fusible batting:

One 10" x 9" piece

One 10" x 6" piece

One 10" x 3" piece

Making the Pouch:

1. Following manufacturer's directions, adhere each fusible web piece to the wrong side of the same sized large floral and swirl stripe pieces. 

2. You'll be sewing the zipper between two swirl stripe piece and the 10" x 6" large floral piece, sw shown below. You'll also be attaching the lining piece to each section at the same time. 

3. Lay the zipper face down on the swirl stripe piece and pin in place. 

4. Pin the 10" x 3" lining piece on top, right sides down, so the zipper is sandwiched between. Using your zipper foot, sew along the edge of the zipper. Fold fabric back so right sides are showing.
5. Repeat using the 10" x 6" large floral piece and 10" x 6" lining piece and sandwiching the other side of the zipper in between. At this point, your pouch front should look like this from the front: 

 And this from the back: 

6. Topstitch about 1/4" from the zipper edge using a coordinating thread.

7. Pin the 10" x 9" lining piece wrong side facing to the fusible fleece side of the pouch back. Layer the pouch front and back right sides together and pin around all edges. You will need to trim the pouch front slightly (approximately 1/2") so it's the same height as the pouch back. Make sure the zipper is partly open so you can turn the pouch right side out after sewing!

8. Sew around all four sides of the pouch using a 1/4" seam allowance. 

9. If you like, use a spool or other small round object to trace rounded corners. (We did this on all four corners!). Starting and ending on your existing stitching line, restitch the corner areas on these drawn lines. Trim excess corner fabric. Note: You can do this before sewing around the pouch in step 8, but adding the rounded corners afterward ensures your bag and corners are more uniform. 

10. Set your machine to a short and dense zigzag stitch and sew around pouch edges (while it's still inside out) to secure raw edges. 

11. Turn your pouch right side out, poke out the rounded corners, and you're done! 

Love the medallion print inside!

And the back--simple, but such fun flowers!

Happy summer! 

For a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the Happy collection, make sure you follow us on the blog (options are in the right hand sidebar) and leave a comment letting us know you do, as well as telling us your favorite print from the Happy fabrics. Giveaway is open through Friday, June 10 at 11:59 pm CST. We'll randomly draw a winner and announce it on the blog next week. Make sure we have a way to get in touch with you if you are selected as the winner! 

Accent on Color

Whether you love a great tonal collection or just really have fun pairing a brighter color with black and white prints, you'll find plenty to play with in our Accent on Color collection. It features 30 prints: 10 each black and white, purple and white, and red and white. Use them all together, or pick your favorite color. And like the name suggests, add in an "accent" of a different color. It's so much fun to play with value!

See the entire Accent on Color collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.

A Memorial Day thank you

On this Memorial Day, we'd like to pause to honor military personnel who died while serving in the Armed Forces for our country. We remember you and your sacrifice. 

Find the pattern for this American flag quilt here.

Take a tour of our booth - part 2!

Welcome back! 

We're continuing the virtual tour of our Quilt Market booth today. 

If you missed part 1 of our booth tour, find it here. 

You'll notice each of these vignettes includes two lengths of our Painter's Palette Solids. With 80+ colors, we've got one to match just about everything. We selected a couple to show off with each of our fabric lines in case you're looking for solid coordinates. 

 The Cityscapes collection: 

Neutral landscape and sketched city prints

The Montego Bay collection, showcased in the Paisley Paradise quilt by Maria Pate:

Paisleys, florals, and a lattice print in blues or pinks

See this quilt design in a second colorway and download the free quilt pattern here.

 The Vintage 30's Ruby's Treasures collection 

by Barbara J. Eikmeier in conjunction with McKim Studios:

Classic 30's prints + preprinted embroidery panels

Find the free quilt pattern for Barb's Ruby's Treasures quilt (hanging) here.

Sweet bonnets from the new "Designs Worth Doing" club. 

(More on exciting new club this soon!)

More from Vintage 30's Ruby's Treasures: a quilt featuring the printed embroidery blocks, an apron, a bag and a sundress, plus an updated Sunbonnet Sue (small projects are all from Designs Worth Doing). 

Barb showing off her fabrics!

The Opposites Attract collection:

Black, white and red all over. Love the two bags and the tuffet as well! 

Find the free pattern for the Opposites Attract quilt by Pine Tree Country Quilts here.

The Spring Romance collection: 

Soft pastels and florals create a romantic mood

Find the free quilt pattern for the Spring Romance quilt by Morning Glory Designs here.

The Dryad collection by Shannon Brinkley:

We love this modern line!

Find the free quilt pattern for theDrifting Leaves quilt by Shannon Brinkley here. 

The Leather collection:

This is our designated Row by Row Experience line: great tonal texture in 40+ colors!

Read more about the Home Sweet Home concept quilt here.

See the other half of our Quilt Market booth tour here. 

Take a tour of our booth!

We have so much to show you from International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City last weekend! So much, in fact, that we're breaking up our tour into more than one post. 

At Quilt Market, we show our new fabric lines to quilt shops so they can decide which lines to carry in their shops. We pack our booth full of as much inspiration as possible, showing off these new lines in fantastic quilts.

Our booth set-up is new this year as well--light and airy, and perfect for showing off quilts. 

So many pops of color in the booth!

Happy by Linda Frost; featuring the Happy collection (and some beautiful appliques!)

"Starry Compass Rose" by Elizabeth Eastmond and machine quilted by Denise Marieno, featuring our Painter's Palette Solids collection.

Another Painter's Palette Solids quilt, which you've seen before, but we love it enough to show it again! "A Flutter of Color" by Linda Frost. This quilt pattern is available as a free download on our website. 

"Windfall" by Reeze Hanson featuring our Windfall collection

The Paintbrush University Quilt created by Maria Pate. This is an exciting program for quilt shops using our Painter's Palette Solids.

"Shattered" by Maria Pate, using our Batiks

Garden Rendezvous by Liz Granberg, made using Ro Gregg's Garden Rendezvous collection. 

From our Quilt Market Booth: Home is where you make it

One of the quilts featured in our booth at Quilt Market was our concept quilt for the Row by Row Experience. This year's theme is "Home Sweet Home," and we couldn't resist having a quilt made in our Leather collection fabrics that followed the theme. 

Here are some close-ups and a little more information about our Home Sweet Home quilt, "Home Is Where You Make It," designed by Lisa Swenson Ruble and machine quilted by Diane Oakes.

Q. Where did the idea for this quilt come from?

Lisa: When Paintbrush Studio approached me about designing a row by row quilt concept, they asked for a quilt with a story that moved from row to row. They also suggested a few ideas, including thinking about campers and snowbirds. So many quilters are snowbirds, and I latched onto that as my story--the idea that your home is wherever you are and however you make it. 

And that became the "quote" that runs across the top and bottom borders.

Q. Tell us about the storyline. 

Lisa: The storyline runs through all five rows. In the first row, you see the happy little neighborhood, including the cute camper. In the second row, winter arrives, everything is covered in snow, and the camper is ready to leave town. The third row is the journey--up and down hills, across winding roads, heading for the beach. In the fourth row, the camper is set up near the beach--home away from home. You see some repeating motifs there--the gnome, the flowers, the quilt on the clothesline, the birdhouse. And in the fifth row, relaxing on the beach!

Row 1:

Row 2:

Row 3:

Row 4:

Row 5:

Q. How did you design the quilt?

Lisa: I sketched out the idea for each row on pencil and paper and had a friend, Linda Smoker, create the digital quilt in Adobe Illustrator from my sketches. My sketches weren't even to scale--they were concepts more than anything--and she did a wonderful job transforming them! Then I printed out her digital designs at full size (9" x 36" rows!) at the copy store and traced the various pieces onto fusible web. 

Q. What did you like about the Leather fabrics?

Lisa: They have so much texture! They really added depth to the landscape and even the border. I am glad the palette was narrowed down to just ten, because there are so many different great colors to choose from. 

Q. What is your favorite part of the quilt? 

Lisa: I absolutely love the quilting that Diane Oakes did--I handed her the quilt top and said "do whatever you think works" and she did a fantastic job adding so much texture. I also really like the little gnome. :) 

Thanks, Lisa!

Are you interested in participating in the Row by Row Experience this summer? Find out more details about it here, and see our Leather collection fabric palette here. 

See the entire Leather collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop. 

Read Lisa's blog post about this quilt here. 

**Please note--the "Home Is Where You Make It" quilt is not a pattern--it's simply a concept quilt that we've designed for fun. Watch for Home Sweet Home row patterns at your local quilt shop this summer!