Alexandria's Meadowland

Are you familiar with my friend Lizzie's's work? Lizzie Clark designs beautiful floral fabric for Sweet Bee Designs and I was lucky enough to make a quilt with her newest line, Alexandria. It's so cute with both small and large florals plus some really fun supporting prints. I tried to pick just one favorite but there were several. How am I supposed to choose between teal and purple?

I knew right away that Alexandria would be perfect for Then Came June's Meadowland pattern. The light Flower Garden print was just right for the background and I added a few solids to round out the number of fat quarters needed. The blocks in this pattern are big so with just 12 of them the quilt is still a good lap size at 48 x 64".

I think it turned out pretty great if I do say so myself and just about everyone who saw me working on this wanted it for themselves so I guess they would agree. I was able to get this quilted (a simple 2" grid) and bound already so it's time for me to take it out and enjoy it!

This is almost the last stop on this blog tour so be sure to go back and see all of the beautiful projects made so far if you missed them. There is everything from quilts to bags, pillows, and more!

April 25 - Emily

April 30 - Meg

May 2 - Sharon

May 7 - Lissa

May 9 - Sherry

May 14 - Jen

May 16 - Diane

May 21 - Steph

May 23 - Nicole

May 28 - Allison

May 30 - Loni

Also make sure you're following Lizzie @lizzieclarkdesigns and Sweet Bee Fabric @sweetbeefabric.co on IG for plenty of eye candy and inspiration.

So many turtles!

I've been keeping an eye out for Trish and Birdie fabric for awhile now and was thrilled to finally get my hands on some! This newest line from Deane Beesley for Sweet Bee Designs is the cutest. The turtles, the flowers, the little birdies - all totally adorable and suuuper soft. I was piecing this top at a sew in with some friends and they were all raving about just how soft this fabric is.

There were two prints in particular that jumped out at me, wanting to become a quilt - the aqua turtle shadows and the navy stripe. They are both great blenders with lots of surprise turtles in the aqua when you look close. Deane was kind enough to send me a yard of each along with fat quarters of the whole line and that was enough to make this 51" square quilt. Can you believe it? I of course had to include some of the main turtles (Trish!) and I'm thrilled with how the whole quilt came together.

I'm looking forward to playing around more with the other prints and have gotten some great inspiration from the other stops on the tour. Lucky us, there are plenty more projects to come - be sure to visit these other crafty sewists to check them out:

Jina @ Jina Barney Designz

Becky @ Be So Crafty 

Andy @ A Bright Corner  

Allison @ Allison Sews 

Missy @ The Little Green Bean  

Cassie @ Lily Shine Creates 

Erin @ Piper’s Girls 

Sherry @ Powered by Quilting 

Stephanie @ Steph Jacobson Designs 

Lissa @ Lovingly, Lissa  

Jackie @ Jackie’s Art Quilts  

Keep an eye out at your favorite quilt shop for these new prints from Sweet Bee Designs and be sure to ask for them if they are not on the shelf yet. You are going to love sewing them up!

Are you following Sweet Bee on instagram? I hear there may be a giveaway at the end of the tour plus, who doesn't like pictures of pretty fabric.

A Wonder Full Zipper Pouch Secret

Surprise, surprise, it's another zipper pouch post from me. I love making pouches for just about everything and when Lizzie Clark asked me if I'd like to play with some of her new Wonder Full fabric, I knew it would make some darling bags! I was so excited to jump in and cut it up that I neglected to take a picture of the full collection together. Luckily, Lizzie has one I can share with you:

A post shared by Lizzie Clark (@lizzieclarkdesigns) on Jun 5, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

Those pinks! The blues! I love them! I wanted to use them all but limited myself  to just a handful of the pinks with some accents of the olive and navy. Ahh, triangles. And then more triangles. Before I knew it I had 2 panels all finished up and ready to be pouched.

I don't know about the rest of you but baggy pouch linings that don't stay put really bug me. I've experimented with a few ways to keep them in place and I thought some of you might like to know my secret. This works for any size pouch.

I start by sewing my pouch per the usual instructions (the Open Wide pouch is always a favorite) and stop once I've boxed the corners of both the exterior and the lining. And then:

1 - Sew your pouch, box your corners and trim off the excess. Leave about 3/8" seam allowance.

2 - Looking at the (still inside-out) pouch with a side seam facing up, hold one lining corner and one exterior corner.

3 - Bring these 2 corners together and pin to hold. Do not twist them.

4 - Fold and pin the other side in the same manner.

5 - Here's what you should see looking at the exterior  - that's the bottom seam. The zipper/top seam is in the middle of this rolled up sandwich.

6 - And this is what it looks like from the lining side bottom seam, with the unsewn opening for turning the pouch right side out. 

7 - On the first side, sew these two pieces together making sure to stay in the seam allowance from the boxed corner. Sew the second side the same way.

8 - All sewn up and looking like a rolled-up knot.

9 - Go back to your lining side and find the unsewn section.

10 - Turn the bag right side out, sew up that opening and give it all a good press. 

Bam! An awesome pouch with a lining that stays put. As they all should.

These fabrics were fantastic to work with. Super soft and sewed up like a dream. Be on the lookout for the Wonder Full fabric collection by Lizzie Clark Designs for Sweet Bee Designs at your local quilt shop and if you don’t see it, ask your quilt shop to carry it!

Be sure to follow along on a Wonder Full project tour at these blogs:

6/25 Sarah at Sarah Goer Quilts
6/26 Becky at Be So Crafty
6/27 Becca at Sunflower Seams
6/28 Stephanie at Steph Jacobsons Designs
6/29 Allison at Allison Sews
6/30 Andy at A Bright Corner
7/1 Lissa at Lovingly Lissa
7/2 Jennifer at Dizzy Quilter
7/3 Sherry at Powered by Quilting