Zipperlicious!

Wahoo!

I won the drawing for last week's Zakka Style project

(it was that cute little sewing case)

My prize was an amazing $30 gift certificate from the Etsy shop

Zipit !

I had so much fun picking out my zippers, and boy oh boy is there a lot to choose from.

In the end I picked a nice assortment of colors and sizes

so I'm ready for almost any project that involves zippers.

To think, I've only known how to sew in zippers for about a year and a half,

 and now I have enough zippers to last me a LONG time!

Oh, and Jenny at Zipit included the cutest little zipper pull! See it in the picture on the left?

So fun!!

Zakka sewing kit kaboom!

I've said it before and I'll say it again,

I LOVE MY ST LOUIS MODERN QUILT GUILD!!

We had another sew in this weekend, and it rocked the house!

Well, actually, the weather rocked the building.

Can you say 3" of rain in 2 hours?

Can you say marble to golfball size hail?

(some of the significant others were dealing with softball sized hail!)

Can you say tornado sirens going off?

Yep, never a dull moment with us!

But we didn't let Monther Nature crash this party.

We sewed from 9am to almost 10pm

(with a few dips out into the world beyond for food runs and hospital visits and various other things, and of course a trip to the basement to wait out the tornado)

and had a blast. Lots of neat projects going on,

quilts for friends and family and ourselves

in (literally in one case) all colors of the rainbow.

Hmmm, Mother Nature didn't provide us with one of those after her show, bummer.

Here's what I got done:

This is my next Zakka Style project, the sewing kit.

I'm pretty pleased with it.

I also got next week's project done, the pencil case.

 Not too bad. I only had to turn it rightside out THREE times to get it right.

I thought I was going to hurt my brain trying to understand the directions,

but eventually I just gave up and did it without thinking.

I did do more, but thats all I'm going to show you for now.

Mostly because I need to take some pictures and to do that I need to get some new batteries for the camera.



House Pouch

So here it is, the second project from the Zakka Style book.

The front:

The back:

Floyd, the guard and helper.

"You aren't getting any of this fabric until I get some catnip!"

I like that my house pouch looks less like a house than the origional. 

I just couldn't do all the goopy lace and buttons.

Just not me.

Onward. Next is a cute little pincushion. 

Now, I don't have anything against pin cushions, 

but honestly, 

how many pincushions can one person have before 

you say Uncle??

Hmmm, maybe I'll fill it with catnip and use it as a decoy to gain access to my stash again.

Zakka Rocka!

Its called Good Friday, 'cuz good God almighty Fridays are GOOD!

Especially when you get the day off to play.

I was a busy bee in my sewing room Friday wrapping up some projects,

starting new ones.

I'm so excited to be playing along with the Zakka Style fun!

Here's my new library bag, the first project from the Zakka book:

It zigs, it zags, Its ziggy zaggy!

I am very impressed with my domestic machine quilting,

not my usual modus operendi (check me out, butchering Latin!!)

And there's a coordinated pocket inside too!

Oops! Probably shouldn't have turned the camera. Oh well.

A super fun project that forced me to expand my horizons and tackle some new

techniques. And that LINEN!!! Its gorgeous to work with!

If you are on the hunt for that fab linen, I found mine on line from Sew Mama Sew.

I just hope the three yards I bought are enough to carry me through most of the

projects in the book.

I worked on some quilts this past week, finishing up my mother's

black and white jelly roll race (I added some yellow and it POPS!)

as well as two of my "use up the batiks" quilts

and finally quilted my Lemon Squares quilt.

I'll post photos later (tease, tease).

Oh, and I got a bit ahead on my Zakka Wow, and even have the next project DONE!

Gotta go mow the yard, a never ending chore to be sure.

Happy Easter, Happy sewing, and Happy April!

Zakka Style Sew Along

So that really cute book that came out in December by Rashida Coleman-Hale called Zakka Style?

Well, there's going to be a sew along on Flikr with various fabulous bloggers taking one project a week. Needless to say, I don't come anywhere close to the talent these ladies have in their pinkie fingers, but I thought I would challenge myself to follow along.

The sew along starts Monday, April 2, with the first project in the book and will continue through Monday, September 10, with a new project introduced each Monday.

Each blogger will sew a different project and will be sharing their finished project and inspiration with you. Here's the line up of who's who and who's doing what:

• April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic
• April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time
• April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin
• April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with Monkey Do
• April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry
• May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

• May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad
• May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange
• May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness
• June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone
• June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy
• June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catchup

• June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike
• July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick
• July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces
• July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode
• July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie
• July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

• August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss
• August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced
• August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead
• August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth
• September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade
• September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

You should really pick up a copy of the book to participate. It's available from Amazon and many other booksellers! My local library has it (wahoo for local libraries!), but there is quite a reserve list and, of course, you will need the book for the whole summer to follow along.

We will see how good I am about staying caught up and posting my weekly projects. It doesn't look like any project will take more than an afternoon or evening to complete, its just finding those afernoons and evenings!

Let me know your thoughts... are you going to take up the challenge and participate or watch from the sidelines?