Modern Boro Zipper Pouch + Tiny Flower Pot Cozy

My progress on larger quilted projects has been going pretty well this month, but you know me. I'm still sneaking in a small finish now and then. It's just fun for me, and I can't see that changing.

So in the past couple of weeks I've tried two new patterns. The first was the Modern Boro Zipper Pouch, a free pattern by Karen/kzstevens. It's small - 6" x 4" - but what drew me to it was the little bits of boro stitching, which is actually part of the pattern. Being new to boro, this was the perfect test-case for me.

Plus, I could make it out of scraps, which was obviously both fun and productive, and there was sweet detailing on both front and back.

I liked it so well, I immediately made another.

I could have gone on and on, really. But instead, got back to the main project at hand.

But several days later, I needed another breather, and when I saw Svetlana/SOTAK Handmade post a video tutorial for her little Pot Cozy on Instagram, I had to try that too. Again, scraps, and I swear no longer than 30 minutes and I had this little basket put to work beside my sewing machine.

So those were fun, but I'm back to work now quilting my latest quilt, and of course, mulling over what little make I can slip in next.

Sometimes It Takes A While

This poor little project got neglected more times than I can count, but finally, irrevocably, I'm calling it done. Just 9" x 12", it was begun in September of last year, on a touring bus, somewhere between Paris and Beaune, France. It had seemed such a good idea to take a little handwork on our trip to Europe, and it was. It's just that the project rarely called to me, and in fact, a sense of obligation and a few fond memories are what finally convinced me to finish it at all.

The fabric came from my scrap basket, and also from little sample packs from Brooklyn Haberdashery that I'd picked up at my last two QuiltCons. And I really did like all of it. Every little block was hand-pieced, and by the time I got home, I had a nice handful.

Then it was time to puzzle them together, and that was tricky. Considering they were all hand-pieced, I couldn't just trim anywhere without risking releasing a seamline. But eventually they were all pieced into a rectangle and it was time to quilt.

I stitched-in-the-ditch along some of the major seamlines, and then started in on some boro-style stitching. This is definitely an area where I'm no expert, but my goal was to try and try I did. For the first time, I used Aurifloss, #2311 [Muslin], so that was cool, though for this kind of stitching, I think I'd use two strands next time, rather than three. But it all worked well enough.

The binding was cut skinnier than usual (1 1/2" to finish at 1/4"), and I did machine-stitch it around the quilt before finishing by hand. And with that this little piece is done. Not my favorite, but that's totally ok. There's some travel stitched in, some exploring, and a fondness for those bits of fabric and those wary stitches. I think all that's enough.