Swiss Cheese Pouch Tutorial

I have missed all my blog friends so much!!!  

There is nothing like a kind note of encouragement from you guys to make my day. 

I have FINALLY gotten a chance to sit down and finish this post that I started almost 2 months ago.  Since interest rates are so low right now, my mortgage biz is keeping me busy with refinances and I have also been showing a lot of houses lately (I'm a Realtor too).  I also started selling my tooth fairy pillows and they have been keeping me occupied at night.  Not to mention my 3 boys are not letting the dust settle either. 

Unfortunately, with all this going on in my life, my blog has taken the back burner. 

But not tonight, baby!  It's comeback time!

I recently posted about this little Swiss Cheese Pouch (don't the circles remind you of swiss?) that I made for the Pretty {little} Pouch Swap.  I wanted to share with you a little tutorial on how I created these nifty circles.



I was lucky enough to have recently received an Accuquilt Go! Baby cutting machine.  "Amazing" just doesn't do it justice!  You can cut (many layers of) fabric into different shapes perfectly, and in no time flat. 



Here it is sitting in my "little sewing area."



I was able to choose three dies and I chose:

Go! Circles -2", 3", & 5" (#55012)

Go! Strip cutter - 2 1/2" strips (#55014) and

Go! Birds (#55324)

For the pouch, I wanted to try the reverse applique technique which I've never done before.  For those of you not familiar with reverse applique, instead of sewing an item directly onto the front of your project (applique), you sew it to the back of your project and then cut away the fabric from the front.  OR you can cut out the shape you'd like using your AccuQuilt Go! Baby first, and then place the accent fabric onto the backside of what you plan to sew it onto and then sew it on directly on the front. (I know this sounds confusing, but I've got pictures to explain what the heck I'm talking about!)

This tutorial will show you how I used the Accuquilt Go! Baby to do the reverse applique technique on this pouch.

For the pouch, I used Anna of Noodlehead's Scrappy Make-up Pouch Tutorial. 

For the cute little fabric that covers the edges of the zipper, I used Kelly's Zippered Pouch Tutorial over at Kelby Sews.

Reverse Applique using the

AccuQuilt Go! Baby.

**You will need two Accuquilt Go! Baby cutting mats for this technique**

For the outside of the pouch, I used two pieces of fabric (linen) measuring 9.5" x 8".



Now let's cut some circles.  Since the die has 3 different circle patterns that you can choose from (and I only wanted to use the smallest size circle), you need to cover up the other two circles with an Accuquilt Go! cutting mat.  Next fold the fabric so the areas where you'd like your circles to be are directly over the die.

Set the additional cutting mat over your fabric before running it through the

Accuquilt Go! Baby and crank away.

Make sure that the cutting mat covering the other circle dies actually covers the dies completely. 

Here is what happens if you do NOT.

Repeat the step above by covering the larger circles that you do not want to use with the cutting mat and placing the fabric that you do want cut over the smaller circle.

Cover fabric with the additional cutting mat and crank away.

Here is your swiss cheese piece of fabric.

Place your swiss cheese piece on top of your first piece of accent fabric. 

Zig zag stitch around your circle securing the two pieces together.

Here is what it looks like before you trim away the excess fabric.

Turn over and trim away the extra fabric leaving about 1/4" of fabric to the right of the seam.

 

Repeat around all the circles.  Here is one circle that runs off the edge of the fabric.  Before sewing, make sure to leave extra fabric hanging over the edge.  Sew all around it and then ...

...trim it up.

Ta Da!  Here is the front of your reversed appliqued swiss cheese pouch!

Create your cute zipper.

Attach the front of your pouch to cotton batting using spray mount.  If you'd like to do a little quilting on the front of your pouch, now is the time to do it!

Then follow the remaining step in this wonderful tutorial to complete your pouch. 



If you'd like a chance to win an Accuquilt Go! Baby plus 3 dies, come back later this week.  I will be hosting a giveaway!

Missed you and can't wait to hear from you.

xoxo

~Val

Pretty {little} Swiss Cheese Pouch

I mentioned that I joined the Pretty {little} pouch swap on Flickr.  Here is the {little} pouch that I created.  The circles reminded me of swiss cheese, thus the name.

My partner said that she likes zippers as a type of closure for the pouch and after a little snooping through her Flickr profile, I found that she loves Anna Maria Horner's voile fabric, which I just so happen to have in my stash. 

Sidenote:  after sewing the entire pouch together, I went back and looked through my partner's likes/dislikes and realized she isn't a fan of purple.  CRAP!!!  There is no hiding this big fat purple zipper!



I filled the pouch with some goodies and shipped it off on Monday.  I hope she likes it!  I am going to write a tutorial on how I created it, so come on back tomorrow if you'd like to see how!

~Val

Another great mail day!

So I recently got a my I. Heart. The. 80's. Swap package in the mail and it is like, totally dreamy!!!!

In addition to the mosaic that I made for my partner to help give her inspiration for the swap, I gave her a few additional facts about myself in the 80's.

1.  I LOVED River Phoenix!

***guilty admission:  I just spent about 15 minutes looking through Google Images at all the River Phoenix photos trying to choose the BEST one.  It was really hard to do because he looks soooo good!!!



2.  I was in a club in the 4th grade called I.H.E.B.B.  (I Hate Everything But Boys)
(There were only 4 of us in the club!)

So you can only imagine how thrilled I was to find in my package this bag:

Jenny of JennyGoLightly was my swap partner and she hand embroidered cute doodles and sayings all over this adorable bag.  

Here's the back (a little Breakfast Club reference):

She also had these three lovely 80's inspired pouches inside the bag...

I just love the colors AND...

THEY ARE STACKABLE!!!

Thank you so much, Jenny!  You outdid yourself!!!

~Val



Giveaway Results...

I let my boys help me choose the winner for the $25 Fat Quarter Shop Giveaway. 

I put numbers 0-9 in a hat and let Ethan pull the first number, which was 2.  So that meant the winner would be a comment that was 2 digits.  (Sorry numbers 1-9 & 100+!)

Caleb went next and chose 2 as well.  So that meant the winner's first digit would be a 2.  (Sorry numbers 10-29 & 30-99)

Jack got to choose the final number.  I'll give you one guess what he chose.  I promise I put all the numbers in this hat!  He chose 2 which meant the number's final digit was 2.


So, the winner was #22 (Rhonda @ Quilter in the Gap). 

Quilter in the Gap said...

I tweeted about your giveaway @gaprhonda

Thank you everyone for playing.  I will be having another giveaway in August so don't go too far!!!

~Val

Pretty {little} Pouch Swap Received.

Lucky mail day!!!!  Look what was in my mailbox when I got home today...

Susan of So Sue sent me a lovely package of goodies for the Pretty {little} Pouch Swap.  She made me adorable zipper pouch (with a pink zipper!!!), the cutest little mini scissors that fit into a strawberry container (w/ a magnet on the back), and for my boys, cute paper and origami boats made from waterproof paper.  Who even knew such a thing existed?

The pouch was made with MoMo's Just Wing It, which I adore.  She also hand stitched little accents across the pouch. 

I just love my gifts.  Now I need to figure out what to stuff in the pouch that I am sending to my partner.  Thank you so much, Sue!

I'm counting down until I can announce the winner of the Giveaway...just a few more hours!!!  There's still time to enter if you haven't already. 

See you tomorrow.

~Val

{{{Fat Quarter Shop $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway!!!}}}

This Giveaway is Now Closed!

Today is a very exciting day for me!  My second "recipe" is featured over at the Moda Bake Shop.  Spinning off my first MBS recipe seen here, I created a tutorial on how to make two oversized pillows out of one Moda jelly roll.  Please head over there to check it out and leave a little comment.  I'll be forever grateful!

In honor of my big day, I wanted to share with you a giveaway.  The Fat Quarter Shop has generously donated a $25 gift certificate to their shop.  If you have never been to the FQ Shop, you need to go check it out.  They have a wide variety of fabric bundles, jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes, patterns, fabric by the yard, and lots more.

I think it is fun to give you many chances to win, so here we go...

1.  Become a follower of my blog (if you like what you see here).

2.  Tell me an embarrasing moment that happened to you recently.  (I can't wait to read these!)

3.  Blog or tweet about the giveaway.  (Make sure to leave your blog/twitter address so we can find new blogs to follow)

4.  Become a fan of The Fat Quarter Shop on Facebook, or Twitter. 

5.  Subscribe to The Fat Quarter Shop's blog.

Make sure you leave a comment for each thing you do.  This giveaway will run until Thursday, July 28th at midnight EST.  My kids will help me choose the winner by the same method that we did in my last giveaway.  Thanks so much for participating!!!

~Val

I heart the 80's swap.

In April, I blogged about joining the I. heart. the. 80's swap.  Well, like usual, I am coming down to the deadline (August 1st) without a single thing to mail off to my partner.  I started doing some thinking today.  One thing she loved about the 80's was the movie Goonies.  I am also a Goonies lover!  I thought this would be a good start to my project.  (For those of you not familiar with one of the greatest movies ever made, above is a list of the characters that make up The Goonies.)

I'm not exactly sure what I am going to do with this...make it into a bag?...frame it in an embroidery hoop?..who knows, but your suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I can always count on my Frogs (friends from my blog).  Cheesy, I know, but I didn't think Bliends sounded as good.

Thanks for your help!!!

~Val