Mother's Day Giveaway with The Intrepid Thread

It's almost Mother's Day.  Yippee Skippee!!!  I love Mother's Day!!!  For starters I get to sleep in.  Fabulous!!  Then my beautiful children toddle in singing me a Mother's Day song with Breakfast in bed and lots of beautiful homemade presents and cards.  Love em!!!  And then if I have managed to get hint just right I might get a special little package.  Maybe some of this . . .

Or some of this!!!!

Love it!!!  So, have you hinted to your spouse???  We'll here is a little hint to pass on to them for sure!!  Julie is holding a special Pre-Market sale at The Intrepid Thread.

  20% off your entire basket

 with the coupon code MARKET20.  

It starts Thursday so you can spend today picking out your favorites and then have your loved one jump on it Thursday morning.  Yippee Skippee for an awesome sale and you lucky readers have the jump on it.  

  

And one lucky reader is going to win this lovely bundle of Quilt Blocks in the Spectrum colorway.  Don't you just love it!!!  These colors are just so happy!!!!  Perfect for the fabric lover in each of us :)

So what do you have to do for your chance to win???

Pop on over and visit The Intrepid Thread and then come back here and leave a comment of what item in her shop you would love to receive for Mother's Day.

For a bonus entry you can sign up for The Intrepid Thread newsletter and leave me a comment that you did so or already receive it.

That's it.  Up to 2 entries per person.  Giveaway is open to international entries.  It will close on Sunday, May 13th at 5pm and a winner will be selected randomly and announced shortly after.

Playing with the Northern Modern Quilt Guilds!!!

So this weekend the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild and South Jordan Modern Quilt Guild held there first ever joint Sewing Saturday!!  5 hours of sewing to your hearts content with an amazing group of ladies!!  Yup, that was enough to convince me to declare a visit to Grandma's for the weekend.

 

I had so much fun!!!  Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!  In fact, I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures of everyone I got to sew with.  Typical huh :)  Sorry.  It is just so nice to sew while chatting with friends who share the same passion as you do!!!  They totally get this weird crazy obsession for fabric.    I made some new friends as well and that was totally awesome!!! Thank you to both Guilds for letting me come and and pretend to be a Northerner so I could join the party.  Me thinks we need a Southern Utah Modern Quilt Guild!!!  Anyone out there interested???

Oh, I so I don't leave without a picture, this is the stack of fabrics that I was working with on Saturday.  Aren't they fun!!!!   I pulled the last 7 first, they are from Amanda Murphy's line Veranda.  Then I needed a little more fabric so I added the Aviary and Dots to go with it.   I will show you more in a month, think awesome tutorial :)

Hidden Zipper Pocket - A Tutorial

So have you seen these super neat little hidden zipper pockets in the lining of bags and purses and just wondered how they are made.  (I know I used to :) We'll I happened to be making one the other day for a separate tote tutorial and thought, Why not make a tutorial for this little technique along the way.  So . . . wonder no more . . . Let's make a Hidden Zipper Pocket!!

You will need the lining of your purse, bag, or tote.  2 rectangles (or squares) of fabric that are about 1/2" larger then the size pocket you would like to add.  And finally, a zipper the length or longer than your pocket size.

Start by getting one of your pocket rectangles (or squares) and on the wrong side draw a 1/2 thick rectangle.  Make sure your rectangle is drawn 1" down from the top of your fabric and 1" in from either side.  I found it fastest to use all my rulers to make the appropriate measurements so I could just draw it all at once.

Now, placed your marked rectangle of fabric onto your lining where you would like the pocket to be.  Most often, this will be a few inches down from the top of your lining and centered from side to side.  Once placed go ahead and pin all around your drawn rectangle.  This will become your zipper opening and will be referred to as that going forward.

Time to do some sewing.  Change your stitch length to a small setting.  Now stitch directly on your drawn line all the way around the zipper opening.

Cut a slit through the center of the zipper opening. (I found this easiest to do with my rotary cutter and ruler.)   On each end clip a Y shape with a small pair of scissors.  The goal here is to get as close to your sewn corners without clipping the threads.

Now go ahead and pull your rectangle of fabric through your zipper opening.

Then, press your fabric so the opening is nice and flat.  You have to work the corners a bit but they will lay nice and flat too.

Now grab that zipper and place it under your lining so that it pokes through the zipper opening and the zipper pull is at the end.  It is okay if your zipper is longer than the opening.  Go ahead and pin all around your zipper opening keeping the zipper in place and trying to keep your lining fabric smooth and flat. (You can pin your lining closer to the zipper if you like, I pinned this about 1/8" away because it is a family tote so my kids will be getting into it a lot and they tend to get fabric stuck in zippers rather easily :)

Once you are all pinned you are ready to stitch around your zipper opening.  Start stitching along the bottom about 2" away from your zipper pull moving away from it and remember to back-tack your start.   You can use a zipper foot for this (I would If I had one :) but I found my 1/4" foot worked great.  I aligned the edge of it with the zipper. When you get to the end just pivot and the corner and sew right overtop of the extra zipper.  Then pivot and head on back across the top of the zipper.

When you get to the end that has the zipper pull stop stitching leaving your needle in the down position.  Then lift your presser foot so that you can unzip the zipper past the presser foot and where you have already sewn.  Now you can go ahead and finish stitching around the zipper.  Moving the zipper pull makes for a much nicer stitch.

And now to deal with that extra zipper.  Easy enough.  Just measure about 1/2" away from  where you stitched over the zipper and clip :)

Now that the zipper is taken care of it is time to turn this into a pocket.  Grab your second rectangle and line it up with the first with right sides together.  Pin around all the edges making sure to only pin the two rectangles.  You don't want your lining attached.

Now go ahead and stitch (I used a 3/8" seam) around your rectangle taking care to move your lining piece out of the way.  You only want to be stitching your 2 pocket rectangles together.

Now just flip over your lining and admire your handiwork!!!

One adorable hidden pocket ready to stash all kinds of goodies.  Now just finish up your purse, bag, or tote and get to using your pocket :)

Winners!!!!

Okay, let's announce the winners of the 100 Blocks Magazines and the Patterns :)

#70 - Peach Rainbow

#224 - Marjorie's Busy Corner

#353 - CathyH

Congrats Ladies!!!  I have sent you an email for your addresses :)

Some Applique Fun

So my niece runs high school cross county and track.  After a few chilly meets she decided she wanted to have a quilt that she could wrap up in.  I suggested a few beginner patterns as she wanted to make it herself.  She decided she liked the look of this fellow High School quilt and started slicing up strips from Grandma's stash.  I was asked If I could do some cutout's with my Slice Machine for the Applique part.  This is what we came up with :)  Isn't it just so fun.  I can't believe I actually had a girl runner among my cartridges (she was on the Think Pink one :)  I can't wait for her to get it all done!!  It will just be so much fun!!