Finished: Lofty John zipper bag

Today, I have the pleasure of introducing the 14th zipper bag finish of the year. There is a good reason why I named it Lofty John / Korkea John (continue reading and you will learn exactly why):

In the picture, the Lofty John quilted zipper bag is posing in the nearby woods where I took a short walk last week, in the middle of a working day! The sun was shining and it felt almost unlawful to sit inside. This time of the year one doesn’t even have to think about getting burnt at midday. In October, you don’t need sunscreen in Finland (and you are lucky to see the sun at all).

When I was making this zipper pouch, I managed to leave my comfort zone – I used free-motion machine quilting and ran a stipple quilting pattern on parts of the surface. This was because I was bothered by not having dared to test my stippling skills to complete the quilting on one of the Early Days zipper bag panels.

Somehow, straight stitching seemed a better idea for the focus squarish parts and the wide strips at the bottom:

Again, I was inspired by an earlier creation of mine. Dear Daughter was visiting and I saw the Peony zipper bag in use:

I thought it looked so cute! How on earth had I found such fun fabrics and designed a focus piece just like that one! Could I ever reach such cute heights again?

This is the flip side of Lofty John – the side that most resembles the Peony zipper bag.

It is hard (nearly impossible) for me to sew pouches (or quilts) to a size. They usually become the size that they want to be, and Lofty John was no exception. It ended up very tall compared to its width:

How did that happen, really?! Anyway, the measurements of the Lofty John quilted zipper bag are as follows:

• Width at the top: 20,5 cm (around 8")
• Height: 25 cm (around 10")
• Depth on the bottom: 8,5 cm (around 3-1/4")

This zipper bag inspired me to make an effort not only on the outside: I sewed an inside pocket, too! And custom-selected the fabric for it!

The Lofty John zipper bag got its name because of its shape. It is tall, and the Finnish word for it is “korkea,” which reminded me of the translated name “Korkea John” for Lofty John, a charater in Emily of New Moon books. I love those books. My mother loved the same author’s Anne of Green Gables and read all of them aloud to me. She would not read the Emily books “because there were so many poems in them”. (There weren’t.)

Even though Lofty John has such a strange shape, it found a home within a few days. My dear Sister was visiting yesterday and when I was showing her my recent quilty items, she noticed this one right away. “What a unique shape, you haven’t made anything like this before,” she said and bought it. She is my best customer.

Now I’m only 8 finished zipper bags short of the silly goal of 11 that I set myself for the rest of this year. Follow the progress of my goal and the perhaps more interesting quilting endeavours: subscribe to my biweekly email newsletter. In the newsletters, I share links to my latest blog posts. Subscribe to my biweekly newsletter.

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