Tilkunviilaaja®

Today, I present to you the fourth zipper bag finish since I decided to reach my average number of zipper pouches made per year. This one is called Zebra Crossing / Suojatie, and if you read on, you will learn why. This is the main side of the Zebra Crossing pouch: See how light-hearted it looks somehow! At the time of the photo shoot, this path was the only spot in our garden that caught any sun. Happily, the autumn leaves on the path matched the colour of the zipper bag. Going back in time a bit. These are my mindlessly sewn, scrappy blocks that I sewed as an interim project – and you can probably spot a few that eventually became part of the Zebra Crossing pouch: Somehow, I’m not completely satisfied with this set because so many of them look a little glum. I suspect that several of these – since they do not really meet my visual requirements – will be end up as a bottom part of a future zipper pouch. And that is the silver lining in my slightly disappointing results. T...

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 wi...

The weather was finally sunny here, after many overcast days, and I was able to have a photoshoot of my latest make, the Mrs Jumbo quilted zipper bag: From time to time, I sew scraps together with no ambition to finish a zipper bag but knowing that I’ll eventually pick the piece up and use it. The elephant panel was one of such creations: I could see that the panel would need a scrap on the left hand side, to allow the face of the elephant to have a bit of breathing room, so I added it. And then I needed the panel for the other side. Luckily, I have a lot of resources to draw from! This is how the workspace next to my sewing machine often looks: These were the scrappy pieces that seemed most suited to become the other side of the elephant-paneled zipper bag: I took the picture so I’d remember how to organise the blocks. Did I organise them like this? No I didn’t, as you can see: The two sides of the Mrs Jumbo zipper bag do not resemble each other, though they share a simi...

Yay, it is still possible for me to reach the goal of sewing at least the average number of zipper bags this year! This recent finish, Early Days / Alkutaival is a step towards that goal: This was my starting point, more or less: The panels look underwhelming, don’t they? I found the upper piece amongst my resources (my scrap stash) and for some reason, it has only been partly quilted. I don’t remember why I made it in the first place – though I have a vague recollection that I put the piece together very quickly. But why would I start quilting it and not finish? No idea. Even though I had started the quilting with quite nice-looking stippling, I didn't want to return to my discomfort zone of free-motion quilting. That is why the rest of the quilting on that panel are straight-stitched curves. The other zipper bag panel got one of my favourite designs, intersecting arcs, though the placement of the arcs is different from my usual choice. If you want to know more about th...

In an earlier post about my three ongoing quilting projects, I already showed one set of zipper bag panels after quilting and trimming. I also mentioned that I’d finished the bag but not taken photos yet because the weather was so bad. In case you don’t remember, this is how the panels looked: On the very next day, the weather was favourable again and I was able to take the finished zipper bag to our garden to find suitable places for it to pose in. One of the places this time was a concrete slab which may or may not have supported a flagpole some time in the past. That day, the concrete slab only needed to support something pretty light: my quilted zipper bag called Anecdote / Tositarina: Next, I picked up the bag and moved it about half a yard to the left, to pose on a stone step. Do you think that the owls on this side are surprised to see all that moss growing on the steps? When I looked at this photo, I had to go back to the picture of the quilted and trimmed pieces - I ...

Now that I’ve already introduced the Oomph quilted zipper bag to you, I can share this progress shot of my quirky quarter log cabin blocks from early 2000s waiting to become zipper bag panels. When I took the photo, I was still considering this way to pair them: However, I soon discovered that I wanted one of my zipper bags appear sort of red and the other one more blueish, so these became the panels for the “blue” zipper bag: One of my favourite phases in the zipper bag making process is when I've sewn the bag into shape and turned it right side out. I can never imagine the finished shape and size beforehand – my 3-dimensional thinking just isn’t that good. So this moment always feels like a reveal. Then, I like to smooth out the bag lining, pushing its corners into the corners of the outer piece, and continue finger-pressing both pieces away from the zipper. I could use clips to hold the pieces in place, but I prefer pins. This time, I even took a photo of the zipp...

When did I sew these quirky quarter log cabin blocks? I don’t remember exactly, but my guess is that it must have been in the early 2000s. A few years ago, I found six of these blocks in a forgotten storage box. I added some strips to the edges and sewed two and two together – and promptly forgot all about them. This year, the time had come for these quilt blocks to become something. I added a strip to make the surface into a suitable size for a zipper bag, then quilted it and – ta-dah! – the first zipper bag panel was ready! I had to pair this panel with a different surface, which features surprisingly many solids or nearly solids! Such fabrics are a small minority in my stash. Here, the quilted, untrimmed zipper bag panels are waiting for the next phase in the bag-making process: A lot happened between the previous photo and this next one: Trimming Cutting the lining pieces Choosing the zipper and attaching it Side tabs cutting, sewing and attaching...