WiP Wednesday: Try New Things

I love trying new things when it comes to quilting or sewing. Patterns, techniques, skills, or fabrics - I like it all! This week I tried some new of all of the above and had so much fun doing it!

These fabrics and zippers are going to turn into zipper pouches for my children's teachers. I let them each pick fabric and a zipper to match. I'm excited about these because I get to use my cute new rotary cutter (my old one was shaped weird and hurt my hand after a bit) and I get to make my own pattern. Zipper pouches have become pretty easy for me now and I can't find a pattern the size I need so I'm just going to figure it out on my own. It's not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things but I'm excited.

I belong to the Des Moines Area Modern Quilt Guild and at our last meeting we learned how to make these adorable hexagons. I'm going to make several of these and attach them to the aqua for another couch pillow. They were so fun and fast to make! You take squares and trace a big or little hexagon on each. Then you place them wrong sides together and double fold the bigger one then sew near the edge. It's totally closed with no raw edge. You can use them alone as a coaster, piece a bunch together as a table topper, or applique them or something. You can make them in any size you want too!

Excuse the bad lighting. We had a crazy storm last night and the grass was too saturated where the lighting was better. I made this Charm Pack Cherry quilt with Mixed Bag for Moda. I just love so many prints out of this fabric line! I'd never seen it before I picked some up on a really good sale and I love it. The fabric is also brushed - I was surprised at the softness as I'd never tried them before. It was fun to make a new-to-me quilt pattern with some new-to-me fabric.

It has been a fun week. I hope to finish the zipper pouches pretty quickly as school is ending in just a few days. The hexagon pillow should also work up pretty quickly and I want to get the quilt basted, at least, before next week. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.