Bags, Pouches, and a Miya Quilt Top!

I had no idea I'd been away from the blog for so long. Life has been busy with trips and guests. I've done some great things this week but I'm most excited for my little girl. Miya finished her first quilt top today! I made some scripture bags with my friend, pouches for my SIL, and finished off my knit cowl. My first finish from my Q3 FAL list. Let's start with the cowl and pouches and end off with a bang.

I love this cowl! This is the same pattern that I learned to knit from and I taught my friend to knit this week and we each made one. I finished mine pretty quickly so I could show her how it was done before she had to go. She made great progress too and was over halfway when she left. I was amazed at how quickly she picked it up!

This is #16 on my Q3FAL list and my first finish of the quarter. I think the color variation on this yarn is so wonderful. It is "kettle dyed" and I may need more in my future. I had this lying around for years waiting for the perfect project and tada!

My friend also loved the scripture bag I made for my son and brought the supplies to make three for her three boys. She made the brown and I made the other two. All I wrote from the original was cutting instructions so we just winged it. They turned out pretty well but kept torquing. As it turns out we were supposed to turn 1/4" in from where we did. Oops. They still look good and the boys loved them.

My fun Sister-in-law is my best customer and she loves these bags. I love them because they are different every time with the different mini charm packs from Moda. She buys these for teacher friends and I just love whipping them up for her. You can find the tutorial here for the Quilted Patchwork Pouch.

Now on to my adorable munchkin!! I have been working on teaching all my kids to sew. They've all made a bean bag and a pillow case. Miya showed the most interest in quilting so we started with her first. This is her first quilt top! We're in love!

This is from the book "Sunday Morning Quilts" and was so easy for her to do and great for the scrap busting. We had a few struggles at first but two tricks really helped make this happen. First we used Wonder Clips in place of pins. That way they were easy to remove without shifting the fabric and poking herself. Also, I put two contrasting pieces of washi tape on my machine. One marked the 1/4" seam that she was supposed to keep the fabric lined up with. The second butted up against that and she wasn't supposed to let that one show. I was amazed at how straight her seams were with the addition of the washi tape and the whole thing went much much faster.

We worked together to spray baste it this evening. We did it outside which was a first for me. The grout in our tile floor kept leaving bumps and folds so we thought the cement might work better. It was murder on my knees but this quilt is quite flat. Miya enjoyed helping me smooth out the quilt but still can't manage to press the button to spray the glue which makes me smile.

That's it for this week! I'm going to whip up some Sailor Tops with my mom this weekend (hurray for a visit) and I hope to get Miya's quilt finished quickly. We want it done by the time she turns nine around this time next month. I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.