City Fusion

City Fusion is a free quilt pattern, originally named Shutters, by Art Gallery Fabrics. AGF created this pattern to promote the City Loft Fusion fabric line, and as soon as I saw the pattern, I fell in love with it. After all, I've never met a striped black / white quilt I didn't love. In order to make sure the stripes are absolutely perfect, I actually used paper piecing to make the striped units.

I enjoyed piecing this quilt a lot because of the beautiful fabrics, but the real fun in this quilt is the quilting.

I split the entire quilt into triangle units, and treated the background as such. At times I quilted them separately, and at times I fused them together. I really loved designing this ahead of time, and I just had to execute it once I got onto the machine.

One concept I had from the beginning of quilting is to extend the striped units to some of the background, and I did some dense back / forth quilting to simulate the stripes. I really love the way that looks!

I kept the quilting a bit simpler in the foreground fabrics so that it doesn't overwhelm the fabric.

This has been another 5-star off my pile of quilt tops, and it's been such a joy to finally work through so many of my favorite quilt tops!

A Quartet of Minikins

I simply love, love, LOVE Sew Sweetness's Minikins collections. Sara's designed 4 volumes of these so far, I've sewn a lot of them over the years, and I look for excuses at every juncture to make one. In fact, I get excited when the need for some kind of mini bag or case comes up, because I then dig through the patterns to find the Minikin that's appropriate for the item I need a cover / case for.

The first item I finished is the Friesian Pouch. I used up some of my precious Avant Garde (from Art Gallery Fabrics) fabrics that I've been hoarding for years, along with some rainbow zipper tape to make this. The bag has a beautiful structure, and it was surprisingly easy to put together!

Here's a peek at the inside: the mesh pockets and 3 separate compartments makes this bag very practical.

The second project I finished recently is another Partridge Bag. I previously made a Partridge Bag and though I made it just to make it, over the last year it ended up being one of my most surprisingly useful bags. It's small but mighty, truly! Even though my first bag is still working great, I decided to make another one because I love it so much, and it's a really fun sew.

The third project is yet another Grab 'n Go case. This is my 3rd one, because I decided I needed yet another laptop case. The first one I made is still going strong, but at the time I picked a fabric I was only so-so about as I wasn't very confident I wasn't going to mess it up. But now that this is my 3rd, I feel pretty good about this project, so I decided to remake it using a fabric I actually am crazy about!

The last Minikin is the Enigma Pouch, which has an interesting shape. When I was looking for makeup pouches on Amazon, I realized that the one I was eyeing is almost the exact shape and size as the Enigma Pouch, so of course, I had to make my own!

I love how this bag can open up and lie flat, and it is a great organizer! I mostly use it to store makeup for travel.

Finally, I can't resist a beauty shot of all the items together:

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I always get excited when Sara announces a new Minikins collection, and though I don't know when she'll release the next volume, the 4 she's released so far has given me many hours of joyful sewing, and I know I will make many more in the years to come.