Patchwork Pouch

In addition to the desktop organizer I whipped up this little number over the weekend. I was inspired by these beauties over at Hip to Piece Squares (a new blog find for me, and I am totally enamoured).

After all the fussing with the desktop organizer, I decided to throw caution to the wind and do some haphazard piecing with scraps I had lying around. So with no planning, I just cut, sew, cut, sew and on and on. It was really liberating! I pieced and pieced until I had something about 12" x 6" and then cut it in half. I then quilted both pieces, again in a totally unplanned fashion while also practicing some topstitching techniques (how close could I get to the seam without falling in?). Finally, I assembled the pouch using the basic pattern from popular how-to-install-a-zipper tutorials you can find on twelve22 and u-handbag (we also made one of these in my intro machine sewing class under Liesl's expert tutelage).

I love the result! I am especially proud of the little zipper stops along the top. When I make another quilted pouch I'll make the lining a little smaller than the outside pieces; even though the quilt batting is lightweight it takes up space inside, resulting in a baggy lining. But otherwise, I love this little guy!