Back to School! Pencil Case Tutorial

School has started! Hallelujah! All 3 of my boys went back to school yesterday, and today is the first full day. Happy dance for Momma!

 So of course, last week we did the official school supply shopping trip. So.many.pencils! Which reminded me of this fun tutorial I put together a couple years ago for PBS Fabrics using the Ring Ring collection. The fabric may be hard to be find by now, but the tute still works! My kids still have (and use, although not for school) these pencil cases. 

This pencil case measures 5-1/2" x 9"--perfect for holding newly sharpened #2s!
 

Ring Ring Pencil Case

You'll Need:

1 fat quarter each of (4) pencil prints and (1) blue dot print

(1) 12" zipper in a coordinating color

(1) 10-1/2" square of fusible batting

Cutting:

From each pencil print:

(1) 3-1/2" x 10-1/2" piece

From the blue dot:

(1) 10-1/2" square

(2) 1-1/2" x 3" pieces

Make the Pencil Case:

Step 1 Sew the (4) 3" x 10-1/2" pencil pieces together lengthwise.

Step 2 Fuse the 10-1/2" batting square to the back and quilt as desired. I stitched 1/4" on each side of the seams.

Step 3 Press in 1/4" on both short ends of the 1-1/2" x 3" blue dot pieces as shown. Fold and press the piece in half. 

Step 4 Tuck the zipper pull end of the zipper into the center fold of a blue dot piece. Stitch across the zipper to secure both sides of the blue dot piece to the zipper as shown. Align the zipper with the pieced bag square and trim the opposite zipper end 1/8" in from the end. Be careful not to pull the zipper apart! 

Step 5 Tuck the raw end of the zipper into the second folded blue dot piece and stitch to secure. Your zipper with tabs should be the same length as the pieced bag square.

Step 6 Trim the blue dot tabs even with the zipper width. 

Step 7 Lay the zipper right side down on the pieced bag square as shown and pin into place.

Step 8 Layer the 10-1/2" blue dot square right sides together on the zipper. Pin into place and stitch, using a zipper foot. 
Step 9 Press the pieced bag square and blue dot square away from the zipper. Topstitch 1/4" from the edge of the zipper. 

Step 10 Align the opposite end of the pieced square with the other side of the zipper, right sides together, and pin. 

Step 11 Fold the blue dot lining square back onto itself and align with the zipper. Pin in place and stitch using a zipper foot. 

Step 12 Turn the case right side out. Topstitch along the second zipper edge is a little trickier. You'll need to manipulate the case so the zipper edge where you're stitching is in the zipper opening, and ensure that the rest of the case doesn't get in the way. 

Step 13 At this point, your case should look like this. Press it flat so the zipper is centered.

Step 14 Turn the case wrong side out. Make sure the zipper is open! Stitch along each end using a 1/4" seam allowance. Use a zig zag stitch to finish off the raw edges. 

Step 15 Turn the case right side out and fill with pencils. 

The pencil print is an obvious choice for this case, but I love this monochromatic version as well. 

Each of my boys ended up making their own cases (with a little help) after I made these first two. This is from 3 years ago--I can't believe how much they've grown since this picture!

If you're new here, welcome! I hope you'll stay and look around a bit. 

If you like what you've seen here, you can also find me:

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(You'll receive a free pattern for my Diamond Drama quilt (below) as a thank you!)

Hello, Star Crossing pattern!

I'd like to introduce you to my new quilt pattern, Star Crossing. 

This pattern is a good 9 months in the making. I designed it from digital swatches before the fabric was printed. The fabric became available in May, right around the time that our family started packing up our house for a year-long move to Florida. So I packed the fabric. In the "not-essential-and-therefore-arriving-in-FL-in-2-weeks" box. Which became 3+ weeks. Oops.

And let me tell you, I was itching to get this quilt made. When the fabric finally joined us in the Sunshine State, I cut and stitched Star Crossing in about three evenings. And here it is. (Now to quilt it...)

To make the Star Crossing quilt, I used Hoodie Crescent's Ring Ring collection from Paintbrush Studio. I love the vintage feel of these prints! The color palette and print selection are both broader than what you see here, but I picked three prints each of four different colors (pink, blue, green, and orange) to make this quilt. I may be a right-brained creative type, but I do like to keep my colors neat and orderly! :) 

 Love the adorable selvedge on these prints! (And my new Olfa rotary cutter and cutting board!)

All the pieces, cut and ready to be stitched.

The quilt in progress--cute little 6" square star blocks, one of three different sized star blocks in this quilt. I purposely aligned the prints so the pencil stripe would be pointing "out" in all the star points.

Want to make your own?

You can order your copy of my Star Crossing pattern here.

I also designed a free quilt pattern featuring Hoodie's Ring Ring collection for Paintbrush Studio. It's called Linked Up and you can download it here.

Tropical Blues free quilt pattern

Last fall I was invited to design a free quilt pattern for the Mod Tropics fabric collection from Paintbrush Studio. The collections comes in blue, orange, and cream, and I fell in love with the blues! There are two tropical leaf/flower prints and then three really fun geometric tonals in each of the colorways. 

This is the design I came up with, which I called "Tropical Blues." It's a quarter log cabin block with thin strips of Painter's Palette Solids Gray in between the prints.

Did I mention that the pattern for this quilt is available as a FREE download? Find it here.

 I cut all of the pieces and sewed assembly-line style, working about 30 minutes at a time between other projects/work/feeding the kids, etc. 

The Tropical Blues pattern is featured in a magazine ad for Paintbrush Studio. It's always fun to see your name in print! :) 

See all the Mod Tropics fabrics and download the free quilt pattern here. 

Want to make this quilt too? There's a kit available for this quilt from The Quilting Company. Find it here. 

I also stitched one block in the orange, just for fun. 

Above you saw my artsy photo of the quilt in my neighbor's beautiful backyard; here's the entire quilt top spread out. I still need to machine quilt it! 

Speaking of free quilt patterns, I have two more using Paintbrush Studio's collections appearing in a magazine ad near you:

"Small Plates" features the Market Medley collection. This is an easy design using fusible applique. The name came from the idea of tapas, where everyone shares small plates of prepared food. It seemed appropriate for all these gorgeously realistic looking veggie prints! 

See the Market Medley fabrics and download the free quilt pattern here. 

"Linked Up" features Hoodie Crescent's new collection, Ring Ring. I love these fabrics, and I'll post more about this down the road. They're retro-looking dial telephones, ink pens, pencils, and more, and the color palette is so cool! 

See the Ring Ring fabrics and download the free quilt pattern here.