A gift for me

When we travel I like to keep everything together.....a place for everything and everything in it's place.  I keep everything for my iPod in a pouch, the same for the GPS.  When I bought the iPad I had a hard case to keep it in, but there was nowhere for the cord and plug and those you must take along to charge up.  I searched the internet and found one I liked over on Freckled Whimsy.  The only problem was it had a zipper across the top and I didn't have one that matched my fabric, so I took her cutting instructions ..... added a few ideas of my own and came up with my own pattern.
When we were in Ottawa last year, Jan and I were both given a fat quarter from The Running Stitch with our purchase.  I absolutely loved the one given to me and I knew it was going into something for me.  This is it!
See that black one in the middle.....that was the one.  I had two more pieces lying on the table and they worked really well with it, so that was my choice of three fabrics.  You don't need yardage for this, just bits and bobs of pieces.  

The black fabric I'll call the "focal fabric" and the other two are my co-ordinates.

You only need four cuts from the focal.......3 1/2" x 9 1/2"

The green fabric is cut......6 pieces......3 1/2" x 3 1/2"

                             .............1 piece........8" x 5"

The white fabric is cut......6 pieces......3 1/2" x 3 1/2"

                             .............2 pieces......9 1/2" x 12 1/2"

Three pieces of batting......2 pieces.......10" x 13"

                                     ......1 piece........4" x 5"

The first sewing is as follows:

Sew your white and green squares together to make a 6 patch.....like this

 then sew another 6 patch so it looks like this

 Using your focal fabric strips sew one to the top and one to the bottom for each set, so when completed they look like this.

Press the seams on set one in one direction and in set two in the other direction.  You want to be able to "butt" the seams when you join them together.

Place each of these on a piece of batting and quilt as desired.  Now I must admit I hate that expressions, so this is how I did it.  Very simple, easy quilting.

Set these two pieces aside while you work on your lining.

I used a magnet in the top of mine (yes, I checked with Apple, it's okay).  I purchased just one and as you can see it is from Dritz.  There are other supplies of these, so check with your local fabric store.

 I found the centre of the lining fabric and using a glue stick secured the magnet in place 1 1/4" down from the top.  I stitched in place........one snap on one side, one on the other piece of the lining.

I placed a pocket inside the bag to hold the cord.  I cut the fabric from the other co-ordinate 5" x 8"

 Fold it in half and place it on the piece of batting.

 Stitch around three sides, leaving an opening in the bottom for turning.  Do not sew on the folded side.

 Trim the corners and turn right side out.

Press the pocket so it lies nice and flat

Find the centre of both pieces and pin the pocket in place 3" from the top of the lining fabric.  Stitch around three sides of the pocket.  

Tomorrow the assembly of the pouch.  It's easy.  Only take you a minute or two.

A PDF for today is here

F.Y.I

The Fat Cat pattern is now up for the month of June.  I've spent two days choosing the fabric for the igloo.  The rest were no brainers for me, but the igloo......it was grey, then light blue and then I found a fabric that had snowflakes on a very soft turquoise background.  I've already decided that instead of cutting out all the blocks and putting them together, I'm going to make the igloo one whole piece.  I'll stitch the lines of the blocks instead.  I thought if the quilt had to withstand multiple washings all those pieces could loosen up over time.  I just can't see doing blanket stitch around them all.  I hope to start work on it this afternoon.  I'll keep you posted.