I'm not going to call this pouch perfect, but it came together so much more easily than my first zippered pouch!  I'm starting to feel, dare I say it, confident about zippers.  Fear, be gone!  Let me just say this - Kelly's tips in her tute about the zipper size versus the pouch size are super helpful and I will keep those in mind with all future pouches.



Even the zipper ends look all cute! I'm so proud of this pouch, and I'm glad I decided to use some fabric I really love, some MoMo Freebird I've been hoarding since I started sewing last year.



This pouch is going to be perfect for carting around all of my coupons!  Right now, it's loaded up with Jo-Ann's coupons, crossing my fingers that today's delivery truck will hold some of the new DS Quilts fabrics.



I'm still working on gathering some scraps to make a prototype large scrappy/linen make-up pouch for the Pretty {little} Pouch swap, but I'm feeling a lot better about zippers now.  Phew!

Every week I am somehow surprised by how quickly Wednesday crops up again.  I feel like I haven't had the most productive week, but I did get all of my bee blocks for the month done, along with my first zippered pouch for practice.  I've still got plenty of projects in the works

Finished:
String Me Along block
{Sew} Beautiful block
Birdie Stitches block
do.Good Stitches block


Still working on:
Bottled Rainbows QAL - I finished assembling the top this week, which was a lot of fun.  I'm still debating what I'm going to do for a backing, but I'm excited to finish this one soon!


Supernova QAL - I'm all ready for the next step, to assemble the quilt top.  My house is starting to feel like Quilt Tops R Us!  I really ought to start working on the backing, too - I plan to use the scraps from my seriously large It's a Hoot collection to make up a backing for this one.


Spiderweb quilt - Zero progress this week.  I think paper piecing that Circle of Geese block for Brooke filled my paper piecing quotient for the week, but I hope to try to get at least one spiderweb done next week, if not 2!  Right now, I still need 17 more of these blocks to finish up this quilt.

Pretty {little} Pouch swap - I've tried one practice pouch with a zipper, which was somewhat painful, but I wasn't about to give up.  I've started another little pouch, using Kelly's tute, and we'll see how that turns out later today, hopefully.



Goodie Bag swap - Partner emails are going out this week.  I'm super excited about this swap, if nothing but because I simply adore bags!

Super secret project - Nothing to share just yet, but there will be soon :)

Single Girl king-size quilt - Still waiting for a local long-arm to rent...

New this week:
3x6 Mini-Bee - Seems like all the girls in my beehive have checked in, so I'll hopefully start sketching and brainstorming for this one this week.

Commissioned bookshelf mini - Woo hoo, another paying gig!  A custom mini-bookshelf quilt is in the works :)



String Me Along prep - It's my turn to be queen bee next month, so I need to pull some fabrics and decide on a block.  I'm still toying with blocks and fabrics, but so far, I'm feeling pulled toward this stack of fabrics, matched up with some solids...



WiP Wednesday #22 Recap
Finished: 4
Last week's total: 11
New: 3
This week's total: 10

In need of some inspiration?  Hop on over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is up to this week!

While zippers may have challenged me this weekend, finishing up some bee blocks has brought back my sewing mojo!  I'm officially all caught up for the month, which is nice and refreshing, especially since it's my turn to be the queen bee next month in the String Me Along bee and I need to not only decide on some fabric but I also need to pick a block and get my packages ready to go!

First up, String Me Along's block for Fran - a simple bento box block, using Ashley's great tute, but skipping the cutting it up into quarters bit.  I've never worked with batiks before, so this was an interesting block to work on.


Next, this month's blocks for my do.Good.Stitches circle, the Bliss circle.   This month, we worked on blocks inspired by a swap Amanda received.  I really love simple patchwork like this.  I can't wait to see how this quilt turns out.  Did you know that our first quilt has officially been finished off?  You can check it out over on Michelle's blog.


Lastly, I worked on a seriously challenging paper pieced Circle of Geese block for Brooke in the {Sew} Beautiful Bee.  I practiced several times before deciding that I was psyching myself out, and I just went for it.  I'm glad I did, because once I started working on this, it went so much more smoothly than my practices!  I really love how this block looks.  Brooke picked some great fabrics here, and I'm glad to have conquered it.  I will definitely be making this block again for something - a pillow maybe?