Seaside Laptop Case

 As Julia started packing for her term abroad, we realized that the laptop case I made for her two years ago was rather worn out. One of our errands yesterday was to pick up some fabric for a new one. She chose this adorable beachy print from Dear Stella. She wants to take a little bit of home with her to Tanzania!

The lining is a Riley Blake medium navy chevron that I had in my stash. I layered the main print with batting and quilted it with parallel wavy lines. (I was corrected. "Straight stitched wavy lines" is an oxymoron.) In retrospect, I wish I had quilted the lining, too. When I was almost done, I decided to add another layer of batting, which was quite a chore.

I used a trick I learned from Kindred Quilters and used basting tape to hold the zipper in place as I stitched.

After I had the first side of the zipper done, I couldn't find the tape. After about 10 minutes of searching high and low, I picked up my pieces and found the tape stuck to the back!

I haven't mastered stitching the junction of the zipper and bag side. This one is better than the first one I made, so maybe the next one will be better still.

All done! About a four hour job, including a lunch break.

I can't believe I forgot to stitch one of my new labels into the lining. I'll have to stitch it in by hand later.

Edit 7pm: There. That's better.

WIP Wednesday

 It's been a fun and productive week!

Finishes:

The Girl Scout quilt is done!  I've been too busy to do a whole post about the finish, but I hope to get to that soon.  The girls love it!  It's starting to sink in that they will not be here on Friday nights anymore. {sniff}

Julia's laptop case is done!  The fabric she chose is from Kristian A Howell's Morrocan Mirage collection for Anthology Fabrics.

I used this tutorial by Crap I've Made, but had some trouble with the zipper ends.  That's my finger sticking out of the hole!  I added the green tabs to cover the holes.  They are a design element!

In Progress:
I used the leftover fabric to border a pillow that hasn't been stuffed yet. (Bought some stuffing at Walmart today because the pillow forms were crazy expensive.)

I love freezer paper stenciling.  I really should do it more often!

I'm proud of the mitered corners!  Isn't this cute?

This week's list:
Finish the J pillow and make a patchwork pillow.
Finish the borders on the applique quilt.
Get Julia packed for school!

Don't forget to jump over to freshly pieced!