Stitching by Starlight: Finished it Friday

It's a cold, rainy Friday here - too cold. I'm a summer girl at heart and I'm already longing for warmer temps. It's going to be a long, hard winter. *sigh*

I have two "reportable" finishes this week. The first - and most impactful - is baseball.

....And now with my little baseball champ.

Both boys had their final games last night, and I for one am glad to see the season end. Don't get me wrong - we love it. We love our league, our friends, our coaches. This season, though, we averaged four nights a week at the fields. That's four week-nights. Plus Saturday mornings. It was getting to be too much. It's the price you pay when you have two playing, and it's just the luck of the draw to get schedules like that. Maybe the spring will be easier.

Two sewing finishes - but only one to share. The first is my Misfit Quilter's Hoop Swap. It goes in the mail today. The only thing I don't like about it is that I won't be there to see my partner's face when she opens it. Oh, to be a fly on the wall! Don't worry - once it's received I'll have plenty of pictures to share. :)

The finish I can share is my iPad case.... I finally got it right (by my standards, at least).

Once I finished it the first time, I found out (1) it was too big and my iPad slid around in it and (2) the zipper opening was too small. The teeth of the zipper would rub against the iPad as it was taken in and out and even though I have screen protector on it, I just didn't like that. So, it was back to the drawing board. I ended up taking it completely apart. I added batting to the back, which I had left out the first time, trimmed it up to be more snug, and tried a different zipper technique.

Now, it's perfect. Nice and snug, but the zipper opens larger than the pouch, so no scratching. Love, love, love.

I'd thought about doing a tutorial on this but, truthfully, there are so many case tutorials out there that I'm not sure I'd be adding to the collective wealth. I scoped out quite a few for measurements and found that Fresh Lemons' worked best for me. I also frequently referenced Flossie Teacakes for the initial zipper insertion, but having the extended part outside is all my work. I just went with trial and error on that one without looking up anything. Maybe I'll do a tut on that with a little pouch or something. I really like the extra zipper space and it comes in handy for things like this.

And, again, the design is Lee's Kansas Dust Storm block, which I love! Fabric is Joel Dewberry's Heirloom and a sand-colored linen (forgot the name, sorry!).

So, there you have it - my two big finishes. Feels nice to have them done.

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Now it's your turn... but I do have one little request, first.

If you are linking up here, please link back to me on your post or in your sidebar. About half of the linkups last week didn't have my button or a text link back here. I don't want to be mean and start deleting links, but it's ~~a little~~ quite disheartening to see when I'm helping others spread the word about their blog, but they don't do the same. Including a button/link lets others know to come here, which in turn will build up the party and send even more traffic out to future links. I want this party to grow, but I need your help!

The HTML is always at the top of my blog, but I've added it here also to make it easy. If you're not sure how to insert the HTML, shoot me an e-mail and I'll be glad to help. :)