Harry Potter Amazingness

As you all know, I have been participating in the Harry Potter Mug Rug swap hosted by Rebeckah at Rose Creations. I apologize now for the very long post ahead of you but it is totally worth it. tl;dr - check out the incredible stuff by scrolling through the pictures!

Also going to link up the the Let's Get Aquainted Monday link up that Beth from Plum and June is hosting. Oh yeah - ANOTHER BUTTON!

Anyways on to the awesomeness! My amazing partner Bonnie (B) - her Flickr & etsy store Fabric Hart - was a fantastic partner to have for my first swap outside of the Newbs. We made a little quiz at the beginning of the swap for each other to find out more about our HP fanaticness/faves so we could make a better mug rug for one another. Then B has a brilliant idea - make pouches instead of mug rugs! We both would definitely use a pouch more often.

So let us begin at the beginning... WAMP WAMP. I kid, I kid. B said she absolutely loved the third book/movie best and the Knight bus was super cool. It was kismet - I knew then and there our swap was destined for amazingness - the third book is also my favorite. I immediately knew a Knight bus pouch must be made. I looked at this crazy website for some paper piecing inspiration and trolled the paper piecing Flickr group and found this awesome bus by Megan of Monkey Beans and I knew what had to go down. Only problem is - I just started improving it with M's help - and the bus became too big for hims britches.

So I had to make a tote instead of a pouch. We gave him wheels and made sure his headlights worked - what do you think? It was M's idea to make his lights bright up.

And then I thought well who wants a tote with one awesome side and one boring side. NO ONE. I played into B's wild side and embroidered in HP font "Mischief Managed."

I have learned that I need to work on tote assembly, top stitching, and starching and cutting fabric better so when I sew it doesn't get too wonky. I just made the outside of the tote, then I made the lining - I added a couple pockets - and I sandwiched them similar to the assembly used in the Zakka zig zag tote. I didn't use any interfacing for the bag itself because I used some batting during the quilting of the outside. I used a stiffer Pellon interfacing for the straps which I ended up making a little too wide (2"). I just need to make more totes for more practice! And voila - we have Mr. Knight Bus tote! He was about 15 inches tall and 12 inches wide. I attempted for a 4 inch gusset but I also need to work on that skill as well.

So you are probably wondering - where the f is the pouch she keeps prattling on about. Well it is time for pouching now. I didn't know quite what to do - no embroidery - my hands were still sore. The group had posted a place to get some inspiration - found here - so I picked out the Hogwarts crest and got down to paper piecing. Then I knew B loved herself some Gryffindor so I went ahead and made the backside of the pouch crimson and gold striped - like a Gryffindor scarf. I used the wide mouth pouch tutorial that the wonderful Anna at Noodle Head has made readily available to the rest of us pouch making peons.

I went with a fun lining for the pouch because although I like how Harry Potter everything looked - I felt B deserved a pop of something fun. So Ta Dot to the rescue! And I added purple to the pull tab for the zipper so it would tie in with Mr. Knight Bus tote. Here they are waiting to be shipped to B:

WHEW! That was only my part of the swap! I received pure awesomeness from this woman. B is the Queen of the swap and I bow down to kiss her toes. Look at all this insanely cool stuff:

I spy a pouch, a cell phone mini sleeve, awesome custom printed fabric, zippers, hand lotion, chiclets!, monkey ribbon, more fab fabs - holy cow! Spoil me rotten she did. It was so great to receive this bundle of fabric goodness. Thanks so much Bonnie! But then I felt like an ass because I didn't include much awesomeness in her pouch except for regular jelly beans trying to pretend they were Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Clearly I swap goodie failed. But now I have a better idea of the swap world. Katie at Katie's Korner gave me some advice as far as including some good bits you have laying around. I don't really have any good bits - still relatively new to the quilting world. But I think between Katie and Bonnie I will get a handle on it real soon!

Here are some more fun pics of my loot from B:

Awesome Ravenclaw motto!

Ravenclaw crest and super cute owl tag!

Phone pouch with one of the coolest buttons I have ever laid eyes on.

With that horrendously long post I will wish you all a good night! Well hold on - you all knew a song was coming. two in fact. Whenever I say "Knight Bus" I think of two songs:

1. Working on my Knight bus by Bob Seger and I

2. Mr Knight Bus who do you think you are by Jean Knight and I. How fitting her last name is Knight!

Hope you kids had a great weekend! And thanks for reading all about the HP amazingness!

-k