New York Beauty Zip Pouch--Riley Blake Challenge

I finished up my little project for the MQG Riley Blake Challenge the other night.

  

I had been thinking about this idea for a little zip pouch for a while, and then realized the orange, yellow, and light blue challenge fabrics would work really well. I hand quilted it with orange, yellow, and aqua embroidery floss.

  

The back is another one of the challenge fabrics. This one is quilted with gray perle cotton. I quilted it while we watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

I made a big mistake when I was getting ready to assemble the bag, after the quilting was finished. I've made several zip pouches with machine quilting, and I always use my rotary cutter to trim the edges of the quilted pieces so they will be the same size. I didn't even think about it before I rotary cut some of the slightly crooked edges off the front piece for this bag... then I realized that cutting hand stitches is a bad idea. I ended up pulling out a couple inches from several rows of quilting, enough so I could tie a knot, and then requilting the areas I had needed to undo.

I'm glad I fixed it--the quilting stitches should all stay in place now--and I won't make that mistake again!