This post is about donuts. And paper piecing.

I looooooooooooooove donuts.

So does my roommate Katie. When one of us says, “I want donuts,” the other roommate says, “NOM” and then we’re in the car en route to our local donut provider in a matter of minutes. We have donut ornaments on our Christmas tree. And the dog has donut toys.

I’ve already told you about how Katie is crafty (or rather, “Krafty”) so this year’s Christmas present for Katie was a combination of our mutual love for both donuts and crafts.

Last year, I made Katie a bag for her knitting supplies. This past year, Katie has spent a lot of time cross-stitching. She has boxes to keep her embroidery thread organized, but didn’t have a “to go” bag for her supplies so she could continue her adventures in cross-stitch while on airplanes… or at the car dealership. Katie always brings her cross-stitch to the car dealership when she’s getting an oil change. 🙂

So I decided Katie needed a simple zipper pouch to keep her project work (with Q-Snap frame in tact – since Katie is too fancy to use an old-school, wooden embroidery hoop) and related supplies like needles, scissors and some thread. Since the actual construction of the project was going to be so simple – just a basic zipper pouch – I wanted to use some a more advanced technique for the outside of the bag… and given my newfound interest in foundation paper piecing, I decided to go the quilty route! When I found a donut pattern from Shape Moth Quilts on etsy (looks like she has recently moved to Craftsy) – I knew I had hit the jackpot!

Choosing the fabrics for the donut was so much fun! Don’t you just want to eat it?

I included a little zipper pocket inside the zipper pouch (zipper in a zipper!) so Katie can keep some of the smaller, loose items in there.

Katie’s project work fits inside the pouch perfectly, but if I made this again, I would have made it a little bit bigger – just in case. I think I may have cut it too close for her 8″ x 8″ Q-Snap Frame. At the time I was constructing this, she was on vacation in Seattle and had brought her Q-Snap with her, so I wasn’t able to confirm what size she had. I’m thankful it ended up fitting at all!

I used leftover fabric to make a small “needlebook” to prevent stray needles from floating around in her bag. There are two felt “pages” inside the book and it securely closes with a snap.

And of course, another item has been checked off on my list of 100 No Pressure Projects – sew something for my roommate, Katie!

Donuts! Nom nom nom.