My New Purse

Recently my quilt guild (Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild) brought in two great teachers, Pamela Day and Roseanne Lauter of Purses by Design to teach a one-day class.  They were great teachers, and here is the purse that I made that day. 

Front of purse

For my outside fabric I chose a beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabric which I had been hoarding for quite a while.  I absolutely love this fabric.  It is a nice, medium-size purse.

Back of purse

Here is the back of the purse.  I placed the pattern very carefully to get this nice paisley print in the center.

Inside of front flap and magnetic closure.

This photo shows the inside fabric, which you'll see closer in the next photos.  It also shows the nice magnetic snap that holds the purse closed.

Inside pocket.

The pattern called for a pocket inside, so I followed the pattern for that.

Additional cell phone pocket.

But I also added another pocket.  I measured around my phone and made the second pocket just exactly to fit that.  Slightly shorter than the phone so it sticks out the top of the pocket, and just wide enough.  It turned out perfectly.

Feet on the bottom of my purse.

Look!  There are even feet on the bottom!  Very professional, don't you think!?!

I have bought and carried so many Vera Bradley bags in the past (quite a few) years.  I love her purses and I love her fabrics.  I've often been asked if I made my purse when I'm carrying a Vera Bradley.  Now at last, I can say, "Yes, I made my purse!"

A Jacket For My Water Bottle

 During this summer's baseball season, I often took a reusable water bottle with me to the games, instead of buying (overpriced) water there (in a plastic bottle).  The trouble was, the water would really heat up, sitting there in my cup holder, which was usually in the sun.  So I made a little jacket for it.

Quite simple really.  I measured the height and diameter of my bottle, and planned to make the jacket slightly bigger than those measurements.  A cover fabric, a lining fabric, and a piece of Insulbrite to go in between for insulation.  Then I quilted it a little bit to hold it together. 

The next step was to sew a little fabric tab to the side, near the top, in case I want to attach it to a loop or ring of some kind.  After this I sewed the side seam, pinned the "tube" to the bottom circle, and sewed the two together.

I sewed a casing into the top of my jacket, thinking I would put elastic in there to cinch it up.  But that was not necessary.  It fits so snugly that it's not going to come off unless I pull it off.

So I fill it with water and a few ice cubes and off to the game I go!

Making Cards

I recently spent another day building up my card supply.  Not sure how many I finished, but below is a selection of them.

And a few close-ups.  Silk flowers and leaves are very useful for gluing to paper for a card.

This is what to do with some of that wonderful ribbon/trim that I can't keep myself from buying!

I use found objects sometimes in cardmaking.  The card below utilizes some leftover gift wrapping paper (the gold stuff).  The grill-like item is a piece of vellum that came in the mail.  An invitation or something.  And the red is some ribbon I had.  

Half-Square Triangle Baby Quilt

I have a small quilt top finished.  It is a simple half-square triangle quilt, made from my Bear Patch Bits and some white Kona cotton.  I haven't mentioned my "Bits" lately, but they come from this quilt shop in Minnesota.  For $40 per year they send me 20 charm squares every month, cut from the new fabrics they have received that month.  It's really fun receiving the packets.  It also includes a newsletter, and quite often, a recipe and/or a pattern.  And it is all written by my SisterStitches!  She works at Bear Patch Quilting.

Any-hoo, I used several of my pastel-colored Bits to make HSTs.  In the above photo they are all laid out on a carpet. Following are a few close-ups of some of them.

I really like the rooster in this one below!

 And here they are all sewn together.  

Oops!  

I didn't add triangles to the ends of the rows.  That's something I'll file away for next time.  This time I'll just trim everything straight along the edges.  Stay tuned to see the finished product.

Crocheted Afghan

 It has been quite a while since my last post.  Sorry about that, my dear readers (both of you!).  I've been spending a lot more time sewing than I have with my computer; that is my only excuse.

Here is one of the things I've been working on.  I decided to crochet a baby afghan.  I used to crochet many years ago, and felt a yen to crochet again.  So I bought some nice soft yarn (nothing fancy, I bought it at Michael's), and didn't have a pattern, so I just decided to make some stripes.

 

I found it a lot of fun to be crocheting again.  Just like riding a bike.  It's such a nice, portable project.  Much easier than taking sewing things with me.

Here are a couple of close-up photos.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this afghan, but I know I will give it away to someone.

P.S.  I've already started a second afghan!

Counting Bracelet

Here is a little counting bracelet I made for GranddaughterStitches.  It was quite easy.  I simply bought some numbered beads in a local bead store. 

Then I added these colorful beads (above) in between each numbered bead.  I strung it all on elasticized beading cord, which is kind of like stretchy fishing line.

Here is the finished bracelet, before I attached the two ends together.  I needed to wait till GranddaughterStitches was actually here, so I knew how big to make it.

And here it is on her little wrist.  You can see that I added quite a few beads to make it fit over her hand.  And I could have made the numbers go higher, except I hadn't bought any more number beads.  GranddaughterStitches is so good at counting that she may be past eleven already!

Memory Quilt

I recently completed a quilt top and quilt back made from clothing of a friend of mine, who died in 2011.  This, and a second quilt I'll make, will be for her family.  I've never made anything of this size out of clothing before, so that was a little bit challenging.  But it all turned out ok.  I actually included some seam lines and parts of pockets in the fabric squares.

Here is a  little closer photo.  I chose this pretty blue batik to border the quilt.  I'm going to sew a couple of special buttons onto the quilt top, too.

And here is the back.  I used the pretty batik fabric for most of it, then added a strip of solid blue close to one side.

Within that strip is a small emblem from a special t-shirt.  I simply put some fusible on the back to stabilize the knit, then treated it like any other fabric.

To figure out the correct fabric measurements for piecing the quilt back, I use precise drafting equipment and procedures in order to get everything to come out to the right size.  You can see that in the photo below.