A New Purse

I spent last Wednesday sewing a new purse that I think I will offer for sale at the craft fair on May 31st. I have made two of these bags already, but I had a real brain cramp about doing this one. However, once I got going, I managed just fine.

The pattern is called a Tulip Bag. I had an older Jinny Beyer floral pulled from my stash for the outer fabric, and found the yellow/brown dot to go with it. Interestingly, it is from the Fig Tree line called A Day in the Country. (If that sounds familiar, it is the fabric line I am using for the quilt along called Wishes. I mentioned in one post that I wish I had more of the yellow and Ha! I do!!)

Back to the purse, I put some extra long handles on it, so that it will be comfortable for carrying over the shoulder. I made pockets, but I didn't overdo them. I think it is attractive, and I hope it will find a home.

Another Tulip Bag

A couple of years ago the Frankfort girls and I got together to make the Tulip Bag. The link to that project is here. I went on to make another one which I gave to my mother for Christmas. I've had a hankering to make another one of these bags, and I have finally found a pair of fabrics that please me for just this project.

There really isn't any yellow in the floral, but the cream seems to support the yellow, so that is what I have decided to use as the lining.

I will get going on this bag when I get back from a week's vacation. This post was written and scheduled for today, because as you read this, I am on the beach at Myrtle Beach, SC.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Friday Morning Quilt Group

I went upstairs to the sewing room Thursday afternoon to figure out what I'd work on at quilt group Friday morning. Gracie was cozied up  under the sewing machine, having a bath and looking very annoyed that I'd interrupted her quiet time.

I decided that I needed to finish the binding on Pam's quilt (which you saw in the last post). Isn't this a pretty border? And notice that fine, fine mitered corner. The bias plaid binding looks good with those swirly gee-gaws in the border, and the gently meandering quilting.

 At quilt group, we had 3 show-and-tells.

JoAnn showed off this great-looking table runner she is sending to a penpal in England who she's corresponded with since her school days - middle school or high school, I'm not sure, but it's been something like 30 or 40 years. Isn't that incredible? The table runner is of batiks, and I just love it.

Sharon hadn't gotten to share her Tulip Purse with us yet, so here it is:

And, Sharon also made a sweet little baby quilt for a soon-to-be-born grandbaby that she's waiting for.

You know how busy you are right before going on vacation? That's me, today. I've been rushing around doing lots of little odd jobs as we are leaving on a 12-day trip to Europe on Wednesday. I have typed up several blog posts to appear in my absence, so be sure to stop by to see what we are doing on our journey. 

I am also quite happy to see that the folks over at In Stitches listed my blog in the blogroll for today. Thank you!! And hello visitors!!

I hope visitors like what they see. If you leave comments, and I hope you do, please understand that they won't show up for awhile as I have the blog set to allow me to "moderate" comments. I had some very unsavory comments awhile back, so I am protecting the integrity of my blog by monitoring comments.

Okay, off to run a load of laundry and do some more packing!

Ciao!

More Tulip Bags

On Wednesday, Sheryll and Terry came over to make more bags using the Tulip pattern. All 5 of our little group made them together on Monday, and had such good success that we 3 wanted to make another one right away. (Click here to see the bags we made on Monday.)

This was a good thing, to borrow the words of Martha Stewart. By making this pattern a second time, soon after the first go-around, we were able to make them much more efficiently. I know for sure, that I felt a lot more confident in what I was doing on the second bag. Practice really does make perfect, eh?

Sheryll made this fantastic blue bag, with a bandanna-type design. It looks great, and will be very easy to use all summer long!

Terry's bag is made from Lynette Jensen/Thimbleberries fabric. I love it, and Terry was much happier with this second purse than the first one she made.

This brown floral bag is mine. It takes me forever to select fabrics, but I remembered I had a stash of Roman Holiday tucked away in my sewing room stash, and hoped there was enough of one of those to use for my bag. Ta-dah!!! There was! I love, love, love it, and look forward to using it.

These were Wednesday's projects. All completed! Wonderful feeling of accomplishment for all! On Thursday and Friday, I spent part of my day working on a different bag pattern. I will blog about it tomorrow!

Piece!

Jayne

Monday Morning Accomplishments

The quilting girls from Frankfort got together this morning at Terry's to make bags. They had purchased a pattern called The Two-Hour Tulip Purse by Janice Pope. When we met on Friday, we agreed to have our bags cut out, our interfacing and batting on, and markings made, in order to be sure we would finish in 2 hours. Since all of us were making the "jumbo" size, we needed to have some advance work out of the way.

I managed to photograph 4 of the 5 bags.

This one of fabric from Westminster Fibers is mine. *big grin* I really like it! Notice the polka dot lining. I really like it, too! I am especially pleased that my bag stands up, even the handles. I dislike bags that, when placed on a surface, collapse into a blob. This has enough stiffening in the interfacing and batting that it holds its shape. Now, as it is used, that may change, of course. We shall see, we shall see...

This very springy one is JoAnn's. It still needs to be pressed, but you get the general idea.

Sheryll made th is black and cream bag. Nice long straps, which I will copy on my next one!

Terry's is green - the fabric is Kansas Troubles by Moda. I don't think the color in the picture is very true, actually.

All of us agree that this first bag gave us ideas for slight changes or modifications we will make when we do another one. We are so excited to do a second bag that 3 of us are getting together Wednesday afternoon here at my house to do just that!