A New Bag

The old purse I was using was a felted bag that I'd made yonks ago.  The handle started to give out, and then, despite some attempts to maintain it, it finally had to be put to rest some months ago.  I didn't have a new bag at the ready, so I just dug out this old fabric one I had, with a tattoo-print fabric and some plastic handles.  It served my purposes for a while, but ultimately was also an old bag and started to show some wear and tear.  In the last week, the zipper finally broke (on top of various other wear spots and rips in fabric, etc., so I decided it was finally time to stop procrastinating and make something new.

Fortunately I had a pattern and some fabric & notions already for a purse I'd been planning last spring, so I just took my weaving loom down from my crafting table to make room for a sewing project, and threw this baby together in the last 24 hours, natch.

A lovely batik with rainbow colours and a neutral background are paired with a coordinating purple batik handle and lining, matching purple buttons for a bit of embellishment, and a bright blue zipper just to throw everything a bit off kilter.  There are pockets inside there, too, for my phone, my keys, my coffee cup cozy.  It's got a pretty nice shape but is still not quite perfect.  A gusset would be nice, for example, and the outer fabric is a smidge too large for the lining, imho.  I will probably continue to make more purses in pursuit of just the right one to suit me for the next couple of years.  If I ever get around to it.

Not Enough Hobbies For Ya?

I've been doing a lot of fibery crafting around here, but it's been a while since I showed off my mad quilting skillz.  All winter I spent a lot of time looking at the gorgeous variations quilters were making of the Swoon quilt pattern by Camille Roskelley.  You can see a number of them here on Flickr, or with a quick Google search.  There are so many beautiful ones, but I had something specific in mind for mine.

I spent ages looking for the right fabric - something bright and beautiful, with a lot of colour and not a lot of directionality.  Eventually I found just the fabric that would be perfect for my vision, called Tonga Gumdrop batiks.  Batiks are always stunning, and these ones in particular were really bright rainbow colours.  I ordered the fat quarters, and got myself some nice clean white for the background, and then sat down with a set of markers and some paper to plan out how to put the colours together.  Because there were 20 fat quarters, I ended up with the nine blocks for the quilt and one extra for a matching pillow.

A few days ago I folded up my weaving loom, Miss Bennett, to clear off my work table, and then got out the rotary cutter and mat.  While taking lots of breaks to knit my Cashmere Affection (to rest my poor back and watch various British tv series that I'm obsessed with, lately) I ironed and cut a bajillion pieces of brightly coloured fabric and stacked them up in nice neat little piles, all organized and ready to go.

Then, phase two:  after a couple of days of working at it (with ample knitting and tv breaks, mind you) today I finally finished cutting up the second set of a bajillion pieces:  pretty white squares and rectangles and strips for the quilt background.  Now I just have to get out the sewing machine and put them all together.  I'll keep you updated.