Sew Powerful Purse #193 for 2024

I used textured rubbing plates and paint sticks to first create the background and then stenciled this African Woman on the flap. Added some crystals on her earrings and and created a necklace of crystals too. Another Sew Powerful Purse donation is done.

I had to piece the fabric for the back pocket in order to have a large enough fabric for the pocket, so I stitched some ribbon over the pocket seam, since the gingham didn't line up exactly.

The gingham is actually a flannel fabric. I liked the colors, so I used it as the purse body.

You can see the whole flap here. Maybe I will lower the stencil on the next one I do so that the top of her head wrap is not folded over to the back.

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Sew Powerful Purse #192 (2024)

Trying something new on this purse flap. I wanted words on the flower petals, but I don't have an embroidery machine, so I couldn't embroider the words directly onto the petals. I didn't want to hand embroider them on either. So I wrote them on white fabric with an acrylic paint pen, then fused to the flower petals and stitched around the white to hold them in place. The white makes it easy to read the words, but it is also a bit stark as well. Maybe if I try another one I will use a pale color of whatever the flower color is, so I would have used a pale turquoise for this flower if I had thought of it before. After I stitched the words on, the shape that was left in the center happened to be a pentagon, so I used a pentagon for the center of the flower. A few added crystals for a bit of bling completes the flap.

The body is another denim jean upcycle. I used the front jean pocket on the back of the purse this time. 

Donating this purse to Sew Powerful.

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Sew Powerful Purse #190-191 (2024)

Two Paris theme fabric print purse flaps. These were cut from the same Paris theme fabric scrap that I had and I added scraps of other fabric around the main fabric. Upcycled jean purse bodies and webbing straps.

These purses will be donated to Sew Powerful.

I think this was the last of the Paris print fabric I had left. I made a cross body bag and a tote out of this print years ago. The cross body bag sold a few years ago, but the tote is for sale in my PayHip Shop.

Light and dark denim jeans is what I used for the purse bodies.

Slip pockets on the back side, one I stitched heart appliqués on.

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Sew Powerful Purse #189 (2024)

I found this half square triangles pieced top I had sewn in a Chevron pattern in my UFO box. Not sure what I was planning on making with it? It must have been there a long time. I measured it and it was almost the perfect flap size, except it needed to be taller, so a strip of pink fabric sewn on both the top and the bottom was all I needed to do to bring it up the the correct size. I used denim jeans for the body of the purse, so another upcycled jeans done too.

I stitched a decorative stitch on the webbing strap for a bit more interest.

Front jeans pocket is a bonus secret pocket here.

An added appliqué flower for the back patch pocket.

Another purse to donate to Sew Powerful.

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Knit Bean Bunnies

I want to knit one of these Bean Bunnies when I first saw this pattern (which is a free pattern). So I knit the bunny in the variegated blue yarn that it so soft and he (or she?) came out so cute, so I tried a second one in a variegated pink wool yarn. It is still cute, but the blue is my favorite one. I think using a soft yarn with a fuzzy look perhaps looks more like a real soft bunny? I must consult with my grand-bunny, Finnegan on this matter 😄.

They are knit in garter stitch and knit flat and then seamed. Why are they called Bean Bunnies? It is because you make a little fabric circle pouch and fill with beans to place in the bottom of the bunny and then stuff the rest of the bunny with poly stuffing. The beans weigh him down a bit and it just feels nicer with some beans in his bottom! 😁

I got the idea of trying to knit the next bunny in the round, but I forgot to purl one round and knit one round to create the garter stitch look, so this bunny was just knit every round creating a stockinette stitch instead. Although I did remember to purl and knit both of his ears, since I knit those first. It was bit tricker to get the bean filled circle (or in this bunny, I used rice) into the base, since the opening was smaller. I liked that I didn't have to seam him later, but it was probably easier to knit flat. This bunny ended up with the lighter colors of the blue variegated yarn.

Such a cute bunny family!

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Polaroid Baby Quilt~ Project Linus Donation

A long time ago I saw this tutorial for making a Polaroid Quilt, from  Wendi of Shiny Happy World. Wendi's quilt used her appliqué patterns, but I wanted to try this quilt using some novelty children's fabric I had on hand first. I also wanted to make a small quilt to see how it went before getting carried away with something too large. I am glad I chose to do a small quilt because while this quilt is small (39" x 39"), the individual blocks are large and it was a bit of a challenge cutting the angles on these large blocks. I am happy with the results. I don't think I would make anything any larger than this size again. I might try reducing the block size to something more manageable if I want to make an appliqué Polaroid quilt next time.

Since I am donating to Project Linus, the smallest size requirement is 36" x 36" (newborn size) quilt. I added a border to make the bias edges more stable and so ended up with 39" square quilt. The white bottom border of the Polaroid blocks is taller than the top and side borders and to me it looked rather too stark and plain, so I decided to add some words using small die letters I have. I think those words made for a happier, more cheerful quilt. Even though the baby who receives this quilt won't be able to read it, the parent(s) will and that will make them happy. 

I ran out of the red binding, so added the green on the bottom, in case you are wondering, 😄.

I quilted this using a walking foot and quilting in a diamond shape around the quilt.

Flannel backing shows the diamond quilting, but the green is really more lime green like the next photo.

The green flannel looks like this in person.

Quilty Hugs Everyone!!!

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Sew Powerful Purse #188 (2024)

Sew Powerful Purse donation. Scrappy batik flap with upcycled denim jeans for the body and a red check lining.

I love using batik scraps for these purses, especially for the flaps.

The upcycled denim jeans makes a good sturdy purse and the red check is a fun lining paired with the denim.

Back slip pocket.

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