Blue String Quilt with Tigger Appliqué & Butterflies (Project Linus Donation)

I made a blue string quilt, knowing that I would add some kind of appliqué on top of it after I sewed the blue string together. I had picked up this Tigger panel that was cut out (it had white all around it) from another Project Linus group free stuff table about 2 years ago! Gosh time flies! I also have an Eeyore cut out too I got at the same place and time. Since Eeyore is blue, I knew he wouldn't even show up on this blue quilt, but Tigger, being the fine orange fellow he is would look great. I decided to cut off the white fabric that surrounded him and fused him onto the quilt. He is so long with his tail that he covered all the blocks in width but one. There were some butterflies on this cut panel too, so I cut them out leaving off the white fabric as well. There are 3 pink butterflies and 2 blue butterflies, can you find them? I worried about the blue butterflies with the blue background, however there is yellow surrounding the outer shape so that they are not completely hidden and can be seen more clearly in person.

The quilt measures 36.5" wide x 45.25" high.

Scrappy string quilt with Tigger appliqué and pink and blue butterflies that were appliquéd on too.

The backing of the quilt is this blue flannel. 

Quilted the quilt with a diagonal serpentine stitch. Doesn't Tigger's silly face make you smile? Some child will love this one!

Tigger is so long, he stretched out over all the quilt blocks, except one. See the pink butterfly above him and the blue butterfly under his head?

Here is a close-up of the blue butterfly. I stitched with blue thread, but the yellow in the butterfly does help it to stand out against the blue. 

Pink butterfly also has yellow around it and I stitched with a pink thread.

Sending Quilty Hugs!!!🤗

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Adorable Size Round Japanese Rice Bag (Free Pattern & YouTube Tutorial by Liz)

Last month I made a traditional square Japanese Rice bag that I shared here. Shortly after I made it, Liz (of Moments by Liz), came out with a round Rice Bag in 4 sizes. She named the sizes: Too Cute, Adorable, Just Right & Kitchen Sink. The round bottom templates are free and the Video YouTube tutorial is free too (scroll down to very end for link). When you click on Liz's YouTube at the end of this post, you will find the link to her free pattern for the round bottoms and the rest is cut from measurements using a ruler and rotary cutter. 

Here is my Adorable size round rice bag. It is a pretty cute size, but Too Cute is even smaller. Also, Liz has measurements for making the accent base or using just one fabric, so they are both in her pdf. And, she shows you how to make the tulips ends to cover the knots in the cording if you want to do that. I did not do that with mine though.

The traditional square Rice Bag I made recently, I chose some sewing theme fabric in a different print and color. So I decided to stay with the sewing theme and chose this print for the round bag. I quilted the exterior and the bottom of the bag.

The lining fabric is also  sewing theme print with scissors, needle and thread.

Here she is with the drawstrings closed. I again made my drawstrings in Kumihimo (Japanese braiding) for this bag as I did for the square rice bag.

This time I made the tabs for the drawstring out of the same cotton pink fabric as the accent and bottom

 of the bag.

Quilted bottom of the bag.

Closed view from above.

I made my cord stops out of vinyl. You can buy plastic cord stops or use beads, but both of those need to have large enough openings to fit the cording. Or you could knot the 2 cords together if your cords are long enough to do that. I chose to use wrap my cords together with an elastic hair tie.

Have you ever made a square or a round Rice Bag? Do you have a preference as to round or square? I think I am more partial to the square traditional rice bags, but the round ones are fun too. I suppose it depends on what you will put inside the bag that really matters and the size of bag that you need for your item(s) that you are carrying. I doubt anyone is carrying rice anymore, but you never know. I think I will make some more square rice bags to put my machine pedal and cords in. I will make a name for each bag too so I know which pedal and cord goes to which machine. Now to decide on the right size bag to make. I need one a bit smaller than the last square rice bag I made. 

Happy Rice Bag Making!

Free YouTube tutorial from Moments by Liz~

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Sew Powerful Purses #186 & 187 (2024)

2 more purses made to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. I used selvages to make these purses and I added an appliqué flower on each flap too. 

I love using selvages and trying different ways to sew them. I started with the appliqué wool flower for the center and used selvages to surround the flower.

Back of purse with slip pocket and top of selvage flap.

This flap has a different shaped flower and it's smaller too. I used Woolies Flannel

 for the flower and I think a felted wool for the center (if I remember correctly).

Upcycled denim jeans, so the denim pockets add a couple more pockets on the front.

I made the back slip denim pocket from 2 jeans.

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Sew Powerful Purse #184 & 185 (2024) Using Starbucks tee Shirts for the Flaps

Hello lovely purse makers, quilters and blog readers. I wanted to share a couple more purses that I made for Sew Powerful to donate.

My beautiful daughter is a Barista at Starbucks and working there she gets discounts on their merchandise and somethings like aprons and tee shirts she gets for no cost to wear at work. So my daughter gets rid of stuff she no longer uses or likes, (which is quite often), so I rummage through her giveaway pile of stuff once in a while to see if there is anything that I can use for making the Sew Powerful Purses. I have found old bedsheets that I use for interfacing and some trim, buttons, and more. One day I found a few of her Starbucks tee shirts and I knew they would make great purse flaps! So I grabbed them and interfaced the shirts, since they are knit, and added some batik fabric all around the Starbucks logo shirt. 

I am pretty sure these were some tee shirts she bought in Seattle at the Original Starbucks at Pike Place Market. Starbucks original logo and color was brown (like their coffee) and it's the only place you can still buy their logo merchandise in the brown colors. Since my daughter was born in Washington state, and works for Starbucks, she had to get some of their brown logo stuff. (I scored a small brown logo Starbucks mug too, courtesy of her giveaway boutique 😄). 

So I made these 2 purses and I made a few more purse flaps using Starbucks shirts too, but those will be in another blog post. The shirt is either a really dark dark brown or black background color (I can't tell for sure as my eyes have more trouble seeing those darker colors now, 😢.

The original Brown Starbucks Logo. I made little flowers in the buttons.

Back side of purse with a slip pocket. This fabric was great to use to pair with the Starbucks brown logo, since it really blended well with the tee shirt color.

I think this was part of a tee shirt that I used and it had a small Starbucks logo either on the back or the sleeve? I can't remember, since I cut the shirt up. Next time I need to take photos before I cut into it so I can share the before & after of the shirt and then purse. I have some fabric of various cups of coffee with script written below, such as "Kona" or "Cappuccino", etc. So I appliquéd those on to this flap.

I upcycled denim jeans to make this purse. Using the front pocket of the jeans adds 2 extra pockets.

And the back pocket I made using scraps leftover from the jeans and I used decorative machine stitches and some variegated thread to add some fun to the pocket.

I will share some more purses made with Starbucks tee shirts soon. Then I need to make some purses with the aprons from Starbucks too! Haven't even started those yet.

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Sew Powerful Purse #183 (2024)

Another Happy Scrappy Batik Flappy purse to donate to Sew Powerful. I love using scraps, especially batik fabric scraps to make the purse flaps for these purses. I even stitched a decorative stitch on the webbing strap in variegated purple thread. A few buttons for bling and this purse is all ready for one sweet girl in Zambia to receive. The purse will be filled with her monthly hygiene items so she can attend school all year and not miss any school days. It takes $10 to fill the purse with the items the girls need. The items are made by Zambian women and they earn a wage by sewing or making laundry soap bars, and the money comes from donations by generous people like you and me and others. You can help the girls and the women by donating money to Sew Powerful, making a purse or making notecards that are put into the purses. Please read about Sew Powerful here. Together we are Sew Powerful!

Since my hobby and passion is sewing, especially making bags and quilts, I love to use my talents and expertise by making and donating purses to Sew Powerful. I also like donating quilts I make to Project Linus too. I can make more purses each year than I can quilts, so I prefer making the purses and I love experimenting by trying new techniques and ideas on the purse flaps. I am having so much fun doing this and to think that all my efforts are helping young women continue with their education really makes me smile and I feel great that I can help them too.

The purse body is also batik fabric.

Purse back with an added slip pocket.

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Glue Applicator Tips for Appliqué & More!

It's Tip of the Morning Tuesday!

When I went to the Vendor Barn at the Garden of Quilts Show in Lehi, Utah in mid September, a vendor (Pen & Paper Pattens) was selling these glue applicator tips. She showed me her method of doing reversible appliqué, which she used school glue with one of these glue tips. I mentioned to her that I had bought appliqué glue with a metal tip of another brand in the past and the tip got clogged up before I had even used much of the glue and no matter what I did it wouldn't unclog. Then she handed me a package of 2 glue applicator tips and showed me how they will not get clogged because in the cap is a metal piece that inserts into the applicator tip to keep it from getting clogged. Genuis! 

Well needless to say I bought the package. It is the best tool/gadget I have purchased in a very long time! I put one tip on my Elmer's washable white school glue and one on my Jot washable glue (from Dollar Tree). The Jot brand works great! I don't need a super strong glue as it is for a temporary hold. My Jot glue was less thick than the Elmer's glue, but I have had the Elmer's for years so that might have been part of the reason it was thicker? I found it worked better with the Jot glue, since it wasn't as thick. I may add a bit of water to the Elmer's and shake it up so that it isn't as thick. 

Don't do appliqué? I use glue for other sewing too. I was using a washable glue-stick glue to hold pressed under fabric pieces (like in making straps or zipper ends) when making bags. I loved the glue-sticks, but the metal tip of the white glue is easier to apply and doesn't get smeared over places it shouldn't like the glue-stick can. Both are washable glues, but now that I have this applicator tip, the white glue is by far more economical than the glue-stick is, so I won't be buying glue-stick anymore (although I bought a ton of them at the back to school sale, so I have a good supply for quite a long time). See photos below:

Photo from Pen & Paper Patterns.

Photo from Pen & Paper Patterns.

Here is a quick video from Pen & Paper Patterns, showing you how to use the glue with the applicator tip~

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Sew Powerful Purse #182 (2024)

Another purse finished to donate to Sew Powerful. 

Mostly raw edge batik fabric scraps that I quilted heavily to hold the pieces together on the flap. Added bits of fuzzy yarn scraps and buttons too.

The body is a batik fabric and I made a strap in batik fabric with a ribbon in the center.

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Girlfriend Cross Body Bag with Decorative Stitches Flap

I wanted to make a bag with a flap and stitch decorative machine stitches and added rickrack and embellishments. I have made many flaps like this before, but thought I would make this one for myself as I am wanting to use smaller bags nowadays. 

This is the Girlfriend Bag by Imazz Patterns. I tested this bag years and years ago for Imazz. It can be made as a clutch, wristlet or cross body bag. At that time this bag was too small of a bag for what I carried then, but now I try not to carry too much, unless I am traveling or hiking and need more stuff with me. Imazz really liked the Girlfriend Bag that I tested and she even has photos of that test bag I made on her Etsy Store. Click the link above and see a few Girlfriend Bags, including mine.

This time I wanted to make a more shapely flap on this one, so I made the flap longer and shaped the bottom of the flap like the in the photo below. I love how the flap turned out!

This bag is so cute. It has a zippered compartment pocket under the flap, a slip pocket with a zippered pocket inside it and a secret little slip pocket between the other 2 pockets. I really loved how it all came out. Then I started adding my items into the bag and it started to bulge and at first it didn't look that good to me. I suppose to keep the cute flat shape the bag has, you cannot add anything with much dimension to it. So at first I was disappointed when I had my stuff inside the bag.  I used it anyway and the more I used it the more I really began to like the bag and I stopped thinking about the way it looked and more about how it performed. 

I love the separate places to put things inside, I love the flap (with or without the way I shaped it and decorated it), I love the lighter feel of this bag when I carry it as it doesn't put stress on my body (especially my shoulder) and I could removed the strap and either carry as a clutch or make a wrist strap and carry that way too on occasion. 

So I wanted to share the photos of this bag with you and point out when the bag was empty or had stuff inside, so you can see the way it looks each way. If you carry a ton with you, then this style might not work for you, but if you carry a few basics, then it would be a great bag for you to make and use or buy a custom made one from me or another bag maker, if you don't sew bags yourself. 

Here is the front of the bag when empty.

 

Here I added some things inside it and you can see it bulges out a bit.

Side view when empty is flat.

Side view when filled with stuff pushes the bag out a bit.

Back side of bag when empty.

Back side of bag when filled with items.

Flap up showing the front of the bag when empty.

Flap up showing the front of bag when filled with items.

Looking down inside of the empty bag. Here you see the front zippered pocket, the back slip pocket with a zippered pocket inside of it and the hidden center slip pocket is quite hidden in this photo.

Looking down inside the bag with a few items inside.

Looking down inside the empty bag with the zipper compartment pocket unzipped. The secret slip pocket is in between the zipper pocket in the front and the back slip pocket.

Looking into the bag with stuff filled inside it and you can see my car key in the hidden secret slip pocket in the middle.

To get a better look at that hidden secret slip pocket, I used my lip balm to keep the pocket opened up

 for the photo. Say "ahh". By the way that is great lip balm!!! Comes in lots of flavors too. I like the grapefruit flavor the best and this lime flavor a second best and it's made right here in New Mexico too, in Santa Fe! Yay!

So what do you think about how the bag looks when it has stuff inside? 

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