Sew Powerful Purse #191 (2025)

Another Happy Scrappy Purse Flappy! It's so satisfying using up scraps of fabric. Donated to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I added a little TV appliqué and sewed a heart patch in the center.

Front pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purse #190 (2025)

I found a few motifs that I had from a fabric and fussy cut them to use for the center of this purse flap and some other flaps that I made too. Here is one of them. 

I used the wiggle stitch to sew it on the fabric and I added a sewing machine button for fun too.

 The colorful strips were donated to me from a friend.

These fabrics were donated to me to use for the purses I make and donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. It is so kind of people to donate fabric to me for this cause. It's fun to use a new fabric to make a purse (or purses) too.

Back pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purses #188-189 (2025)

2 Scrappy purse flaps with a Debbie Mumm print in the center. I must have had this Debbie Mumm print for 20 years or probably more? The print had all kinds of little things on it like a variety of girls, and sunflowers, schoolhouses, watermelon and more. So I just fused some fusible web onto the back side and fussy cut out all the various motifs and started using them for the centers of both scrappy fabric purse flaps as well as scrappy selvage flaps and sewed all around the motifs. There were quite a lot of flaps I made from the Debbie Mumm print, so you will (and already have) seen some of them, but there are more to come. So glad I used that print up in making these purses to donate to the girls in Zambia so they can stay in school all year. Such a great feeling to give them purses and to use up fabric I have had a long time or quilt blocks I never used before making them into purse flaps as well. This is such a great project for using all the scraps leftover from making the purse bodies and adding them various flaps also. 

Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I started these by cutting the purple fabric with stars and setting it on point and fusing the Debbie Mumm prints and stitching them in place and then sewing scraps of fabrics all around. 

The exterior fabric and the lining fabric were donated to me. 

Back added pockets.

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7 Knit Bird Nests for Wildlife Rescue

I belong to a stitch group at a local library and the librarian in charge of the group was asked by a wildlife rescue group to ask the members of our group to knit or crochet bird nests🐦. I Googled about making bird nests and found out that this is a real need in many states and other countries too. Who knew? They not only use the nests for birds, but small animals too like mice, etc. Google to find out where the nests are needed in your area and most offer free patterns on their sites too.

What all the wildlife organizations out there mentioned in their websites and on the bird nest patterns was to use double yarn (2 worsted weight yarns held together when knitting or crocheting). Worsted weight is probably the best weight to use. Most said acrylic yarns was best, or wool and most said cotton was the least favorite. They need to be washed, so that is probably why acrylic is best to use. Wool can felt, which might make a nice nest, but it will become a smaller nest too. All sizes of nests were needed, with about a 4" base for most. 

They ask for a double yarn to make a firm nest without any holes (so tiny feet and beaks don't get caught) and so when the birds get bigger they can hop up on the rim of the nest and it won't collapse, but will suppose their weight. 

I knit these nests. I wanted to crochet a few too, but I cannot get the hang of crocheting 15 stitches into a circle to get started and I have trouble seeing the stitches and where the round begins and ends. Even if I am supposed to chain 2 stitches at the beginning or the end, and if I use a stitch marker in crochet, it is one of those safety pin kind of markers, I am still not sure where to place it each time, since I am supposed to chain 2 stitches and not sure if it goes before or after the 2 chain stitches, 😜? I can crochet the stitches just fine, but the beginning and ending of a round or a row gets me stumped as where it is and those stitches are confusing to me, since most of the time you skip the first stitch and crochet in the next, but I am never quite sure if I am skipping an actual stitch or what? I prefer knitting as the stitches are all on a needle and easy to tell they are a stitch and I use a ring marker that stays on the needle and only gets slipped onto the needle as I knit and doesn't need to be pinned on the stitches and repined every time I do a stitch at the marker. It looks so easy when I watch a video online, but most go so fast that I just cannot watch what they are doing and then try to do what they did to get that ring started. I need someone in person to help me. I know I will never be a crocheter for most things.

Anyhow, back to the knit nests. Here is what I knit and they knit up quickly. I made 7 nests to donate. Great for using up miscellaneous yarn. These aren't easy to photograph, so I took photos of the top looking into the nests, the bottom of the nest when flipped over and from the side so you could get the idea better.

Nests all stacked up.

Looking down inside some nests.

Inside the nests.

Side view.

Bottom of nests. These were knit with wool yarn.

These are wool yarn nests showing the nest bottoms.

This actually is 2 cotton knit pint ice cream cozies I knit a long time ago and they didn't quite fit the cartons of ice cream. So I placed one inside the other and sewed them together to give them the double thickness for the birds and rolled the top down. Rather a bird use this so it doesn't go to waste.

Side view.

2 acrylic nests.

Bottom of nests.

Side of nests.

Happy bird nest knitting or crocheting.

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Sew Powerful Purses # 185-187 (2025)

3 more purses done! These all have front pockets and back pockets, even though I didn't photograph the back pockets, since they are the same as the other purses I shared using this same exterior fabric.

Donated to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

9 patch pieced flaps with added butterfly appliqué in batik fabric.

Front pockets.

Front  pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purses #183-184 (2025)

2 more purses completed to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Pinwheel purse flap.

Front pocket.

Back pocket and the purse below has same back pocket, but I didn't show it as it is the same for that purse too.

Happy die cut appliqué that I coated with fabric formula Mod Pod Podge to prevent fraying.

Front pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purses #181-183 (2025)

2 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. One is the no pocket version with a partial Dresden Plate and a button bee. The second purse is another flap using a paper napkin that is cover in an iron clear vinyl.

Partial Dresden Plate quilt block with button bee.

No pocket version.

Using a napkin with clear iron on vinyl over it on the flap. Background was first texture painted.

This one has a front pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purse #180 for 2025

I made this purse for last month's June Bee Challenge in the Facebook group for Sew Powerful Purse Project. I saw the bee made out of buttons on Pinterest, so I tried it, but I used a piece of embroidered trim for the wings. I made a few purses with the bee button and a partial Dresden Plate quilt block like this one.

Bee button and other buttons I sewed little flowers on to hold them in place.

This pretty exterior fabric was donated to me. I pieced webbing scraps together

with ribbon to cover the joins in order to make a longer strap.

No pockets on this purse on the back or the front. Next month a new pattern comes out without pockets added on. I think they meant to announce it later, but it got mentioned. So this was the first one I tried without pockets and it was much quicker to sew, which was the idea behind the no pocket version. Also, September is the annual Sew-a-thon Fundraiser for Sew Powerful and I think they wanted to come up with ways to make sewing the purses faster so they would receive more purses. We can still make any version we want to make and the 3 flaps are still interchangeable too. I can tell you it is so much easier and faster not to add the pockets, so I will be making more this way for sure. Plus, it saves on fabric and interfacing and that means less cost as well. Yay!

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(Disney) Tangled Panel Quilt Top

I was given this quilt panel and I decided to make a border of scrappy free style log cabin blocks using my black fabric scraps. I cut several 1-inch squares first in all the colors that are in this panel: pink, purple, yellow & green and then added the black fabrics around the colored square. Since I used fabrics that had black backgrounds with some colors too, those squares don't pop out as well as I would have liked, but I did want to use up a lot of scraps. I made more blocks than I really needed for this, so those will either border another quilt, or be made into a scrappy quilt alone.

I knew this was a Disney Princess, but I wasn't sure which one as I just don't keep up on all of this Disney stuff anymore. I found out she was from the movie, Tangled, which is an adaptation of the Rapunzel fairy tale.

I will be donating this to Wrap the World With Quilts when I have more quilts and tops to send in.

The pink and purple borders are part of the panel, which made it easier to not have to add any inner borders first.

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Boxed Bliss Bag~ pdf Pattern by ChrisW Designs

The Boxed Bliss bag is ChrisW Designs newest bag and it is loaded with some fabulous features! It is the most structured bag I have made, so no flopping on this bag. You can choose from a few stabilizers to use. For mine, I chose double fusible interfacing with added fusible fleece, plus the addition of a firmer stabilizer on the base and at the sides. The cording/piping at the sides further adds and enhances the stability of this bag.

Christine is a master at coming up with so many ingenious ways to sew what looks like a simple looking bag. From her signature phone pocket, to the zipper overlay pockets with added credit card and note card pockets, pleated pockets and the way she has you close the bottom of the bag without turning it, will blow you away! Eleven years of testing bags for Christine and I am still learning new things.

The pocket instructions can certainly be applied to other bags you make too, so it's almost like getting 2 patterns in one. While this doesn't look difficult, there are a few places that are more advanced so it is not a beginner pattern. However, there is also video instructions as well as the pdf pattern, so that is really helpful. As a tester, I didn't have the luxury of watching the video, since she needed to record it and make corrections after I had made the bag. But if I make another one, I will watch the video.

The Boxed Bliss measures 10" wide x 9" high x 5" deep. The pattern is on sale now! Grab yours one sale for a limited time only. 

Check out the video intro here, that also shows the tester photos and the full video is located farther down on the same page on YouTube.

Boxed Bliss Bag is a handbag with structure and loaded with interior pockets! You can add optional strap tabs at the side and clip on a cross body strap too. I opted to just have the carry handles that are rolled for easier on your hands holding.

Side view with piping  and stabilizer for added structure.

Vinyl base has bag feet to keep the bottom cleaner when placing it down.

Zipper closure has a long zipper so when you unzip it the bag is fully open making it easier to access your belongings.

Hidden phone pocket behind the recess zipper closure allows quick access to your phone.

Pleated slip pockets, internal pocket behind and the zipper overlay pockets with credit card pockets and note pocket. You can choose to add fewer pockets if you desire.

Vinyl overlay with credit card pockets, note pocket and 2 zipper pockets. Like an attached wallet if you don't want to carry a wallet. You can make a single zipper pocket if you prefer here instead, especially if you prefer carrying a separate wallet.

Pleated pocket, slip pocket with a large internal pocket behind (that I added rickrack around). If you rather carry a wallet instead of making the vinyl overlay with the pockets, a wallet would fit in the internal pocket.

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