Sew Powerful Purse #170 (2026)

This purse flap I made using the X-Blocks ruler. I love this setting the best from the blocks that I have tried. I set the quilt block on point and added scraps all around to bring the flap up to size. I have been making straps with any leftovers if I have enough fabric leftover and I sometimes add other fabrics to make the strap long enough. It is a bit time consuming to make the strap versus just cutting a length of webbing, but I like the fabric straps better than webbing straps, although the webbing is much cheaper, doesn't require interfacing and like I said, quicker to use.

Donating to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

Here is how the entire flap looks before folding a couple of inches to the back of the bag. As you can see the top of the flap is never seen from the front.

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Sew Powerful Purses #167-169 (2026)

Hello people, I have finished 3 more purses, all with Pineapple quilt blocks. I made several pineapple quilt blocks years ago and sewed them all together into a very small piece that would be good for a table topper or a large doll quilt, but I couldn't decide what to do with the piece. Do I make more blocks and make a larger quilt? I didn't feel like making any more blocks then and when I found this piece, I certainly didn't want to make anymore quilt blocks now either. So I decided to take the blocks apart and use for purse flaps, of course! It was a good decision and I don't remember if I ended up with 12 or 16 blocks as I made the flaps and put them away with the rest of the purse kits I cut out, and have just started to sew a few into finished purses now. They look much better on a purse flap too. I think I originally made these blocks to practice the pineapple cutting tool I had and to use up scraps of fabric too. I can always use the tool again, but make only one or two blocks at a time when I want one for a purse flap again. Donating these to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I love the look of the pineapple quilt block with all the colorful pieces and using batik fabric scraps is a great use for those scraps. 

I used the same print fabric print for all 3 purses bodies.

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Sew Powerful Purses #44-48 (for 2026)

5 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. I painted the white canvas material on all 5 flaps using stencils and fabric paints and then appliquéd the hearts on top.

I had made these hearts a decade or 2 ago? Been so long I forgot, so when I found these hearts, I knew I needed to add them to the purse flaps. These fit the monthly challenge of Love is in the Air at the Facebook group. The heart has one velvet fabric in the center of the left heart and a batik fabric in the right heart and both have a wool/rayon blend felt that I hand dyed and then cut the hearts out, that surround the hearts. I added sequins and beads on the left heart and beads and French knots on the right heart. After hand stitching the hearts in place, I added hotfix crystals around the hearts. When the light hits the crystals, they sparkle so pretty.

These 2 hearts are similar to the other 2. I stitched seed stitches in variegated thread on the right heart.

This heart was first pieced scraps and then I appliquéd the heart and surrounded it with metallic gold rickrack for some bling. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #71-72 for 2025

2 more flowers made with upcycled rainbow tank top and texture painted flap background. One batik purse body and one upcycled denim jeans purse body. Also, one pieced webbing scraps made into a long enough strap. These were donated to Sew Powerful Purse Project.

I love these 1/4 Hawaiian quilt block flowers to use in the flap corners. I reduced the flower on the right. The one on the left is larger and folds a bit to the back of the purse. 

More decorative machine stitches on the denim scrap front.

Back of denim purse also is made of denim scraps and decorative machine stitches. You can see the pieced webbing strap on the left purse a little better here too. I had a couple of webbing pieces I had used for something else and I sewed a ribbon on one and rickrack on the other  and joined them together along with a light purple webbing scrap.

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Sew Powerful Purses #69-70 for 2025

Two more purses donated to Sew Powerful. I painted the white canvas background of the flaps with textures first. Then I appliquéd an upcycled tie dye tee shirt by cutting out a piece of the rainbow shirt using a portion of a Hawaiian flower quilt pattern place in the corner of the flap. Both have batik purse bodies. I even pieced scraps of webbing together to make the straps long enough on each purse.

Back with slip pockets.

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Wonky Log Cabin Quilt

I made myself a Wonky Log Cabin quilt in all batik fabrics. I used orange for the center, even though I used a few different orange batik prints. A simple straight diagonal quilting and a flannel backing for softness. I love how this turned out!  So many variations for the settings, but I have always liked Sunshine & Shadow setting the best. I used some batik scraps & some partial Jelly Rolls and some strips cut from yardage to make this quilt. 

The quilt is a longer lap size and measures 47" wide x 67" long.

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Sew Powerful Purses #42-43 for 2025

2 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Aren't these bunnies/rabbits cute? I am pretty sure these are from one of the Art to Heart books I have by Nancy Halvorsen, but I don't remember which book it came from? I do have a quite a few of her books because I love her sweet appliqué designs. Hmmm... maybe I should make other purses with some of her designs, reducing the sizes as needed to fit the flaps. Talk about going down a rabbit hole!!!😂😆😄🐇🐰🐇🐰🐇

2 cute bunny (or rabbit) purses. These bunnies started out to be fabric quilted postcards that never got completed as postcards. I found them recently and thought these would make such cute purses, so here are 2 bunny purses! I hope the girls find them cute.

Closer look at the bunny/rabbit. 

Front pockets and flaps linings. Isn't that flap lining perfect for the those bunnies/rabbits? Carrots, peas, radishes and roses, in case bunny gets hungry. 😄🐇🐇🐰🐰🐰

Back slip pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #39-41 for 2025

3 Scrappy Pieced Heart flap purses made to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. 2 have batik purse bodies and one has a fun print of clouds in purple, pink and white.

Scrappy pieced hearts on all flaps.

Front of purses with pocket.

All have slip pockets on the back of the purses.

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Sew Powerful Purses #37-38 for 2025

2 more purses completed to donate to Sew Powerful. I had enough of those little squares left to create one more flap, like the flap I shared with you recently. I also found a Square-in-a-Square quilt block and added strips around it to make a flap for the other purse. It sure feels great to use up some of those things that were started, but never put into anything. Now 2 more girls will be able to stay in school all year without missing any school days due to their monthly period.

One batik print for the purse body and one print of giraffes and elephants.

Back pockets for each.

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Sew Powerful Purses #318-321 (2024)

4 more donated purses to Sew Powerful. All scrappy fabrics around the centers, all batik except the far right one.

The left purse is an upcycled Starbucks tee shirt in the center and then batik fabric sewn around it, with an added appliqué of a coffee mug on the right side of the flap. The next purse has a quilt block in the center, the next has a Kokopelli print in the center and the last one on the right has a print of a pincushion with thread and scissors in the center. It was fun using these small pieces in the center and sewing scraps around them.

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Sew Powerful Purses #246-249 (2024)

4 Happy Scrappy batik fabric flap purses. I love batik fabric for the bright colors and somehow all batik colors just seem to go together really well. I also love using up my fabric scraps in fun and creative ways. However, the more scraps I use up the more scraps I seem to have 😜! Well it's all good fun and these purses are going to a wonderful cause helping girls in Zambia. Sew Powerful is a great charity!

4 bright scrappy batik flap purses going to 4 sweet girls in Zambia to help them stay in school all year and get a good education.

3 of these purses were made using upcycled denim jeans. Aren't the front jean pockets a fun surprise to see? Plus those 2 with the jean pockets are a bonus of 2 extra pockets!

3 with back pockets and some appliqué added on the jean pockets. (Sorry for the slightly blurry photo)

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Sew Powerful Purses #242-245 (2024)

Four more purses to donate to Sew Powerful. Sewn selvages, scrappy flaps, pieced quilt blocks, appliqué, corduroy purse bodies and quilting cotton purse body too.

Selvage flap with star appliqué over a mini appliqué pocket shape. I had a lot of patriotic fabric selvages, so put them all together in this selvage flap. I really love how this one turned out!

Selvage flap.

I made the fabric strap and pieced it with 2 fabrics.

Slip pocket and purse body made using quilting cotton fabric.

Scrappy pieced flap.

Front pocket and flap up.

Corduroy back slip pocket.

Another purse made using one of the quilt blocks I scored at quilt group months ago. I added a few strips of fabric to make it flap size and buttons for bling.

That dragonfly fabric I won in a nametag drawing at quilt group months ago. I hadn't won the nametag drawing in years and years. It seemed right to use that fabric on this purse, since I also scored the pieced quilt blocks on the freebie table.

Another slip pocket in corduroy.

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