"Oh Happy Day": Raw Edge Batik Art Quilt

I named this fiber art piece, Oh Happy Day, as it made me happy to create this piece. It is a happy mix of fibers that I quilted and mounted on an artist board. I added embellishments like buttons, couched yarn, bits of mesh netting, organza bits and crystals. 

This and some other fiber arts that I created will be on display at the Corrales Library the month of January, along with others who have submitted their fiber art pieces. There will be quite a variety of fiber art: knitting, hand embroidery, quilts, Hardanger and more. Some pieces will be for sale by the artist and some are not for sale, but just on display. I have a few more items that I have made that I will be sharing here on my blog this week for you to see what I have put in the show. I have my work for sale.

There will also be a one day artist reception and I will be bringing some of my bags to set up on a table to sell there as well, since they couldn't be hung in the show. This is the first time our stitch group will be displaying our work in a show, so I hope it goes well. We might do it again if it is well received. 

This piece measures 16" x 20".

Closeup of the quilting, buttons, crystals and yarn couching.

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Sew Powerful Purses #257-263 (2024)

More purses made with batik fabric and scrappy pieced batik fabric flaps too. These are being donated to Sew Powerful.

Scrappy batik purse flaps. The flap second from the left is a raw edge batik fabrics that are heavily quilted to hold it together. 

Front pockets under the flaps.

Backs with pockets.

Scrappy batik pieced purse flaps.

Front pockets under the flap.

Back pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purse #176 (2024)

I love using scraps, especially batik fabric scraps to make the Sew Powerful Purses. Here is another batik purse I made using batik scraps for the flap. This purse will keep a young girl in school when it is filled with monthly hygiene supplies for her. It has been proven that girls before they had the monthly needs were 10% behind the boys in test scores and with the supplies that allows them to stay in school instead of missing school each month, they are testing the same as the boys or even better! Help to keep the girls in school by supporting SewPowerful.org and making a donation, and/or make a purse or more to donate. Together we are Sew Powerful!

Happy Scrappy Flappy 😄!!!

On the back of the purse I added a slip pocket.

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Small Batik Fabric Knit Bag

The batik fabric yarn that I had leftover from knitting my Rose MacClare Bag, I used to knit this small shoulder bag. I lined this bag and added 2 interior pockets. I also quilted the lining to headliner foam to give the bag more body.

Knit out of batik  fabric scraps. I knit an i-cord handle.

I added the double-stacked button as decoration (it doesn't button), but I am not really sure if I like the button on it or not? Perhaps it's the colors? The size? Does it do anything for you? I may end up taking the buttons off  later.

The lining with pockets. I hand stitched the lining to the bag, but I quilted the lining first to headliner foam. It gives the bag a nice feel.

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The Rose MacClare Batik Fabric Knit Bag

Recently, I cut my batik and hand dyed fabric scraps into 1/2" wide strips (on the straight of grain). I blogged about that here. Then I spent hours and hours and days and days knotting those strips together to create a huge ball of yarn. I knotted fabric strips together while I binge-watched all 3 dvds of season 4 Downton Abbey and still I had only knotted about two-thirds of the fabric scraps. I watched other dvds too while I continued to knot the scraps together. Finally I had a huge ball of fabric yarn made. Since most of the yarn was made while watching Downton Abbey, I thought perhaps I should name the bag I knit after one of the characters. Since the batik fabrics are bright and kind of wild, the character I thought of, of course, was Lady Rose MacClare. So I named this bag that I knit The Rose MacClare Bag. Rose doesn't like to be called "lady" as you know. I couldn't just name it Rose because you might think I named it after the flower or the color and there are certainly more colors in this bag than just rose.

I used batiks because they do not unravel as much as other fabrics do and the color is the same on both the front and back of the fabric too.

I wanted to line this bag and when I made the lining it came out a bit too small width-wise. So I suppose now I will have to make another bag that will fit the lining, lol!!! I will try and measure the lining fabric correctly so that I will be able to line this bag too.

This is the other side of the bag. As you can see it has a variegated look because I had soooo many scraps! I knit i-cord handles.

I even had enough batik yarn leftover that I knit a small purse-style bag. I need to finish it and I will post it when it's done. I really like how this bag came out and what a great scrap-busting project it is too.

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Batik Scraps and a New Project

I am probably crazy for cutting up 100's (or is it thousands?) of batik scraps into 1/2" wide strips, but I have an idea and I wanted to start by using my scraps rather cutting up perfectly good batik yardage (in case this idea doesn't work out as planned). Plus I want a scrappy and colorful look for this hair brain I mean brilliant idea! Okay it all started when I was reading a blog I follow called Made by Me in Red. Marcy had knit a couple of bags made out of batik strips. That of course got me thinking. I have a book about knitting with fabric strips, so I took it out and as I was looking at the book, the wheels started churning and I thought I could cut up that huge bag of batik and hand dyed fabric scraps that I have into 1/2-inch strips and use those to create the yarn I needed to knit a bag. I am not sure what bag style I will knit, but this will be a great way to use up those batik scraps and if it comes out great and if I want to make another knit bag, I might save myself a lot of time and cut up batik yardage. But if it doesn't work out the way I plan, then I will have invested only my labor. After all I will continue to acquire fabric scraps with my quilt making and other bag making projects anyway and this could be a great way to use up some of those scraps. This is going to take me quite a while to slit-knot all these strips together to create a huge ball of yarn, but the knitting should go quickly. I hope to line the bag with some pockets as well. But for now at least the strips are cut.

My basket is overflowing with 1/2" wide batik strips of all different lengths.

This will make a very colorful bag...if I ever get all the strips slit-knotted together into one huge ball of yarn. See what you started Marcy? Lol!!!

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