Blog Hop Starting Monday September 19th: Queen of Gadgets

Carol of Just Let Me Quilt is hosting the Queen of Gadgets Blog Hop starting Monday the 19th. This should be a fun hop to see what gadgets people use. I know I am the Queen of Gadgets myself, lol!

 Here is the list of participants:

September 19

Creatin' in the Sticks

Annie’s Musings

Days Filled With Joy

Quilting Gail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Scrapdash

 

September 20

MooseStashQuilting

For The Love Of Geese

Food for Thought

Karrin’s Crazy World

Patchouli Moon Studio (me)

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

 

September 21

Inflorescence

Selina Quilts

Samelia's Mum

Just Sew Quilter

That Fabric Feeling

Songbird Designs

Just Because Quilts

 

September 22

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Words & Stitches

Beaquilter

Quilt Schmilt

Crazy'boutquilts

 

September 23

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Doodle Designs

DayBrook Designs

Lianne Makes Stuff

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Time 4 Stitchn

Lynn's Blog

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The Quilt Keeper: a Great Way to Display Your Quilts!

Hello all you quilters and quilt lovers. I have something to show you today that is a fun new way to display your quilts. It's called The Quilt Keeper. It was invented by a quilter too! Ellen Taurins is the designer of this Quilt Keeper.

The Quilt Keeper was sent to me in exchange for writing a review/article on my blog (and I also posted it on my Facebook & Instagram pages too). The Quilt Keeper comes with 2 over-the-door brackets, the metal rod with hooks that the quilt sits on and a strip of foam with adhesive on the back that you cut to size and stick it on the metal brackets to not only make the brackets fit the door better, but it keeps it from scratching the door too. I added the foam where suggested in the instructions and placed it on the door. I then cut the remaining foam into fourths and stuck it on 2 more places on the brackets so make sure the bracket was cushioned better on the door. 

Next all you do according to the instructions is to fold your quilt into thirds and drape it over the hanging rod and hook it onto the hooks on the hanging brackets. That's it! No real assembly other than adding the foam and the rubber tips for the bracket ends. Watch the YouTube video here.

The metal parts are very well made and the whole design is so simple, yet works great! Plus, nothing is permanent, so you can take it off the door and move it to another door or store it away when you don't have a quilt to hang on it. It doesn't take up much storage space either. I love simple functional designs!

I took a lap quilt I made not long ago and hung it on The Quilt Keeper. It looks great displayed like this.

My lap quilt works great being hung as it's not heavy. It is a fabulous way to display a quilt! 

I am not an affiliate for The Quilt Keeper (although I could have signed up to become an affiliate), but I do like to tell you about tools and gadgets that I have come across that I really like and The Quilt Keeper is a great product! It's well made and simple, both a huge thumbs up for me! As a blogger and a quilt maker, it makes it easier for me to take photos of my quilts on The Quilt Keeper too! Use the Code: PATMS for a 10% discount on any purchase.

Thank you so much Azera & Ellen for sending me this Quilt Keeper and for inventing such a great design too that works and looks good too!

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Sew Powerful Purses #139-154 for 2022 (16 more for the Sew-a-thon)

Hello sweet people. I completed another 16 purses the past few days during the Sew-a-thon for making Sew Powerful Purses this month. That brings the total for the year to 154 purses (so far) and 53 purses sewn during the Sew-a-thon (so far) and the month is now half over, so can I complete the same number of purses in the next 2 weeks? We'll see. 

It was red topstitching the past few days, so I got these 16 purses done.

I am not sure where I got that woven stripe material from on the left, but it made a nice purse, especially with the addition of the appliqué flowers. That fabric was a freebie maybe from my quilt group's freebie table? 

Working my way through the tons of homespun plaid I got from a donation. The center of the appliqué flower is sewn selvages that I cut into a circle and sewed a handmade button on it.

Since the flap on the left was made with red and green homespun fabric, I added other red and green fabrics to it and it was looking rather Christmas-like, so I sewed a wooden snowflake in the center, along with red and green buttons. 

On the right, I was finally able to use that embroidered horse appliqué patch I had for quite a while. It just went great with the homespun plaid fabric.

Today with be Gold topstitching thread day and my last stack of purses from bag number 1. Then I will be moving on to bag #2. 

Happy Scrappy Sewing!

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Sew Powerful Purses #129-138 for 2022

Hello sweet peeps. I made 10 more purses for the Sew Powerful Purse Project Sew-a-thon, which brings the Sew-a-thon total to 37 purses so far and 138 total purses made this year so far. I am still sewing purses all month long, so count along with me as I make more purses. Then I will take a long break from purse making the next couple of months, lol!

People have asked me how I can get so many purses sewn each day, well let me tell you:

•  I sew fast and I have a straight stitch Juki sewing machine that sews at 1500 RPM's. I used to have a similar Brother machine, but it died after 13 years of constant sewing (and fast sewing). 
• Plus I also sew assembly line fashion, so that helps me to sew faster. 
• Plus I know this purse pattern by heart as far as sewing it, so I never need to look at the directions at all anymore. 
• I also use webbing for the straps, so no straps to sew before adding the straps.
•  I add rivets on the sides through the strap in the purse so I don't have to take the time to sew those little X boxes on the sides. 
• I also cut out 113 purse kits to have ready to sew last month, so all I am doing is sewing this month and not having to cut anything out, which takes longer than the sewing. 
• I cut the main lining fabric in a full piece, so I eliminated having to sew the top piece to each lining piece as that was more sewing to have to sew the tops to the lining and more time to cut out those top pieces too. So I enlarged the lining to make it one continuous piece (I cut 2 linings, a front and a back). I make the intermediate style purse with the full exterior gusset, by the way.
• I also bundle up my kits into what topstitching thread color I need and sew with that one color for all the kits that need it before switching to the next thread color, so that saves a lot of time too. 
• I sew the buttons on by hand in the evenings while watching Netflix or Amazon movies.
• Hubby does most of the cooking, so I don't have to spend time in the kitchen or shop for food as he does that too. He enjoys it. 
• I get up super early in the morning when I am at my best for sewing and go to bed early too.
• I have many decades of piecing, appliqué, quilting, and bag making experience as well so I know what I am doing and how to do it.

Anyhow, on with the latest 10 purses:

3 with black topstitching thread.

The back side of 2 of the black purses. One with a black jean pocket and the other pocket on the right I had to piece together in order to create a back pocket, so green rickrack to the rescue to cover up the pieced seam and it adds some bling at the same time.

The purse above with the jean pocket on the back, I also added a flower appliqué to the front pocket under the flap. If you look at the first photo of 3 purses, you can see a tiny bit of the pink peeking out from under the flap of the middle purse.

Inside the purse with the flower appliqué on the pocket I used a jewels fabric print. I was given a couple of yards of this fabric and wasn't sure how to use it as there were many large jewels in different colors on the fabric. It didn't quite work for flaps, so I made the lining for a few purses out of it. Thanks to Karen H. for the fabric.

These 2 were stitched with a teal color thread. Only had 2 in teal.

On to the purple color topstitching thread. I stitched 5 purses with purple.

I don't take the time to photo every purse inside, but wanted to show these as I loved the fabrics. Inside the purse on the left, I had to piece the lining to make it large enough and used a piece of the exterior fabric to do that. It adds something fun inside.

The same 2 purses showing the back pockets of each. I don't always have enough fabric to add a back pocket, but I will when I have enough fabric. I actually sewed a couple of other purses and found the back pockets of 2 purses had fallen on the floor and didn't discover them until I had sewn the purses already. Oh well, not going to rip out a purse just to add pockets, lol! I might just sew those pockets on the inside lining of another purse.

3 more with purple thread.

Close-up of the words that aren't actually buttons, but came with some buttons I had so I sewed them down the best I could.

More purse sewing tomorrow, so ta-ta for now.

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Sew Powerful Purses #118-128 for 2022

Hello my lovelies, I finished another eleven purses for the Sew Powerful Sew-a-thon this month for National Sewing Month (September). These 11 are in browns. The first 16 were in blues. So that is 27 purses completed so far for the Sew-a-thon, which bring my total purses made this year to128, so far. 

I was given lots of homespun fabric, mostly plaids and am still working my way through using them. I thought I had used them and then found a few more, so those will go into mostly linings for these purse. I want to start sewing fabric purses using bright colors again!

Here are the latest 11 purses:

Here are a few more fabric postcards I made to match some of the purses I made.

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The Phoenix Bag

The lovely Christine of ChrisW Designs has created a new lovely bag design again! I tested her newest bag design, The Phoenix, and this is my version of the bag. 

The Phoenix is a stylish handbag with two external zipper pockets in the side gussets and a quick access, hidden phone pocket in the back. (I love her phone pockets)!

 

Open up the recessed zipper pocket and you’ll find a roomy main compartment. The pattern includes another zipper pocket in the lining and if you are looking for even more compartments inside, Christine's Pocket Supplement A slip pockets are a great fit for this bag. The instructions include how to tailor the slip pockets to fit perfectly in your Phoenix. 

 

Style The Phoenix your way with two handle straps as well as a removable cross body strap.

I made mine in quilting cotton fabrics and since I didn't have faux leather or the handle hardware, I decided to use webbing and fabric for my handles and straps. I like the webbing and fabric look. 

This is the Pocket Supplement A here. Lots of pockets to hold your stuff.

A recessed zipper closure.

Those binder rings are temporary for the photo. The gate rings are much nice looking, but I didn't have any to use for the photos.

Check out some of the tester's versions here. And a video is being edited right now to make this bag too! Plus if you sign up for Christine's newsletter you will get alerts when she releases a new pattern and all newsletter subscribers get a code to use for 20% off off the pattern.

Happy bag making!

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Sew Powerful Purses #102-117 (for 2022)

Hello all you Sewers or sewists or whatever you want to be called, lol! September is National Sewing Month and Sew Powerful has a Sew-a-thon going on all month long to challenge us to sew as many purses as we can this month. It goes along with their fund raiser they are also having all month long where you can make a one-time donation in any amount to Sew Powerful by choosing your favorite purse maker in the pull down menu on their donation page. So you would find my name (I am your favorite Sew Powerful purse maker, aren't I?) in the pull down menu and click on my name and then make your donation. The funds help to support all the feminine hygiene products that they fill the purses with and to pay wages to the women they employ in Zambia who make the uniforms, soap and pads for the girls. 100% of anything donated now or ever goes to this program and I love that!

Please go here to read about how you can donate to this worthy and worthwhile cause during the month of September. And THANK YOU to so many of you who already made a donation to Sew Powerful. 

Okay, so I have completed 16 purses for the Sew-a-thon this month so far. I spent 3 1/2 days testing a bag for a bag designer too! So yesterday I had to catch up and sewed a lot! This is the result of what I accomplished the first week of the SAT.

I even started using my scraps to make fabric postcards too. We have to include a notecard in the pocket for each purse and I got to thinking, why not sew up the scraps to make postcards (5" x 7" size). I glued cardstock to the back and zigzag stitched around the cards. Many postcards I made have fabrics that match the purse I made like the one above. But I didn't make all to match. I just grabbed some yellow and orange scraps to make several and to reduce my ever-ending bag of scraps. I barely notice the reduction!

Thanks Julie H. for giving me this fabric. I used it in several purses for the lining. It was perfect. Too light for the exterior as it would get dirty too quickly, but made great linings! The print is purses!

I used selvages on these flaps.

A few of the denim jeans I used for the purses, I also used the front pockets for the back of the purses.

A few more fabric postcards I made. I made over 50 of them, so will only show you a few now.

A few more fabric postcards. I was able to fuse on some appliqué I had and never used before on some of these to add a bit of pop to the cards.

Okay back to sewing more purses!

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