Sew Powerful Purses #18-26 (2023) & Say What? Blog Hop

Thank you Joan for hosting this Say What? Sew it-Show it Blog Hop. I knew what I was going to share right away (even though I needed to finish sewing them first, lol). 

Most of you know I love making bags/purses and I am passionate about making and donating purses to the Sew Powerful Purse Project, which is a charity that sends the purses to Zambia and fills them with feminine hygiene products (that are made by seamstresses right there in Zambia and they get paid a living wage too). This enables the girls to stay in school all month/year long so they do not miss school anymore. That in turns enables the girls to continue with their education and allows local women to sew the reusable pads and to make soap that is needed for the girls. All those items (plus a couple of pair of underwear that is outsourced because the cost is less than making the underwear) is placed into each purse and handed out to the girls at the various schools in Zambia. This is an ongoing need forever. 

So with that in mind, here are the purses that I made to donate with words on them. I used selvages for a lot of the purses, I also used a fabric panel that had lots of lovely Positive quotes on them, which is perfect for these purses too. The fabric panel has about half of just flowers as well as half with just quotes. Here is the panel I used:

Choose to Shine designed by Cherry Guidry

(I am also making flower flaps for the purses I am sewing now too).

I added strips around the panel quote to bring it up to the size needed for the flap. I added a handmade label and some embellishments too.

The main body of the purse and the lining can be seen here.

There is a front pocket on each purse. I like to make the Intermediate purse using the Beginner style flap as I can be more creative on the larger space on this flap. Flaps are interchangeable between the Beginner (boxed corner style) and the Intermediate (full gusset style) purses.

I took this photo when we had snow one morning.

I like to experiment with how I sew on the buttons I use for embellishing the purses too.

Next I made several purses using selvages. I like to play around with different settings for the selvages. I had a large scrap of that pink-blue-green-orange-white print, but not enough to make much out of, so I used it as the center of the flaps and because the colors in that print were also the colors in the main body of the purse, which is a fine wale corduroy print. I grabbed that corduroy print from a freebie table at my quilt group. The other fabrics used in these purses were fabrics that were directly donated to me by a couple of women from the Sew Powerful FB group.

I thought the corduroy print in the crazy quilt print made a great purse body. Soft, yet sturdy material.

Four more purses with that colorful print and selvages set in various ways.

All using the same body corduroy print fabric.

I made a slip pocket on the back sides of all the purses like this.

Check out the other bloggers too!

Monday April 17

MooseStashQuilting

Selina Quilts

Quilt Schmilt

Patchouli Moon Studio (me)

That Fabric Feeling

Scrapdash

 

Tuesday April 18

Inflorescence

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Because Quilts

BeaQuilter

Joyful Quilter

 

Wednesday April 19

 

Quilting Gail

Voormans Quilts

Quilted Delights

The Quilted Snail

Ms P Designs USA

Kathy's Kwilts and More

 

Thursday April 20

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrins Crazy World

crazy'boutquilts

Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

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Say What? Sew it - Show it (Blog Hop) Starts Monday!

New Blog Hop starts Monday! Say What? Hosted by Joan of MooseStash Quilting.  I will be sharing mine on Monday. Schedule is below. This should be fun to see what everyone has come up with. I am looking forward to gathering some ideas myself! See you all Monday.

Monday April 17

MooseStashQuilting

Selina Quilts

Quilt Schmilt

Patchouli Moon Studio (me)

That Fabric Feeling

Scrapdash

 

Tuesday April 18

Inflorescence

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Because Quilts

BeaQuilter

Joyful Quilter

 

Wednesday April 19

 

Quilting Gail

Voormans Quilts

Quilted Delights

The Quilted Snail

Ms P Designs USA

Kathy's Kwilts and More

 

Thursday April 20

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrins Crazy World

crazy'boutquilts

Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

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Sew Powerful Purse #17

Another purse finished for the Sew Powerful Purse Project. I picked up some fine wale corduroy in a crazy quilt print from the free table at my quilt group. I made several purses using that print. And to repeat the crazy pieced theme of the corduroy fabric, I pieced the flap with that fabric and other fabric scraps too.

Great way to use up a few scraps is to make my Scrappy Happy Flappy for the purse.

Under the flap is a front slip pocket.

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

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CWD Bag Mag Edition 2 Has Just Been Released

Hello Bag Lovers! The 2nd Edition of the Bag Mag is loaded with all kinds of articles and another bonus bag pattern! Christine is retiring Abigail, a great looking bag, but the instructions are older and not up to date in how Christine makes bags and adds pockets, etc. these days, so no more Abigail, unless you grab your copy of the Bag Mag now! The pattern is not enclosed, but rather will be added to your account at CWD, so you can download it once you login. No account with CWD? Then you can create an account and purchase the Bag Mag and then you will be able to access all your patterns there. Christine is great help if you have any issues, so you can always contact her and she will fix the problem.

Anyhow, I am excited to be apart of this issue because I wrote a review for one of my sewing machines. The machine I use for bag making mostly is my Juki TL2000 Qi. Grab your copy and read my review. I'd love to hear your feedback too about it or anything in the Bag Mag too. PS: I am one of the proofreaders for the Bag Mag too, starting with this issue.

Where can you find the Bag Mag? Right here: Bag Mag 2nd Edition.

Here is a pic of Abigail:

I have seen a lot of fun and beautiful prints that people have used for making Abigail over the years. Join ChrisW Designs Facebook group and do a search for Abigail Bag to see all the beautiful bags that others have made over the years to give you some ideas for making this bag. I have had this bag on my list to make for years now myself. I can make this one using the more updated sewing techniques, since I test for Christine and I know what and how she has made those changes over the years. If you have any of her more recent patterns, you can adjust this pattern for how she sews zipper pockets, etc. too. Even if you follow the instructions to Abigail to a tee, you will still end up with a GREAT looking and functioning bag. No one will know you used older techniques, right?

If you HURRY and purchase the Bag Mag Edition 2 right now, you save 20%!!! No coupon needed, but this offer is only good THIS WEEK ONLY! The pattern alone costs more than the entire Bag Mag itself! Plus don't forget I wrote a sewing machine review that you don't wan to miss, lol!!!!

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Gnome & Bird Wall Quilt

I made this quilted wall hanging with a gnome and bird last year. The gnome and bird and flowers I used felt and the background and border is cotton fabric. I put this in a local shop and it sold! Yay!

I used felt and hand blanket stitched around the pieces of felt.

The bird is felt too and the flowers. I used a chain stitch for the stems and bird legs.

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Table Topper for Lamp Light

This table lamp was purchased by my father when I was a teenager. After he passed away, my mother had it in her home for many, many years. Mom passed in 2016 and my sister had the daunting task of dealing with all of mom's possessions, since she lived the closest to her and in the same state. Sis asked if there was anything I wanted and I wanted this table lamp. 

The lamp had the original lamp shade in an off white color and it really needed to be replaced. So we found one online and I chose a blue-gray color for the shade which I thought looked better and went with the blues in our living room. My husband loves this table lamp and has set up a chair for himself next to it so he can drink coffee or tea in the early mornings. He mentioned he would like me to make him a table topper sometime to fit on top of the glass table. I thought about it for a while. 

Then I decided to make a cog-looking Dresden Plate topper and make it with a slit like a tree skirt, so it would fit with the lamp pole running through the table part. I made the topper and didn't sew the last connecting section and just added binding all around the topper. No need to have that round center appliqué covering the center hole made either, since I needed a hole space in the center to fit around the lamp pole. I quilted the topper too. Husband loves it and now he doesn't have to worry so much about placing his cup too hard down on the glass table top. I couldn't get a decent photo of the entire table with the lamp shade.

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Hot Air Balloon Quilt in Embroidery Hoop

I made this Hot Air Balloon appliqué and set it into an embroidery hoop to frame it. I really like how this looks. Since I had some cloud fabric, I didn't need to add appliqué clouds. The pennant in white is felt and I attached it with running stitches and French knots. I have this in a gift shop, so I am hoping it will sell there. I have more embroidery hoops and can make more variations on this hot air balloon if it does sell. It might sell better in October when the annual International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is here in Albuquerque, so I'll see what happens now.

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