Genevieve Bag in Batik Fabrics

Genevieve is back now with updated sewing methods and FREE video tutorials too! I tested the updated version of Genevieve recently for Christine of ChrisW Designs and so glad that I did! I missed testing Genevieve the first time around when Christine first designed this bag (must have been busy with something else), so this time Christine added her magic to update Genevieve.

For one week you can grab the pdf pattern on sale for 20% off (no code needed)! 

You can choose the plain flap or the piped flap. While I chose to make the "plain" flap, my Genevieve is anything but plain, lol! She is a cross body bag with a gusset, an adjustable strap, phone pocket, front pocket, inside zipper pocket, inside slip pockets and pen pocket. I got creative with the flap and made it by piecing scraps of batik fabrics, then quilting it and adding buttons, a handmade label and some crystal embellishments too. Isn't she pretty?

I decided to go even scrappier by making the front and back of the bag out of 2 different batik prints and colors. The front pocket is another color and batik print. The gusset another batik print and the strap is a combination of the fabric used for the front, back and gusset sewn together to create the strap. I did use all one green print for the lining though.

You can make Genevieve with a plain flap (like this one and yes I know the way I made this flap is not really plain), or the other flap choice is adding piping to the flap and other areas of the bag.  

I had such fun creating this one-of-a-kind Genevieve. So here is my version of Genevieve:

Isn't she gorgeous? I just love batik fabrics!

I added lots of bling to the flap. Besides quilting the flap in a variegated thread,

 I added a Handmade Label, round buttons, a butterfly button, and crystals.

This is the back side of the bag and I used this pretty batik for the back.

The side of the bag showing the gusset batik print. I topstitched around the gusset, which isn't called for in the pattern, but I think it not only looks nicer, but adds some strength to the gusset too.

This is the bottom of the bag and it is quilted on the bottom of the gusset.

Lift the flap and you see the front slip pocket in a hot pink batik. You can see the flap stays closed with the magnetic snap.

Peeking inside the front slip pocket is a slip phone pocket too. My pen is holding this pocket open so I can take a photo of it.

Here you can see the phone pocket inside the front slip pocket too. I added some rivets on the upper corners of the phone pocket.

The lining is a green batik fabric that has 2 large slip pockets divided in the center with a pen pocket. I also added some rivets in the corners of the pen pocket.

On the opposite side of the lining from the slip pocket is a large zipper pocket.

Another closer look at the flap.

Back of the bag with the flap pulled straight up.

Genevieve measures 14" wide x 11" high x 3" deep. She is a large girl, but not too large. She is great for when you need to carry more than just a few items. She would be great to take on vacation when you need more space to put things.

Pdf is on sale at 20% off this week only, with free video tutorials too. Watch the video and grab the pattern on sale. Or grab the pattern now and then watch the video. It's so easy to sew along with Christine and it's like she is your sewing buddy as you make this bag.

Happy bag sewing! 

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Sew Powerful Purses #27 & #28 for 2023

I made a couple of Happy Scrappy Selvage Flappy purses for Sew Powerful. I have been slow in sewing these purses this year as I haven't made many, but I have cut out 329 purse kits since the year began, so I have 301 purses to sew up now. 

I have been busy testing for bag designers and sewing quilts too. I have a lot of purses sewn in various stages and I also went overboard sewing scrappy fabric postcards and scrappy hearts (plus stamping quotes onto the back sides of them too) to include into each purse I make for the girls as well. That really took up so much time making those cards! I made over 300 of the hearts alone! I haven't counted them all yet as I have a few more to finish, so once the postcards and the hearts have been placed into each purse, I think I will pass on making any more of those! There are people who just make cards, so they can make mine once I use up all that I have made.

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

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Eleven Fabric Postcards for Sisters (Oregon) Outdoor Quilt Show Wish Contest 2023

Hello fabric postcard lovers. I made eleven fabric postcards this year for the annual Make a Wish fundraiser that happens during the Sisters, Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show. My favorite quilt show! 

This year the 2 fabrics chosen are from Andover Fabric and designed by Giucy Giuce from his Fabric from the Attic and Fabric from the Basement lines. The pink fabric is Rant- Dried Orchid and the dark print is Alien Diamond- Shirt.

Postcard Challenge: Create a fabric postcard using BOTH of the two challenge fabrics shown below. Cards will be juried with cash prizes for the top three selections, and then matted and framed for silent auction.

Alien Diamond- Shirt

Rant- Dried Orchid

I created eleven cards total (I requested 6 sets of the fabric though, as I knew I could create more than 6 cards from each set). I always have fun making these cards. I have had several of my postcards framed to be sold for more money than just the postcard itself (which are also sold, but for less money). It's an honor to have my cards chosen to get framed, although I usually am not told what cards, if any get framed. I have a friend who attends the show and lives nearby and she tells me and takes photos, but I wish they would inform us postcard makers and send us a photo of all the cards we make that they frame, as it would be great to know that and see it too, especially if we cannot attend the show. Only one year did I get an email that they framed one of my cards and emailed me a photo of it. I guess they have different people volunteering (or staff?) each year, so it is up to that person?

Here are my postcards. I machine blanket stitched around most of the appliqué shapes, added some hand embroidery like French knots and backstitching on some cards. I added some hot fix crystals on a few cards for bling. I hand blanket stitched around each card along the outside edge to hold the layers together.

I used Crafter's Edge die cuts to cut out the Canning Jar and the Hearts. 

I cut these shapes out from die cuts also. Circles, a diamond that I cut on half for the ears and the tip of the diamond for the nose. I hand stitched on the whiskers, which are slightly crooked for a bit of whimsey, as well as those cockeyed eyes, lol!

I tried something different and new to me for the outside edges of the postcard on this one. I saw a video showing how Susan Carlson did the edges of one of her art quilts using scraps. She glued the scraps on all around the quilt. The scraps blended well with her quilt. I thought I would give it a go on a postcard and see what I thought. I only did this one that way. I think that edging would maybe look better on a larger quilt, rather than a small postcard (4" x 6" are the size of these postcards). Do you have an opinion about the scrappy edge? Like it? Don't like it? Check out the video I watched at the end of this post.

A pink sunflower. One of my favorite flowers are sunflowers.

More die cuts used here. A pentagon for the flower and a tumbler die cut for the pot.

Besides sunflowers, I LOVE Echinacea (coneflowers)! This is my favorite flower. Cannot grow them, darn! I tried from seed and plants and they just don't grow at all, even though they sell both plants and seeds here. Must be doing something wrong or it's too cold or too hot? So I will create them in my quilting instead.

Under my Tip of the Morning Tuesday page, I have a tutorial for how I create this kind of flower. I start with a circle (using a die cut for me) and then show you how to make cuts. This flower always looks great, even if the circle or cuts are wonky. As in nature, nothing is perfect.

Made this with more die cuts: a teacup, hearts and flowers. A touch of hand embroidery and some crystal bling.

No die cuts used here! I drew this one out myself. I wanted another coneflower and a bee on it. A jumbo bee, lol! I was looking for something to use for the wings and I was recently given something that was tied with a variegated organza ribbon, so I fused some fusible we to the ribbon and I created the bee's wings. Added 3 crystals for a bit more bling to the wing. Wing bling? LOL!

For this card, I wanted to do a reverse appliqué, so I first sewed an under layer crazy quilt style and then cut out the flower in the center of the dark fabric (used a flower die cut) and machine blanket stitched it in place. As you can see the blanket stitching is biting into the background, since it is reverse appliqué. A bit of crystal bling was added too.

More die cuts, this time I used ovals to create the butterfly. I do have a butterfly die cut, but it was too large for the postcard, so I only used the center body from that die cut to create this.

I used 3 different rubber stamps to stamp the Postcard Stamp onto the backside of each card. Just showing this one here so you get the idea.

All eleven cards together.

The deadline for entering the contest to be juried is May 4, 2023 (cards need to be received by this date). However, they accept ALL postcards (using any or all of your own fabric, not just the contest fabrics) through June 10, 2023.

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Agnes Jewellry Pouches

The Agnes Jewellry Pouches pattern + video has finally arrived and is on sale for 40% off for 2 days only! Sale ends April 27, 2023 at 9am (GMT) so hurry and get your pattern! No code is needed! I tested these pouches for Monika of All Sew Petite. (Monika is from the UK so that is why jewelry is spelled with 2 "L's" in case you might be wondering, lol).

I LOVE these jewelry pouches! You can make one or both sizes. They are great to keep all of your jewelry in or take the smaller one with you for traveling. There are extra clear view zipper pockets that you can snap into either size and remove them whenever you want to. You can contain all of your jewelry in one place now! And these pouches would also be great for small sewing, knitting, or other craft tools that you want to be handy to keep in one place too! So many ways to use these pouches, so they don't have to be just for jewelry (you can eliminate making the ring or earring snap on holders if you intend to use these pouches for something else).

I chose a pretty batik for the outside of my pouches and other batik fabric for the inside lining fabrics.

Large size pouch on the left closes with a turn lock closure, whereas the smaller pouch on the right just folds in half. But no worries, as all your jewelry is secured in place and cannot fall out!

Inside are so many storage places. There is a snap off ring holder that is stuffed, an earring snap off holder, individual snaps for holding necklaces, snap off clear window zipper pockets, fabric pockets with flaps, stationary zipper pockets too!

I filled these pouches full of my jewelry! I didn't put much inside the fabric pockets, so I still have more room! Apparently, I have way too many earrings and had to place more earrings inside the clear zip pocket too!

Large size filled with jewelry.

Small size filled with jewelry.

Large size empty.

Small size with an extra snap on clear window double sided zipper pockets to add wherever you want to.

Hurry and save 40% off right now! Sale ends 9am April 27 (GMT), so grab your pdf now and you don't need a code.

@allsewpetite #ASPAgnesPouch #AllsewpetitePatterns

And check out the tester's pouches here.

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Garden Girl One Block Wonder Quilt

I made the top to this One Block Wonder (OBW) quilt several years ago. I wanted to try out using a panel as I love how the OBW quilts look done in a panel and using the panel too in the quilt. I struggled with placement of the hexagon blocks as to where to put them so they looked the best. Actually they aren't really blocks yet when you are playing around with the design of the quilt, they are half hexagons and then you sew them into vertical rows of half hexagons (easier to sew the top this way), so sometimes you have to cut off the block points to sew to the panel and the exterior top and bottom points get cut off too. I don't like cutting the points off! I am afraid I might cut too much or that they will look odd, but that is how they are done. Some could get appliquéd over the panel, but you have to plan and make sure things will fit correctly. I am glad this was a small panel to try my first attempt at this on. 

I did buy another panel (again years ago) that is a larger size panel, and I struggled even more with that one! I didn't plan or figure out how the sides and top and bottom would fit perfectly around the panel and well it didn't! I need to quilt that quilt, but when I appliquéd some of the blocks over the panel areas, it didn't fit at all and you could see the fabric underneath and I just gave up trying to get it right as it was too short! Not sure how I will hide those awful mistakes later after I quilt it, but it is sitting waiting to get quilted (for months now). I really wanted to fall in love with making panels like this, but I need way more practice and learning how to make sure things will fit together first and I am not sure I want to keep buying 7 panels in order to finally get one to work how I like it to work. 7 panels to buy for one quilt is expensive! And if I wanted a larger quilt, I would need to buy even more in multiples of 6 (you need 6 panels to make the hexagons, the 7th panel is to add to the quilt center if you want to add the panel). I think making OBW from just yardage of fabric is easier as you cut and sew and don't need to add a panel, but I love the panels and how they look! 

I have asked for help in the OBW Facebook groups years ago and while I sort of understood what they were saying, I still couldn't get it to work out. No one gave me a formula or said you must cut your triangles a certain size in order to fit your panel size and that is what stumped me! I didn't want a border to be added around the panel in order for the hexagons to fit it. I liked the blended look and a border would pop the panel out and be more obvious. So I think my OBW quilts are over and done with! I think making the 4-Patch Posey style would be easier and cheaper as you are cutting 4 squares for each block instead of 6 triangles that become hexagons and squares would be easier to layout to fit the panel and easier to figure how large to make the 4-patch blocks too. So I may try one to see. 4PP's don't have the same kaleidoscope look since they are square, but much easier to cut and sew.

Okay, let's get back to this quilt. I put it together the best I could with what I had and added a border to make it large enough to donate to Project Linus, which I did. It was a practice quilt for me and so I hope some little girl will receive and love it.

Can you see the panel?

This is the panel I started with.

I love sewing the hexagons to form a kaleidoscope look. You never know how they will look and you can turn the triangles 3 times to see which block looks best before you start to sew them.

Here on the left you can see the block sewn and the right is the panel where those flowers were cut from. Placing the blocks near the panel looks as though the flowers danced out of the panel alongside it.

I will try this technique using 4-patch blocks next time and see how I like it that way. Still need to quilt my larger OBW that has been around for years and years now. 

This is how I felt working on the OBW quilts!!!!

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Project Bag with a Clear Window for a Friend

A friend of mine had her birthday last month, so I made her a project bag with a clear window. I followed the tutorial from Rosie's Art Studio to make this one. I like that this bag will fold flat when not in use and filled with a project. 

I didn't like the way that the wrist carry strap was hooked to the zipper pull as Rosie made hers. All I could think about was if something was heavy in the bag, all the stress would be put on the zipper, so I made a small fabric tab that I sewed into the top back of the bag instead and clipped the wrist strap to that.

The clear window is nice to be able to see what project is inside of the bag.  

The lining fabric is hard to see, but it is a gray-blue print of cross hatching.

The bottom of the bag is shown expanded here. If you pull on the 2 sides where the openings are, the bag then flattens out for storage. 

View from the top front of the bag.

Here you get a better look at the fabric. I love this print. I had just enough of this fabric to make this bag. (I made a waist bag out of this fabric a couple years ago that I sold). You can also see the fabric tab I made here and hooked the wrist strap to.

View from the top bag of the bag.

Happy Sewing! Here is the tutorial I used to make this bag. Thanks Rosie!

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