Sew Powerful Purses #17-21 for 2025

5 more purses finished. Scrappy flaps and all the same plaid purse bodies. One is a raw edge denim jeans scraps flap with decorative stitches.

5 purses to donate.

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Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2025 Round 4

Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts gave us the prompt for this week which is a "Sliced Square with Insert, for lack of a better name". The interpretation for this block is whatever you want to do. I had always wanted to try and make a block where you slice into it wherever you want to and add a strip of fabric. Some quilts with this method are called, Pick Up Sticks (or Stix), Sticks and Stones or other names.

For my blocks, I added 2-3 slices of 1-inch wide cut fabric inserts to each of the 14 blocks that I made. You can use any width of strips you want to add or even a mixture of various widths too. On some blocks I stitched scraps together to create a scrappy insert. The first slice was easy to do. The slices that cut across the first slice was a bit tricker to align the strip so it didn't look wonky. I did pretty well with it and only had to rip out 2 to redo because they were a bit too wonky. While these are not perfect, they look good overall and you really have to look closely to see a few lines that are just sightly off. I am glad I finally tried this method and the blocks do give a fun and playful feel to the quilt. I wouldn't do an entire quilt like this, but using them as an inner or outer border or along with another block is a fun option for certain quilts. I think it might be easier to just appliqué the strips in place or use ribbon instead of fabric strips, which is an idea for achieving a similar look like this again in something else.

Closeup of a few of the sliced blocks I made.

So far I am loving how this quilt top is evolving.

Click to go to Gail's Blog for all the info and schedule for SAHRR 2025

Two more rounds left until this quilt top is done. Curious what the next 2 prompts will be? Me too!

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Knit Bunny, Quilt with a Bunny Appliqué & Matching Bag

A dear friend of mine has been going through a lot these past few months. Long story, but her husband passed away and it took nearly 2 months from when things first started with him until he passed. To say her life has been an emotional roller coaster is an understatement. My heart goes out to her, her daughter, her granddaughter and son-in-law. I have kept in touch, but I know it is still hard for her to deal with. I am sure it has been so surreal.

I felt that I could do nothing to help my friend during this sad time, but I thought about her and her family a lot. I was feeling anxious and restless myself, so I decided that sewing something for her little granddaughter, who will have a birthday in April, was one way to take my mind off it all and make a little something that might be helpful for this sweet little girl, although she won't be receiving it until April. I decided to make a mini tote bag with a matching quilt and I would give her a little knit bunny I had already made.

The mini tote is a pattern from Geta Grama, called Danielle. Danielle is a tote that comes in a few sizes, including this mini size. I thought that would be a sweet size for a little girl to carry her treasures in. I don't know if she has any favorite color, but this print with the butterflies seemed sweet and girly and had lots of colors and the colors were just right for Spring. I chose the purple accent and a pink floral for the lining. I used the same fabric for a quick little quilt that I added a bunny appliqué on. She can wrap her bunny in the quilt and put it inside the bag and carry it wherever she goes. Plus, there is a full front and back pocket to put other things inside as well. No closure was need for such a small bag and no pockets needed inside the bag either.

The mini Danielle Bag measures 8 1/2" wide at the bottom, 7 1/2" wide at the top x 8 1/2" high x 2 1/2" deep. I purchased the Bag Pattern Bundle which includes 5 bag designs in Small-Large sizes, plus mini sizes too.

Danielle Mini Tote, with matching quilt with an appliqué bunny and a knit bunny. This is a perfect gift for a little girl's April birthday as well as for Easter.

Quilt has butterflies and ladybugs, along with the appliqué bunny.

Closer look at appliqué bunny.

Bottom of bag.

Looking into the outside slip pocket, which is on both front and back sides.

Lining in bag with my label.

Knit bunny on quilt with bunny appliqué.

The back is a soft flannel and I quilted it in a serpentine stitch.

The knit bunny sitting on the quilted back flannel side of the quilt. The quilt can be reversable if she wants it to be.

Snug as a Bunny in a Quilt. Bunny all wrapped up in quilt. This can slide into the tote bag like this.

I hope she will love this gift as much as I loved making it for her. 

I enjoyed making this bag and have plans to make a few more bags in larger sizes from the pattern bundle I bought a few years ago. The patterns are also sold separately too. 

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Sew Powerful Purses #14-16 (2025)

My friend, Susan, gave me a book several years ago for my birthday, called Folded Log Cabin Quilts by Sarah Kaufman. Susan lives in Oregon and the author was a local author who signed the book too. I thought there were many lovely folded log cabin quilts shown in the book and I especially liked the interesting ways that Sarah, the author, hung the quilts. 

I made 3 folded log cabin quilt blocks out of some scraps I had, but didn't really have any idea what I would do with the blocks. I thought about a few pot holders or a runner, but just put them away until an idea might come to me. I was looking through a box of UFO quilt blocks and orphan blocks recently and came across these blocks. Since I sew purses to donate to Sew Powerful (for girls in Zambia to hold their monthly hygiene items the girls are also given), I thought why not make 3 purses out of these blocks and use them for a good cause, so that's what I did.

I placed them on point and sewed scraps of denim, canvas or or other material around the log cabins. They were quite thick when I topstitched, but I was able to topstitch most of it easily, except in a couple of really thick spots, which was very thick. I am happy I was able to at last put these blocks to good use.

3 purses made with Folded Log Cabin quilt block technique.

The plaid is a sturdy fabric for the purses.

I added back pockets to all.

I haven't been able to do much sewing lately due to tripping and falling onto a speed bump 2 weeks ago. Luckily nothing broke or was dislocated, but my poor knees still took quite a beating, especially my right knee. I have been resting a lot. I did finish sewing these purses in a couple of days, but I must have sewn too long as the next day my right knee was swollen again and really hurt, so no more sewing for a while again. I was even using my left foot to sew most of the time so I didn't think I was bothering the right knee, but apparently I was.🙁Best to let my knee heal and not sew for now. The knee brace is helping a lot now that I have it. Meanwhile, the ideas for purse flaps and quilts are filling up in my head, so I hope I heal completely soon!!!😉

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Seaweed Knit Scarf (2)

This is one of my favorite scarves to knit and to wear. It's a free pattern called, Seaweed Scarf (or stole). It is not only an easy to knit scarf, but it's also a quick pattern to memorize as you knit each of the 4 rows. 

I have been trying to use up some miscellaneous yarns I have on hand when I am am knitting things now. I wasn't sure if the 5 different yarns that I used in this scarf would run out as I knit or not? Well I made it rather long and I still ended up with some leftover yarn. Normally you would choose one yarn in the yarn weight indicated on the pattern and knit this, whether you chose a variegated yarn or solid color, but I wanted to use up yarn and I chose 5 different yarns and changed the yarns as I knit back and forth. I had one worsted weight gray yarn with silver metallic thread running through the yarn and that yarn was knit singly on one row, then I switched to two thinner yarns held together and knit a row of that and then another 2 thinner yarns held together and knit a row of that. So I had 3 rows of different yarns that I alternated between to create this scarf. I used 3 solid yarns in total and 2 variegated yarns, which as you can see changed the coloring as I knit. 

The scarf is very thick and warm. Hard to get a good photo of it as I don't have a model and it's long and wide, so I took a few photos, which don't really do it justice as in is prettier in person.

This chevron knit scarf is not only fun to knit, but practical to wear and pretty too!

Can you see the bits of silver metallic thread in the gray yarn?

Stretched out long.

I love how the ends of the scarf have a wavy curve.

Happy Knitting!

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Tonia Mini Moto Cross Body Bag

This is such a sweet bag. It's the Tonia Mini Moto Bag by Swoon Patterns. I wanted to make a small bag for myself and decided on making this one, but as a cross body bag instead of a clip on hip bag. I also wanted to do a decorative machine stitched flap too with added embellishments. I added a back zipper pocket with a zipper overlay instead of the back slip pocket. I added the slip pocket inside the bag and shortened it and I also added the inside zipper pocket too. So my bag has 3 pockets instead of 2. I also made a few more changes I will point out in the photos.

The bag measures 6" wide x 6" high x 2" deep. It's a nice size if you just carry a few items, which I am doing these days more and more. I always have the option of enlarging this bag if I do want a larger size, but I think I will be using this size and see if I need any more space or not.

I had fun making this bag!

I had a fabric that had some of the same colors as the fabric in the body, so I used it to stitch the decorative stitches on so they would show up. I added rickrack, buttons, crystals, French knots by hand, along with the machine decorative stitches. It makes this a one-of-a-kind bag for sure!

I tried something new that I saw on a bag a few years ago and that is to add vinyl across the top and bottom of the strap connectors to cover the raw edge at the bottom of the connector and anchor the connector in place at top and bottom with stitching and rivets. Got a rivet a bit off center there 😁😜! Well this bag is mine, so I can live with that, 😆. The strap, D-rings and adjustable slider are 1/2" wide, which is narrower that I usually make my straps, but I wanted a narrow strap on this bag.

For a small bag the depth of the gusset is nice and ample. I love bags with gussets!!!

I used a magnetic snap closure as my other closures were too large for this small bag. I also riveted a Handmade tag onto a scrap of the rainbow vinyl.

Inside is a larger slip pocket with a pen pocket and a plastic snap to close the larger pocket. Zipper pocket is across as you can see the zipper pull on the right.

Hard to get a good photo inside when the bag is small. Inside the bag showing the slip pocket. I divided for a pen pocket and then added a plastic snap closure for the larger pocket section. Zipper pocket is across from this pocket. The lining even has a gusset too.

Back zipper pocket with a rainbow vinyl overlay.

Unzipped pocket.

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Stay at Home Round Robin 2025 (SAHRR) Round 3: Stars

This is the 3rd prompt for the SAHRR, which was given by Gail of Quilting Gail and the prompt is Stars. 

🤩🌟⭐✯✵✴✭.

I like all kinds of star quilt blocks, but I chose to make this star and sew them only to the two sides. I really love this star, which has a few names, so not sure what name I should call it? 

Closeup of a couple of the stars.

I am really loving making this so far and it's my first round robin! 3 more prompts to go until the quilt is done...well unitl the top is done as who knows how long it will take me to quilt it? 

Click on the logo to be taken to Gail's Blog.

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