More Purses

My summer purse now has some friends :)


I tried the new handles I bought recently and liked them both, especially the black one.

I used that one to make a black and white purse for a friend of mine - just in time for her birthday.


I'll have to adjust the strap size for the black handles just a little bit because the openings are smaller.


The D-shaped bamboo handles were okay too - I like their look, though I did have to attach the straps a bit better because the handle would slide ride through them and turn around etc.


I also played with snaps - these are really tight, so I need to work a way to get them looser or attach them on stronger fabric - I'm worried that repeated pulling on the bag edges to open the snap would lead to torn fabric...


These are so much fun to make! I especially love the moment when I turn the whole affair inside out and suddenly that flat thing is a purse!

The other day was wash day, or should I say pre-wash day?

I pre-wash my fabrics on hot and spin them in the washing machine before quilting.


Sometimes I get a reminder why I have a good reason to take perfectly smooth straight fabric and make it all crinkly, apart from all the work of hand-washing in hot water, hanging the fabric to dry and ironing it...

I don't know if Should colour catchers would have taken that much dye out of the wash...


Once again, I'm confirmed in my pre-washing habit :)

Red & Aqua Finished

Whoops, don't think I showed you the finished Red & Aqua quilt yet!

Here it is, borders and binding on, labelled, finito!


Quilting in the ditch made the quares stand out nicely:


You can see the quilting on the back, as well:


I tried a new way of labelling: no hand-sewing involved at all, I just sewed it on as a loose label with the binding. I also put the washing instructions on the label as symbols now, so whoever gets the quilt won't forget how to wash it!


I keep thinking that the quilting is boring on this quilt, but the lack of dense quiltihng makes it really fluffy. I am considering quilting some motif in some of the patches, but haven't decided yet...

What do you think? Leave it as is or add some more quilting? I was thinking maybe the frog with the crown from the backing, quilted in 3 or 4 blocks on the front?

Free As A Bird

I was having one of those days, recently... one of those days when you're one year older all of a sudden :) Just in time for that, some fabric arrived from Green Fairy Quilts, yay!


Aren't they pretty???


And for the first time every, I cut right into the fabrics - well, not much cutting to do with charm packs ;) - and used the two Freebird charm packs to start this quilt:


This will look nothing like it seems now by the time it's completed, but I'll keep you in suspense for now :)

The Fabric Stays In Canada :)

So, I randomized the entries, then picked a number with random.org:

Result: 15

And on my random list that's Nanci of Quilting at the Cottage!

Nanci has left a new comment on your post ""Happy 5000th" Give Away":

I can't believe this. You know I just noted your curved piecing on my blog this morning!
I've also just finished a little quilt for my friend Peggy who is a red had society girl!
What a coincidence this is! Not only that, but I can't imagine 500 posts. Seems like yesterday doesn't it?

Congratulations Nanci! Go have a look at her blog, she's putting out a lot of quilts these days and has some funky flowers on display today :)

Isn't funny that the one time I'm about to go to the States and could have shipped the fabric really cheap within the country, I draw a Canadian winner ;)

Hope all you new visitors will want to come back for another peek some day! Thanks for entering my give-away!

Raffle Quilt Top Complete!

One of the highlights of the jamboree was that we got to see the completed raffle quilt top! Isn't it stunning???


Here are some detail shots of the wonderful blocks!


This is one of the three blocks I contributed:



I like the blue one!


This one looks crazy - I didn't make one of these, just the new york beauty and a traditionally pieced one.

Another favourite of mine:

I made this one, too! It was my first one! Progress posted about here.


I like this one, too:


I'm just so utterly amazed that more than 20 different quilters made blocks, with all their different 1/4" seams, because they do differ! And somehow all those blocks fit together into this quilt top! I did hear a few blocks had to be ironed to death to stretch or be redone, but still, very impressive!!

The quilt will be quilted by a long-arm quilter in town and raffled off at this fall's quilt show.

*** Remember that the give-away is still open! See last post ;) ***

Give-Away Note

Thanks for all your comments so far - I'm getting some comments without email address. I've therefore added a notice to my right menu bar where you can find out how to check whether you're set up correctly and how to fix the no-reply issue!

Keep those comments coming, but make sure I can get back to you! :)