More Purse Projects

 

I have been encouraged by friends to make more purses, their comments and positive responses have given me the confidence to branch out and make small coin purses and electronic devise bags and holders too.

I have really been bitten by the possibilities of what can be made with fabric.  There are some really beautiful fabrics to choose from as well as patterns, tutorials from blogs and video's from youtube.

 

 This purse was made from 5 fat quarters.  These can be picked up at most fabric stores and quilt shops already cut for you and run about $1 - $3 per piece.

 

 

 These simple little coin purses were made with scraps, very simple to make.  You can whip one up in about 15-20 minutes.

 

 

 This electronic device bag was made form McCall's pattern #M6477.

 

 

 

 Another simple tutorial from a blog.  Lovin' the colors in this.

 

 

 

 Ruffles, ruffles and more ruffles, you just can't go wrong when adding those to a bag as you can see in the next photo.

 

 

This bag was also a blog tutorial.  It almost looks like a little skirt.

 

This is a Kindle/Nook tri-fold carrier.  I still need to work on the techniques involved in this on.  Oh ya, I just noticed the picture is upside down.

 



Spring Break Trip To Utah

Hubby and I had the great opportunity to have our two oldest grandsons, Matthew and Logan, accompany us to Utah for General Conference (a semi-annual conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).  We spent a week in Salt Lake City taking in some sights and culminating with attending the fifth and final session of conference.  What a wonderful time we had.

 

 

This is the Salt Lake Temple where hubby and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in 1978.

 

 On Thursday evenings you can watch and listen as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices for their Sunday performances, what a sweet experience to hear such angelic music.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 The mountains are so beautiful in Utah.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 Touring a candy factory is one activity you can take kids on and there are literally no complaints to be heard.  We toured Mrs. Cavanaugh's candy factory in N. Salt Lake City.

 This is a shot looking down on the floor where the candy making magic happens.

 

Watching the hand dipper was fun, can't you just smell that ooey, gooey chocolate?  I am sure both the boys would have loved to get their hands in it but unfortunately that is not allowed, darn it, but they were offered free samples so that was pretty good too.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 We also went on a tour of some historic areas where the Mormon pioneers first settled in SLC.  This is a statue depicting the Pony Express and how important it was for communications outside of Utah for the early Saints.

 

 Depiction of the Huntsman Hotel

 

This guy was one of the tour guides, he was hilarious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 A trip to Utah wouldn't be complete without a trip to the great Salt Lake.  Here are the boys standing on the lakes edge. (They said it had kind of a nasty smell.)

All in all it was a fun time with two great boys, they were so well behaved and had such great attitudes the whole time.  (Although if I never hear the words toots and farts again it will be too soon, they are at the age where they think this subject is HILARIOUS.)

 

 

Sewing Projects Completed

I haven't done much sewing for the last 20 or so years but over the last few months I have been drawn to fabric's and projects using fabric.  I have never really enjoyed making clothes, although when my daughters were young I had fun making things for them.  I even made fabric dolls for them that were about two and a half feet tall. 

 

Two of the things that have sparked me are purses/totes and rag quilts.

 

Combining quilting and making a purse was a real big step for me but I love how this bag turned out.

 

 

 

 

This is a purse I made from a tutorial I found on Pinterest.  Here is the link.  Below is the same bag except I made it a little smaller and gathered the pleats a little tighter and also made the band at the top a little wider. 

 This purse was made from a Simplicity pattern #2396.  I also realized that the fabric I chose for this one is an exact match to a bag my blogging friend Pat made a few months ago.  I didn't realize it until I went back to her blog and looked at her finished tote.  Great minds think alike!

 Here is a rag quilt I made out of a Moda Fabric layer cake pack, which are 6" squares.  It's not real big so I thought I would let my grandchildren use it whenever they come to spend the night.

This is also a rag baby quilt I made using a pre-cut package of flannel squares I bought at JoAnn's.

How blessed I am that I can pursue my passions and Pinterest has given me a who new world of creativity.  Now if I can have a pile of money dropped in my lap so that I can make even more stuff would be the cherry on top.

Edit to add:
I finished another simple purse today.  Lovin' me some polka dots for sure.

 

 

He's Five, Where Did The Time Go?

 

Landon turns 5 years old today.  It hurts my heart to see my grandchildren growing up, I wish I could just wave a magic wand and freeze them right where they are. 

 

Landon is the youngest of three children and he has made sure that he is not lost in the shuffle.  He is definitely one not to go unnoticed (he often comes to stay at our house so his family can have a little break :-)).  He is smart, funny and energetic and has pretty much mastered any game he plays on the Wii, we are blessed to have him as part of our family.

 

Love you Landon!

Organizing a Mountain of Fabric

My stash of fabric was getting out of control so making some sort of sense out of how it is stored was a necessity.  Even my cluttered and unorganized brain can only take so much.

 

Here is a the stack before the organizing began.

 

I have seen various ideas for organizing fabric from Pinterest and thought this method might work best for me.  I bought some foam core poster boards at the dollar store and cut them into 6.75"x9" pieces so I could wrap the fabric around them for vertical storage.  I got 9 pieces out of each poster board.

 Here is a front view of the boards.

 

 

Next I pressed and folded each piece of fabric no wider than 9 inches then wrapped the fabric around the boards

 

I then secured it with a straight pin.

 

I recently bought four of these storage bins from Thirty One, an in home party company that sells totes, purses and all kinds of cool products the help you get organized.  I thought they would be a perfect place to store fabric in.

This is three bins full of my organized fabric.  Ahhhh, no more digging through bins.

 

This will be way better for me when the sewing bug hits.

 

And here is where they will now reside, right next to the sewing machine

Now I need to tackle some other drawers and such to make crafting easier but that will have to wait until another day.  This project took me  ALL STINKIN' DAY to complete.