Piles of Purses!

The order for 7 purses has been fulfilled!  My friend thought they were lovely and said they went down well with her grandchildren too.  She decided to give the farm animal ones to the 2 boys and let the 5 girls choose from the rest.

Version 2 of the doggy purse. It's been taken apart and the damaged zip replaced

Most of  fabrics and zips in the purses are reclaimed. Some, like the apple and bee fabrics, I bought before I thought seriously about what I was doing.  With one exception, I haven't bought any new fabric for a few years. 

The exception was last week when I wanted to get a particular colour for sashing my Bee Quilt.  It's been a while since I asked for suggestions on how to put the Bee Quilt together and decided Linnhe's suggestion to use a soft green was good .  I haven't been able to find a recycled source so, after choosing a fabric online, asked a friend to pick up a metre from a shop near where she works on Saturdays (see, I even avoided making a special journey to get it!). However, it appears I now owe my friend a big favour after the lady in the shop managed to to keep her there talking for half an hour!!

Apple purse embellished with Suffolk Puff and matching button

Now the purses are finished my mind is buzzing with all the ideas I tried to surpress until now. As well as getting on with the Bee Quilt I've decided to use one of the bag patterns in my patchwork magazine for a gift for the friend who gave me materials and make one for myself at the same time.  I also want to make more zipped purses, cushions and bags. 

Bee purse with felt circle attached with button.

Making  the purses was a good exercise for me in finding out what materials and methods I was happiest with. 

Purses altogether before being dispatched.

It also made me think about different designs and led to trying out this side zip version.  Although I winged it to a large extent, it came together quite quickly. 

 I couldn't work out in my head how to make it all-in-one so made a separate lining and hand sewed it in.

The Summer social whirl is about to begin with lots of events lined up (which is hard to believe looking out of the window at the grey sky and cold, wet conditions!), including a Wedding Fayre, Music Festival, camping trip or two and Raft Race, over the next few months amongst other things.

Progress since last time:

• 7 zipped purses - last 2 finished and all delivered.
• Knitted cowl - I found another part ball of left-over yarn so undid the join and added it to make the cowl a better length. Incidentally, I neglected to mention that the design was largly taken from the Burberry inspired cowl neck scarf by Julianne Smith aka the garter girl.
• Brown jumper that I don't wear any more has been taken apart and unrun ready to wash and make into something else.
• Side zipped purse made.
• Nearly finished quilting another Quilt-as-you-go Block.

It's a Bank Holiday weekend coming up and there's lots planned. Out with the usual gang on Friday evening, mini-bus trip to Cardiff Bay Sunday afternoon for friend's 40th and hoping to go to a craft fair on Monday but let's see how things pan out.

Bye for now

Teresa x