Big purse

I finally made a big purse. It's one I've been eyeing ever since I saw a couple friend's of mine with theirs. I love the grommets-all 8 of them.
I love how large the opening is, but also how it looks like a regular purse once it's closed. With the wide mouth opening, I can easily put my notebooks, church books and iPad all in it with room to spare. The pockets are a nice size too.

Now that I've made one and worked through all the kinks of a new pattern, I'd love to make another one. It goes together quite fast and I'd love to make one as a gift.

Looking Back

I was looking back over some of my photos and found pictures from my Material Girls Idaho group from several years ago. Wow! Have we been a productive group and such creativity. Here are just a sampling of a few I found. The snowman quilt was one where we all exchanged fabric at one meeting, learned how to make the quilt and then several in the group made their own version of it.

Flickr block

Finally finished my January block for my Flickr group, Bee Scrappy. Somehow I got behind last month. I really enjoyed making this block, it was a new method for me. Here's the tutorial that we all used to make these liberated churn dashes:
I can see lots of possibilities using this same method for several other classic blocks.

Scraps and stash

So many people including myself are looking for ways to use up our tons of stash from projects past and I've always loved this particular technique called Snippets. It's so easy to do. I've shown a few of my snippet blocks and quilts before, but I had forgotten about the method and was trying to think of some ways to use up my stash, a personal goal for this year. I whipped up this little block in about 30 minutes. There are a couple of books outlining the technique, but you basically just put Steam-a-Seam on the back of your leftover fabric pieces, free form cut them into shapes. I chose to do flower petals, leaves and a vase. Take the paper backing off and stick it down on your background fabric. The shapes are removable and you can re-position them several times until you get a look you like. Once you like it, iron and it's permanent. Make a huge bouquet and you've used quite a bit of your stash!

This next block was another Pizza Box block. I used the same design as last month because both quilters had such similar colors.