Spring is a great time to make yourself a new handbag!

What could be better for spring than to have a new handbag in your wardrobe?  I love the canvas weight fabrics available at Ikea for handbags and totes.  This fabric has the weight and the durability to take the wear of a nice size bag like this one!  Going back and forth to work requires a large enough bag to carry everything that you need from notebooks to electronic gadgets.  I will be posting a tutorial next week for a smaller pouch style bag that would be perfect to fit inside your favorite bag for the little things that always seem to get lost.  Things have been quiet on my blog this past year with things that have kept me from working and creating but this is a new year and a new blog so I hope you enjoy the journey.

quilting on my longarm

 I really enjoyed making this scrappy quilt using Mission Valley cottons from my stash.  It's been waiting for months to be quilted..  Now that I have my new Innova longarm quilting machine it was one of the first of 23 quilt tops to be quilted and finished!

 I couldn't resist adding a scrappy binding to this "manish" scrappy quilt.  Watch for a tutorial for this fun binding coming soon!

This is it!  The finished quilt!  The first of many, soon to come!  This was a fast and easy quilt to put together.  It's a slice and dice kind of project and I did alot of mixing it up to get this fun result!  I'm very pleased with the finished look.

I simply had to make a bag out of this fabric.  I loved the birds and the colors and well, just everything about it!  I found some green Amy Butler that worked well with the birds and made this large travel bag embellished with buttons.  The inside has tons of pockets and places to keep things sorted while on the road...Would be great for a knitting bag too. 

I have just finished a series of jackets that have slashsed detailing and wonderful raw edge appliques and a little embellishment to set everything off.  I love the texture of the slashed denim against the washed and frayed appliques.  I finish the look with a little blooming chenille embellishment on the collar with a little vintage lace and some crystals.  It gives a new look to an old denim jacket!  I am thinking of doing a tutorial if there is interest!  Let me know!  Get out your old denim jacket and get ready!

Pass it on

An old quiltop discovered in my mother-in-laws basement storage room had never been finished.  It was found folded and deteriorating in an improperly stored box.  The quilt was cut up into large blocks and each block was re-worked and stitched with decorative machine stitching to  strengthen and mend damaged areas.  Combined with vintage rayon ribbon for embellishment and more vintage fabric for handles and linings of the bag as well as inner pockets,  the old quilt became a series of bags for daughers, daughter-in-laws and grand-daughters to keep and cherish for years to come!

slashed denim jackets

The back detail of one of my recent denim jackets. Slashed detail and rough cut appliques with heat set crystals. These jackets have been my best seller for fall.

I had alot of fun making this re-cycled denim bag! The pockets were cut off and restitched so that I could fray the edges of the denim around the pockets. All of the seams on the top band of the bag were stitched to the outside so they could be frayed as well. I added hot fix studs to the pocket stitching details and used vintage rayon ribbon for the sides of the bag. The waistband was used for the straps. I loved the look of this bag when it was finished. I sold the bag and haven't been able to duplicate the funky look that I achieved with this one! I guess that's why they call them "one-of-a-kind"!