CAMO BAGS FINISHED
   Finished all the Camo bags I was working on.
   Here are the photos of the finished Bags.

  These are cotton Bags,
   PRICE: $25
Contact me if you are interested.
  I will be working on landscape quilts in the future.

               Camouflage Bags con.
   Finally finished making the body of my bags. Now the last two steps I need to take to finish the bags is to add the straps and Velcro closers.
     Here are pictures of the bags being made and now at this step.
        These first three  pictures are photos of the bag fronts and straps sewed and ironed . I'll be adding the folded  linings to the fronts of the bags and stitching them together around the edge and turning the bags  inside out.

 The  next set of photos are of the sewn bags and straps  .Front and back views.
  I will post photos of the finished bags once I get the straps and closers sewn on.
  After these bags are finished I'm going to start back making landscape quilts.
   I have several in process and need to make a small one to donate.
   My friend and co- author are almost ready to publish our book and we have two new exciting projects in the works for this coming year. 'Ill keep you posted on their progress.













 

 

FUNDRAISER
 37 days to go ----Please check out our fundraising site.
Here are the photos of the new bag.

   

Barbara Williamson added 4 new photos.

Just finished a messenger bag. It is made from old blue jeans and white cotton fabric. I transferred 12-- 3x5 photos of comic book covers onto white cotton fabric that had been soaked in a solution to help the fabric hold the color. Next I printed the cover photo for the bag onto white fabric , it is a 6x8 inches about.
I put fusible web on the back of each photo , removed the paper backing and ironed it onto black fabric and used a zig-zag stitch around the edge of each... picture.
I added pockets and used the left over pictures that were small
extra pictures I had leftover from testing the photos sizes and fused them to the front of the pockets and front of the bag.
   I printed a skull photo to use on the inside flap of the bag.
The bag is approximately a 12x13 in bag.
Lastly all the pieces were cut out and the fabric lined with a fusible interfacing. I assembled the bag and ironed it. I was glad all the photos came out clear and bright.
   It is for someone who likes comic books. Hope they like it.

  

Update on what I'm Doing
   I have been working on some things for Christmas . I had to put my quilt I am working on, on  hold for a bit. I will get back to it soon.
     I have been thinking of simplifying the center section of the quilt because once I got everything drawn out that I wanted to put in the center it just seemed to complicated so once I re- draw it I will post the new center drawing.

   In the mean time here are some photos of the Christmas projects I'm doing.

 This is a picture of the swirled polymer beads I made and the stacked polymer strips I rolled out to make ribbon candy necklaces with.

 Here is the ribbon candy polymer beads I made.

 This is a picture of the blue snowflake fabric I made using freezer paper for my stencils.

This is a goddess purse I made for my sister's birthday gift.
I've added a few close ups. the bag was made from cotton scrapes I had on hand. I layers and stitched each  element in place.I made a curved edge to the front and lined the bag with mint green cotton fabric.

Busy Busy Busy
I'm sitting here having a bowl of warm barley, mushroom and cheese risotto. It is raining pretty hard so it is a great day to post. Plus I haven't been able to post for a while.
   Well I have been so busy these past  few weeks. I have started my own business  and have been making lots of things for the store where I'm selling. The name of the store is Made In Paradise and it is in the town of Paradise. What a wonderful coincidence.  The shop is a subsidiary  of the Work Training Center and the 25% they keep goes back into the business to help the developmentally challenged in our community make and sale their artwork and at a reasonable price I might add. I was so amazed at how beautiful their work is. They are so creative.
   I am making fabric bowls,bags , bracelets and glass bead necklaces  for the shop. I have been selling well and I was able to get some things made just in time for Valentines day.
   Here is a photo of some of the things I made for Valentines day.

For that special day I made fabric bowls, butterfly brooches, heart bracelets, bead glass bead necklaces , wooden hearts that were painted and put on 25 in pieces of ribbon and a couple of heart bags that I made from the leftover scrapes from a bag that i had just finished for my granddaughter. I will post a picture of her bag a little further down in this post.
 I know the bags are an unusual color for Valentines day but I didn't want to waste the scrapes  from making the purse, I had just finished, and had sitting on the table.
  The heart bracelets are also made from scrapes of fabric I had on had in my scrape bag.The closers are Velcro for ease of getting off and on.
   The bags are cotton as is everything else I made. I used homemade mod podge to stiffen the bowls. I use a mix of Elmer's glue and water and use equal amounts of water and glue.I made 24 items in all. The bracelets were made in two sizes. one for a 61/2 in wrist and the other for a seven 1/2 in wrist.

   For my two granddaughters I made bags for them . I asked them what they would like for Christmas and they both requested bags. One wanted a black and white bag so she could carry her phone , ID, and atomizer in.
   Here is a photo of her bag.

I had allot of black and white fabric on hand and i found a pretty mock ivory button for it. I fussy cut the tiny flowers from a cotton fabric I had and I put tiny black glass beads in the center of each flower.







The second bag was made from cotton also. My granddaughter wanted a a black and blue bag and she wanted me to put one of her drawing a a favorite anime charecter on the front. I found a beautiful button  ,in the exact color of the blue in the  fabric  I used, for the front of her bag. She also loves hearts so I incorporated them into the design.
  Here are photos of her bag.
    As you can see the fabric in this bag was the same one I used for the heart bags.

Iris Bag
 I just finished my first Iris Bag. The bag is 8x81/2. It has two pockets and it was made from cotton store bought fabric and a few batiks.

The Iris's were made from batik fabrics fused to a pale yellow cotton fabric that I free motioned stitched. The Flowers were made using several pieces of fabric fused in place. I zig -zag stitched around the edge of each part of the flowers.

       In this picture you can see some of the parts I used for each of the flowers.

 Here is the inside of the bag, straps for the bag and the back of the bag.
The bag is 8x81/2.
   I have enough materials left over the make a smaller version of this on which I am working on today.
   The next project I will do ,after I finish the small bag, will be a bracelet.

                                                                         

Sprig Time Muse
 My spring time muse has called and I have started working on a new bag today.I love Iris's and I have a neighbor who grows large number of different varieties.So I chose a color I liked which in this case is purple. After picking out my fabric. I enlarged a photo I had taken of the lid of a tin tea box he had.

 After enlarging the picture I drew out my design and cut out my pattern pieces from a manilla envelope I had on hand.
                                                          
Once I cut out my pattern pieces I use water color pencils to color  each set of patterns a different color . This helps me keep keep from getting my patter pieces mixed up . There are allot of parts so it is easy to get them jumbled together I have my table set up so that everything I need to make my flowers is in hands reach.

    
I am using a lightweight fusible web on the back of my fabric pieces . Next I start cutting out all the parts of each flower. Once I'm finished  cutting out my flowers I will fuse them in place . I am making the front flap of the bag today .
                                                       

I have pulled the fabric for the body and strap and I will cut the pieces of fabric for them later today. The fabric for this bag is cotton batik. I love batiks for flowers I think it gives them a more realistic look.  

 Finished the bag I was working on. I think I will have to make some adjustments to the design of the bag so I will be back to the drawing board. I have another pattern i want to try and so I will be working on it the next couple of days. The one thing I like about this bag is the colors . I love bright bold colors.

  I also like the applique flowers. They do take a little more time than I wanted to spend but I like the way the flowers look on front of the bag.
    I think I will work on some drawing for a new  bag design tonight and I also wanted to spend a little time doing some black and white drawings for new quilts.

Finished the Turtle Spirit Bag

Finished the Spirit Bag for a lady who likes turtles.
I have two more friends wanting me to make them a bag with their favorite animal. I really enjoy making the bags as they are small and it gives me a break from making my larger projects. It takes me a good six months generally to make a larger quilt, and sometimes I just need a little change. This was very fun to do.

Creating the Turtle Spirit Bag

These are photos of all the parts of a spirit bag. I machine stitched goddess figures on a watercolored fabric along with the words heal, dance, dream, imagine, and joy, and I machine-stitched geometric designs on the fabric for the strap. She asked me to use greens and blues in the design. Her spirit animal is the turtle.
I made the tiny beads added to the front from polymer clay. After baking the beads I hand painted them and coated them with Mop and Glow to protect the surface and add some shine. The three beads are a bird, lizard, and a fish to represent sky, land, and water.
After taking these pictures my camera's batteries need to be charged. Once I charge them I will take photos of the finished bag and some other things.