Blue Jeans Purses

My next Show:

Sunday, Aug 5 - 10a to 4p
Heritage Day and Rail Fest
900 Montgomery
next to Memorial Park
New London, WI

Come see my selection of purses and queen size quilts.  Recently, I've been sewing a lot of recycled blues jeans purses paired with colorful printed cottons.  The padded purses are perfect for carrying your cell phone, mad money, and more.  Two sizes.

 All of my purses are sewn using vintage sewing machines.

My little beast.  Early zig-zag Necchi BU (1948-1952).  Like my friend told me, "it will sew a chrome bumper back on a '57 Chev."

It's was made in Italy.

My other heavy duty machine for sewing upholstery and denim fabrics the Singer 201-2.

Her name is Helen; named after her first owner.

1951 Centennial badge

My fall line of line of purses are available to buy at the Sunday Aug 5th Heritage Day.  

Interior padded pocket too, with a 2nd hidden pocket big enough for your passport, or folded receipts you don't want swimming around in your purse. 

I have a fun decorating the blue jeans purses with hand embroidery and little glass beads.  Handmade polymer clay beads strung on 20# hemp cord complete the look and function of  my signature zipper pulls.

 

I make a casual swipe with chalk to establish the curve, then running stitches of colorful crochet cotton thread.  Handmade polymer clay buttons and beads baked in my home oven.    The yellow and navy batik is stacked on the cross-body carrying strap for decoration and makes the strap durable. 

Fun effects and great surface texture on these purses.  

See you at the show . . . 

Square in a Square Quilt in Blue

The Square in a Square Quilt in Blue--accented with colorful cornerstone sashing. 

 I made more queen size quilts last winter, piecing them with some lovely machines:

 1951 Singer 201-2 (Christmas present from Jon)

1954 Singer 301 outfitted with a modern 1/4" scant foot.

I can build the backing with art panels in one day.  The following day is a two hour set up--loading  the three layers: backing, batting, top. 

A most important concern is adjusting the frame, keeping it square and level.  The distance from belly bar (front) to the take up bar (back) is something I have to tweak for each quilt project. 

First, I pin the backing fabric squarely to the belly bar and turning the cranking mechanism rolling the fabric around the bar until the backing is pinned to the take up bar.  I can tell at the end of this process if the frame requires adjustment because I am noticing the backing fabric on the left side of the frame is slightly looser than the right side.  

I think the Grace Majestic queen size frame gets out of adjustment because of the design of the frame.  The cranking mechanism is located on the right of the frame, so it is possible there is a little more pull (more tension) on the right each time I advance the quilt--turning the cranking mechanism rolling it forward during the quilting process. 

Blues, Greens, Grays, Turquoise

Here's the finished Square in a Square Quilt.  It sold June 16, 2018 at the Reedsburg WI Butterfest.  I'm in the studio this weekend building another one.  This is an ideal quilt project to use up smaller chunks of leftover fabrics.  I bought a bolt of the sashing/border steel blue fabric, more than enough to make two quilts.  

Made in Italy--this is my new favorite, a Necchi BU, the first zig-zag Necchi built (1948-1952). It really rocks the chrome.  Budda bing, budda boom!  Came with a lovely cabinet, and it is a knee lever speed control.  

Hah!  I'm too short to operate the knee lever speed control, so Jon built me a platform, a four-stack of 3/4" plywood nailed together and sanded.  Looks like a large loaf of bread resting on the floor.  I put a rubberized drawer liner under it to prevent any shift, and the loaf is resting snug between the right wall of the cabinet and a support cleat in back.   Now I have no trouble reaching the knee lever speed control.  

I removed great chunks of lint from the feed dogs and underneath the hook assembly.  After deep cleaning, oiling, and two coats of  Zymol wax on the surface,  it is now my beautiful go-to machine for multiple seam layers of upholstery, cotton linings, and batting to construct padded purses, cell phone carriers, and fabric journal covers.  Its a quiet machine--runs smooth.  I love it.

Black and Winter White Quilt

I made this Black and Winter White Quilt in April 2018

Sold ***Memorial Weekend at Rising Star Mill Art Show, Nelsonville WI

For the backing fabric I wanted something dark, where I could adds some contrast with two art panels from the fabrics used on the quilt top.

Here are some photos of the long arm quilting process, and a chance to see the winter white fabric up close.  Love, love the fabric.

I'd like to make this one again in black and white, but with a different color for the center of the 9 patch.  It would either be ugly or beautiful.  

I don't pre-draw my quilts on paper before I start building a quilt.  Just an idea, and I don't know exactly what it will look like until it's finished.  That is the joy of designing.  

I made several quilts this winter--I'll be posting more of them later.

Thank you for looking at my stuff.

Navy Blue Diamond Scrappy Quilt

The Navy Blue Diamond Scrappy Queen Size Quilt is a treasure of scrappy fabrics.  

On the frame--finishing first row of edge to edge long arm quilting

My favorite scrappy fabrics - I used the last but of orange coy fish fabric in this photo.

I picked a light olive green fabric for the backing and beefed up its appeal with art panels.

The cutaway triangles from snowballing the corners are never thrown away--because they make beautiful borders.  

This quilt was pieced using my 1954 Singer 301--a wonderful machine.

Here you are looking at the discarded triangles, sewn together to make half square triangles.  (320 pcs).  Sewn together a second time, end for end to make the artful border around the perimeter of the quilt.  This takes forever to do--but the impact is worthwhile.

With 320 half square triangles, there's plenty left over to build art panels for the backing.

This photo shows 1/2 of the backing construction.  For quilting--I need backing fabric 100" x 110".  Two art panels helps me reach 100" width required.  

Photo taken before starting the long arm quilting

I will be selling my quilts, purses, cell phone carriers, fabric/rope baskets, fabric journal covers, and potholders.  

Memorial Weekend, May 26-27

Rising Star Mill  - 10a until 5p

Nelsonville, WI

At the show I will be demonstrating on a 1920 New Home hand crank sewing machine. 

I recently got the New Home hand crank up and running after acquiring original parts from Steve in California, and Skipper from Alabama--members of Victorian Sweatshop Forum who are collectors of old machines.

Parts found: an original New Home hand crank and grey hound New Home shuttle.  Uses Boye #14, 20 x 1 needles.

Tip: I use a modern Universal 15 x 1 needle, by lowering the shaft of the needle slightly when I install it.  The antique Boye needle is slightly longer, harder to find, and cost more than a modern Universal 15 x 1.

Teal Diamond Quilt and the 1951 Singer 201-2

Joining half square triangles to make the quilt border 

Smooth sewing on the 1951 Centennial Badge Singer 201-2 with knee lever speed control.  I don't care for knee levers, so I plugged in my stand-by 3- prong power cord (2 wire) fitted with a 1960s clam shell foot control (preferred).  

How to make the quilt:

Grayed-green background fabric:  Cut 10" Squares (80 pcs).

Scrappy Fabrics: 4" Squares.

Draw diagonal line wrong side of scrappy 4" fabric squares.  Pin one 4" scrappy square at each corner of the grayed green 10" square.  Sew on the diagonal line.  Cut off excess fabric 1/4" from the seam line.  This is called snow-balling the corner to make a block.    Keep the excess cut off fabric triangles to make the border (see first photo above).

Sew 8 gray green/scrappy corner blocks together to make a row.  Makes 9 rows.

Sew the rows together.  Suddenly, you have a Diamond Quilt.

I pieced the backing fabric with lots of scrappy fabrics, using the leftover 8 snow-ball blocks and leftover borders of half square triangles.

Frame loaded with backing, batting, and quilt top

Floral Feathers sequence begins with a spiral (spine) ending in a feather loop, then back tracking with feathers the entire length of the spine back to the starting point (upper right).

Now back at the starting point, fill the other side of the spiral spine.

Finish with feathers around the curl, then back track echoing those last feather back to the top.  Sequence begins again from that point.  And that's my Floral Feathers.

It was love at first sight when client Ellen saw the Teal Diamond Quilt.