Liberty Coin Purse 2 - finished

Last week I posted about the outer part of this purse.  The inner part was just as fiddly.  

The inner pieces were totally unlined and without interfacing - there are enough folds and layers to make it strong enough.

I was a bit worried that the inner part would be too big, and it was very tight.  I would shave half an inch off the credit card and purse part if I make another.

I wanted a metal zip and there is not much choice of colours (does anyone know a good UK supplier of zips?)   Getting the zip in was just as time consuming as I thought it would be.  The only way to do it was by hand.  The zip was a bit too short and that didn't help.  First I stitched the zip to the outer pieced hexagons using a very small half back stitch.  It took a couple of goes to get both sides even.  After that I slip-stitched the inside in place.

The finished product has a soft feel and appearance that I rather like - the stitches show and the fabrics look a bit fuzzy because they have been handled so much.  Oh Ok, I admit it is covered in cat hairs and sweater fluff too. 

Okay, okay, the photos are blurry too.  There is not much light at this time of year.  Roll on Spring.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this.  The Peltex worked. Definitely a step up from the first trial (see about that one here, as well as the £196 leather purse from Liberty that I was trying to copy).

Miss Ted's already asked if I will make one for her.

As it's a Friday Finish, I'll be linking up with Crazy Mom; and when Monday comes along, at Scraps Monday.

Liberty Coin Purse - prototype 2

I've found it hard to settle to a new project after finishing the big EPP quilt.  Some knitting has been done but nothing blog-worthy. Yesterday I got going on making a second liberty purse.  The first one was much too floppy and the zip insertion was poor.  I have been using the purse though, and decided it would be better if it hinged at the bottom.  Although I like some of the patterns available, particularly Sew Sweetness's Greenbacks wallet, I still want to avoid a bound edge as I know I can't do those very well.

Here's the piece I decided to use for the outside - it's all Liberty fabrics.  I used tiny scraps so did not have to buy anything.

To make the purse firmer I ironed on a bit of heavy duty Peltex. There were three pieces to line up, the gaps are there so that the purse will fold properly.  I had trouble lining it up, as the Peltex would not stay flat.  I pinned it to the ironing board and beat it into submission. 

It seemed to stick quite well.  Next I turned over the edges and sewed them on to the Peltex.  When I got to the corners I gathered up the excess fabric like this:

Now it looks like a little book.  

Next to tackle the innards - I want some credit card slots and a small zipped compartment for coins.  I still have no idea how I'm going to insert the zip. Glue might be involved.

Linking up at Life Under Quilt's Monday Morning Star Count and at A Quilting Life's first Scraps Monday.

Monday Count: EPP Finished

Oh.  Well apparently yesterday was the last sunny day for a while. So an indoor shot of the finished quilt will have to do.  I hope you can see the spiral quilting, which goes across the small low volume stars but stops around the EPP and appliqué areas.  That left me with endless ends to sew in.

Of course you can't see the whole quilt here, but I've posted more than enough images of the individual blocks since I started in April. All the posts have been labelled EPP if anyone wants to look.

This project started with an exercise in EPP shapes - I wanted to do something other than hexagons.   Once I started, I wanted to carry on and make something useable.  The Monday link up at Life Under Quilts kept me going - thank you, Jessica!  Triangles, squares, pentagons, octagons, rhomboids, curves and yes, hexagons have all found a place.  There is loads of fabric left.  Can't believe how much.  Maybe I will sell fabric packs when there is another royal event.....

This trellis block might still be my favourite and I may well use it again - next time on a bigger scale, maybe with a dark centre and pale trellis pieces.

One last count for the Monday link-up - there are 1206 pieces. You won't see this again unless there is an amusing disaster in the wash. 

Happy Birthday Blue Moth

Blue Moth is one year old today!  Pincushion cake anyone?

Week 13 EPP - Monday Progress Report

Last week I made the hexagon and triangle piece a little bigger - it is nearly large enough to be trimmed back to 12.5 inches.  

I also appliquéd the Mitsubishi Star on to a piece of plain blue Moda  The points gave me a lot of trouble.  I have not done any kind of appliqué before - clearly I need to practice.  

The plan is to mix plain solids and appliqué blocks in with the EPP  blocks.  I'm not sure how I will arrange the blocks but it may look a bit like this:

At the moment I'm thinking the finished quilt will have 25 blocks.  So next week I'm planning to carry on enlarging the EPP blocks and I expect I will do another piece to appliqué on to a plain block.  Pentagons may be involved!

As always I will join up with Jessica and Life Under Quilts to see what you've all been up to.

Liberty Lover's Bag

This is definitely a bag for lovers of Liberty Tana Lawn.  Perhaps a bit OTT but I like it - there are about thirty different Liberty Tana Lawns in this bag.  

 Lining: Small Susanna

Side pockets: Willow Rose

Rear pocket lining:  Strawberry Thief

Binding: Wiltshire

...and many more in the strip of EPP hexagons on the front flap 

and around the magnetic catch under the flap.

The idea was to make this bag without buying anything new apart from the leather strap.  I tried to use Peltex for the first time - it might be the last time.  It stuck on alright, but I found the fabric would not bend without looking creased.  I pulled it out and used layers of vilene interfacing instead. 

I'm pleased with the slip pockets in the side panels.  These should be useful for small items / tickets etc.

This bag's first outing might be to Liberty - why not?

Joining up with Crazy Mom's Friday Finish and with Small Blog Meet, which is a linky for blogs with less than 50 followers hosted by Lily's Quilts

Liberty Hexagon Pincushion

It's finished!  Fuzz decided it was hers as soon as it was stuffed and started going at it with her claws:

Apols for blurry action shot.  Let me assure you that there were no pins in the cushion at this stage.

Here are a couple of progress pics.  The top and bottom were machine quilted.  If I made another one I would also quilt the sides as Liberty Lawn is so fine.  The tiny hexagon templates were printed out from this website.  I started in the middle and worked outwards until the piece was big enough (about 6 inches across - big enough not to get buried under fabric).  Here's the back with the paper templates still in. 

The back of the patchwork top.

After quilting and sewing together.  The side was a strip 2 inches wide.

This is the underside - the fabric is Speckle

The cushion is stuffed with leftover bits of batting at the moment as I have not yet got my hands on the crushed walnut shells.

Thanks once again to Frances at Fabadashery for the inspiration.

Little and Large

A quick progress report on the English Paper Piecing projects:

The four corner squares of the Gameboard quilt are done.  These finish at 12 inches.  Here they are with their papers still in.  The next step will be to do the four squares which make up the playing area for the game.  I will leave the central "home" square until last. I've been doing some Wiki research on the rules of the American game Parcheesi, and the British game Ludo.  In Parcheesi, the players progress round the board anti-clockwise but in Ludo they go clockwise.  There are loads of variants to both games.  I think I'm going to modify the Minick and Simpson pattern to make it a bit more like our Ludo.

On the tiny front, I've got this far with the Liberty Lawn hexagons. There are sixty-one 3/4 inch hexagons in this 6 1/2 inch piece, which will probably turn into a pin cushion.  I'm hoping it will turn out half as nice as Fabadashery's and have started researching local suppliers of crushed walnut shells for the filling.  It's ruinous to buy it online because the weight makes the postage expensive.

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet

Game Board Quilt

This book about North American Gameboards was given to me by my sister sometime around 1985, following her visit to the American Folk Art Museum in New York.  

Most of the boards in this book are for Parcheesi, which seems to be similar to the game we call Ludo in the UK. But other games are represented too.

I love these game boards, no doubt for the same reasons that I am drawn to patchwork and any kind of geometrics.  Apparently antique game boards are now keenly collected and go for silly money.  Could I make a game board quilt?  Last week I got all enthusiastic and got as far as drawing a rough plan on graph paper.

But there is nothing new under the sun.  Minick & Simpson have already done it!  

After some muttering I bought their pattern and made a start but could not cope with the curves.  I think I might be able to use the English Paper Piecing method.  It is the biggest EPP I have ever done - the square will finish at 12 inches.  Here's where I got to this week:

Also in the pic you can see some small hexagons.  I started these to use up some of my tiny Liberty Lawn scraps.  Liberty Lawn is perfect for small EPP because it is so fine.  This may become bigger or get used as it is in some small project.