Trash Bag Purse finished

My "Trash Bag" purse is finished and ready to turn in tonight at the Capital Quilters Guild Meeting. I am meeting friends for dinner at a Mexican restaurant before the meeting, then turning in my quilt, purse, and donations for Symposium.

I decided not to add a strap, as I think the clutch purse is just right for this fancy fabric. I used three hand-sewn pieces of Velcro the flap to make it stay closed. The inside is a shiny pink moire satin

that I have gobs of for some reason. Maybe it was to line a pair of curtains that never got made.

If you would like to see more of how this purse was made, just search my blog for Creative Challenge or Trash-to-Treasure.

Needle-Felted WIP's

Here are some new pics of what I have been working on during the few hours of time in the mornings before I report to work.

This is the first project from the Trash to Treasure fabric from the Creative Challenge. I took the largest piece, quilted it to a piece of muslin with dark green and bright pink threads, and folded it to make a clutch-style purse. The flap is kind of funky and wavy. The lining is a fuchsia-colored moire fabric. Right now the flap is just pinned down until I decide what type of closure to use. I also left openings for a strap, but am undecided about whether or not I want one.

Then, I was messing around with my BabyLock Embellisher, and tried to create a fabric with similar colors as the Trash Bag fabric, but not as crunchy in texture! This piece has only a piece of commercial cotton as the base. It is a beautiful painterly-looking fabric with gold metallic dots. I have added silk fibers and some rainbow organza that I stamped with turquoise metallic paint. I also added some Angelina and yarns. I wet-felted the piece, then zapped with a heat gun. I am loving the look of this.

The last piece is needle-punched to a piece of soft cotton batting. I covered it with some orange hand-dyed fabric, and just added some silk, organza, sari ribbon, organza, and other bits of fabric. This may become a postcard background.

Finally, I received the first of the two Collage Mania pieces I purchased in the mail yesterday. Fluttering is even more beautiful in person. Please visit Annette Rogers' website to be blown away by her talent in painting and fiber art. We have had a nice e-mail correspondence, during which I found out she lives in Raleigh and also has a house in the North Carolina mountains not far from our place.

Wednesday WIP- Trash to Treasure?

Does anyone remember my "Creative Challenge" project that started with a black trash bag and torn strips of colored plastic bags? I had to put it aside for awhile, but have now finished all the steps detailed in the challenge instructions. I started with two large pieces, but have cut them into more manageable sizes. It is surprising to see how pretty they look. The last step was to fill in the holes with the gold wrappers from Ferrero-Rocher chocolates. Since I am thinking of making a purse for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium "Purse-on-ality"challenge with mine, I decided to use the quilters' gold lame for the centers. I fused it to a piece of cotton before sewing to keep it from fraying. On this piece, I stitched around the centers and made flower shapes from a thick black thread.

I started out trying some of the jewel-colored threads for the flowers, but they did not show up against the rainbow organza. I stayed with black after that.

You know me, I get tired of doing the same thing over and over. On this large piece which will probably become the purse, I added a layer of Angelina fibers over the gold lame. Except for one center which I made from a piece of some stretchy, shiny purple polyester that I have had for years.


And, this one is postcard-size and uses the actual Ferrero-Rocher wrappers that my friend Michelle Bonds sent to me for this project. I have added some Lumiere paint and additional stitching to this one.

I am probably going to quilt these on the long-arm to get them to lay down a little flatter. You can't exactly iron them flat! And something needs to be done to improve those thick fern fronds.

Okay, today you get two WIP's for the price of one. Here is the latest revision to the dreaded spider plant art quilt. I changed the window location and fabric so I can add something in the window with embellishment or quilting. There are a few more leaves sewn in.

Speaking of a Work-in-Progress...here is one of my favorites. My oldest grandchild, Charles Avery, is five years old today. On April 29, 2004, I made Charlie get up at 2:00 AM and drive to South Carolina when we found out that the baby had been born by emergency C-section. We will be spending the weekend with them to celebrate.

And if you follow NHL hockey at all, there is a lot of celebrating going on in Raleigh after the Carolina Hurricanes won the Eastern regional playoffs in a stunning come-from-behind win over the New Jersey Devils with two goals in the last minute-and-a-half of play in Game 7. Go Canes! (Hey, Dave, how about that...I wrote about hockey on my blog! And we did watch the end of that game after Dancing with the Stars!)

Trash to Treasure?

I have been participating in a Creative Challenge through the Needle-Felting mail list. I have had my doubts about this one, but am trusting that something nice will come of it.

You start with a black garbage bag and some colored plastic strips to make a background.

You make some lace out of long plastic strips, and add it to the background. Ah, stained glass effect???

Mine looked like something a homeless person might be sleeping on.

Then, you add some organza and needle-felt it down.

Ah, now we are getting something pretty! I used a rainbow organza from Wally-World that I purchased a couple years ago for some other project that I never made.

Here is another one. I tore up so much plastic that I made two backgrounds.

Next step is some machine-stitching over a wooden skewer to make fern frond stems. This is something very different and wild! But you know me, always willing to try something new.

Fantasy Garden, 2009

I was notified that another of my fabric postcards is being showcased in what is called a "treasury" of Etsy finds. This one, "Hey Mr. Postman" is by Dayna at ThreadedExpressions on Etsy. Mine is the very first one in the collection.

I recently joined a "Creative Challenge" posted on a Needle-Felting list. The base is fabric is made from a black trash bag ironed to strips of colored plastic from shopping bags. I have been cutting up plastic bags and household items to get some colored plastic, and am ready to begin. Sounds awful, but the picture of the finished product looks lovely when organza and pretty stitching is added.