Pleated Purses and Some Other Things

If you haven’t picked up a copy of School of Sewing, you should. Even if you are an advanced quilter or sewist, the book is fabulous. It’s especially fabulous if you do any teaching at all. Everything I’ve ever wanted to tell somebody I’ve been teaching to quilt or sew is in that book. It’s genius, which is no surprise if you know who wrote it: Shea.

Shea is encouraging other quilters and sewists to teach others to quilt and sew using her book. So I was asked by my local quilt shop to teach a class and I said yes. I’m teaching the Pleated Purse class at Modern Makers on Sunday, April 19th.

Here are the samples I made up.

Modern Makers has a better picture of this if you click on the link and scroll through their class list.

I used Cotton & Steel fabrics for the entire purse.

I can’t say enough great things about this book and these patterns. This purse went together SOOOO well. I loved every single minute of making it.

The other great thing about the book is that it has “extra credit.” The extra credit for this project was more of a tote bag. The pattern is just lengthened, a contrast top is added, and a second strap is added.

I dug through my stash for these fabrics. I love the color combo with such rich and saturated colors. Plus, the Melody Miller Kokka is fabulous and i was waiting for the perfect moment to use it. I still have quite a bit left. 🙂

I’ve made a few other things recently, too.

In one of my Man Made classes, somebody made a bow tie using this Cotton and Steel fabric. I fell in love with it. So I made a bunch of them.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all of them. One will definitely go to Andrew. We gave two of our friends once each. But that still leaves me with three. I’m sure they’ll make great gifts if we ever need them. Even if we never find a place for them, though, I’m pretty happy just looking at them. 🙂

Another random project is onesies.

I had a few left over from the baby shower that I threw. I don’t know anybody who is having a baby girl right now, but when somebody does, I’ll be prepared. 🙂

Finally, my sister asked for a pillow to match the ones I gave my dad, grandpa, and uncle a few Christmases ago.

This was my prototype and I had it lying around in a box. I pulled it out, added a back, made a pillow form, and stuffed it. Done!

I went on a crafting retreat last week and had the best time! I was also super productive and I can’t wait to show you all of the cool stuff I made. 🙂