Revealed

Then I cut the pre-marked circle out.
And cut a lining the same size.

Then two pockets. I hemmed one of the longer edges by folding the fabric over twice and the other three sides just the once.

I stitched them in place on the lining. The scissors showing are just to show which side to leave open.


I stitched round the ouside about a scant ¼" to the back of the quilted circle.I added some double fold binding on the front

Pinned it folded over

making sure when it was folded over that it covered the stitching line

Then very carefully with the walking foot, I stitched it in the ditch.

Just so you can see where the stitching went . I then folded it in half so a feather was showing on each side.

I used a shiny cord but other things would work. I sewed about 6" either side towards the fold and inserted the cord at each end right into the fold. If you ever wondered what those little plastic bits were you got with your machine, here they are in use. Because there is a big hump when you get to the bit with the cord, you just slide them behind the foot to level it off. These seams were stitched again in the ditch between the binding and the quilted fabric.



I then pinned the cord to where I had started the seam and by hand, caught the cord between the binding.

And there it is finished. An evening bag. (Or pocket book if you are American)

If you see someone with it at the Gala dinner at the Festival of Quilts at the Birmingham NEC, England on Thursday night, come and say hello to me.


I had to wedge it between cushions to show you the inside of the finished bag. The little pockets are for things like parking tokens, change for the cloakrooms etc.
I made the lining bright as I find it quite hard to find stuff in bags with black linings in low light.

My Patsy Thompson feathers re-visited

Click on this to enlarge it. Because of waiting for the new batting for the big wholecloth and my hot flushes, I've gone back to this one. I've been playing with different threads to see the effects. Sometime ago when I decided I'd only quilt with fine threads, I gave most of my thicker ones to the local quilt group who are making quilts for the women's refuge. So I've played with what I have left.

This one is my favourite. Its a YLI machine quilting thread which has light teal and turquoise variations. Before this discovery of Patsy's feathers (see link on right) I really had a profound dislike of this thread but it behaves itself on this embroidery type stitching.

The purple viscose on the left goes between pink and purple. Now this is good news because there is always someone at the shows selling these very cheaply. The bright pink on the right is Madeira Poly neon in one of the few day glo colours they make.

I feel the feathers themselves need more definition and had I not used this backing which hides all the stitching completely, I'd have done some bobbin work with heavy thread between the feather and the echo line of stitch. Looks like the hunt is on for a suitable couching thread.

Can you see one of Sinclair's eyes is just open. He's wondering whether I'm going to turf him off the quilt. We bought a new bed and assembled it yesterday. This was just 2 minutes after the bed was made. I think he's under the impression it was installed for his own convenience.

Patsy Thompson feathers effort

This is an example of 'more haste, less speed' I should have spent more time choosing the background fabric, more time evening out the curves and more time choosing the fabric not this 'dead' colour for the background, choosing different threads and/or different colours to show up on it. Still if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn and learning's what I enjoy (well perhaps not like this). I actually shocked Marion the other day by saying I would not finish this piece. I ALWAYS finish what I start eventually. Well I shall continue working on it but not with the aim of finishing. I shall use it as a large sample to play with thread and colour.



You can see here where I had to mark the outlining with a pen before sewing it so I could get the over and under right.
I think the concept of this piece could have worked if I hadn't rushed it. You live and learn (the downside is this is a lesson I learnt many years ago (grin)