Goal for July? Check

My goal for July was to make a purse a day for SewPowerful.  And SCORE!  I made it.  Along with the ten I had before July 1, that means I have 41 purses ready to put in the mail.  Well, almost...

Every purse needs a notecard in it, a note of encouragement to the young lady who receives it.  Part of me just wants to gloss over this part.  But I have heard firsthand from Jason and Cinnamon Miles how much the girls treasure these notes.  Writing these heartfelt notes isn't quick or easy.  So I am going to tackle them the same way I did the purses - write one a day.  Except I have 41 purses.  You do the math.  My new goal is to get these in the mail just before or after Labor Day.

I love how these giraffe purses turned ourt

And check out the text on the bottom two!

These fabrics are perfect and will be the first ones I use for the next set of purses. A funny thing happened on the way to Interwoven, a pattern by Lo and Behold Stitchery.   Because the blocks of this quilt are set on point, there was a lot of trimming and some lovely leftovers.  I began to play around with them.  This is where I started.  And?

This is where I would up.  I loved it so much that I immediately stopped the Baptist Fan handquilting on the real Interwoven (pix to come...) and began working on this.  I started a spiral off-center and just kept going.  Instead of wool batting, I used Warm and Natural.  I am surprised at how much I like it and how beautifully it washed.  And quilting it wasn't difficult either.   This is my new favorite quilt!

Detail from the back

Detail

But this is pretty wonderful too.

While the leftover piece is finished, this one is not.  These quilting lines are 2" apart, and I'm thinking there should be another row in between.  I have no plans for this quilt and will be absolutely happy fondling it as I continue to quilt it.

I'm pretty happy that the purses are off the design wall because I need it for Nikki's quilt.  This is a WIP of an inset for her quilt.  It's an aerial view of Manhattan from like 34th to 110th.  This part above represents Central Park.  It'll take me a while to get this going because it's hand-cutting the templates and then sewing the curves.  But I think it's going to be smashing!  Here's to August goals!

 And last but oh so not least, here is an Interwoven baby quilt for little Fiona Lee.  Holly and I collaborated on this, and we are thrilled with how it turned out!