Sarah's handbag...

actually, it's a bag for her Bible. This is part of Sarah's Xmas gift that I gave her. When we were down in FL., my sister made me and my DM and DSIL each a bag. My Bible fit in it, perfectly, so that is what I use mine for. Laurie had found this old quilt top at a flea market- with holes, and made all of our bags out of it. I really need to take a picture of that one. Anyway, she had embroidered all of our names on these little pockets in various colors. Her DMIL has a Viking embroidery machine and I can't say I've ever been interested in one until I saw the things my sister could do with it. She showed us how it worked and as a demonstration peice, she worked up this pocket for Sarah in the colors Sarah picked out. When Laurie was done she handed it to Sarah, who handed it to me and said, "Make me a bag, sometime." Well, how hard could it be? really. Yeah, I think I could figure it out. I didn't have a cool vintage quilt to work with, but I did have this little Ricky Tims convergence I had fiddled with. I wasn't so thrilled with it that I had planned to do something more with it... It was like one of Finn's orphans. I thought it might be big enough. Backed it with some vintage-esse fabric. Played with the qulting. Tried Darcie's stones... I still need a lot more practice- it takes a lot of concentration to get them really scootched together like she does. I didn't have a pattern- just based it on the one Laurie made me- only a bit bigger as my Bible sticks out of the top a little. I had some vintage binding already made up from a previous project. The handles are made from rolling the quilted fabric up so they are very sturdy and cushy. All in all, I used every bit of that fabric and I am pretty happy with the results. I filled it with 1/2 yard cuts of blue and yellow. Figured that if Sarah has sworn off buying stash fabric, somebody needs to take up the slack!