Sue Bleiweiss

Tote bag and some new journals

I used some of that fabric I showed you in my my last post to make this tote bag:

and the other side:

This is one piece of a set of items that I'm working on for a big project.  I'll have more photos for you on that later this week hopefully.

Back in October when I was in Houston at the Quilt Festival with Terri we came across this vendor selling wonderful packages of lace for practically a steal.  So naturally I bought a stack!  I finally pulled them out this week and used some of them for a couple of journals:

Linen&Lace:

and Lavendar&Lace:

You can see the insides of these if you like by visiting the etsy shop.

Fabric folders

I wanted to start off with some small projects with the new sewing machine just to get used to the way it sews.  So I began this morning by finishing off a few postcards:


These are up for trading if anyone is interested.   Just drop me an email with your address.

Once the postcards were done I decided to move onto another project.  The other day I was in the store and I saw these very  folders that were done in a very pretty printed paper.  Well I went to buy them and good grief they were expensive.  So I started thinking about how I could make my own and personalize them to the contents they would hold. 

The one on the left is done with fabric strips and is to store all of the dogs records and papers in and the one on the right is a layered surface done with torn pages from a cooking magazine and I'll use that one for all the recipes that I tear out of magazines and usually just stuff into a back of a cookbook.  The insides of these also have a pocket:

Both of these are lined with cotton fabric.

Then I started thinking about the coupons that I carry in my wallet.  Some are for the grocery store and some are for places like the craft store and fabrics store.  So I made up a wallet sized version to hold those:

and on the inside:

and the back:

I am really having fun working with my new sewing machine!

A new bag

I decided to take a break from working on my Fibre&Stitch article today and make myself a new bag:

I decided to use up some of my batik scraps that I've been collecting and paired them off with some nice heavyweight denim.  This bag measures about 13" wide x 12" tall x 4 1/2" deep.  It has leather straps and the front panel has a pocket which you can see in the photo above.  It looks a little wonky but it's not, it's just the way the bag is standing.  And the other side has a pocket as well:

The inside has clips for keys and other things as well as a zipper compartment, 2 patch pockets and 2 sleeves for holding water bottles:

I think this bag is going to make a great travel bag for when I go to Houston.

Now I must get back to working on my Fibre&Stitch article.  I'll leave you with a sneak peek...

Journal wrap and a new series

I always have a notebook sitting next to my chair in the den so that when an idea strikes I don't have to go looking for a piece of paper to write it down on.  It also helps me to have all my ideas written in one place because often one idea leads to a completely different one and I find it helps me to find a focus when I'm not sure what to work on.  I really like these notebooks because the pages are nice and sturdy and the size is perfect for me.  But good grief could the covers be anymore boring?  So I decided to make a sleeve wrap for mine to jazz it up a bit:

But then of course once the wrap is opened it revealed the same boring black notebook so after a bit of altering, it now looks like this:

Much better!

And here's a prototype for a new series that I'm working on:

This one actually covers a tissue box.  I know it looks pretty boring but this was to work out the dimensions and the construction - I have a whole list of directions to go with this so stay tuned ...

Prism Pouch

It's all about quick and easy projects in the studio this week and next while I work on developing a class that's all about projects made from scraps that you can make up quick and easy.  Here's another quick project:  The Prism Bag in velvet, rayon and silk:

and open:

It measures about 9"x6" give or take a 1/2" here or there.  Super fast to make believe it or not.  Only took me a couple hours to put this together this morning and that includes drafting the pattern!   

Cones

I was looking for an easy fun and no fuss project to work on today and I just got a new shipment of Pelmet Vilene yesterday so I decided to try making some cones.   These are all about 9" high.

Hand dyed silk velvet wrapped with a cord made with the Diva cord maker.

Cotton batiks with wood beads

Velvets & silks

Embellished organza fabric.

Fun to make and I was thinking you could fill them with candy, potpourri and all sorts of things.  They would make great little holiday gifts if you wrapped up some candies, nuts or even tea bags or cookies in pretty cellophane tied with a ribbon and tucked inside. 

Nuno felting and a sneak preview

It was such a nice day yesterday so I set myself up a workstation on the deck and played a bit with some nuno felting.  Here's a few of the pieces that I made:

The one on the left is my favorite.  It's merino wool on a base of back silk chiffon and I think I am going to turn it into a bag.  The one on the right is merino wool on hand painted cheesecloth and the one in the way back is a really pretty green pink merino blend.

And I'm continuing to work on the free projects for the July newsletter for Fibre&Stitch.  One of them is going to be how to make a faux chenille pillow cover:

Aren't these fun?!  If you have a request for something you'd like to see for a free project just drop me an email and we'll put it on the list if we can.

The pouch bag

In the last post I showed you this pile of ingredients:

Which now looks like this:

The instructions to make this pouch bag will be in the July Fibre&Stitch newsletter due out sometime around July 13.  This is a nice easy bag to make with lots of options for embellishments  and at about 9"x10" it's a good size for carrying everything you need without being so big that you lose everything at the bottom of it.

Teapots

A couple of new teapots.  This one from the tea bag wrapper fabric I made the other day:

And this one is made from a vintage tea towel :

The tea towel was supposed to get turned into a bag for Barb's Purse Project but the yellow was a bit brighter than I liked for a bag (sorry Barb!) but I thought it was perfect for a teapot.

Well!

Good grief there's nothing like a freebie to motivate people to comment!  Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my previous post about the handwoven fabric.  If you haven't left a comment on that post yet, there's still time.  I won't be drawing the name until Wednesday so you have until midnight tomorrow night to get in on the drawing.

I managed to get a couple things made this weekend:

I decided to pair the sari yarn fabric with some decorator weight denim and I'm very happy with the way this tote bag came out.  I'm going to meet up with Joanna this weekend and we're taking a class with Jan Beany and Jean Littlejohn so I decided I needed a nice big sturdy tote bag to carry all my supplies in.  I also used the decorator weight denim for the lining of the bag  which has a multitude of pockets and slots for pencils, scissors and supplies.  Overall dimensions of the bag are 14" x 14" x 5".  I used those nice leather clip on handles from Joggles instead of making straps.

And of course I couldn't resist making a padfolio or two.  The one you see in the picture above is now available for purchase on my website here.