I am so excited to show you my new technique for this month.

Island Batik Ambassadors had a really fun challenge this month. We were asked to try a new technique. Now, I have been sewing and quilting a long time (over 40 years) and I have done nearly everything, yes, even bound buttonholes, but that is a story for another day. The fabrics for this project were given to me by Island Batik.

My inspiration for this month’s project came from Sherry’s project last year for the same topic! Sherry blogs at Powered By Quilting and you can read all about her adventures with fabric weaving here. Ever since she made this, I had been thinking about it!

So months later at QuiltCon, purchasing a Wefty Needle* was on my list of things to do. I also purchased a fabulous zipper, which you will see later. You Tube was my friend and I watched videos on Wefty Needle Channel and also a specific one on Mister Domestic’s Channel. Both were invaluable in teaching me the proper technique.

There are two onerous pieces of preparation. First, you prepare a board. And, second, you prepare many strips cut at 1″, probably 4 WOF strips for each of the fabrics. I used my Clover Bias Maker* which really makes getting the strips ready quite easy.

Here are the first strips put down not the backboard.

I did each strip at a time, trying to make them as tight as I could. Honestly, that needs a bit more work. On the bottom layer, I used a piece of two sided fusible, figuring I’d just add a backing right away.

Here’s the backing piece. You can see where I sewed around the edges. I then trimmed 1/4″ away from the sewing lines. Now, I was still not too sure what I wanted to make. I thought about an iPad case, but the piece was too small (maybe better planning???). I did add two strips of purple to attach the zipper to, so I didn’t have to deal with all that bulk.

In the end, I decided to make this purse. It isn’t going to get heavy wear, so I am not at all concerned about the fact that the seams aren’t covered.

Don’t you love the zipper? The multi-color prongs make my heart sing. More importantly, I did learn how to put on that zipper pull in a really easy way. I purchased the zipper at www.sewdejavu.com while at QuiltCon. Just in case you were wondering, this was an easy bag, and I’ll write up a little tutorial on it.

This is big enough for my iPhone, lipstick and a little money when we head out for an evening. It may make a little strap but my hardware for that kind of thing is elsewhere, so I will just see how it goes. Look at the upper right hand corner; I just love that little bit of yellow in the fabric.

GIVEAWAY
I am celebrating my 201st blog entry so it is time for a giveaway! I will either send you 2 1/2 yard pieces OR some 5″ WOF strips of Island Batik – winner’s choice. Just show me a picture of your sewing machine and what it looks like! You do not need to have a blog to enter (so I am told). I’ll keep this open until Wednesday at noon, so the winner can pick when I am near the stash of Island Batik fabrics.

Linking Up:
Main Crush Monday
What I Made Monday
Wednesday Wait Loss

Coming up soon on the blog:
2019 Monthly Color Challenge
Dream to Quilt – how it happens
Let’s Sew Along block – my design on 7/2