One Last Project

Lately all I've been working on is projects for one or the other of my fiber art groups or things for the Woman's Club annual arts and craft competition. I can no longer enter quilts, since I am considered a pro, so I come up with other things to make. There are a lot of categories.

Today I finished my last one and now I can get on to doing what I really love, quilting and surface design. Not to say that I didn't have fun doing these other projects, because I did.

This last one, a handbag started with a card of vintage buttons ( know, I know, more buttons) bought at a flea market in South America, don't remember the city. I think they must have been a little pricey because I didn't buy them immediately, but kept going back to look at them before I succumbed. This was a few years ago and I couldn't think of how to use them to their best advantage until I saw this pattern for a cute little handbag.

I fell in love with their luster and somewhat metallic look. You can see how old they are by the card, the back being very yellowed and they are all sewn on by hand. Are they Mother of Pearl? I don't know.

Here's the cute little bag. It is quite small and the handles are just bangle bracelets. They used beads instead buttons.  I liked the free motion quilting, too, right up my alley.

Here's the book it came from, a very nice one with a lot of good ideas and very clear directions. I made my bag twice as big as the one shown.

And here's my bag. I used a hand dyed fabric that I thought was a good companion to the buttons. It looks a little pinkish here. The next photo is a truer color. I used all 36 of the buttons that were on the card.  It's a nice size, about 16" wide by 12" deep. I lined it with more of the same fabric.

 I made the straps out of gray webbing that I covered with fabric on one side. They are long enough to use as a shoulder bag, which is what I like to use. I will definitely use this one.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.