Phoebe Quilted Tote & Matching Wallet

Don't forget to enter my vintage sheet charm squares giveaway! This is the last day to enter, and I'll pick the winner tomorrow.

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite fabric combinations with you, done up in a purse and matching wallet. Meet "Phoebe" ...



I can't tell you how much I love this floral print, and the green gingham is the exact shade of the leaves.



Here are the inside pockets. I kept one side as a nice, big pocket. I divided the other side into 4 pockets - 2 small, and 2 medium pockets.



And here is the matching wallet, with that gorgeous floral as the outside fabric.



The inside is done in green gingham. It includes room for 6 credit cards, as well as two pouches for cash, receipts or a checkbook. It closes with Velcro.



Here's a closeup of the floral fabric that I diagonally-quilted on my machine.

It's in my shop, if you're interested. Enjoy!

I'm linking to Fiber Arts Monday.

Homemade Gift: Daphne Quilted Bag & Matching Wallet

Don't forget to enter my vintage sheet charm squares giveaway!



We went to another graduation over the weekend, and this is the gift I gave the (female) graduate: another purse and wallet set. I really love this color and pattern combination! I've called it the Daphne Bag. (For some reason, I thought it fit.)



This one is lined in yellow with contrasting pockets done in the same print as the outside.



Of course, I made a matching wallet, too.



The wallet has room for six credit cards, as well as two pockets for cash, receipts, or a checkbook.



Here's a closeup of the diagonal quilting I did on the outside of the bag. I really love the look of this kind of quilting! I found an even feed foot (for my sewing machine) at my local Hancocks, and it even has a quilting guide that attaches to it - something that Singer doesn't offer for my machine. As a result, this is going to be a lot easier to do in the future! :)

I'm linking to Fiber Arts Monday and

Chloe Quilted Bag & Matching Wallet

Don't forget to enter my vintage sheet charm squares giveaway! It's open until June 1st, and you have three chances to win.

For today, I'm showcasing another tote and matching wallet. This one is Chloe, one of my favorites so far ...



I adore this vintage floral print! I diagonally-quilted it on my machine and paired it with a pink gingham on the outside and a matching tone-on-tone print on the inside:



The inside also features three pockets in the floral print: one is approximately 4x12"; the other two are approximately 4x6".



Of course I made a matching wallet ...



... which features room for 6 credit cards, as well as 2 pockets that can be used for cash, receipts or a checkbook. It closes with Velcro.



Here's a closer look at the quilting on the bag.

Again, this is one of my very favorites to date. I've never seen a vintage print like this one, so I'm carefully planning my projects to maximize my use of it.

It's in the shop, if you're interested.

Enjoy!

Thrifting Thursday and a Giveaway

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Stay tuned for another giveaway soon!

It's Thursday again, which means it's time to show what I got at the thrift shops this week, as well as my Etsy shop update.

But before we get to that, let's talk about a giveaway, shall we? :) I've been thinking that it would be fun to have a giveaway attached to my Thrifting Thursday posts now and then. Maybe once or month or so, we'll see how it pans out as we go along.

Today I'm giving away a pack of 21 different charm squares cut from every vintage sheet fabric in my scrap bin (one of each).



What are charm squares, you ask? They are 5" squares of fabric that you can sew together to make a charm quilt. I've been saving squares to make an authentic charm quilt ever since I started quilting, so I thought I'd help along someone else who might be doing the same thing. Of course, you don't have to make a charm quilt, if you'd rather use them for something else!



So, how do you enter?

You can earn a total of three entries by:

• leaving me a comment (I'd love to know your favorite of my finds, but any comment will do.)
  
• following my blog and posting a comment about it (if you already follow my blog, just mention it in a comment), AND
• posting about the giveaway on your own blog and posting a link to it in the comments.

I'll leave the giveaway open until next Wednesday, June 1st. I'll post the winner's name on the blog and give them until the next Monday (June 6th) to contact me. If I don't get a response, I'll pick another winner.

Since shipping can be pricey internationally, let's limit this to the US only, please. Thanks, and have fun!

So, let's get on to the great deals I found this week ...



These first few fabrics were another Goodwill find. Boy, those people have no clue when it comes to fabric, do they? Please, don't anyone clue them in, either. I'm sure they make enough money with everything else they overprice! :)

Anyway, I found complete 5-yard rolls of decorator fabric at my local Goodwill this week. They are 54" wide and have never been cut into.

This first one I'm calling The Rose Garden.



This next one is another gorgeous cabbage rose floral from P. Kaufmann. I'm calling it Blue Cabbage Rose Bundles.



This last one is actually the only one I had in my cart when I got to the checkout. A generous lady behind me in line asked if I had seen the other rolls similar to this. I hadn't, so she walked me back and showed me the other two - in a completely different section of the store that I hadn't even checked.

This is a York fabric called The Queen's Garden.


I've been collecting mostly vintage linens lately, but I always scan the rest of the linens for great fabric combinations, too. This small blue floral caught my eye this time.




This blue-checked sheet was another of those non-vintage-but-very-useful types. It was originally a Coca-Cola sheet. (Do people really decorate their bedrooms in Coca-Cola? I must really be "out of the loop".)



I get 99% of my vintage linens from thrift stores. I prefer it that way, since I can go to one store and see the linens from over 100 people all at once. Occasionally, though, we get to go to yard sales. This is the first vintage linen I've ever found at a yard sale, and it was one of those yard sales where you can fill a bag for $1. (I got some nice designer clothing in that same bag, too.)

This is a "cheater quilt" style sheet, with the quilting designs pre-printed. I think it was originally a bedskirt, since it had a cute ruffle around the edges and it was seamed down the middle. There's still lots of fabric to use from the flat part of it, and I have some plans for those ruffles, too.



I don't often buy linens with a mainly-border print, but these pillowcases were still so nice and vibrant that I thought I'd see what I can make with one. This would probably be a good bet for one of those pillowcase jumpers.



There's just something about me and the color yellow ... When I was younger, I wanted a yellow VW Beetle with eyelashes painted around the headlights. I had seen one used as a sales vehicle for a pool company, and I thought it was adorable.

I never did get that VW Beetle (too pricey), but I have always loved the cheerfulness of the color yellow. That's probably why I couldn't pass up this set of pillowcases. I'm calling them Daisies & Buttercups.



This print didn't photograph well, but it's a nice blend of orange, yellow and brown. It will make a great filler fabric for the custom quilts I'm making for a fall wedding.



I love these Violet Bundles! They look so dainty on the lightly-striped background.





Here's another fun floral print that I found at a shop I'd never found anything in before. What a nice surprise!



These tiny flowers will make a great filler fabric on quilts!



I did find some more decorator fabrics, and I was thrilled that they were priced so reasonably. Most of these cuts were around $0.25-0.50, and they're all at least 1/2 yard. I'm thinking I'll be making some more bags and wallets soon!

I love this pink stripe. Pink is another color I just can't get enough of, in case you didn't notice. :)



Isn't this one gorgeous?? I would have loved to find about 10 yards of it, but I'm happy with what I got. I'll be planning my cutting carefully on this one, to get the most out of it.



This green magnolia print should coordinate nicely with another fabric I have on hand and have been stumped on how to use it.



I dearly love the blue and white background stripes on this one. They really set off that bouquet!



While these aren't exactly Moda fabrics, I was pleased to find 5 coordinating fat quarters in a bundle for $2 at my local Goodwill.



And I was thrilled to find this Rowenta iron at my favorite local thrift shop, Harvest Ministries! I don't know exactly how much it was, since we don't get a receipt at this store and nothing is really priced. However, I do know what my total bill was, and she can't have charged me more than $1 for it. It might not be Rowenta's fanciest model ever, but I love the "burst of steam" feature for quilting! I'm positive you can't touch it brand-new for what I usually invest in a brand-new iron (about $10). :)



These cute little wooden spools have almost certainly been re-wound with that thread, but I couldn't pass them up for the price! Someone peeled off most of the original paper tags on the top and bottom of the spools, but there's enough there to hint at the fact that the spools are genuinely vintage.



If you feel the need to wear sunglasses to look at this sweater, you're not alone. (Maybe that's why I noticed it in the store, and why it ended up there in the first place.) If you also guessed that it's a little too bright for my personality, you're right on target. However, I didn't get it for the sweater; I got it for those rose-shaped buttons. Six of them (about 1" diameter) for $0.50? I'll happily rip them off the sweater myself for that price!



My husband found this bag of rubber stamps and wondered if it was a good price for $3. Um, yes! (The largest stamp is a "K" size, if you're into rubber stamping.) The sticker on the PSX truck stamp was for $6.99, and I know it would go for a lot more now. I just love those old-timey trucks, but I've never been willing to pay big bucks for a stamp of them.



My husband came back from visiting a shut-in with this cute bunny stamp. Everything in the store was 50% off, so it was only $0.50.



My friend recently re-did her master bathroom in a Paris theme, and I thought of her when I found these stickers for $0.25. I'm hoping she can still use them!



Lastly, I found these plastic gun holsters for $0.25. Cousin Camp is coming up in a few weeks, and I'm doing a Western theme this year. The boys will love these!

That's it for now. Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a bundle of charm squares!

I'm linking to ...

Homemade Gift: The Quilted Laura Tote

We have several young ladies that we know graduating this year. Since we don't have the money to give them each a lot, I decided to make them a gift that's worth a lot more money than I put into it ... I'm giving them totes.

This is my first quilted bag, in that I machine-quilted the fabric to make my own diagonally-quilted fabric (like the big names use). I love how it turned out!



Here's a look at the inside, which I lined with a solid blue sheet fabric. Sorry about the lighting - I don't always get ideal lighting conditions before it's time to give something away.

I added a set of pockets to this one, using the blue gingham from the outside. I like to use the contrast so that you can actually find the pockets when you look inside.

You may notice the magnetic snap on this one, barely visible at the bottom of that last picture. I found them at Hancocks, but they're just as cheap on Etsy (and cheaper if you buy in quantity) if you can't find them locally.



And here's a closer look at the quilted fabric. I did all of this without my even feed foot (which I somehow managed to break) and without a quilting guide (which never fit the foot I bought it with in the first place). Keeping the lines straight wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but it certainly wasn't the hardest, either.

I'll have a few more bags to show you in the next few days. Stay tuned!

I'm linking to ...

Homemade Gift: Floral Tote and Matching Wallet

I had so much fun combining fabrics on the other totes that I went through my stash and made a few more pairings while I was at it. I made this tote and wallet for my Secret Sister for Mother's Day.

I used a non-vintage sheet from my stash paired with the Vintage Brown and Yellow Floral decorator fabric from my shop.



I lined it with the decorator fabric and added one of my new labels (courtesy of this tutorial by Patchwork Pottery).



Here it is with the matching wallet.



I discovered that I like the Velcro closure better than magnetic snaps for this size of wallet. It seems to hold better and the edges of the flap don't curl up.



I still had a zipper to use on this one, so I made it with a zippered pouch.

My Secret Sister isn't so secret anymore. I'm the only one in our church that does this sort of thing, so my gifts always give me away. I'm over that already. I've decided to just be me and let people figure it out early. They never seem to mind, since they all enjoy the gifts I make for them. :)

At any rate, she was pretty impressed. And I was pretty happy because I made her feel special and happy, and I didn't have to spend a fortune to do it. I just invested some of my time into it. Friends are always worth the time.

Enjoy!

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