purple pain

i'm easily distracted.  i've come to accept it and stop beating myself up over it.  this time it was those extra quilt squares.  i only needed 63 for the quilt and it turns out i ended up with about 120.  i needed to do something with them. i couldn't let them go to waste could i?  surely not.  i layed them out and pieced them together with the thought that i might make a bag or a skirt from the material.  sure, it's not what i was supposed to be working on but OH MY GOODNESS!  i'm so glad that i did it.  while working on sewing the blocks together i was reminded of one very important piece of information :  VELVET IS EVIL!

i had forgotten that.  i had forgotten just what it feels like to chase a scrap of velvet across a sewing table.  to watch it shift out of position and defy every pin that you poke into it, then turn it's head and stick out it's tongue at you.  i remember now!  it sucks.  i did an online search to see if i could get some tips for working with velvet and i didn't find anything different from what i was already doing.  i also found an expert quilter from Romania named Geta Grama whom i saw had made some quilted velvet bags.   i wrote her a note asking for advice and this is what she wrote back.... "if I would have a few options, I would never choose to piece velvet."  good to know.

i finished a bag using the scraps but now i need to go back and redesign the quilt.  luckily i don't have too many velvet blocks in it but enough to make me uneasy.  i need to replace them all with some nice, safe cotton.  looks like i'm already dropping behind in my april challenge.

 quilted purple patchwork bag (12 x 14) with ....

pocket.
sold!