I finished my first project out of my new Japanese craft book Machine Made Patchworks. I was really nervous about being able to follow the instructions since they are in Japanese. Well I got Japanese for Dummies and read it last night now I can both speak and read Japanese. And if you believe that I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Really the book has excellent illustrations and includes numbers that I recognized. I had to convert them from centimeters to inches and I was ready to go. Well nearly ready to go. I may have mentioned before I spend a great deal more time thinking about a project than the actual time spent "doing" the project. I google searched several things related to the book to see if I could find any advise on following the instructions. I found this lovely blog. Blair has lots of Japanese craft books including the one I have. She has also made this purse several times. So I emailed her and asked her several questions I had about the construction of the bag. Specifically what type of interfacing she used and whether or not she quilted the strips individually or after they were sewn together. The illustration in the book looks as if they are quilted before sewing them together. This would require cutting batting out for each strip and I would imagine make it pretty bulky at all the seams. She was very gracious and answered my questions. The first one she made she did like the book piecing and quilting simultaneously and in her words it was a disaster. I am so glad I was able to benefit from her experience. Because judging from her pictures I'd say she has it figured out now. Her purses are prettier than the one in the book. I am so glad I found her blog. I just love this little thing called the internet! How on earth did we live without it? I am really happy with the way my purse turned out and it was easy to make. A little time consuming but the next one will go faster I'm sure. I am keeping this one and I also want to make one in black and white kind of like the one pictured in the book.
This picture shows the strips sewn together before I did the machine quilting. Most of the fabric used is Amy Butler. The brown and white polka dot fabric is Michael Miller and there is one piece of a solid brown twill fabric. When I was sewing it together I heard this strange noise and turned around and saw Maggie eating my batting. Or I thought she was eating my batting. After looking more closely I think she was just making a nest. Cats are strange little creatures.
She is the sewing supervisor. Always watching what I am doing and occasionally offering assistance.
