I said the pouch idea would have to wait but it didn't have to wait very long. By Saturday night I'd picked out a new group of colours and a piece of batting the right size and started in on my second adventure in string quilting. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

The snap frame is one of a pair I ordered from Goodness last spring. My pouch is about 3 1/2 inches wide and 3 1/4 inches deep. The snap frame was really easy to put in; I looked through the pictures in this tutorial (from the Small Object) before starting.

The fun of patchwork is always looking at what I've got when I'm finished and remembering where the larger pieces of these fabrics are: here I see a quilt for Rob, presents for sisters, cousins and friends, and my circular needle roll. The lining fabric is a scrap from making up one of my favourite Regency dresses (which it seems I've never blogged about - I'll try and fix that sometime).

Inside my pouch lives a charm bracelet I bought from Wisecraft's shop a couple of years ago. The string patchwork somehow made me think of this bracelet and I'm very glad it finally has a proper home; I'm always so worried about it catching on things in my box.

I discovered something new this weekend.

I love it when that happens. You're cruising along reading all your favourite blogs, you click a few links and there you are at some new and wonderful place. On Friday night I was reading Anna Maria's post about her new voiles (which I'm dying to actually touch but must wait a bit longer); she mentioned how good they'd be for doing a string quilt and I put "string quilt" into Google to learn what that meant.

I found a few basic instructions and pictures of diamond patterns and then I discovered mairuru's tutorial for a string quilt pouch (be sure to look around the rest of her blog - she has loads of cute tutorials for all sorts of things). Too cute! I loved the colours she chose. I loved the texture it made. I loved the way she did the whole thing by hand. I went immediately into my sewing room and pulled out my scraps box. Another quick look into my pile of leftover batting and I plunked myself down on the couch in the family room and quilted for the rest of the night.


I finished and trimmed my block Saturday morning and realized that I'd cut my batting piece the wrong size and was going to have a very shallow wide pouch. The pouch idea would have to wait. But I loved my block - that sweet wrinkly texture and the teeny bits of print - and I'd loved making it. So it's the beginning of a quilt ... not a fast quilt and probably not a big quilt but definitely a quilt.


I spent the rest of Saturday morning cutting little strips of fabric until my shoulder hurt.

This was one of the projects I was working on before we went on our vacation. Once I'd made my new wallet I really needed a coin purse. I love these little old fashioned looking snap frames. They make me feel a little more proper and lady like (as though I was wearing gloves and the perfect hat).

This little frame travelled all the way from Goodness in Japan to reach me. The instructions were, not surprisingly, in Japanese but I had a little secret weapon. A while ago The Purl Bee made a tutorial for making a coin purse from a Japanese snap frame very similar to this one. I compared the pictures on my instructions with the ones in their tutorial and followed their instructions when there were gaps.


One thing that had me very confused was the shapes of the pattern pieces on my instruction sheet. The outside pattern was okay but I couldn't figure out how the lining was supposed to fit. In the end of used the outside pattern piece to draft new patterns based on the shapes in the Purl Bee tutorial; I liked their cubby little purse.

The only tricky part of making my purse was getting the top edges to stay in the frame long enough for me to squeeze it shut. The craft glue I've got works well once it is dry but while wet is not very tacky. I ended up doing little sections at a time and just accepting that my gathers would not be perfectly even. Now that it's finished and in use I don't even notice.