Bag of the Week 9

Gondola by Barbara Randle

The vernal equinox might be another two weeks away but I am sure wishing for a little breath of spring.  So I pulled out one of my cheeriest purses for this week’s bag.  This is one of several designs I have made by Barbara Randle.  

Barbara is best known for her modern take on crazy quilting.  She is the author of two books, Crazy Quilting with Attitude and More Crazy Quilting with Attitude, and offers classes throughout the country as well as from her home in Birmingham, AL.  Her designs are fresh, modern and full of color.  She likes to use a black/cream colored print in her work which really makes the colors POP!  Her technique is not hard to master and the embellishing portion is loads of fun.  Barbara also has several patterns available through the Vogue Pattern company.

This bag is similar to Barbara’s Gondola Purse.  I made this bag while attending Martha Pullen’s School of Art Fashion.  Barbara designed this bag for the event and came with lots of kits in all sorts of color choices.  I chose colors that I love but that were a little outside of my comfort zone just to challenge myself a bit.  The fabric pieces, largely silk, were pieced onto a canvas foundation and then embellished with couched fibers and decorative stitches.  The lining, in two cheery colors, lime green and turquoise, has lots of pockets for organization.

This was a really fun purse to create and is also fun to carry.  It gets lots of attention!  Watch for several other B. Randle Designs to show up as a Bag of the Week in the future.