My first commission

The experiment I posted the other day was a sample for my first commission.  I've been asked to make a bag with a dragonfly on it. It also needed to have a pocket for a Kindle. Other than that, I was free to do what I liked.

I wanted the bag to have plenty of shape to it so I decided to make it with a stiff interfacing.  Then, instead of batting, I decided to quilt on to felt. All the flowers, leaves and yarns are just placed on the felt, not stuck on, then covered with net and heavily quilted. Here is one side of the bag.

And the quilting from the back. This is a design from Leah's 365 free motion quilting designs project, loopy paisley.

I bought a bag making kit from my local quilting shop, Patchwork Passion. The kit had a magnetic clasp, strap buckles, a key thingy and these great feet. Aren't they cute!

I completed this at midnight, the night before our quilt show. I intended to have a flap with the magnetic closer on it but I ran out of time. As you can see, I've added a little strap for the key thingy.  You put your keys on that instead of dropping them in the bottom of your bag and losing them!

You may have noticed that there was no dragonfly on the bag. To tell the truth, I had already decided that if I didn't put a flap on the bag that I would put the dragonfly on the front of the bag - and then I forgot! That's what comes of doing things at the last minute.

I really needed to have a dragonfly on it and also, after making the bag up I decided that it did need the flap on it too. So here it is.

And there is the magnetic closer.

 And the finished bag.

I've got enough felt and interfacing to make one for myself! The basic shape was from this tutorial.