Fall is on the horizon and here's a fall color purse that I made a few months ago. I actually took a class to learn how to make the "Vera Bradley" look alike purse and was very pleased with the result. The best thing that I learned was that I can take any fabric and quilt it myself! I know that sounds like a first grade tip, but I had never even thought about making my own quilted fabric. Around here, pre-quilted fabric is quite expensive and the selection is sparse. This simple little tip opened up the entire world of fabric as a source for quilted fabric!
This is the inside of the purse....bad picture, but there are six inside pockets to keep things under control, plus the two outside pockets.

Finally, here's a close up of some of the quilting. It was very time consuming but extremely easy to do. I did a simple cross hatch. I suppose I put more time into quilting the fabric than I did in the actual purse construction. That would be the downfall of this whole idea, but it far under shadows the delight of using any fabric that I choose. Plus, you can choose your quilting design and thread color, making it a true original in every way!

This purse was not made from an actual pattern, but any pattern could be adjusted for use with your own quilted fabric. Just remember to make all of your pattern pieces bigger so that you have room to absorb the shrinkage from the quilting. After quilting, cut your fabric according to the pattern measurements. Voila!