Interchangeable Bag

I had such a fun day yesterday at quilt group. We had a workshop to make these interchangeable bags, and all of them turned out so cute. It's a great way to use those novelty fabrics that are too small for a pillowcase and you can't think what else to do with them. What's unique about the bag is that the knobs at the ends of the handles unscrew so you can slide the handles out of the fabric casing and switch out the bag bottom with another one.

The bag bottom was pretty easy to make, and it wound up being about a four-hour project. Now that I know how to do it, I expect the next one would go faster. There are four pockets inside the bag, which are just the right size for a cell phone, a tissue pack, keys, or whatever. If you wanted to, it wouldn't be difficult to alter the pocket dimensions to accomodate the things you like to carry in your purse.

There are a couple of commercial patterns available. We used this one called "Sassy Snappy Purse" from Pleasant Pond Studio. You can contact the designer at pleasantpondstudio@gmail.com.

The 32-Hour Bag

It didn't really take me that long to make this tiny bag, but it sure felt like it! I picked up the pattern on the Shop Hop we did a few weeks ago, and my good friend Kay and I worked on it together at a Casey's Quilters meeting.

It was the zipper on the top of the bag that gave me fits. I ripped it out four different times because I just wasn't happy with either the placement or the amount of bulk in the seam. I was much happier once I figured out a different way to install it. I could whip one of these together pretty quickly now!

I used squares left over from the Charm Party tote I made last September. That tote has becoming my knitting bag, so I'll fill this little pouch with knitting notions and throw it in the tote.

Credit where credit is due: Sweet Stuff design by This and That Patterns

Tote Finished

I finished my tote late this evening, and I really like how it turned out. These lined totes are turned through an opening in the bottom of the lining and the last time I made one, I had some trouble sewing the opening closed and making it look nice. Yes, I know no one will see it, but I am a firm believer in making the inside look as nice as the outside, a concept that was drilled into me years ago when I learned garment construction.

Anyway, I used some 1/4" wide fusible tape along one edge, then folded the opposite edge 1/4" under, placed the turned edge over the other, and fused them together. It worked like a charm, and then I appliqued the seam to make sure it doesn't come apart. A very nice, clean finish.

Credit where credit is due:
Camille's Bag by Penny Sturges, www.quiltsillustrated.com

Sunday Stash Report

I still haven't finished my placemats that we made at Kay's a couple of Sundays ago, but I did finish my other pillowcase, and it looks great. Thanks so much to everyone for all the nice compliments on the pillowcases. You know, I wasn't sure about this blogging thing when I started in January. Truthfully, I didn't think I would stick with it; but now I'm as addicted to posting as I am to reading them. I just love seeing what everyone else is doing--it's like Show and Tell every day, and I learn a lot. I hope someone might find something useful on my blog now and then too.

Friday was our regular bimonthly meeting at Kay's, and we had a double theme for the meeting--apples and tote bags. Everyone was asked to bring an apple dish, and we had quite a variety. Kay always makes a lovely supper for us, and we had a nice roast with potatoes, carrots, and apples. As accompaniments we also had three different salads with apples in them, some jello with apples, and a couple of desserts with apples. It's always a lot of fun when we do this, and next month we'll have a Pumpkinfest. Last year I made the most horrible pumpkin and black bean soup. Basically it consisted of a can of pumpkin, a can of black beans, some broth, and a few spices, and you heated it up for about 10 minutes, and it was done. I got the recipe from a well-known tv cooking show host, who shall remain nameless. Oh, it was so awful! This year I'll stick with pumpkin bread or something I know how to cook!

Janice had this tote bag with her a couple of meetings ago, and we liked it so much we decided we'd get together and learn how to make them. The tote uses one of those charm packs that are so popular now, and I happened to have one that I won from Becky the Quilting Booklady's birthday giveaway a while back. The tote used 35 of the 50 squares I had in the pack plus another yard of fabric for the handles and lining, which I found in my stash. Besides the pocket on the front, there are a couple more pockets inside the tote. I really liked this pattern because you could come up with a number of variations to make each one a little different. There's supposed to be a button on that front pocket; but I hate sewing on buttons, so I might let it just flap around for a while.

I got most of it finished on Friday, and tonight after I got home from work I finished the topstitching. While I was sitting there admiring my handiwork, I thought about putting up a hook or something somewhere in my sewing room to hang up my totes. I'm beginning to accumulate more of them, and I've been folding them up inside a cabinet. Then I remembered this coat rack that was upstairs on our closed-in back porch. I think it must have belonged to my grandmother. Over my husband's strenuous objections, I commandeered it and brought it down to my sewing room, and it will work perfectly! After a while my husband even offered to clean it up for me. What a good man!

Well, anyway, here's the Stash Manager's Report:

Fabric used this week: 1-3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 133-3/4 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 246-1/8 yards
Net year to date: - 112-3/8 yards

I've really been behaving myself pretty well lately, haven't I?

Credit where credit is due:
Charm Party Tote design by Penny Sturges, Quilts Illustrated