Bag Week

Hello everyone, happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a great week and have fun plans for the weekend. I’m going to the Georgia Tech football game with my friend Lydia, whose boss gave her box seat tickets. It should be lots of fun. My team, Virginia Tech, has been playing really well this year. “Go Hokies!”

I’ve been busy making a couple of bags this week and started quilting Maggie’s First Dance, the embroidered version. First though, I want to announce my winner for October.

Ann of California, is going to receive this great pack of patterns from Christa Quilts. I especially like the String of Pearls pattern. It would be great to showcase your fabrics.

 

The first bag I want to show you is from Sherri of A Quilting Life. This is our Minis and More project for October. It’s a very quick bag to put together. This a free tutorial from Sherri. You have the option of doing the 2 1/2 inch squares on the front only with a solid back or using the 2 1/2 squares for both front and back. Check it out and join our parade the first of November.

 

 

 

I chose to use a mini charm pack of Valley by Sherri and Chelsi for Moda. No cutting necessary. The lining is the light aqua dot from Sherri and Chelsi’s Bright Sun fabric line.

I layered the front and back with fusible fleece, then quilted 1/4 inch from the seams. I did not make my handles as long as Sherri’s because I wanted to conserve my handle fabric, so I cut the width of fabric and then cut the strip in half.

 

I can use this bag for small knitting projects, such as socks, or to put lotions in for travel. It would also make a great gift filled with goodies.

The next bag to show you is the Sew Together Bag by Michelle of  SewDemented.

I have seen this bag all over the quilting blogs for the past few years.  A few weeks ago, my quilt guild, The Silver Comet Stitchers, posted that a Sew Together Class would be held at Stitch’n Quilt, a LQS, so I signed up. Since I had my Valley fabrics out, I decided to go ahead and use them for this bag also.

The class was taught by Renae of @thesouthernbobbin. The bag went together pretty easily until you got to all the layers. It was good to make it in the class the first time because Renae gave us some good tips on the contruction that weren’t in the pattern.

Even though there are four zippers, they were easy to put in because the construction is flat. After the 3 zippers are in for the pockets, you have one long piece.

These are the outside pocket panels and below are the pocket lining.

Then you pinched the pieces up and sewed to get the interior of the bag.

I see all kinds of sewing tools going in this bag when I take my sewing on the go, which is frequently.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ve started quilting Maggie’s First Dance so I’ll be working on those for the next couple of weeks. I’ll share some pictures along the way. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Brenda