A Girly Tote

A short time ago my husband and I were visiting with a friend - she was telling us about an upcoming summer trip to the beach with her little granddaughters. My friend has seen some of the bags I've made in the past and asked if I'd be able to make bags for her granddaughters to take to the beach - you know, for collecting sea shells and other little treasures. I do enjoy making bags and the opportunity to sew with sweet little girl fabrics was very appealing to me :o)

Lunch Bag pattern by Ayumi of Pink Penguin

Searching for a pattern is half the fun and I knew for certain I'd found what I was looking for when I happened upon the Lunch Bag by Ayumi of Pink Penguin. Ayumi wrote the tutorial for this bag back in 2010 so it's been out for several years now. Even though the pattern is called a lunch bag I think it makes a perfect tote for small children! The sweet drawstring top will help to protect the contents.

I was determined to use fabric from my stash and had a good time pulling options. I did feel like most of my fabrics have more of an adult-type of pattern on them so it took a couple days for me to find a mix I felt looked right for a child. I think these pink/coral fabrics fit the bill  :o)

I followed Ayumi's tutorial as written except that I made the outer bag body from one large piece of fabric instead of sewing two halves together. I do wish I'd thought to make the straps a bit longer - more like tote bag straps. However, this handle style will work just fine for small children. To give the bag structure I used fusible fleece on both the body of the bag and the handles.

How fun to sew from my fabric stash!

I have a fun mix of pink and green fabric pulled for the second bag and can't wait to get started! More pictures to follow :o)

Surprises along the way

Every once in awhile isn't it fun how something totally unexpected happens? Just a fun little surprise out of the blue. Back on March 2nd I received an email from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks that one of my block submissions had been accepted for publication in the upcoming Volume 13 issue.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol. 13

This email caught me off guard because I actually just mailed off a block for consideration in Vol. 14, but I had missed the earlier Vol. 13 submission window. I thought, "Wow! How fun that they accepted my block and moved it up to an earlier issue." This news caused me to very quickly design and send in yet another block that would hopefully be included in Vol. 14 which comes out in the fall.

Yesterday I came home from school (teacher, not student) and found the package of magazine issues Quiltmaker's generously sends to each block designer. I quickly started paging through the issue looking for my block. Boy-oh-boy was I surprised when I found it! I can't wait to share with you what I discovered! You'll have to join me on Monday, May 2 (kick-off day for the blog hop!) to find out :o)

Planning to use the precious

Precious: (of an object, substance, or resource) of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Google definitions.

Almost any quilter you talk to will admit to having some precious fabric in their stash...fabric they like so much that for some reason holding on to it makes more sense than using it. I, myself, have five collections of fabric that most probably fall into this classification: 

• Lush (paint by number deer) by Erin Michael
• Rouenneries by French General
• Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt
• In From the Cold and 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain

I'm excited to have a project I can't wait to get started on which will use my Kate Spain In From the Cold Christmas fabrics! Here are the fabrics I have from this line:

In From the Cold by Kate Spain

On the Moda Website is a collection of patterns for placemats, a table runner, and a gift bag featuring this sweet fabric line. I'm going to use the patterns for the little mugs of steaming beverages to make placemats of my own design, coasters, and possibly napkins to use for an upcoming bridal shower gift.

I can use other fabrics from my stash to round out the assortment. Here are some fabrics I pulled that I think will work:

Fabrics pulled from my stash

Wow it feels good to plan on using some of my precious fabric! I can't wait to get started...stand by for cute pictures :o)