The Almost Inside Out Bag!

and Slow Motion Stitch-along

Well, my friend the Rabbit emailed me from Florida to say that she made a quilted bag out of black and white fabrics. Not be outdone, I decided I had to make one too. First step, go out into our tiny town to the fabric store and try to find a variety of black and white fabrics! Little did I know that this was mission impossible! I didn't quite find what Iwas looking for but found some fabrics that I could live with. I had with me a "Quilts illustrated" bag pattern ps016 Charm Party Tote and almost feel like I shouldn't mention the pattern in case the designer decides to sue me! What a mess I made! Other than buying the black and white fabric, I did not want to buy anything else and so, I did not buy the Pellon fusible fleece asked for in the pattern, but decided to use some padding that I had which is similar to Timtex, a very firm padding that would be suitable for making bowls and boxes. Well, I obviously had to amend the pattern because of my choice because instead of making the inside and outside of the bag separately and then sewing them together, I just ironed the outside of the bag to one side of my padding and then ironed the inside of the bag to the other side of the padding. I then sewed the 3 sides together and all I had to do was turn the bag inside out! HA! Have you ever tried to turn cement inside out?

This is what I thought my bag was going to end up looking like as I tried to turn it inside out! I needed the help of my husband, the dog and the neighbours!

The bag finally got turned right side out and I was able to put some binding along the top and then some handles on it. One thing I did not like was the pocket I put on it. I should mention that I had problems understanding how to made the outside pocket so made up my own, but seeing that there are many women in my quilting guild who had no problems at all with the pocket, I will assume it is a problem with me and not the pattern. In any case, I did not like my pocket and could not remove it as it was ironed onto my padding so I made a separate square and hand stitched it ontop of the pocket that was there. The completed bag is shown below!

Pocket before change:

Pocket with the square hand sewn over it:

Back of bag:

And finally, I might mention that I am doing a Stitch Along with my friend Didi in Spain. We are doing the Black Sheep Sampler by Elizabeth Designs. We just started this project and I think that as of yesterday, we were both around the same place, just starting the border vine. But, I woke up at 4 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and stitched. This is what I have done so far! I think you might have some catching up to do Didi!

Hopefully, it won't take me 6 months to make my next posting!