Wednesday, July 17, 2013

My New Beach Bag

I did it. I finally did it. I made myself a new beach bag. A Tinker Tote to be exact. If you remember from my last post, I recently took Tara Rebman's Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bag class at Craftsy.com.  I decided one night last week to print and cut out the pattern.  The next day I was off work, so I got right to work on the outside panels.  I used the Coastal line by The Henley Studio for Andover/ Makower UK.  I just love the look of these modern colored traditional designs.

Beach Huts


Painted Planks

Seagulls

Shells

Lighthouses

I used Kona Cotton in Royal Blue for the bottom of the bag.  I just love the pop it gives the bag. I did adjust the flap from curved to a point, mainly to make it easier for me to sew neatly. I thought about using red for the binding, but decided there was just not enough red in the patterns to make it work. I am glad I used the shells. 

This pattern challenged me in a few ways.  First, I have never made a bag this size. I also had not made an inserted zipper pocket, which was sooooo easy with Tara's extremely clear instructions. Lastly, I had never made and worked with bias binding.  I am still not on the "I love binding" train.  In fact I find itto be the worst part of quilting and bag making.  Maybe one day I will get it down and it won't be so frustrating. So just don't look to close at the inside edge of my binding, okay? 

Front

Back

Inserted Zippered Pocket

In other news, I finally finished up my June Simply Solids Bee Block and I finished my July block the same day.  At least this month I won't be worrying about getting my block finished and mailed back (two weeks into next month).
July

June (taken in my car because I wasn't thinking, lol)

Well, that's all I have for today.  I hope you like my bag as much as I do.  I also hope that you will take Tara's class if you haven't already. It is so good.  I will definitely be making more of these bags.


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