Quilted Tote

   I finally finished the quilted tote that is part of the Make Sew-a-long.  It wasn’t that the tutorial was complicated, I just kept getting distracted with other projects.  This was my first time quilting and I think that it came out really nice.  The directions were very clear and easy to understand. 

I have say that I was amazed with how the blocks were put together.  First you sew 9 of the charm squares together.  Then you cut this larger block in half vertically and horizontally and rotate the 4 smaller blocks.  Then you piece it back together and sew.  Viola!  and all this time I thought that you had to cut and sew all of those individual little blocks.

Next I needed to quilt my lines onto the bag.  I decided to go with diagonal lines 1” apart.  I used my ruler and drew lines with a water soluble pen to make sure that all my lines would be sewn straight and even.  I am sure that this probably is not the proper way to do this but it worked for me.  Of course right after I finished doing this, I noticed that my new sewing machine comes with a special quilters foot that has a guide on the side of it to space your lines.

I did run into one small problem with this project.  For some reason, my lining was way bigger than the outer bag.  I’m sure that it wasn’t the tutorial.  I must have done something wrong.  I just trimmed about and inch off of the top and sewed my side seam in a little more and it worked out great.

 I also decided to add the snap to the top of the bag rather than to the interior pocket.

I am really happy with the finished product.  Not to bad for my first quilting experience.

 

Many thanks to Kelly at Make!  Her tutorial was very fun and easy to follow.  I can’t wait to make the accessories to go with it.