In addition to Mom’s quilt tops that I’m working on this year, I inherited a number of quilt kits and a few unfinished quilt tops from her.
I was going to quilt another of her tops next, but I got side-tracked. I needed a bag to take with me to church each week. I play the organ, so I need space for a large hymnal (because small print just won’t do anymore), my scriptures, a pen, a notebook, hand lotion, wallet, etc., etc., etc. My purse just wasn’t cutting it.
So I dug out this Jinny Beyer kit for a tote bag that I inherited from Mom. Jinny is just magic with her fabrics and how she uses border prints, and I thought this was beautiful.
I’m not used to following detailed instructions, so I spent a good amount of time trying to digest the pattern. I finished the bag last night. Yay!
I think it’s just beautiful. The only thing I’m not happy with is that the star on the front is partially under the bottom of the bag. If I were to do this bag again, I’d eliminate the border on the top, or at least make it a lot smaller. That way the star is completely visible.
Or I’d just do the whole thing like the back of the bag. I love the border print on the handles!
And it’s HUGE! I put a BaliPop and a charm pack in the bottom for scale. I can haul a lot of stuff in this thing. But I won’t. I don’t normally pack a lot of stuff around with me.
I fully intended to do the next of Mom’s quilt tops after this, but I pulled out the backing I was going to use for it, and it’s not enough! I made the mistake of measuring the quilt in one direction and assuming it was square. I know better.
So until I can get to the quilt shop to buy the backing, I’m going to work on quilting a lap-sized top I just finished. I should have it done reasonably quick. I’m not really excited about how it turned out (it’s not bad, just “eh”), so I’ll probably just do some graffiti quilting on it for practice.
Back to my sewing room! 🙂
Love the bag!