I asked @AuFish to dance in the IYP swap, and she said she would like a tote bag.
I was thrilled because one of my favorite things to make is this pretty simple tote bag pattern that I quilt for sturdiness. It’s been a go-to end of year teacher gift many times, too. The nice thing is, once you have the shape, then it can become what you want it to become! I
I have a whole large stack of wonky star block pieces in my stash from several instagram swaps I participated in a few years ago. I had never decided what to do with them, so they just sat there. Well, So, I decided now was the time to use them and I would make this quilted tote bag much fancier than my usual single fabric bags. So, I chose some of the wonky star blocks that I thought would best fit AuFish’s tastes, and started figuring out how I could lay them out for her. I realized I needed to go find some coordinating fabrics, so I picked a few with the plan to make some flying geese.
Here’s the “front” of the bag. I had a different idea for the flying geese layout, but it would’ve been much too big for the “back” of the bag which I had already created, so I ended up laying them out this way.
As you can see, the wonky stars were made in different sizes, so the “back” has more than the front.
The inside! The bottom is boxed so it will stand up and hold more!
My general “go-to” for quilting these bags is to just quilt a straight line down from top to bottom 4x on each side. That would not have looked good with this bag, so I quilted around the stars, and around some of the blocks on the “back.”
What I love about these bags is they can hold a lot of weight and are very sturdy!
Thanks for agreeing to dance with me, AuFish!
