Trippy Totes

How's that for a catchy title with a double entendre?! I've taken the tote bags I've made (three from this pattern so far!) with me as a carry-on on the plane, and I use them to hold my yoga stuff for classes I teach. They'd make great grocery or shopping of any kind bags too. Very versatile, with the interlocking plus blocks, and two completely different sides... trippy

Once in a while, well, no, actually rather often, a certain fabric has me all excited with the colour combo, and I use it to curate a bundle from my stash. I did this with these two several months ago, the one above a little over a year ago when I made a baby quilt for one of last year's Project Quilting challenges.

I put this shot of the shells of the two bags on Instagram on Monday, showing what I had had fun with over the weekend. 

A wee diversion from the Glowing Hearts QAL

Here are all the threads I used to quilt and topstitch the various parts of the bags. 

I quilted the bags Monday evening, and Tuesday morning I received a message through the Etsy app from a previous customer who had bought (I think) the first bag I sold in my shop, asking if I had the Christmas tote was still available, (it wasn't) or any others? Talk about stars aligning! So I showed her the photo of the two shells and she said immediately that she wanted the green paisley one! So here I hadn't even assembled the bag, and it was sold. I assembled it shortly thereafter, sent her a photo to be sure she still wanted that one, and she did. She got to pick which of the fabrics she wanted for the lining from those I had enough of, and she picked the one I had intended anyhow, the blue floral!

Bag complete; fancy paisley with variegated spicy thread mimics the paisley fabric.

Side 2

Inside: coordinating pocket and gold magnetic clasp. That's my label at the bottom edge of the pocket.

The fabric I used for the lining as well as featured in both sides of the bag is one my seamstress extraordinaire aunt gave me when she was doing a little de-stashing a few years ago. It's a beautiful high thread count, only 36" wide cotton, no clue who the manufacturer is. She probably bought it at Woodward's, as that is where she worked for many years. Gosh those old giants of department stores...😢 Woodward's, Eaton's (I worked in their fabric department), The Bay (filed for bankruptcy and is now liquidating all stores) more 😢...

In better news, I was able to get her bag into the mail by the 2:30 pm deadline yesterday so she should have it (expedited post) tomorrow! She lives in one of the Toronto 'burbs.

Since it is much more effective use of time to make two at once, I continued finishing the second tote along with the sold one. I had used the green floral fabric in a baby quilt, as previously mentioned, and it struck me how well it would work in one of my bags. I'm so glad I finally got the bundle of fabric sitting for over a year, just waiting, into the finished product.

Each bag usually gets a little fancy quilting somewhere

This one has more than the usual six fabrics, partly because I loved the two greens which match so well the floral, and two purples because I didn't have enough of either.

You can purchase this second one in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts!

If you want to make yourself this tote, you can purchase the pattern, which contains instructions for two sizes of quilts, a baby and a throw, as well as the tote

 I get compliments on my three all the time!

Bag Stats:

Size: 20" along the top edge x 16"high x 4" width

Pattern: Positive Flow by moi!
Fabric: stash

Batting: Pellon Fusible Fleece is in the purple/green bag; Pellon Nature's Touch is in the sold bag.

Lining: Texture Scapes by SSI in the purple/green bag; unknown cotton in the sold bag

Quilted: on Avril, 34 653 stitches total in both bags

Threads: pieced with Exquisite polyester on my Bernina; quilted with Essential, Aurifil and Mettler cottons; Bottom Line in the bobbin

Linking Up

My Quilt Infatuation

Alycia Quilts

From Bolt to Beauty

Songbird Designs

Make Modern has a brand new issue out!

That’s the cover quilt—wow! As usual it is packed with quilts and articles and always a contest!