Supersize Me

A while back I picked up a Moda fabrics Scrap Bag. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with it when I bought it. Not long ago I decided it was time to get to work.

A friend had asked me about my really big tote bag (you can fit a queen-size quilt in it to take along to finish the binding or to share with guild) and when I would write the pattern. I figured this would be a great time to use up that scrap bag and make the tote. I trimmed the selvages off and cut the pieces to a somewhat uniform length.

Then I pieced the strips into panels for quilting.

I used what I learned at the Quilt Soup class at the Longarm Network class in Virginia to help me quilt the panels. Swirls and ribbons and meanders! Oh, my!

Quilting small pieces on the long arm makes the work go rather quickly. The batting was leftover from some other project.

I trimmed the panels and sewed the two together along three sides.

Then I cut the corners out to box the bottom corners. The bag is big, so the cutouts are pretty good size, too.

Then I did the same with the lining and pinned it together. This is the outside of the bag before I added the handles and the lining.

This is a very simple tote bag. I plan on releasing a pattern at some point because I have been asked about it a few times. Do you have bag-making techniques hat you go back to again and again?

Day 4 of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.