My October DrEAMI

This month was a fun month with lots of pattern testing and a blog Hop to participate in.

One of the projects I was making for the From The Heart Blog Hop is a stack of scrappy, snappy bags that are being donated to our local Food Bank for their Christmas Hampers. In normal years several of the local crafters get together and make items that can be taken to the Food Banks Christmas Dinner. All of the items (knitted hats, mitts, dish clothes, quilted items, etc.) are put in a back room and the kids pick items and wrap them with the help of some volunteers. Due to our Covid 19 health and safety mandate, the dinner will not happen so we have been encouraged to still make our items to be included in the hampers.

I had started on my bags and had a couple done, just to remind myself how I make them. I usually use strips or orphan blocks and just play with the fabrics to make the body of the bags.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Then I was reading a post on the Quilting Gail blog and was intrigued with the Charming Bag she was making. Of course the squirrel attack was immediate and I started thinking about the stacks of 2 1/2” squares I have precut just waiting for inspiration to hit. I had to drop what I was doing and try this new idea out.

I started piecing four patches:

And then the four patches were made in to 12 patches:

And 24 patches:

I then added the 2 1/2” squares to the bottom:

Then I sandwiched the panel with batting and the backing which will form the lining of the bag.

After doing a bit of quilting to stabilize the bag, trimming the batting and backing, I added the casing strips to the top, slipped in my measuring tape strips, and sewed my side seams and boxed my bottoms using the edges of the 2 1/2” squares to make the nicely finished corners.

I like to have my lining fabric about 3/4” larger all around in order to do French Seams on the interior of the bags to prevent fraying or having any items catch on the bags.

I like doing the snappy bags so that if the recipient is using it for a knitting or crocheting bag, the wool doesn’t catch on a zipper or Velcro strip.

Here’s a photo of a finished bag using my modified idea from Gail’s charm bag project.

My goal is to get another thirty bags made before the deadline to drop them off. So far 6 are finished, but I have another 24 panels pieced for the main body of the ba, and the bottom panels in various sizes depending on the pieces of cut measuring tape I have left to use:

What projects are you working on for gifts or donations? The season of giving is coming so quickly that we need to get these gifts done! 😉 Carol

Linking with MMM Quilts DrEAMi #45