Bags-O-Bags

I haven't been quilting much this past week - but I have been working on UFO's. Over two ago Emily over at What's that gonna be? posted directions on how to make a cute little tote bag out of two dish towels. So I bookmarked the page and started keeping my eyes open for cute dishtowels. I found some on clearance at Kroger and stuck them away, waiting for a moment to try it out. Here it is over a year later and I needed several little birthday gifts. So I dragged the towels out and got to work. They are so quick and simple! You can make a single bag in less than half an hour. Now did I take any picture of the 6 bags I made out of the dishtowels? Nope. Forgot.

But all these dishtowels got me thinking! My sweet sister bought me 4 Orla Kiely place mats and some cloth napkins from Target for my birthday last week. I immediately sat down and whipped her up a bag out of two of the place mats. This bag is bigger than the dishtowel ones and stiffer since the place mats were much stiffer to begin with. She had bought three place mats with a blue backing and one with a brown backing. Thus began our wild goose chase to find more of them. Her hubby went back to the Target where she had bought them and found one more with a blue back. He also checked out another Target near by - no luck. Last week when me and Naomi headed back to Nashville, we hit four more Targets. No luck. Oh well - at least I have enough to make me a bag too!



All this sewing got Naomi thinking I could just whip her up a bag out of anything so she went out and bought fabric. The bags are reversible - the picture shows the bags and there reversed insides. Yes - four more bags. I also made my 4 year old nephew Joey a CARS bag. I think I have had enough of these bags for a while.

Today I am trying to get a lap sized quilt quilted up for someone. She does good work - but this time her backing was wonky with a capital W. After squaring it up, it was no longer big enough. So I had to add strips of one of her other fabrics to the sides. Next come adding some strips to the batting! Wish me luck!