Wednesday 15 October 2014

Two little totes - all finished

I wanted to make one more gift to pop into my Operation Christmas Child shoebox - a little patchwork tote.  At the same time I made another similar tote for my little granddaughter to give as a birthday party gift for her school friend Niamh.

For both bags I used 2.5" squares from my stash and laid them out in 5 rows of 4 squares.

I lined both with the same pale pastels striped fabric and used a bright pink with turquoise dots for the handles.  Both bags had squares of both fabrics in them so it did match up.
The bags finish at 7.5" x 9.5".  I appliqued Niamh's name on the front of her bag.

Here they are:

 
 
I hope both little girls will enjoy carrying their treasures around in them.
 
It is so useful having a stash of squares on hand - an idea I got from Bonnie Hunter's blog. 
Whenever I finish a project or I am just left with a small piece of fabric after I have been cutting out I cut it into useful sizes for my scraps stash:
 
These are the sizes I always cut scraps into:
 
SQUARES:

2", 2.5", 3", 4.5"
 
STRIPS:
1.25", 1.5", 2", 2.5"
 
Small scraps are put into my Crumb blocks tin.
 
Uneven shaped strips are kept in a bag ready to be used in Strip quilts.
 
So you see, nothing is wasted!

3 comments:

  1. Very cute bags and great idea for your scraps

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    1. Thanks, Jo. I think Bonnie cuts different sizes of strips and squares to the ones I keep and of course her scraps are in a different league to my humble collection!

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  2. You're so organised. I put all my scraps, even the tiny ones into some plastic crates. I go through them if I have a project that needs small pieces. I love the little patchwork bags, they are so pretty and girly. I think it's so lovely that your granddaughter and her friend have matching bags.

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