Grids and Grommets Bag

I have been drooling over all the bag patterns that use grommets for quite a while now.  Finally on my Anniversary trip, I bought a pattern and the fabric to make one of these wonderful bags.  When I saw the sample at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, Ohio, I knew that I had to make this one.  The bag is gigantic!

This is the finished bag on the outside. 

The inside has 2 pockets on each side.  I put my cell phone in one of the pockets to show the size, but it wasn't even visible.

This bag was alot of fun to work on.  There were a few products that I used in this project for the first time.  One of which was an iron on grid called Quilt Mate.  This made the 2" squares a breeze to quilt and have straight.  I must admit that the grommets were very frustrating.  This is probably because the pattern called for two layers of batting, which gives the bag great body, but doesn't let the grommets easily lock together.  I have spent the last two days trying to get all 8 of them in and locked.  With lots of finesse and maybe a little muttering, they are in and I am very happy with the results!

I think I will try another bag with grommets that only uses one layer of batting.  The pattern that I used for this bag is Grids and Grommets by Indygo Junction. 

This was the last of the small projects I bought on our trip, so maybe now I will have to tackle the mountain of a project I bought. 

Happy Sewing,

Heather

Lil' Twister Table Runner

I have been able to sew up a storm these last few days even though I have been busy as usual.  The Lil' Twister table runner is a really nifty project.  While in Berlin, Ohio at one of the many quilt shops I visited, I bought a kit to make the Double Twist Table Runner in the Let's Twist patten book found at CS designs.  This small table runner is made by sewing a charm pack of squares together and then using the Lil' Twister tool to cut out smaller squares, then twisting them slightly before putting them back together to make pinwheel blocks.  There are very few seams to match up and the runner is quick to put together.

Here is the Lil' Twister in action.

This is after I cut the square out.

The pinwheels look great and it was super easy!

Here is the finished top.  Now I just have to find a backing material so I can finish it up.  I love the color combination in the Chrysalis Charm pack that was included in the kit. 

Also in the last few days I have finished another Christmas present and caught up on my block of the month blocks.

This is the block for last month. 

Happy Sewing!

Heather