New holiday projects from the

designers at Henry Glass.
This event will run from Dec. 1-7, 2010. Each day, there will be several designers posting her holiday stories and her free project, plus some great giveaways. The logo can be printed out as a cover to make the projects into a booklet you can keep forever. Today is Day 3, but you can still get the previous days' projects. Just what we need--more new projects to get done before Christmas, lol!

This year I tried to limit my swaps, but Aunt Pitty Pat had several I just couldn't pass up! The first was a Halloween Tote swap, with a hand-made Halloween tote bag filled with lots of little Halloween notions and fabric bits. Here is the neat bag I received from BettyAnn. I love that little pincushion she made me--I've started collecting them lately.

I made my tote from the pattern we learned at our QB2 Retreat in Ohio in July. I changed the size of the charms from 5 inches to 3 1/2 inches and added the same size top border, the way my quilting buddy, Diane S, did. By copying how she made hers, mine came out really cute and a great size for every day use. Here are my step-by-steps. This is the outer bag. These are the pockets I added. The pattern didn't have pockets, but you can't have a bag without pockets!! So I put 2 pockets on each side. This is the lining-inside out-ready for the bag to go into it. Now the handles are added, the magnetic clasps I used on the sides and front are inserted, the lining is attached, everything is stitched around and then turned right side out thru the opening in the bottom of the lining. Then a piece of heavy cardboard is cut to fit the bottom of the bag, sewn into a pocket cut to fit of lining fabric, and pushed down into the inside base of the bag. VOILA!!! All done and ready to fill with goodies. I love making these totes with charm squares. You can make them any size by changing the size of the charms and by adding a top border.
The pattern is called "The Big Bag Theory" and was designed by Penny Sturges. The original pattern made a huge bag that would hold a rolled up quilt to take to Show-And-Tell or could hold a change of clothes for your carry-on bag on a plane. My DD wants one for a weekender--whether she gets one for Christmas remains to be seen, lol. Maybe if she's extra good, Santa might bring her one.

The other Halloween swap was for 12 inch blocks done any way we wanted. We signed up for specific blocks--mine were witchey hats with a dangling spider. Some of the blocks were simply fabulous--but I can't show you 'cause I forgot to take pics of them. So you'll have to wait to see them when I get the top all together. Sorry!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting from Sharon, Katie, and Patsy Cline