An Epic Bag

When I was in Texas this past September for the wedding of Kelsey and Mike,

The wonderful couple with Pastor Diane.

Dru Ann and I did what we always do and visited a few of the local quilt shops.  You never know what they might have that I haven't seen here in California.  I usually end up coming home with something I just have to have.  This time it was a pattern for a very LARGE bag.

The bag is called Anything Goes from Aunties Two Patterns.

I took this picture on top of my washing machine.  Yes it is an odd place to take it but I was trying to give some sort of reference so you can tell the size of the bag.  IT IS BIG! You could fit a small dog in it.  I couldn't get Millie to model inside the bag but you get the idea.



She is soooo cute! But I digress.

To make this bag you need 40 2 1/2"x 42/44" strips.  I used a package of Sumatra batik precuts from Blank Quilting called the Oceanside Collection.

The time consuming part of making this bag is prepping all your strips.

I used a single layer of Pellon iron-on fleece to make the tubes.

I then had to break out this bad boy to zigzag the strips together.  I normally sew on a Juki which just goes forward and back in a straight line which is all I need when sewing.  I picked this machine up a few years ago very inexpensively so when I occasionally need to zigzag I can.  I don't know much about the brand, there's not a lot of information out there about Morse sewing machines, but this one works like a charm!

And for the finishing touches I had Jim pick me up some plastic plumbing tubing at Home Depot to put in the handles,

And I found these great buttons at my  local Jo-Ann Fabrics.

They are made from coconut.

  Aside from being a awesome bag I thought I might be able to make this a class I could teach.  After spending a weekend working on it I decided that wasn't feasible.  It takes a lot of time to make the strips.

 I am now using the bag to carrying my samples of Stof , a quilt fabric line from Denmark made in Japan that I have added to my arsenal of fabrics I rep.

This bag would make a great weekender bag or something you could use whenever you are going to a sit and sew to carry all your important  sewing stuff.
You can also easily slip in a bottle of wine or two - just saying.