Our local quilt guild has a show coming up, and therefore needs items for the boutique. So when I saw a free pattern for this interesting-looking table runner, I made it.The pattern is available here, and of course there’s a whole quilt option to make from these blocks, but the two in the middle of the runner were enough for me! My version finished 13″ x 54″.

And the other really quick finish was binding this donation quilt:

Quilt Stats:

Name: Cat

Designed by: me, using a panel I found in the scrap bin

Finished size: 49″ x 53″

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

This was an easy week! I hope you had a good week, too.

Some friends recently got together to make tote bags, so here’s the “bag show” (as opposed to a quilt show).

These were all fairly easy to make with free patterns found on the internet.

The tote bags are from a pattern posted years ago, the Market Tote Tutorial by Bijou Lovely. We did modify the instructions by using one layer of foam batting rather than interfacing both the outer fabric and the lining as in her instructions.

The pyramid bag is from a free tutorial here at Loganberry Handmade. It is way easier than it looks!

The two large totes made from oriental fabric used quilting cotton. The orange and black bags were made with upholstery fabric from IKEA.

When I went through the blocks for the August UFO, I took the big central strip and put the rest in the orphan block bin. The one I used is marked below; the rest were orphans.

However, after a couple of weeks I thought I would get out the other blocks and see what could be done with them. They didn’t look promising as they were, so I cut them apart and started fiddling with them.

I tried out various additional fabrics

Then started adding pieces

And finally came up with this finished top, borders added to make a good size for use:

The top will now go to one of the friends who quilts our donations.

For August, I pulled a paper slip out of my basket and it was UFO #4, shown below.

I decided there was no way all of this was going together in a quilt and elected to use the big piece only.

The rest went into the orphan block box. Then I auditioned various options for finishing it by drawing in EQ8.

Finally, I just added wide strips on the side.

This top finished 62″ x 45″ and will now go to the friend who quilts our donations for Ronald McDonald House.

A friend recently brought me a charm pack of shweshwe fabric. You can read about it here if you’re not familiar with it. I was especially interested because I have a blogging friend in South Africa, where shweshwe fabric comes from. Most of the African fabrics we get here are from other areas of that continent.

After considering for a while, I decided to make tote bags for both of us.

This is a modified version of the Charm Party Tote by Penny Sturges. That pattern may still be available on Etsy, but Noodlehead has lots of good bag patterns and I mostly use hers now.

I used foam batting, which was an oddity to me when I first discovered it, but it works really well in bags.

Do we need to go shopping now that we have tote bags?