the last of the bags

I finished the last of the graduation 'money holders'.

This gal's mom told me she liked pink, pale aqua and gold.

I fretted a good bit over fabric choices,

thinking I really didn't have anything just right,

and almost ordered fabric.

Then I reminded myself,

these are just supposed to be simple bags,

to take the place of a greeting card;

they aren't the entire gift.

It would have not been a bit prudent of me to order fabric.

But still, 

I want the young lady to like it....

I was folding my fabric immediately after cutting it on my last project

(I never do that.

In fact, my black and white remnants and scraps are still in a box in the dining room!)

when I realized that The Way of Flowers by Rashida Coleman had all of those colors :-)

(and then some!)

What is the secret to pressing a bag? I sure need to figure that out!!

I paired it with some gold Cotton + Steel,

a mauve-y pink solid for the lining,

a berry pink zipper,

and a little scrap of teal with white polka dots Lecien for the zipper.

I tried the fusible fleece again.

 I liked the structure it added to this one,

and since the bag is much bigger than the other one I'd used it on,

the puffiness didn't bother me.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out

and hope the graduate likes it, too!

~

It's not for graduation,

but I had one more bag I needed to make.

A few months ago,

while I was still piecing Ties That Bind,

I found 

(what I thought was)

the perfect fabric for the back.

But it was from Ikea,

and the nearest Ikea is 5 hrs away.
They don't sell fabric online.

I put our a plea for help on Facebook,

and one of my friends

went and bought some for me,

 and got it in the mail right away!

(That's huge - I have a horrible time getting to the post office.

My nieces and nephews, poor things, can vouch for that.)

I wanted to make a little something

to thank her for her trouble.

(Actually - some other friends went to their Ikea and tried to get it, too,

but it was out of stock.

I should probably make them a little something also.... hmmm...)

The fabric ended up not being perfect for my quilt after all,

but hey,

I've got a lot of Ikea growing things themed fabric....

I decided to use some of it :-)

It looks fabulous with red, so I used a red zipper

and a scrap from my still-being-quilted

- but only when I'm not working on other projects -

Any Which Way quilt.

I added batting and quilted the exterior pieces  in a 1" square grid 

with a little bit of hand quilting thrown in for good measure :-)

I do love a mix of hand and machine stitching!

It's becoming my signature, I think.

I used some leftover black Widescreen for the lining and the little tab on the zipper.

Leftover from what you ask?

The binding for Ties That Bind.

That's right, I ordered 108 inch wide backing fabric

to use as the binding.

Which turned out to be a fabulous (and inexpensive) idea;

It only took me 62 minutes

from the time I opened my package

to make,

attach,

 and press to the back,

binding for a queen size quilt.

Yay for backings for bindings!

Back to the bag...

Again, I just made up the size, letting the fabric lead me,

and installed the zipper ala Anna

Sadly,

getting this deliciousness to my friend will require super human effort on my part.

I have to take it to the post office.

I really hope she likes it ;-)

linking up with the scraptastic Amanda Jean and Finish it up Friday.

I'm also sharing the link at Elizabeth Foss' recently resurrected With Needle and thREAD.
I read Coal Run on our trip and finished it up after we arrived home.
It was an enjoyable read;
I teared up a few times, and laughed several times, or at least chuckled, too,
but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.