Saturday, August 12, 2017

Asian-Inspired Log Cabin Zipper Bag



JoAnn's New Quilt Fabric Department!

If you haven't dropped into your local JoAnn store in the past few weeks, expect a most pleasant surprise. They are moving in quilting fabric by the truck load! The stores will be carrying 1091 quilt fabrics when the shelves are finally full, but the first wave of these gorgeous new fabrics already whet this quilter's appetite. I was looking for some special fabric for a gift project, and knew it when I saw it.




Log Cabin Restructured

This book was an inspiration as I read through it for months, but I had never found the perfect fabric for a project until last week. It was less than an hour to buy, take home, and cut it up. 



Only Two Fabrics In the Block

My vintage Singer had its first official test run on this log cabin block. The narrow strips finish at 3/8" wide, but the Singer did an excellent job at maintaining correct seam allowances. I squared it as necessary, and had a lovely time hand quilting that evening.




It was a little heart-breaking to cut the block up for the project, but I hung in there.



Although the book didn't call for it, I put a 1/4" stitch around the whole piece to secure the hand quilting. 



I worked in the wee hours of the morning today to stitch on the binding edge. The book calls for most or all of the stitching to be done by hand, but I was eager to use my 'new' Singer. The zipper was a whole other story, but I did put it in by hand by first basting, testing, and then actually stitching securely with back stitches.



The sides were whip stitched closed, and the bottom boxed. I feared adding the liner as they've always given me a bit of grief in the past, but this one worked charmingly well when I followed the directions.


Several tests back and forth, and the invisible zipper worked fine without catching on the liner. (For those of you who know about my zipper stash, I'm one more down out of the 1000+.)


One side shows the quilting...


with the center of the block at the bottom...


and the plain side on the back.
And the project is officially done.
Huzzah!

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

9 comments:

Stitchin At Home said...

Love, love this Julie! And only two fabrics!

Danice G said...

So pretty. The bag is very creative. Thanks for the info about JoAnn's new quilt fabric dept. We have no quilt fabric store here, so that will be a wonderful.

The Colorful Fabriholic said...

Cute bag! Maybe you can make a coin purse or a QAYG potholder out of those cut-off corners. too pretty to waste!

Marly said...

What a delightful little bag. It's amazing that you only used two fabrics; it looks as if the strips are pieced.

Julie said...

You bet I saved them! I agree. But they are fairly small as they are, so perhaps as part of a larger block. I still have lots of this gorgeous fabric left.

Turid said...

Such a sweet little bag. Zippers scare me too.

Angie in SoCal said...

What a great finish. Lovely purse, Julie.

PaulaB quilts said...

An amazing pattern for a very pretty zippered bag. Do show us larger pieces of the fabric pease. The colors are great for a feminine modern woman.

Ruth said...

Turned out really lovely. you are brave cutting into your block but it was worth it!