Guest Blogger Makes a Tote Bag

Today, as a guest blogger, we have one of our gallery’s artists, Merle Thompson, who designs and sew garments. She says:

“Having recently finished a jacket on commission, I found myself with many strips of fabric remaining. Before I put it all away, I decided to create a tote bag for the current show’s Asian theme.

“I used the traditional log cabin quilting pattern. However, I used the random sized strips that I had already cut. For the Asian theme I chose a square featuring a Japanese lady.

“For log cabin piecing, you sew one strip at a time, beginning on one side and working around, enlarging the square as you go until you have the desired size. I sewed the strips to a flannel backing to give some body. Because the tote bag size is oblong, I didn’t make complete squares but just added strip lengths as needed.

“A traditional log cabin pattern would usually use two tones of fabric, working a pattern between lights and darks. As you can see, I abandoned that idea also, using random colors in my general gray and pink palette.

“To finish the bag, I added an additional pellon lining for more body, a heavy cotton lining with pockets and a pieced handle from more of my left-over strips.” [Sorry for the small photo of the completed bag].

Thanks, Merle, for submitting the description of your work. It not only shows your creative process but your thrift in reusing left overs from another project.