Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bag - a finish and a class review

I bought the class, "Tara Rebman- Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags" just before we went on vacation this summer, and I immediately wanted one for our trip.  BUT, time was not on my side and I had to wait until we returned.   Then, of course, life with the girls got a little crazy, yada yada yada, it wasn't until school started this week that I had time to start a new project.  This one was top on my list (sorry Star of Africa bee mates who's blocks I should be doing)!

First, the class review:

This class shows you several techniques, including:

• Quilt As You Go - well, of course!  She shows you both straight-line and Free Motion quilting options
• Boxing the bottom of the bag
• How to make a regular pocket
• How to make an internal zip pocket
• How to install a magnetic snap - I used this technique to put on onto my sewing mat's thread bag
• 2 different binding techniques
• Using glue to aid binding

Tara starts you off with a small potholder to show you how to do the QAYG (which I promptly skipped), and then you move onto your bag.  Here is my first attempt....

Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bag, front

I love this bag.  I loved making this bag.  The "quilt as you go" technique is fun and straight forward.  I suppose it does save you some time since you are piecing and quilting at the same time.  I chose to do all straight line quilting on my bag, which seemed to take a while, but I'm not sure if free motion quilting would have been much faster.

Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bag, back

I would say that it took me a total of 12 hours to put together.  I am a slow stitcher.  I'm sure some of you could whip one of these out in half the time.  I also could have used bigger pieces of fabric for my patchwork, which would have saved a little time.

My bag has a regular pocket sewn into the lining:

And a fun zip pocket too!  Oh, you do feel smart learning this one.

I doubt anyone would be able to lose something in this bag with that color lining!  It reminds me of orange creamsicles.

I made this bag for my friend from college, Kim.  She is not afraid of color!  I love aqua, but orange?  Eh.  She loves orange, so I hope this bag is fun enough for her tastes.

Tara says this bag is the perfect size for a quick trip to the grocery store.  I would agree, if you were buying a gallon of milk and supplies for tonight's dinner.  It is BIG.  Much bigger than I anticipated.  I actually put a rolled up beach towel in the bottom to get the bag to stand up for the photos above.  Do you see the towel?  Nope.  This bag is also big enough to fit an entire cat, with room to spare!

This photo was not staged!

I set the bag down on the kitchen table to go get my "white boards" for backdrops for my photos and returned to find Tookie "helping" as usual.  She was purring away as if to say, "aren't you so proud of me for getting in here?"

Who let the cat out of the bag?  Alright Tookie, you've had your fun.

My only complaint about the bag is that the binding didn't come out as nicely on the inside as I would like.  I think next time I will either hand sew the binding closed or choose the other method she shows you in the class (which involves hand stitching too).  I think it looks fine from the outside, but it is a bit inconsistent on the inside.  Totally my fault, I think.

I really enjoyed Tara's class.  She is a fun and energetic teacher, and the bag is fun to put together too.   The bags (or potholders) would make excellent holiday gifts.  I'm sure this isn't the last one you have seen from me!  While I haven't really developed a rating system for my reviews, I can say that I highly recommend Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags.

This class is not on sale at the moment, but I'm sure a good sale is just around the corner!  So put it on your wish list and pounce (like Tookie) when the timing is right.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

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