Toot-torial Tuesday at RocknQuilts #5; 7/12-7/15 2011 FUN Scrap-U-Quilt Purse! AND YOU could WIN a SEWING MACHINE and QUILTING SUPPLIES!!!!

Woo-hoo!!!  It's linky party time!!!!

Toot-torial Tuesday is coming up and I just had to share a little early sew that you can link up beginning tonight at midnight if you wish ;-) 

Ohhh...I just love purses, bags, totes, you name it!  Especially if it's quilted - all soft with lots of body from good stabilizer.  So, let's make one!!!

Here's how I made one from my AccuQuilt die that comes with the AccuQuilt cutter....

I found that after demonstrating in the store to many customers, I had a basket full of cut 4 1/2" squares...well, I couldn't allow those to go to waste, they had to be put to use, sew.....here's what I came up with!

Let's make a Scrap-u-quilt zippered and handled bag!

I've been using leftover scraps to demonstrate cutting with the 4 1/2" square, 2" Fin. half square triangle and 

2 1/2" square die and mat that is included with the AccuQuilt Go! Cutter system.

Sew...I had a whole bunch of 4 1/2" squares - twenty-five of them, to be exact and of course, when life hands you scraps, you make something out of them, right?!?  

I started with twenty, but decided I could use more...

so as I began to piece them all together with a 1/4" seam, I thought...why not?  Let's go bigger!

(You'd think I lived in Texas, but I don't!  Ha!)

Harriet and Carrie Hargrave lessons pay off here when using their advice to butt the seams up.

Their book "Quilter's Academy: Freshman Year" provides excellent, detailed instructions and I highly recommend it.

Press your little top with Mary Ellen's Best Press starch - it leaves no flakes behind!

Now it's time to size things up...

19 1/2" x 16 1/2"

Now, what's a girl to do?

Why, add 100% cotton batting, of course!

(I hadn't the faintest idea yet that I'd be making a zippered, handled bag at this point :-)

I added a 100% cotton square of batting and a fat quarter to the back and decided to 'stitch in the ditch'

Pfaff's IDT or "stitch in the ditch" foot makes this so easy, even for a beginner like myself.

At this point, my boss Cindy comes in and shows me an adorable bag that she put together and that sealed the deal for me!  It was time to create a Scrap-u-quilt bag!!

I wanted a handle, sew...

I trimmed off one row from my quilted material.

After trimming with our Gingher scissors, I folded the one row of quilted square in half, lengthwise:

and since I wanted the backing (future inside of the bag) to be featured on the handle, I pinned up the length of the handle with the blue fat quarter fabric facing together and the scrappy side facing out.

(More on the handle in a little bit.)

Time to add a zipper the easy-peasy way by using the serger!

Zip your zipper half-ways down and begin.

Watch for pins!

When you come near the zipper pull, then move off to the right and zip up the zipper to the top.

Then position your zipper under the serger foot again and serge along to the bottom.

The blue fabric will be the outside of my bag, so I flipped the quilt sandwich right sides together and serged the other half of the zipper in place.

Time to make the handle!

This is hard to "handle" (no pun intended), so it's time for a little help from a friend....

Fast Turn

Insert the 3/8" tube into the handle

Place the long, skinny hook up through the tube and catch the end of the fabric with its hooked edge

Once you've hooked the end of the fabric, just pull through

Now that our handle has been turned, it's time to attach it to each side of our bag.

I recommend hand stitching the handle in place.

Finally, we'll form the bottom of the bag

Fold so that each side looks like an 'ear' or triangle

and sew across the bottom of each 'ear' to secure, turn your bag right side out and....ta-dah!

Here she is!

Isn't she a beauty?!?

Or...how about THIS version?!?!

Fun for the beach!

What have you been creating this past week?

Do you have a toot-torial to share with us for Toot-torial Tuesday here at RocknQuilts?!?!?

We'd LOVE it if you'd link up and get this linky party started 'round here!!!

Woo-hoo!

@

P.S.  Check THIS out:

Even MORE FREE projects this week!!  

http://rocknquilts.blogspot.com/p/free-projects.html

Are you a Wantobe?

As in, "Want to be a quilter"?!?!?

Then e-mail me at rock n quilts at live dot com

and I will get you signed up for the drawing for a NEW sewing machine, fabric and/or quilting supplies HERE!