Block Exchange Tote Bag

Every year I look forward to spending a day or more with sewing friends that I have made through the Treadleon group of treadle and hand crank sewing machine enthusiasts. In the past we have met in Lake City, home of Cindy Peters, one of the founders of Treadleon and a dynamite sewer.  Cindy died in the winter of 2019 but her dream didn't as we have continued to meet in Lake City every September for the River Rats TOGA, a gathering of treadle and hand crank owners/buyers/sellers and sewers. We have only had one TOGA without Cindy before COVID19 invaded our lives and this September we knew gathering in person was not going to be a good idea. What should we do? It turned out we could have a virtual conference with plenty of Zoom sessions for learning skills and just gathering to share our current projects. 

It was a great success! Mea is our leader in this adventure but there were so many helpers in getting sessions together as well as the annual BLOCK EXCHANGE. I agonized over my blocks as I wrote about in the post Card Tricks. Imagine my surprise when I opened my package of quilt blocks that were resent via Denise, the organizer, to find someone else had also chosen the design called Card Tricks but in very different colorways. Each block was so unique and well done it was just fun to look at all of them. But what was I going to do with them? With only 15 it was going to be a pretty small quilt, I have no room for wall hangings, I could collect them and at a future date make up a larger sized quilt, or I could....make a tote bag. I had so much fun designing it and getting it done in a day that I wanted to show it off on out last free-for-all Zoom session. It was a big hit so thanks to all who gave such wonderful praise and affirmed I wasn't out of my mind to make a bag instead of a quilt. I was asked to share how I made it and I told them I would write up a blog post to show some of the steps. Here's the end result:

Quilt block tote bag: Virtual River Rats TOGA 2020

To begin with, I spread out all of the blocks and grouped by colors. Then I checked my fabric stash and grabbed what was right on top (why not?) to see if it would pull all of it together:

Side, front, lid

Back, other side

I got busy sewing the sashing onto the blocks and making a large tubular casing with them all sewn together, adding a rectangular bottom, sewing the lining, and then sitting back to determine what I needed to do to give it shaping. To start, I made an insert in the bottom that would give a nice "floor" to the bag that would also be washable. Plastic canvas that was popular a few decades ago can still be found in stores but I have a stash from my aunt just begging to be used. It wasn't long enough so I added a section on and fused it with a hot iron, protecting all of it with an old t-shirt. As it turned out, it fused onto the cotton shirt so I just cut it to size and used it as one of the layers. I made a pocket for the right sized plastic canvas out of the lining fabric, stuffed it into the pocket like a pillow in a pillow case, and sewed it up. Down into the bottom of the bag it went and even was sewn into place so there would be no shifting. The lining went in next and I pulled it up to the top, folded both the outside and lining edges in for a finished look but it just flopped there. Now I remembered a hint from another blog about making a wire rimmed top but I had never done something like that before and the materials that were used in the blog post were ones I didn't have on hand. Well, that wasn't going to stop me! Here's what I came up with:

Wire coat hangers

Using only 2 hangers, I cut off the hook on one and the hook and one arm on the other one so there was very little shape shifting needing to be done. I laid them down as in the photo above and wrapped the cut/loose edges with electrical tape and then electrical shrink wrap used in wiring. The heat shrink tubing was 1/4" - 1/8" size and I added it before assembly so I could slide it into place after wrapping the corners. Applying a bit of heat from a candle tightens up the plastic and creates a bond of sorts. Now I could insert this frame into the top of the bag:

Frame ready to be inserted

Frame stitched into top: note 2 rows of stitching

Installing it was quite the process, deciding to create a pocket for it by stitching down about 3/4" from the top folded edge, inserting the frame, using clips to hold in place, and the sewing the top edge to hold it all in. Using my Pfaff hand crank, it wasn't too difficult until the corners. All but one corner worked well but the final corner just could not fit under the arm of the machine: that will need some hand stitching.

Before I added the framework I did sew the top or lid onto the backside and it became a part of the top structure but was not in the way at all. I liked how it was turning out but realized I hadn't used one of my quilt blocks since there was only room for 14 and we were a group of 15. But I still needed handles. I check my project bin and there were five of my blocks that didn't get sent or used:

Card Trick blocks sewn together for straps

When sewn together, cut down the center, pressed, and filled with nylon webbing:

Straps ready for sewing

 I now had 2 straps to sew onto the top edge. This proved to be difficult for the Pfaff and some of the stitching has pulled out so I need to go back and hand sew into place. I'm considering adding a bit of embroidery on the outside of the bag where the straps are sewn to cover up the stitches but we shall see. Here are all of the sides of the finished tote bag:

Lid

Side

Side

Back

Front

Such a fun project that only took a day, or less, and that included the time to figure out how to engineer it all together. Next one will be much easier. Next one? We are talking about have a Mid-Winter TOGA and it just might have another quilt block exchange. Now you have another idea of what to make with your blocks!