Tote bags and a fun project

10 of the 25 tote bags in this latest group are done. The band has a dozen more shows this summer, so I need to keep making bags.

I have been trying to get the guest beds cleared off. In February when I went to visit my friend in Pennsylvania, I came home with two quilts that needed finished. To me this is fun to figure out how to finish something. Here is what I posted. "I am going to help out by finishing two quilts. These were made by a friend and the lady passed away. The lady was making each quilt in halves and quilting them. There is still some quilting that needs done and then I will have to figure out how to sew the halves together. It will be an interesting project."

I decided to see what it would take to get one of these quilts finished. I had started on this project Monday night. I got started by sewing the two halves together and giving the seam a press.

Next was trimming the batting. There was lots of extra batting. I decided to trim the left side first. I did it wavey to spread out joining of the two pieces.

I trimmed off the right side narrow enough I could tuck it under the left wavey side. I then marked the right side with tailor's wax to echo the wave so I could cut it off to match.

I had a roll of iron-on tricot

I used that to join the batting together. It is lightweight enough not to add any bulk and it doesn't get stiff. It's not pretty, but it will never be seen.

Last night I got started on finishing the backing. The edge of the left side of the backing fabric was not straight so I just started folding it under to get a fairly straight edge. I gave it a press.

I trimmed the right side making sure there was enough fabric to go under the folded left side.

Here it is all smoothed, pinned, and ready for hand stitching.

I finished the hand stitching this morning before work. Looks pretty good!

Next I will finish sewing on the borders and miter the corners to match the other two corners.  

After that it is stitching in the ditch to match what was previously done, then bind it. The other quilt is going to be a somewhat the same process, but there is a lot less of the quilting done. I can't wait to get the first one done and make it usable! I will be seeing my friend a couple of times in the next two weeks because she and her family are coming to two of Michael's shows. I will get to hand over at least this quilt.