Quilt-As-You-Go Mini Tote Bags

I have many fond memories of playing dress-up as a little girl. In fact, I still have a picture of my little self in my Mom’s very 70’s hat and purse. So cute!

When my boys were little, they liked to dress-up as superheroes, firefighters, handymen or Dad. Experts say it is important for your child’s brain, language and emotional development among other things. Who knew?

This month’s mini tote bags will come in very handy when playing pretend!

For these totes I used the quilt-as-you-go (qayg) technique. In short, with this method of quilting, the piecing and quilting are done both at the same time. For larger size quilts, this means that you can piece and quilt individual blocks through all three layers or just the top and batting layers, before you piece the blocks together.

It is another great way to use up all those extra scraps from your scrap bin. The thing I like about it, is that you never quite know what the end result will look like. Plus, the repetitive stitching can be quite relaxing for some people.

For each tote, I decided on a specific color - coral, blue, pink and light green. I dug through my stash of scraps and picked out fabrics I thought could work. (This process of going through my stash is like meeting old friends - fabrics I used in previous quilts and perhaps have forgotten about.)

Basically, the totes consist of two quilted panels (fabric plus batting) for the body of the bag, two panels for the inside lining as well as the straps.

I started with laying out a panel of batting. Then I arranged the fabrics more or less in an order I liked.

Once I was happy, I started in the middle of the batting, stitching the first piece of fabric onto the batting. I quilted ¼ inch straight lines. I continued all around the centerpiece with different fabrics, until I covered the whole batting panel.

Then it was on to the second panel, whereafter I joined the two quilted panels to form the outside of the bag.

After that I added the straps as well as the lining.

The qayg method is a fun alternative to “traditional” quilting. It is not a quick process, especially if you use small scraps of fabric. Still, I had so much fun making these colorful totes. Now off to my next project!

Dimensions: approximately 10” (25cm) wide x 7” (18cm) inches tall