A friend of mine from high school was the first of our group to have children and her eldest daughter will be graduating from high school this month. Now, that cannot be true because we met in high school so there is no way that she has a child that is older than we were when we met. Crazy!
Look at this child. She is not graduating high school – she’s just a darling little girl….
What a sweetheart!
The fabric pull for her bag looked like this: 
Her completed bag looks like this: 
I love the ‘Be Happy’ fussy cut appliqué on the front. That is exactly what I wish for her future.
I lined one of the pockets with laminated cotton so she can use it for make-up if she chooses. 
The zipper pull was included with my order of zippers from Zip-It. If you need zippers you need to order from this shop. The service is fast, the selection is broad, the prices are fabulous, and they have always included a color card and zipper pull with every order I’ve received. That zipper pull was absolutely perfect for this bag.
I have another Sew Together Bag in the works. My future sister-in-law is moving to the states from the UK and I have the exterior of her bag ready. I think the minimalist approach of this exterior will be perfect for her. I hope she’ll love it!
Stash Enhancement – the Solid Edition:
I’m trying to add some solids to my repertoire because I do love how they look in quilts that I have seen. I tend to lean toward blenders or tone-on-tone fabrics when I need to add some color to my designs. (Ex: the gray fabric pictured above. 😊). Lately, anytime I am in JoAnn Fabrics I will take a look through the remnant bin and have been coming across some Kona Solids. The remnants are always 50% off the current sale price of that item so it is quite the deal. I now have these three in my stash: Pool, Buttercup Yellow, and Tangerine. 
They are such beautiful and vibrant colors. All are just a bit under a full yard.
I have also added a few Kona Solids from a recent Craftsy sale. They are sold as backing fabrics for some kits they were selling. So, I do not know the actual color name. The lighter one is called ‘Breakers’ and no color name is listed for the darker teal. All I know is that I find these colors very appealing and I had to have them!
Also during that sale, I ordered a Free Spirit assorted fat quarter box. About a third of the box was these very muted florals that I may never use (all were from the same line as well), a third included some great modern prints that I will show in another post, and a third included some solids. All but the two blue ones came from that box. It’s a nice array of colors. The two blue ones came from a Scrap pack that I got at The Intrepid Thread when I visited a few weeks back. (I didn’t see them on the website so the scrap packs might just be available in store.) 
Now I need to decide how I want to start incorporating these solids into my quilts or other projects. This will be a challenge for me but I feel that as I get more confident with my quilting then I will feel more comfortable adding these solids in.
Any suggestions on how I can get started with that?
crossquilt 
I would like to know if you have a great hints on making the sew together bag. I need all the help I can get. I am so worried about even starting it.
Patti – go to quiltbarn.blogspot.com and click on the Sew Together Bag Sewalong button to get all the tips I use. It is a fabulous resource!
Thank you so much. I put the site in my favorites and will try it step by step. I’ll let you know. Have fun with those solids, they add a lot to a quilt.
You might start by adding such small pieces that they need no quilting on them. Then as you gain more confidence make them bigger. I recently did a top and thought only of the look I was getting until I went to quilt it, then realized I had to deal with solids. I matched the thread so it would show a little less. And told myself that the imperfections wouldn’t show after it was washed.
I love your sew together bags, the tumbler blocks floating on the grey looks great. I’ve started collecting a few solids recently but haven’t been brave enough to use them yet!
I love the solids! You got some really nice colour choices there.
I often treat my solid fabrics, regardless of colour, as the neutral print in whatever I’m making. It can be intimidating trying to pair solids with prints using them in that way, at least if you use something other than grey or black, but the way I do it usually is to lay that solid up against each of the prints I want to use and as long as it looks good with each individual print, then it’ll look good with all of them. It’s best to get something a shade darker or lighter than whatever you’re using so that you still get definition between the different parts of the project. Another way I do it is just to sort of mentally pretend they’re blender prints. If you could slot a grey blender into that sew together bag up there, then you could just as easily use a grey solid!
Woohoo Intrepid Thread! They always have the best things there. Looks like you got some really finds!
I love the Be happy patch! Little details like those really set projects apart I feel like. 🙂 And I love the british fabric with the tumbler design. Your sew together bags are lovely, I’m sure the recipients will love them!
The sew together bag turned out so great! I did a bee that was only solids, so I now have a tendency to think of solids as only going together, but I try to use them as my “background” fabric but in unusual colours–I recently made a pillow with low volume floral prints and a bright pink Kona solid. Visiting from Sew Cute Tuesday.