Testing, Testing

Practice makes perfect right? Well, I figured at least it couldn't hurt. Before launching into the challenge of FMQ my Penny Patch quilt, I decided to do a little test project.

I was browsing around on Pinterest and came across this little cutie: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/238831586462998727/

I decided this was exactly the project I needed to tackle to practice my FMQ. Bigger than a coaster, but not to the level of making another quilt.

It always amazes me how much patchwork "shrinks" as you sew it!

I will admit that I did not buy this pattern. I know right. I feel guilty about it, but that is one of those things about quilting. You get good at looking at a pattern and being able to see what it took to put it together. Especially if it is something classic like squares or half square triangles. Also, there are a lot of free tutorials out there on quilted drawstring bags. . . so, yeah. How do you decide if you should purchase a pattern or not? I would love to hear others thoughts on this one.

Here are the tools I used to come up with my "pattern."

• Looked at the finished dimensions listed on the pattern. I decided that seemed like a good size and figured up how many finished 1.5" squares I would need to get close. It was important to me to do the quilting on the EXACT same scale that I would be doing for the Penny Patch quilt. So, even if I had purchased the pattern, I likely would have needed to adjust it anyway, but I rationalize.
• Used a free tutorial from Pink Penguin on how to create the casing on the top. I ended up needing to make the strip bigger to accommodate my larger cording, but otherwise was able to follow the directions in their entirety.
• Went to my go-to bag book: The Bag Making Bible for the instructions on installing the flush zipper. I have used these instructions quite a few times but never seem to be able to remember all the steps without looking them up.
• Followed the directions that came with my grommets.
• Looked at a similar drawstring bag I have in the house to figure out the amount of cording I needed. In the end, it as mostly a guess so I hedged my bets and over bought. Many thanks to the Husband who helped me figure out how I needed to insert the cording so the bag would actually cinch. I was nowhere on that one.

And TA DA! A cutie patootie little bag!

Now don't get me wrong, there are some downright ugly flowers on this bag. The FMQ definitely took practice and getting used to, but by end, I was pretty happy with how my little flowers were turning out.

I intended for this to double as a scrap busting project so I went to work digging through my enormous scrap bin. BUT I was so inspired by the color palette of three little scraps, that I ended up at Fabric Depot. I was able to use scraps for the lining of both the inside of the bag and the pocket, so it wasn't a complete scrap failure. I am glad that I went for it though. I absolutely love how it turned out! And to top it all off, it really was great practice before diving into my Penny Patch.

After careful consideration of the "ugly" flowers on the back of the bag, I decided this bag was just too cute to languish around my house so I have listed it for sale in my Etsy shop. Check it out!