Hecate's Quilted Bag... a post in pictures

My friend Hecate decided she wanted to use a BUNCH of quilt squares she bought on eBay. Instead of starting with a quilt, she decided to make a purse. I had a purse pattern and I bought an extra one so she drove here to Civilization with her material and we decided to sew for an evening.

After looking at the patterns she picked a hipster bag style that would be a cloth bag- quilted- similar to a Vera Bradly type of bag when we got done.

We spent a better part of 2 hours arranging the fabric into a pattern. I had quilt patterns we could use but Hecate wanted something a little more freeing.

So we arranged the squares and then she actually pieced the material together using the sewing machine. She was not impressed at sewing together 36+ squares, but only sewing 4 inches at a time, stopping the machine, cutting the thread, and then sewing some more squares.

Then we needed a border and we didn't have enough black fabric so a trip to Wally World was needed. Upon the return from Wally World, Hecate decided she was done sewing. She was NOT enjoying this process.

So, I volunteered to finish the purse and I knew I would ask my friend Curley to help me out if I needed it. So I added the rest of the border. Then the piece of material was done. Then I attached the batting and did an "in the ditch" stitch on the quilt pieces. After all that was done, I was now ready to actually take the pattern out of the package and start following the pattern.

I called Curley and told her where I was in the process and I went out to her house and she and I went the rest of the way together.

Hecate quilted all her pieces together and added the border, which looked like this when she was done.

Here are the pieces of the fabric with the pattern paper still pinned to the fabric.

Here are the pieces of the quilt after we cut out the pattern and took it off.

Here's the outside of the bag- all put together!

The lining is sewn over the red and black fabric and has to be turned inside out- here it is prior to the "giving birth" (inside out tuning) process.

The lining and the purse are sewn together wrong side out so the inner lining needs to be pushed through- reverse sewing, you might say!

Now that the outer bag was shoved through a hole in the lining, it just needs to be tucked inside.

A peek inside the bag- see the inside pocket?- after the lining was stuffed down in!

Sewing on the shoulder strap!

Here's the finished product!

Now Hecate and I just need time to get together so I can give her her bag!