friendship bag tutorial.

need a little gift to send your quilty pals???
here's an adorable & quick 'go to' gift that will brighten any quilters day.

yall will need sixteen 1 1/2" x 5" strips of your choice.
{2 each of 8 different prints.}

i used honey bun strips.

sew 8 of your strips together to make a 8 1/2" x 5" piece.

press.

rinse and repeat.

{yall will need 2 of these pieces.}

attach a 8 1/2" x 5" piece of fabric in between your two strip pieces.

layer your pieced top on some warm & white batting.

quilt as desired.

it might feel funny to quilt without a backing, but yall can do it.

trim your excess batting off.

fold your quilted piece in half matching strips with strips.

sew all the way down on both sides.

we're gonna box the corners now.
fold your fabric down to make a triangle.
mark a line 1 1/2" from your point.

stitch on your drawn line.

cut off excess to make a 1/4" seam allowance.

rinse & repeat to do the other side.

turn your bag right side out.
see those cute little boxed corners???
adorable.

cut two 2 1/4" x 10" strips to make handles.
{if you don't want handles, skip the next few steps.}

fold your strip in half width wise, press.

fold the left side in towards the center, press.
fold the right side in towards the center, press.

fold both sides together, press.

sew down the open side.

{i used a feather stitch.}

pin the handles in place.

i chose to do mine on either side of the 2 middle strips.

stitch your handles in place using a 1/8" seam allowance.

your handles will look like so.
rinse & repeat to do the other side.

take a 14" x 8 1/4" piece {for lining} and fold in half and stitch down both sides.

box the corners on your lining just like you did the bag itself.

insert your liner into your bag, right sides together.

stitch around the top of your bag.

seam rip about 1" on your liner so that you can pull the bag through.

pull the bag out through the opening.

whip stitch that 1" opening closed again.

push the liner back down into your bag.

stitch around the top of your bag.

just make sure that you keep the handles out of your way.

and voila...you have a darn cute bag!!!
{you can even make it without the handles to make a cute little catch all bag.}

throw in a few charm packs to complete your gift.
{or maybe a few fat quarters & some rick rack.}
there's endless possibilities to what will make quilters happy.

hope yall enjoy.

toot your own horn!!!
if you make this, add the pic to my p.s. i quilt: sew & tell flickr group.

and for those inquiring minds:
fabric featured in tutorial=patisserie by fig tree quilts for moda.