Neuse Quilters Beach Retreat

Our Neuse Quilters Guild in Kinston go down to the beach each year for a quilting retreat. We just returned from our four day week and had a wonderful time. We had 25 participants which included our guild, the Greene County Needleworkers, a Goldsboro guild member, and two sisters of members.

Kirsta Meadows, All About Quilting Quilt store owner from Jacksonville, joined us Tuesday night for dinner and to tell us about the HERO quilt program for wounded soldiers.

Ditty Bags- Again!!

Of course I had to post these cuties on my blog and then to facebook. Then my cousin wanted one for her and my aunt, whom I am named for... I will give them to them at our family reunion...pictures will follow!!

Here they are...with black and white and red...

Recycled Jeans Ditty Bags

My daddy gave me an old pair of blue jeans because he thought I might want the denim, which I did!! I cut the legs off and squared them into rectangles of different sizes. They laid around for a while until I needed a quick, cheap thank you gift.


I  lined each rectangle with a coordinate fabric and embroidered the initials on each.   Then I matched a zipper to the fabric and sewed it in place. I used more scrap denim for the handle and sewed on ribbon, turned inside out and sewed one seam in one direction and then reversed the next seam. A trick I used while teaching Family & Consumer Sciences to high school students to make little bags!! 

See what you think...

Scrap Fabric Bag

I got busy one day and decided to use some of  my favorite scraps to make a little bag. I did not have a pattern so I just started sewing strips together... I made a rectangle, used a light weight batting, and then selected some more favorite fabric (Lake House) for the linning. Made two handles with a button hole in each end and then selected buttons.

I completed the binding like I do on my quilts and machine stitched it into place.  I was finished in about 2 hours...

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

I came across a similar fabric bag today with a tutorial. So I decided to post it for those who need more directions that I had!!  Try your own!!