A Tote, a Stitch Pillow, and a Mystery Solved

At the Crosstown Quilters Guild as at many other quilt guilds, there is a back table where people may leave free quilt related items: fabric, magazines, rulers, geegaws, tools, trims, etc. I love this table as do many others who hover around it waiting to see what may be tossed onto the pile. Now, for myself, I have a strict practice. I give myself two weeks to use anything that I take, and if I haven't used it, I bring it back to the next meeting and toss it on the pile. That's where I found the tiny purse kit that I turned into a larger project bag seen HERE. At our last meeting, I picked up a long, narrow strip of home dec fabric which had an interesting sailing ship design. It sat in my bag for two weeks with my self imposed deadline looming. Then it hit me. I decided to make a tote bag. There was no pattern; I just winged it.  As you may know from reading my previous post, the body was done, but I could not seem to locate some webbing that I wanted to use for the handles. When I came home from yesterday's meeting, I had an idea. I found a pair of old jeans that believe it or not were now too large for me, hacked off the waistband,  and used that for the handles! :-) Waste not want not . . . or perhaps in this case, waist not want not. :-)

The tote measures 16x19, and I will bring it on our getaway this weekend.

I also made a quick stitch pillow yesterday. You may find the excellent youtube tutorial by Anna at Woolly Mammoth/ Quilt Roadies HERE.  The purpose of the pillow is to raise your work up so you do not get a crick in your neck from stitching at a funny angle. Besides that, it sure is pretty.

It measures roughly fourteen inches across and is five to six inches deep. I'm bringing it with me to our retreat, and I will let you know how it works.

Finally, I found the stainless steel straws which had not been stashed away after all. I found them in a bag along with another item that I had purchased at the same time. Whew! Mystery solved!!! The package is now right beside the plastic straws which I will use up first. Life is good!!!