Cathedral Quilt Bag

Last summer my friend and I took a road trip and one of the places we visited was Dutch Country in Pennsylvania.  Of course for us that meant many trips to quilt stores and fabric stores.

One of the quilts that I was really taken with was the cathedral quilt.  Most of the ones made by the Amish use muslin as the main fabric which I didn't love the look of - but I knew that in a better colour that style would be fabulous - so much so that I went ahead and bought the pattern.

I knew I was never going to make a whole Cathedral Quilt, but I figured that once I figured out how it was done I could used the technique to make other things.

So November rolls around, and after telling myself for months that I wasn't going to make anything for Christmas this year, I decided that I did want to make some things - and then I stupidly decided to make a bunch of bags using the cathedral quilt pattern.....smart....not.....  These bags are very time consuming.

I managed to get three bags made in time to get them sent to Australia before Christmas, but not without some marathon sewing sessions.  By the time I finished I was all cathedraled out...and as per usual I forgot to take photos of them before I sent them on.  Thankfully my sister did take a photo so I have this at least.

Well after a couple of months hiatus I finally felt ready to tackle a bag for myself and I'm so glad I did because it turned out beautifully.

I started by making two mini cathedral quilts.  One was 3 x 2 squares for the front of the bag:

And one 3 x 4 squares for the back and flap.

I will admit here that I cheated outrageously.  The original quilt pattern calls for everything to be hand sewn.  I did no hand sewing whatsoever.  I was able to modify every step of the pattern so I could sew it all using my machine.  It's probably no where near as beautiful as a hand sewn one would be but that's all I'm willing to do!

The backing is  plain black cotton material with a really beautiful sheen to it.  and the window panes are a blue/turquoise quilting cotton with a vague peacock feather design through it.  The black backing really makes the blue fabric stand out. 

Once the two quilt blocks were made I cut a base out of the black cotton and interfaced it until it was of a similar stiffness to the quilt blocks and then two sides that extended up into the handles.

To finish the inside of the bag I used the rest of the peacock quilting fabric and made another bag the same dimensions as the first.  I made a zipper pocket that I used to divide the main part of the bag into two sections.  Its just sewn into the bottom and side edges of the lining with the zipper finishing the upper edges.

The inside of the pocket is finished with more of the black cotton.

Finally I used a button from my stash and a small piece of elastic cord to hold the bag closed. The other bags I made I used a magnetic closure but I didn't have one on hand and wanted to finish the bag so went with the button instead.

This bag is great.  A bit too big for everyday, but perfect for when I need to carry around a couple of extra things.  It has a nice wide strap so it's comfortable and the strap is the perfect length for carrying cross shoulder. 

Last week I took a trip to New York and this was the perfect bag to use on the trip.  Big enough to fit what I needed and comfortable enough to carry for long periods of time.