Crafty Natalie

one of my good friends has had the bad luck of having to travel for work for the next three months! she’s had to leave for two weeks at a time, and only really gets one day back at home before she heads back out again! unfortunately she had to miss easter so i thought i’d surprise her when she got back by having an easter basket waiting for her when she got home! i was at the grocery store and came across a magazine called Fast & Fabulous Quilting Ideas. i thought it was kind of an expensive magazine, but when i started flipping through it i realized there were a ton of projects inside that i definitely would enjoy making, plus the fact that patterns were included, so really, paying that much for the magazine wasn’t too outrageous! (and then when i got home and was flipping through it i realized that by buying the magazine i also got a free subscription to Ladies Home Journal! so two magazines for the price of one…though its been brought to my attention that i’m a little young for Ladies Home Journal, but oh well- maybe there will be some good recipes for me to try out!)

one of the bags that caught my eye was the Grab Bag. the really neat thing about this bag is that the straps are two different sizes. one is long and the other is short. and the way it works is you insert the long handle into the short handle, so you only have the one handle to hold and it closes the bag so nothing falls out. i thought this would be great as a lunch sack or even a gift bag. since i’m always reusing gift bags i thought i might start a collection of these bags that way i always have a gift bag on hand. the bags were really easy to make, except i had a tough time with the straps. joining the straps at the top are the last thing you have to do for the bag, and it seemed that when i was finishing there wasn’t enough for me to be able to press and fold under! but it all worked out…i just trimmed the batting on the inside to make the inside lining shorter and a little thiner and was able to press the sides in to join the pieces together.

i filled my friends bag with some jelly beans and also this applique shirt i made her! hope she enjoys it!