I should be done with this project. There should be NO week one. There should be FINISHED!

But I’ve been procrastinating. For no reason.

This is the first time I have made a “ByAnnie” bag. Rather than canvas, her bags are quilted onto cotton fabric and “Soft ‘n Stable”. This gives a nice structure but I’m not sure how quilting cotton will hold up to the everyday wear and tear on a backpack so I’m using a cotton canvas for the exterior and quilting fabric for the interior. Both are from Zen Chic by Brigette Heitland–a Moda designer.

One of my favorite designers. I have used her fabrics for quilts and I bought one of her patterns, Sky.

Back to the bag…

There are a LOT of pieces to this bag and it took me several hours to cut all those out. And I had to do all the quilting.

Here is where I am. All the pockets, straps, and zipper/side strip are finished. Now I just need to put it all together. Tomorrow!

I’d probably be further along but I didn’t read the list of supplies very well and had to wait for a few items.

I order ALL my tote hardware from Wawak.com. I’m not one of their associates but I still like to recommend them. They ship FAST and the prices can’t be beat. I ordered the zippers and other hardware one day and it was there the next. Amazing. But things do get delivered to DC faster than anywhere I ever lived.

On another subject, Ms. Juki and I are getting along great. She is very similar to the Brother I already have so I didn’t have much of a learning curve. We were sewing along immediately. I had some issues with the stitching but was able to fix that by changing the tension. No problem after that. She goes right through many layers of fabric like “butta”. I’m looking forward to making one of my denim totes with her and see how she handles the thick seams. But that is for another project.

On another note, I went to a Local Quilt Shop (LQS) in Hyattsville, MD. Three LIttle Birds. Zowie. They had ALL the Ruby Star Society fabric. And some Rifle Paper Company. And yarn. And embroidery floss. And all the little accessories. So much stuff. I spent a few hours there just touching fabric. I could have spent my fabric budget for the year there but I was very good and only bought what I needed for my next project.

I need to get this backpack done so I can move on!