I promised I would share what we made at the quilting retreat. I’m very much a beginning quilter, so I hesitate to show what I was working on. But the saying goes, “Save the best for last,” so I thought I’d start with my own project(s) and work up to what some of the experts sewed in another post.

I still have plenty of scraps to work with so I brought the cut out squares and strips with me to the retreat. I only broke two needles this time, sewing through the heavy layers in the corner seams. Less than one needle per bag. Getting better!

Future bags may be a variation of these, maybe with squares on the bottom too. Not sure yet.

What are they good for? In my case, I use one of these bags as a purse because they hold a lot (of my important junk). Most other people might use them to carry books to their book club meeting, carry slippers to a friend’s house when they go to dinner and want to change shoes, carry a camera and a notebook for a hike or photo outing, carry a sandwich and a bottle of water — the list is endless. It just depends on your lifestyle and special needs and hobbies.

Some people at the retreat made much fancier bags than these and it got me thinking about finding new designs for my next bags.

Meanwhile, I made the top layers of two coffee table “runners.” I’ll do a post about those when I get the batting and backing on them and finish quilting the layers together.

In the next post I hope to show you some of the projects the expert quilters worked on. Their sewing skills are amazing.