Paper Pieced Snack Bag

At the beginning of July, I wrote that one of my quilting plans for the month was to finally try paper piecing.  Bethany from Make Me a Quilt commented on my post that she was interested in trying it as well and we decided to make a pact!  Less than a week later, we both had paper pieced our first block!  

A few weeks later and a few paper pieced projects later, I was talking to Kristy who was organizing this paper piecing blog hop and I was very excited to join in on the fun (clearly, I'm a fan of blog hops!)  Actually, Kristy's tutorial for the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop was about paper piecing - that post plus seeing all the fun blocks she has created also inspired me to try it!

As I wrote last week, my daughters and I are in the midst of crazy back to school sewing.  One of the items on their list was a snack bag and so my middle daughter and I searched the web to find a fun paper pieced pattern to use.  One of the first we came upon was this juice glass block on Sew Mama Sew from Ayumi of Pink Penguin.  My daughter loved this block and wanted to use it (even though she never even brings juice with her snack!?!)  I also decided to add in the companion sprout block by Penny of sewtakeahike.  

For the reverse side, I really wanted to paper piece the word "snack."  I looked around the web for a pattern to use but since I needed a specific size, I decided to try to make my own.  I'm happy I tried it - it actually wasn't nearly as complicated as I had thought and I was able to make the letters the exact size I wanted them.  Once the girls are back to school, I'll write something up about how I made the letters but for now here is a pic:

The "S" needs some work and I didn't intend for the "C" to be so much larger than the rest of the letters but overall I'm happy with it.  And, more importantly, the recipient LOVES it!

To make the snack bag, I basically followed the same process I use for my quilted totes which you can find here.  But I wanted to make the opening a little smaller so after I was finished with the bag, I sewed up the top between the sides and the handles.  Oh, and can you tell that purple was a requested color???  Unfortunately, I didn't have any purple thread but I did have a very pretty blue Aurifil that I used for quilting the snack side.

The girls usually just make a knot with the handles to close the middle opening so I just left it like that.

There have been lots of great posts along the Practically Paper Pieced Blog Hop - I very much recommend visiting some or all!  The hop runs for the month of August and culminates with a link party from August 29-31 with lots of great prizes.  Visit Kristy's blog for all the information.  And here is this week's schedule:

20 Fiona from Finding Fifth  

21 Beth from Plum and June

22 Megan from Jaffa quilts

23 Juliet from Tartan Kiwi

24 Katy from The Littlest Thistle

25 Sat Tracey from the Peony Teacup

And if you are also a fan of blog hops OR if you are a new blogger OR if you like fabric giveaways, click here for more information on all of that (and a current giveaway!)