Island Batik with byAnnie bag

This article is sponsored by Island Batik and industry partners: AccuQuilt, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles and Aurifil Thread. Island Batik is a US based manufacturer, importer and distributor of cotton batik, rayon batik and hand-printed cotton from Indonesia. See dislosure

Thank you Island Batik, ByAnnie, Schmetz Needles and Aurifil Thread.

Don’t you just love playing with new things? For the September Challenge ByAnnie joined Island Batik and sent all Ambassadors the bag pattern of their choice, the bag I chose was In Control. Annie included all accessories needed to finish the bag in our chosen Island Batik fabrics, I chose fabrics from the Flutter Fly Collection. Flutter Fly was designed by Kathy Engle and is one of my favorite collections to date. You should begin seeing them in your local shops this month.

The patterns come complete with directions including a cutting diagram for the fabric.

No detail is left out. I recommend you have a supply of clips on hand since some of the seams are really too thick for pins.

You don’t need a longarm for quilting but directions are given. You can either quilt each individual part of the bag on your domestic or quilt it as a solid unit then follow the cutting directions. I chose to cut then quilt.

One end of the bag has an open pocket and the other a zippered pocket. I loved the directions for binding each unit and the fact that the inside of the bag was not ruined by unsightly seams or a floating liner.

I may have over done it with the clips but everything was held firmly. Accordion pockets to help organize your goodies. Gosh I love that IB Moonstone fabric for the binding.

The only thing I wish this bag included is something to hide all the goodies I may place inside to use it as a handbag. If it did I couldn’t have taken this shot of Loki who was the perfect size to model my finish.

I’ve not made any bags with this much detail. Had it occurred to me years ago to add a binding to hide the seams there would likely be as many bags in my closet as there are quilts.

Although the photo below was taken after I made the bag these are the exact needles I used. I was a little worried they wouldn’t be able to handle the layers of fabric and Soft & Stable for batting, however they did stitch right through. Slow stitching of course. Schmetz Microtex Chrome 70/10.

The bag is in it’s new home with my great niece who declared she could pack her lunch in it when she goes to kindergarten next year.

Thread was Aurifil for quilting and joining.