moda holliberry alexandra tote

i'm in love with this bag, but i'm not going to lie... it has a funny backstory.my boss asked me one friday night if i had any plans after work.  being the year 2020, obviously not...  my only plan was to sew, but i was intrigued to hear what the offer was.  tayva asked me if i would be up for sewing a new sample bag to go with some sew by number battings we had in stock for our live show that weekend.  with a handful of jelly rolls to select from, and a quilt shop at my fingertips, i selected moda's holliberry jellyroll for my exterior and a cut of grunge for my bag lining.  my apologies now, i forgot to write down which shade of grunge it was...
but let me tell you, it was fabulous.
the hardest part of this bag was deciding the layout of the strips.  overall, it used about half of a jelly roll, which allowed for a lot of variation between the two sides of the bag.  i started with one consistent middle red strip, and worked the rest of the colorways out from there.  when it came to the other diagonal on the bag, i tried to keep them matching the best that i could so it would be cohesive on both sides.the process of sewing the bag was super easy.  spray baste the lining to the solid side of the batting.  then, once that is flat and good to go, select your strips and lay them in the numbered rectangle.  sew, and then repeat.  apparently i wasn't supposed to iron it until the very end, but you know... rules are meant to be broken sometimes.  no quilt police were called on me either, so that's a plus.speaking of breaking rules...

i totally didn't understand how the pattern wanted me to do the straps, nor did i end up with 2 matching jelly roll strips to do it the way i thought it was saying.  so i flubbed it.
i pieced together the straps from some of the lining/binding fabric (grunge) with one of the jelly roll strips i really liked but didn't have enough for two straps.  i then folded it around the batting strip as well as the webbing that was included and stitched down the center to close up all the seams.  i also did a top stitch on both edges to help finish it off and really hold it together.
it may not have been what the pattern said to do, but i love it.given that this was a question that was posed before i left the shop, i didn't really have time to analyze what color of thread i would need, since the inner quilting would be visible.  i did not have the right shade of gray AT ALL, so i decided the next best thing would be a bold, contrasting red.  and i was right!  it adds a little bit of festive-ness to the inside and really helps the binding on the edge pop.  the pattern also says that you can leave the inside edges raw or zig zag them, but after talking to tayva about how she did her batik sample, i went ahead and made a sort of binding for that as well.  i much prefer the clean (yet slightly wonky) look that it gives without having white batting peep out against the gray.

go figure, i don't have any photos of that though...

i really enjoyed how quick this project was, and the instant gratification that came from finishing it in about an hour or so!  i can't remember if i had a show or movie playing, or if i ended up listening to a podcast... but it didn't take long at all.

this would be a great project for beginners, since it gives you all the numbers of what way to sew the strips on and everything.  

would i do another one?  absolutely.

i've already oogled halloween rolls and thought about how cool they would look, or even some of the other fun june taylor bag patterns caliquiltco carries.  wouldn't it be a super fun gift bag?  or trick or treat bag?  i was also thinking of how cool it would be for a baby shower gift, filled with diapers or other necessities.