First Drop Zone Bag

This afternoon I organized the Morris Manor squares onto the fusible interfacing and pressed them into place.

I then folded and sewed each column with a 1/4" seam in from the fold. Then quilted it with the foam stabilizer, etc. etc. 

My quilted piece was a bit larger than the pattern called for so I did the math to compensate. I did discover a flaw in the pattern, or at least how I would do subsequent ones differently. 

The beauty of this pattern is that all the raw edges are covered so the final result looks very polished. I was also pleased that I didn't need to buy anything - everything I needed was in my stash.

The result:

It opens right out to a very accessible container.

Of course I had to make a coordinating zipper pull.

Things I will do differently next time:

• eliminate the interfacing on the pull tabs to make them a bit thinner. There was a lot of bulk to sew through with the lining, foam, quilted top, zipper tape, pull tabs, and end pieces. 
• use a patterned fabric rather than my beloved quilted checkerboards. This will eliminate mis-aligning the patterns on each side of the zipper
• use a 22" zipper again. The pattern called for a 24" zipper or 20" zipper by the yard but my 22" zipper from my stash had more than enough length
• horizontally divide the piece in quarters. The instructions made for too big a piece cut out of the side which made sewing up the ends quite tricky

The pattern calls for omnidirectional fabric but it was easy to just orient the directional squares properly with a seam though the centre (which became the bottom.

I have plenty of the foam stabilizer left so could certainly make another bag. 

It was stinking hot today so I mostly huddled inside in air-conditioned comfort except for when I hung out a load of laundry and brought it in later. 

I finally finished watching the 154 episodes of  'Gilmore Girls' (22 episodes x 7 seasons) and the 4 movie-length episodes of  'Gilmore Girls: Year in the Life'. I'd been staying up WAY too late for all this binge-watching. My plan this week is to get to bed at a more decent time and get up earlier in preparation for early wakeups when I go to camp.

Update: Supposedly another season of 'Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life' will be released on Netflix on November 14 of this year. Not much is posted about it so I'll believe it when I see it.