Wondering what to do this rainy weekend? How about making a new summer bag to cheer yourself up. We’ve just received two lovely new bag patterns by Virginia Robertson.

The oval, bucket shaped Bucket Bag uses ten to twenty 2 1/2″ coordinating strips of fabric. It measures 14″ x 16″ and has lots of pockets!

The Bali Bag is a fast and simple quilt-as-you-go project. It’s a roomy 15″ x  15″ bag with eight pockets, so there’s a place for everything.

And that’s not all! We also have a pattern for four organizers to accompany your Bali Bag!

We’re looking forward to Wednesday of next week when the entries to this year’s Paint Can Challenge are due!  Participants received a ½ metre of fabric and were challenged to make a small quilt on the theme “What makes you happy?”  The entries will be displayed in the shop during the month of June and visitors will be able to vote for their favourite.  Be sure to check them out!

Tukaway Tote

Beginning June 1st we must charge 5¢ for each plastic bag needed by our customers, as directed by a new City of Toronto bylaw.  Most of us have lots of tote bags that we could use for our purchases, but we just always seem to forget to bring them!  Making your own totes can help the environment, fulfill that creative urge, and put a dent in your stash!  We have several patterns available to let you make bags that reflect your personal taste in fabric.  The Tukaway Tote is a perfect fold-up that will fit nicely into a purse until it is needed and will hold several metres of fabric.  The Market Bag is sturdy enough for other necessities like groceries!  Come by the shop in June or July and show us a tote bag that you’ve made for yourself and we’ll give you a coupon worth $5 off a fabric purchase of $25 or more that’s good until Labour Day!

Market Bag

We spent the morning today with Peggy from Contemporary Sewing Materials.  She showed us tons of gorgeous fabric to buy!  We both fell in love with the new “French Farmhouse” collection from Andover. The colours are so soft and pretty!  Look for these fabrics to arrive in the shop in about 6 weeks time.

We’ve completed three new bags samples for the shop!  Linda made the “Market Bag” by Country Quilter.  It has a very sturdy construction and is perfect for grocery shopping.  Now that plastic is “out”, why not stitch up a couple of these to use instead?

Do you need a tote with a lot of room?  The “Building Blocks” bag from Indygo Junction has lots of capacity!  The pattern features a smaller size as well.

“The Original Scrap-bag” by Jamie Kalvestran has interior pockets as well as a hardboard bottom (available separately) to give the purse a lot of strength.

In three weeks we will be hosting our Valentine’s Bash.  On Friday February 13th and Saturday February 14th bring us a Valentine and we will give you 10% off any fabric you purchase.  If the valentine is quilted, we will give you 20% off!  For every Valentine that we receive, we’ll donate $1 to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.  Everyone will receive a free heart shaped pillow pattern.  Oh yes, and did we mention that there will be chocolate?