Bee Day!

Friday my 3 bee friends - Lorraine, Linda and Suzanne, and I went on a day trip to three quilt shops in our area. We drove first to Wilson's in Hagerstown, Maryland. What a nice shop with a great sale going on. Then we drove to Traditions at the White Swan which is also in Hagerstown! No fair one town having two great quilt shops!! We love the folks at Traditions. We've gotten to know them from our local Quilter's Unlimited Quilt Show each June. Their shop is very nice, too. We ate lunch at a quaint little cafe called The Rhubarb House. Verrry yum!

Then on Saturday, we had our monthly bee day at my house. We all made the awesome Big Bag Theory tote from the March/April McCall's magazine. I had made it before out of cute primary colored beach fabrics. This time I made it from Mark Lipinski's Caliphon fabric charm squares.

This fabric line is the same one shown in the magazine. I just fell in love with it. I have always loved the crispness black and white.

Again, like before, I lengthened the straps into shoulder straps which I find more functional for a large tote bag like this. I had an awesome big square black button for it, too.

I quilted it the same way I did the beach one before by using a curved zig zag diagonally through all the squares in both directions. Easy and quick that looked cool, too.

So, you like it? Such an awesome pattern! If you use the pattern and make it up using 3" squares instead of 5" squares, you end up with a perfect size for a daily purse! The possibilities are endless! Sooooo, ready - set - sew!!