I spent the Sew Days over the weekend working on the Oxbow Tote, which is the sort of group project instigated by Sue S. This project is not going well for me. I have to ask if all of my bag projects start out this way and then I get over the drama or if this is particularly annoying this time?
First, I didn’t have enough fabric in the correct orientation to make the large size. I needed more width to make two main exterior panels. That was irritating, but I decided that the regular size would be fine. It wasn’t what I was planning so I had to do a mind shift.
Then, I had to do the worst part of this bag, after cutting, which was quilting. It took me a whole day to quilt the main panels. Fortunately, I was entertained by Tim and Julie and the rest of the quilt gang. I was only in a moderately bad mood when I finished instead of completely miserable and submerging my head in a vat of chocolate.
Once I was done with that I was able to fine cut the pattern pieces. They are not square, so I rough cut the pieces to allow for shrinkage and, then, quilted them. After that step, I felt like I had some success. I put the cross body strap together as well as the side loops that will hold that strap.
I have more to do, but feel I am over the hump for now.