Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along Quilt Bag Tutorial

With a pocket for a picture

I am in a charity bee called European Siblings Together and we make quilts for children who have been separated by the care system, foster care, or even divorce.  You can read more about it here.
February is my month to have my fellow bee members help me make my quilt, I asked them to do the Mosaic Tiles block from the book "Modern Bee" from Lindsay Conner. We are doing them in a rainbow of color, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, and I did my block as pink.

I wanted to make a Quilt bag to go with the quilt since I know that sometimes these kids are on the move and they may need a safe place to store this special gift.  When I was little I had a sleeping bag for when I had to stay at places that didn't have a bed, I hope other children do not have to go through this but if they do I hope they can wrap themselves in this quilt and they can also use the quilt bag as a cover for a pillow.

 With a picture pocket and the words stitched "You Are Loved" just above it.  This is a picture of my half brother, me and his wife.  Wish we had a Siblings Together program when we were growing up.

How to Make A Quilt Bag:
First Measure your finished Quilt:
I folded my quilt in half, then half again, then folded that into Thirds.  
Then measure the Height, Length and Weight, mine was 15"x15" and 2" high.

My little helper

 Add
H+W+H+1 = Width of your panel, so for me that was 2+15+2+1 = 20"
H+L+H+5 =Height of your panel, so for me that was 2+15+2+5= 24"
I gave it a bigger height so this bag could also hold a pillow form inside, you may wish to decrease the 5" if your quilt is larger after being folded up.

Sew up your quilt blocks:

back of bag

  If you would like to add a picture pocket before sewing up all of your blocks together find where you would like to place the pocket and get your pocket together.  I did not have vinyl but I do get our underwear and socks in these hard plastic bags from the super market.

perfect size for a picture

 Cut the "vinyl" on the large size, on one side sew down a piece of binding, I sewed it to the back first then flipped it over and sewed it down to the front of the vinyl.  Then I adjusted my piece of vinyl to make sure it was straight, there is a little wiggling going on when sewing with vinyl, if you have never sewn with it before then check out these cute projects and helpful instructions (all links will take you to a new page). 
Make It Love It Clear Vinyl Pouches
Negligent Style Scrappy Vinyl Pouches 
The main tip seems to be to add scotch tape to the bottom of your walking foot, for me I used my zipper foot and I also added some wax paper to my machine because it seemed to get stuck to my sewing machine.

 I also used Clover Clips to hold the vinyl to fabric

 Fold the bottom binding up and around to the front but do not sew it just yet, hold it in place with the clover clips.
 Find the seam that you are going to put one side of the pocket in.

 Sew it in, then sew it into the other seam. then trim any extra vinyl off.

 Now sew the bottom of the picture pocket to your quilt panel, I sewed it along the binding edge and also at the bottom, a picture will say it better than words.

Sew Front and Back of panels together at the bottom, I ironed a piece of Pellon SF101 to the Mosaic Tiles Quilt Panels to give it some structure, then sew your interior to the top on each side to make one large loop.

Like a big tube.

 
 Fold your piece so the seams match along the side right sides facing each other, sew this at 1/2" seam, sew one side, then on the other side leave a 3" gap to turn the bag inside out.

 I always leave a tail of thread to stitch close the bag after turning it out.
Turn out and add handles if you desire.  I also stitched the bottom of the bag to catch the interior fabric so that it wouldn't pull out when the quilt was pulled out of the bag.

For Handles, cut 2 - 4"x13" pieces of fabric.

Iron Pellon SF101 to the handle strips, then fold in half wrong sides together and press, then fold the raw edges into the center of the fold you just made and again press.  I put a piece of batting into the center and then stitched along the 2 edges, folded the bottom and made a box X stitch to connect it to the bag.
And your done, put your quilt in and add a picture.  This quilt and bag will make a wonderful memory for one child.

Quilt Inside, Interior Heart Candy fabric is from Timeless Treasure 2007

Linking to Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along
If you make a quilt bag, let me know I would love to see it.