Charlie Harper tote

by Linda Theil

9.5 x 9.5 x 5-inch "Forever Shopper-small" tote in "Purple Finch"
fabric from "Best of Charlie Harper collection by Birch Fabrics

For Christmas 2019, Alisa gave me a selection of fat quarters based on the art of Charlie Harper. While each fabric is incredibly beautiful, the designs didn't harmonize in any way that I could work into a quilt, so the Charlie Harpers have been stewing in my stash all these months. I had just finished making my second Diane Spencer Ogg "Forever Shopper", and had returned to the Charlie Harper conundrum when I realized I could use a single Charlie Harper fat quarter as part of a two-toned tote in the small-sized "Forever Shopper" pattern.

I used a fat quarter of the "Purple Finch" design from "Best of Charlie Harper" collection by Birch Fabrics to make a 9.5 x 9.5 x 5-inch tote.

I cut the fat quarter into two 11 x 18-inch pieces and sewed the pieces to each side of a 11 x 18-inch piece of a coordinating solid fabric. Because the "Purple Finch" design is a directional fabric, I had to sew one piece to the solid-colored fabric upside-down so that when the tote was assembled each panel would appear right-side up.

Because the tote is unlined, to give the fabric body and stability I quilted the fabric to a cream colored cotton in a 1.5-inch diamond design.

The handles are cotton webbing folded and stitched through the center, leaving a flange on either end to attach to the tote.

The tote features an interior, zippered pocket.

Because I eliminated an interior slide pocket, I decided to make a coordinating pouch using the Diane Spencer-Ogg "Cosmetics Pod" pattern featured free on the Spencer-Ogg website.

Although I've made many of these little pouches, this is the first time I tried making one with quilted fabric. I used the quilt-as-you-go method to attach pieces of the black and cream cotton fabrics used in the tote, then added some extra quilting to the piece before cutting out the pod pattern.