Believe it or not

It might not be obvious, but this bag is made from four of the string squares I won in January 2008. The rest of those light and dark string blocks I won way back when were used in a quilt–which I haven't photographed since I finished the top, but you can see an almost finished photo here.

It was made using the Summer Tote directions I posted last summer . . . with string pieced straps inspired by the totes that Laura made. 

When I finished the quilt top, I had these four lotto blocks and 8 triangles from mitering the borders.

I *had* to use them. I added some solid black to the triangles and trimmed everything to the size of the smallest square–five and a half inches.

I had a small spool of variegated red quilting thread and decided to practice my free motion quilting. Nothing like the pressure of high-contrast stitching to force you to see every wiggle and jiggle, eh?

I think this smallish tote will be perfect for carrying around my next knitting project.

It's 10 inches tall, with a 7 1/2 inch square bottom formed from the 4 lotto blocks.  This unusual angles shows the string squares that inspired this bag . . .   anyone recognize their fabrics? (kidding . . . though I think someone may remember that cute fish fabris ;-)

If you clicked over to look at the quilt, you might imagine that there are some more leftover string triangles at my house . . . and you'd be right.  I just *can't* toss them and have a couple of other projects in mind.