Back at the beginning of August I participated in a blog hop for Gotham Quilt’s new line, My NYC. The deciding factor in joining the hop was the awesome Pizza Rat fabric in the line. I also fell in love with the Pillow Panel they have for the line and was kinda wishing I could do something with that.

Who said wishes don’t come true?

I am thrilled to have received two panels from Gotham Quilt to have fun with. Well, that’s mainly because Lucas also fell in love with the Pizza Rat and asked if he could make it into a pillow. I have a hard time saying no when the kids ask to sew, and a harder time when they ask while home sick from school. So he made himself the pillow.

I wanted to make a tote bag using one of the panels and my Big Apple block from the previous blog hop. The Pattern is available at Quilt Pattern Mart.

I thought it would be fun to applique one of the panels onto some background fabric and do some embroidery. Originally I was going to use the Statue of Liberty and embroider fireworks, but that Rat kept calling me.

My Big Apple block finishes at 20″ so any of the panels would work. For extra background fun I pulled out my remaining stash of My NYC fabric and created four log cabin blocks, this way it would also tie in to the log cabin in the Big Apple.

Turning all the low value sides to the center created a perfect frame for Mr. Rat. I used a lightweight double sided fusible so he would stay in place while I did the embroidery to secure him in place.

I found some sparkly thread, beads, and buttons and totally bling-ed him out.

I attached some Annie’s Soft and Stable to give structure to the bag, bought some gold lame for the straps (because it was just perfect) and boxed the bottom corners.

Lucas tried to take it out Trick or Treating the other night, but I hadn’t taken photos yet. LOL! Annie thinks it’s a perfect size to fill with books. Denis just rolled his eyes at me (such a 16 year old).

What do you think?

It’s absolutely amazing all the different things you can create using pillow panels. Be sure to visit all these wonderful creators to see what they made and be inspired!

November 1	Jen Strauser	Dizzy Quilter
November 2	Swan Sheridan	Swan Amity Studios
November 3	Lissa LaGreca	Lovingly, Lissa <–You are here!
November 3	Emily Leachman	The Darling Dogwood
November 4	Deborah Fisher	Fish Museum and Circus
November 5	Siobhan Fitzpatrick	CDM365 Studios
November 5	Autumn Shatto	Geometry And Joy
November 6	Laura Piland	Slice of Pi Quilts

Lovingly, Lissa