Japanese Rice Bag

 I've been working on my orphan blocks that are left over from quilts I've made in the past.  Evidently, they were special, because I certainly didn't throw them out.  I repeatedly end up making extra blocks when piecing my quilts, since I'm always recreating a pattern - ususally making the quilt larger.  My motto:  Go big or stay home!  Ask my fellow quilters.  Ha ha.

I keep coming across pictures of Japanese rice bags on Pinterest.  I love the look of the patches and the hand stitching on these bags.  So the idea of using my orphan scrappy log cabin blocks to construct a rice bag became a great project to hand stitch while sitting outside enjoying the summer weather.

My log cabin blocks are 10 1/2"  square, so I made a larger rice bag finished at ten inches square.  Besides this size will be more useful for me to carry my treasures.  I came up with my own pattern by looking at Pinterest pictures.  A very easy bag to construct.  The most time I spent was hand stitching on the blocks before sewing the bag together.

So here it is - my version of a Japanese Rice Bag using my orphan quilt blocks.

I used macrame cording for the drawstrings and the beads were a garage sale find for a buck.

I have a pile of projects in the making.  The weather is just too beautiful to me inside sewing, but I'm picking away at them and will share as they hit the finish line.