Fabric Shopping Bags--Where Have They All Gone?

I count it as just one more tiny sad thing about this quarantine period.  But we are not able to use our fabric shopping bags.  And I fully agree--I'm not arguing the point.

So while my shopping bags are unoccupied, shall we say, I decided it was a good time to wash all of them.  Here are some of the bags.

Most of these bags are courtesy of the Green Bag Lady.  Teresa has changed the world, I believe, by giving away thousands upon thousands of fabric bags.  All over the world.  You can visit her website here..

This bag is not actually from GBL, although I used her pattern to make it.  I love it because it is made from fabric by Harmony Art.  It's a nice sturdy fabric, too.

I'm pretty sure that this next one is the first bag I ever received from GBL.  It, too, is made from Harmony Art fabric, a very cute little child's alphabet design, with cute little words spelled out in the grid.

And here is its number.  Each bag is numbered and kept track of at the GBH Headquarters.  This bag is number 5,349, fairly early on in the production history.

This is another beautiful Harmony Art print, this time a very pretty polished cotton which has a luxurious feel to it.

Then there's this bag, from the year of Nashville's flooding.  (Can't remember the date.)

This is its number, though, #10,332.

Further on in the progression of bags given away/number of bags.

I count myself fortunate to have had the privilege of working with Teresa, just a little bit, by helping to hand out bags at grocery stores with her and with her "Bag-ettes."

This is my most recent bag (which is the polished cotton shown above), #55,545, which is a great number, don't you think!  The number of bags that have been made to date is about 70,000.  Isn't that fantastic!

So, whenever we do get to emerge from our lairs, I will have nice clean fabric bags to use.  Thank you, Harmony and Teresa!

Green Bag Lady Bag

One of the blogs I follow (see right-hand column of my blog) is the Green Bag Lady.  This remarkable woman has given away over 53,000 fabric shopping bags.  Isn't that incredible!!  She's also a nice person, as I've come to know her a little bit through her visits to my part of the country.  And I have helped to give out quite a few of her bags, which is always fun!

Each bag has its own number.  Here's my number!

I have several of GBL's bags, and I've also used her super-simple pattern (located on her blog) to make some bags of my own.  Some I've given away and some have been for myself.  But when I saw recently that GBL was having a give-away on her blog of bags made from Harmony Art fabric, I just had to put in my name in the hopes of receiving one of the bags.  I also count Harmony as one of my friends, and the fabrics she designs are incredibly beautiful.  Both in look and in feel!

And guess what!  My wish came true!!  I received an email from Bagette Dad, asking for my mailing address.  And this beautiful bag is what came in the mail to me!  Isn't that fabric beautiful!  

The design is called Animal Farm.  I just love the little animals pictured.  Love, love.

So check out The Green Bag Lady's blog and website.  She's doing some great work, besides making pretty things!!

Earth Day Celebration 2013

A little belated, but an Earth Day celebration none-the-less.  We had a fabric bag give-away last Sunday.  I've talked about Teresa, the Green Bag Lady, before in some of my posts.  Her raison d'être is to rid the world of paper and plastic bags by sewing fabric bags and giving them away.  Check out her website and read all about her art project.

Here are just a few of the many happy people with their new bags.  The Green Bag Lady sends bags to our "remote" location, which I guess makes us her West Coast Distribution Service. 

Below is a table with a selection of the beautiful bags laid out for people to choose.  

And here we are, ready to give out bags.  

(We always have great fun doing this!)  Jazz hands, everyone!

A New Shopping Bag for MisterStitches

I recently made a new shopping bag for MisterStitches.  We always take our shopping bags with us now, so MisterStitches has quite an assortment in his car's trunk.  He always tells me that he likes the Green Bag Lady's bags the best, and also that he needs a new bag.

So I got busy and made him a bag from the GBL's pattern, provided on her website.  MisterStitches does not like thin or unsturdy bags, so I used this green/beige fabric that is upholstery weight for the bag.  He really, really likes this new bag.  I told him the only thing it's lacking is a Green Bag Lady label and number inside.  Maybe I'll have to get some labels of my own. . .

What I Did For Earth Day

 I know I'm way behind in blog posts, and I apologize for that.  So I'll try to do a little catching up now.  Starting with Earth Day in April.

I spent Earth Day giving out reusable fabric bags at Surf Supermarket in Gualala, CA.  The market decided to save one million plastic bags by not using them any more for bagging groceries. Isn't that great!!!  There is a bill pending which would make single use plastic bags illegal in this county, but The Surf decided to just go ahead and do it independently.

Here is our group (I'm behind the camera!) displaying some bags and the very important "jazz hands."  We had 50 bags to give away, and they were gone in about an hour.  

These bags were all made by the Green Bag Lady, who kindly sent them to us to distribute.  Thank you, Green Bag Lady!

This photo shows a woman choosing her bag.  Such beautiful fabrics, and such a variety!  It was a hard choice for many people.

Fabric from Stitch Simple

Look at the lovely fabrics I received in the mail from Stitch Simple!! Run on over there and check out their website. They sell pre-washed, pre-ironed, pre-cut fabric. Isn't that cool!?! I am one of those quilters who subscribes to the Alex Anderson school of washing fabric before I use it. So it's really neat to receive a package of fabric and have it all ready to use. As well as cut into squares for me so I don't have to!

My package contained reds, whites, and blues. I ordered an equal number of whites, and reds/blues. I'm thinking of half square triangles with a white and a color in each square. And you may have guessed it, I'm planning on making a Quilt of Valor, which will go to a wounded serviceman or woman.

And how did I come by these lovely fabrics? I won them! Yes, I did. From the Green Bag Lady, who had a giveaway on her blog, in conjunction with Stitch Simple.

Seriously, go check out Stitch Simple, as they have some lovely fabrics. They are not all in 5.5" squares, as mine are. They have different sizes of pre-cuts, also fat quarters, skinny quarters, 1-yard cuts, etc. And, they have a lot of lovely organic fabrics from Harmony Art.

Finished with Fabric Shopping Bags

I finished sewing the fabric shopping bags, which I posted about here. And now you see them all lined up in the photo above. These bags will go in the Project Santa boxes that are delivered to people in our community. Thanks to the great idea of Harmony, and the consultation with Teresa of The Green Bag Lady, they all went together quite easily.

I actually had quite a lot of fun sewing these. They go together quite easily, and I'm sure I'll be making more of my own now.

I think I was channeling the Green Bag Lady while I was sewing! I used her pattern, which can be found on her website, with just a little bit of tweaking for my purposes. It's a very simple, straightforward pattern. You should definitely check it out.

It feels great to have a big project like this (26 bags sewn) all completed and delivered.

Fabric Shopping Bags

I have begun a new project. (What a surprise!)

My friend Harmony, of Harmony Art Design, had the idea of putting a fabric shopping bag in with every box of goods delivered to our community this Christmas by Project Santa. Project Santa delivers food and gifts to families in need.

We talked (well, talked electronically) about doing this, and thought we might need the help of The Green Bag Lady. Teresa is a great friend, who just happens to make thousands of fabric shopping bags and Gives Them Away!

Anyway, we talked about how many we needed, and decided that the number we needed was small enough that I could take care of it myself. We need 25 bags. I think I've sewn about 20 so far. I have a pretty good system going. I get all the bags cut out first, and that's easy, because it's just a 36" by 18" piece of fabric, plus handles. Then when I get down to sewing them, it only takes me 15 minutes per bag.

KittyStitches had to come check out the bags!

So far I have used these three fabrics. The one in front and in the upper left are some, shall we say, *Extremely Economical* fabrics. Which worked to make great bags. The fabric on the right was donated by Harmony Art. The red and green print works very well for Christmas bags, don't you think?

Green Bag Giveaway

Here we are, at our green bag giveaway, hosted by the Green Bag Lady herself, Teresa, who came all the way from Nashville, Tennessee. The top photo shows myself and Harmony helping her with the giving away of the bags this past Wednesday. Doesn't my new Green Bag Lady t-shirt look fantastic! I was so excited to receive it.

At the two grocery stores in town, we gave away about 100 bags in about two hours. It was a lot of fun. We would try to catch people as they were going into the grocery store and give them a free bag first. Then when they came out of the store with their new bag full of groceries we would give them a big cheer!

Here are Harmony and Teresa having a good laugh over something!

It was a fun day, and I hope we made progress toward the goal of no plastic bags in our small town.

Green Bag Lady

Tomorrow will be a special day.

The Green Bag Lady will be in Gualala, California.

She will be giving out free shopping bags at the two grocery stores in town in the afternoon.

If you haven't already, go visit her website/blog and read all about her. She makes fabric bags to give away. That's right! She just gives them away! The only "string" attached is she asks that the recipient use the bag instead of paper or plastic.

She has a good heart and great bags!