Decorated Beach Bags

My extended family gathered in mid-July for vacation in the town where my grandparents vacationed the majority of their marriage, so it is a place with lots of family vacation history.  This was the first trip for the generation that includes my son, so I wanted to make something fun and easy for the kids.

I bought some pre-made canvas bags at A.C. Moore for $2.99 each, and I used some of my Accuquilt dies to personalize them.  Now, before I get accused of choosing sexist designs, I want to point out that I did ask for each kid if they wanted a train or a butterfly, those being the only fun Accuquilt dies I have.  I asked my son directly and he picked a train; I asked a parent for both my niece and my cousin's daughter and was told butterfly.  So while they did line up with stereotypical gender choices, it was (hopefully) a little more personalized than that.

I did names on the other side, also using an Accuquilt die.  This is where the name is a limiting factor; you can see that both my son and my niece have 6 letters in their name, but one fit okay in a line and the other...didn't.  Husband helped with the layout and we decided that an embroidered rainbow underneath would help it look a little less weird.  Niece LOVES rainbows, so that helps too.

I used scraps of Kona solids for the names.  The letters in Elliot are Prussian and Jade Green (he picked them), Verona's are Bordeaux and Bright Periwinkle, and Emma's are Niagara and Pool.  The train and butterflies were made with general scraps.

I found this to be a fun, easy project and I'm really happy with how they turned out.  I was worried about having to stitch through the bag opening, but it wasn't super difficult and I only caught the bag handle once!  The bags are a good size for the 3-year olds and they used them to carry sand toys to the beach.  It's probably a little big for the 19-month-old (cousin's daughter) but her parents carried it for her and she'll grow into it.  I think I will keep a few blank bags on hand to personalize for kids in my life, as long as they have short names!

Since this was a scrap project, I'm linking up with Oh Scrap! hosted by Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.