Over the weekend I had moments when I doubted that I would get this bag done. I don’t know why. It’s just seventeen four-inch flamboyant granny squares, and I had fourteen of them already done.

On top of that, the bag isn’t big or complicated or tricky in any way, but it does require diligence, it does require that you not let yourself get off track, and it requires that you pay attention to the sorts of details it is easy to overlook.

Despite all of this, I persisted.

The first part of persisting was finishing the last three squares, and by early afternoon Saturday, all three squares were ready to go.

With all seventeen squares now done, the only things left to do were:

• Weave in all the ends
• Decide where to put the squares
• Whipstitch them all together
• Buy fabric for the double lining
• Make a template for the lining
• Cut out the double lining
• Sew the double lining
• Pin the double lining into place
• Sew the double lining to the crochet bag
• Make two crochet straps
• Join the crochet straps to the bag

And I managed to do eight of the eleven things on the “must be done by tomorrow” list before tonight’s blog post was due!

First, I wove in all of the ends except for the long one’s I had left to use in joining them. Next, I took far longer than I should have deciding which square should go where. Finally, I took one of my Clover bent-tipped yarn needles, and got most of the joining done:

With the first three bullet points on my list mostly done, I headed out to the fabric store in search of a suitable lining. Once I learned how to line a crochet purse, I became a convert, and now I would be hard-pressed to make a crochet bag without a lining, and lucky for me, I found the perfect orange to serve as both lining and a backdrop to the flamboyant squares:

So, I made a template, cut out the inner lining, cut out the outer lining, pinned them altogether and handed them to my mother who, using her Singer Featherweight sewing machine completed the first round of seams.

Then, I turned one lining right side out, put the two linings together, pinned them in place and again handed them off to my mother and her Singer Featherweight, and in relatively short order, the lining was ready to be pinned into place:

By now I had blown through the first seven items on the list, and with a pin cushion full of pins, I completed the eighth:

There is still a bit of work to be done, but sewing the lining in does not require daylight, and I can use squares whose colors make me feel the feelings I would like this bag to elicit to get at least some of the crochet for the handles done before I go to bed tonight, and when the sun rises on tomorrow, I will put the finishing touches on the purse, one stitch at a time.