Need help/ideas for last minute addition to bag
 

I am making/creating a bag for my daughter to give as a Christmas gift to her bff. I have no pattern and am basically creating something from a pic she saw somewhere.....gotta love those kids who think you are Martha Stewart with the sewing machine! This morning I was asking what she wanted for any quilting for the outside panels of the bag....at first she said nothing in particular, just whatever looked good. Then....she drops the bomb and asks for embroidery/quilted design to represent breast cancer. No embroidery machine and no time to get anything outsourced.....now what to do? Any ideas? I just need something small, maybe a 5"x5" area with something related to breast cancer, like the ribbon. I am afraid if I just quilt in the design of the pink ribbon, it will not be very visible. I am at a loss here, with no viable options ;(

Couple of options for you:
1) you could make an applique design of the ribbon & either button hole or satin stitch it to the background. A fusible raw edge applique design is easy even for beginners.
2) You could have an iron-on transfer made of the ribbon & attach it to a small feature block. You cannot quilt over it, but it would look nice if you echo quilted maybe 1/16" outside the edge of the transfer. You can probably find an iron-on transfer at a local store or online. I've ordered from here before & can attest that they make beautiful products & ship quickly. I've had them do custom work for me, but they also have some mass-produced iron-on transfers for sale, including this breast cancer ribbon: https://www.irononsticker.net/ribbon...er-p-9098.html


Also, just was thinking & if you want to just quilt it, you could maybe do a triple stitch & that would make it show up more. You could even use a double or triple needle bar along with the triple stitch and then it would really show up. The triple stitch makes it look you used embroidery floss to stitch the design, but it works exactly the same as regular stitching. I've never tried it with curved edges, but as long as you go slow & turn your fabric every couple of stitches, I don't see why it wouldn't work. I'm pretty sure you do need your feed dogs up because the way it works is it moves the fabric back and forth under the needle like travel stitching. You would need to do that before you layer your sandwich, though, because I don't think it would turn very well with the batting in there. Once you get it all layered, you could echo quilt the design.

You could also use like a 2 1/2 or 3 inch wide pink ribbon and just tack that on. It's easy to make the cancer awareness shape.

Do you have any pink ribbon? Just lay it out like the emblem and stitch the edges securely to the bag. http://www.pinkribbonshop.com/

Breast cancer is not always "very visible", either. It doesn't have to be blatant to let the bff know you care. You could even use the design on an extra pocket or add pink ribbon on the strap.

You could also tell her that what she wants can't be done with the length of time and resources you have. Does she have another suggestion??

If you have access to a JoAnn's or other fabric/craft store you might find a ready made applique.

Maybe you could incorporate something like this on a new pocket:
http://www.caroldoak.com/userfiles/file/PinkRibbon.pdf

From here: http://www.caroldoak.com/free-quilt-patterns.php

It looks like a quick one.