Sneak preview of the huge nautical pillow and bag project

My mother-in-law and father-in-law are celebrating their recent retirements by taking to the water on a new motor boat.  I still haven't had a chance to get to where it is docked in the marina up in Sutton's Bay (about a four and a half hour drive north from here), but I'm hard at work on a project they commissioned me to complete for it.

Step one: The first of seven zippered pillows to make lounging in the boat nice and comfy (not to mention colorful).  Rocky helped me cut out the fabric (which I fussy-cut to feature the coolest aspects of the indoor/outdoor fabric).  I rounded the corners just for fun.

This is the front of the first pillow (which is 16" square):

And the back:

The next five pillows will all be in solid colors -- red, yellow, and green -- and the last one will be striped in green and blue.

After I finish those pillows, I will get started on making seven bags to store in the various cabinets and storage areas of the boat.  They will have drawstring closures and handles so Barb and Larry can easily get everything on and off the boat.  I'm basing the design off of Pink Penguin's lunch bag tutorial, which uses four different fabrics on the different components.

Barb let me have free reign in selecting those fabrics, and here is what I picked out to coordinate with the outdoor fabrics for the pillows (the two on the left).  I'm going to mix and match the fabrics so that no two bags are exactly alike.

After the drawstring bags are done, I will make a medium-sized tote bag to carry beach toys for the grandkids and a giant tote bag to store all of the pillows.  That makes a grand total of nine bags (in addition to the seven pillows).

I had better get sewing, because summer is rapidly coming to a close!