hello

I finally got around to some sewing - careful, don't fall out of your chair with surprise or anything :)

I must warn you, the pictures are terrible.  I took them on a dark & rainy day, and since this bit of fabric goodness was a gift, I really couldn't wait for the sun to shine.  I do hope you can forgive me.

I've made this tote bag a couple times now, and I adore this pattern.  The bag itself is quite large, and the pockets are huge.  Everything that went into this tote were materials I had on hand.  I even pieced together batting scraps to get the sizes I needed.  I always feel so clever when I do that :)

Looking at this bag in real life makes me want to squint :)  I've had this fabric for about eight years, and it came from my aunt's stash before that.  The lining is a solid pink that matches the pink flowers.

I went through six colors of thread - not intentionally, they kept running out, you know.  {so very satisfying to use up a bunch of spools}

The bag's outsides & lining are quilted in a meandering pattern.  After a couple hours of that {and an undisclosed amount of swearing} I decided to get a little more adventurous on the pockets.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures until the bag was finished, but here goes!

Well, I suppose you can see what I did here :)

Can you see the stitches on this one?  It was inspired by some lovely FMQ by Hoosier Tony.  Toni's stitches reminded me of a dandelion flower {one of my favorite flowers}, and I just had to give it a go :)

That's about it for the bag.  I filled it with some oatmeal cookies and sent it off to its new home.
It looks as if we will be snowed in tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some significant progress on my DP QAL to share with you.  I hope you all are finding the time for more sewing than me :)

I'm going to bring this post on over to Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.  Hope to see you there!