Don't worry, I'll get through all the Christmas presents I made eventually! I almost forgot to take pictures of these totes for my mom and sister, because I was finishing them so close to the deadline. I practically wrapped my sister's as we walked out the door to go to her house on Christmas day...

For my mom, a rich, pretty Asian print with cranes, one of her favorite birds. I didn't think I had any ribbon that would match but I liked this stripe with it so well!





For my sister, lime green (her favorite color) with pretty willow trees and turquoise spots. I thought to put on a little zipper pull when I got to making hers.





A funny story about my sister's bag - I had the fabric cuts for this tote all planned to minimize waste, and when I got to her fabric I realized the planned cuts made the pattern go the wrong way. So I re-figured the best way to fit in the pieces, made the cuts, only to realize I'd envisioned it wrong and the fabric would have been fine originally. So now I had a bunch of sideways trees ready to become a bag. I finally accepted that it would bother me too much, chopped up the pieces, added in some of the leftovers, and sewed it all back up with right-side-up trees. Kind of proves my tendency to overthink things, maybe!

Labels: bags, quilting, sewing