Secret Santa Reveal

The other day I posted about the lovely Secret Santa gifts from my friend Jean. I also showed a teaser of the project I was working on. The actual exchange was on Saturday, during my family party, and I can now reveal what I made for Jenny Copeland. It was kind of funny that I was her Secret Santa, because I am one of the more "Artsy" quilters in the CyberBee, and she is probably THE most traditional. She likes country colors, folk art, applique, hand-quilting...and chickens! I decided to make another Great Big Tote Bag, like the two I made last year, except in her preferred color palette.




The instructions for this bag are from the Selvage Blog. It would take a lot of selvages and sewing to make this MONGO bag!


You start out by making a quilt, complete with binding. I selected most of these fabrics at Loving Stitches quilt shop in Fayetteville, NC, when I was there to buy a roll of batting. But Alert Readers will remember the beautiful green sun-printed pine needle fabric as part of my prize from Vicki Welsh's November Postcard Challenge. I still have some left for other projects! The orange hand-dye and the brown stripe were from my stash.




After constructing the striped top and the pieced lining, I quilted the project on my Gammill, in designs inspired by Nichole Webb's Floribunda Feathers.



At the same time, I quilted two five-inch pieces for the shoulder straps. After doing that, I realized I was supposed to fold the five-inch fabric strip in half over the batting before quilting. So, I cut my quilted straps in half, and then had to make a binding for them. I sewed them to the inside of the bag, reinforcing with X-stitching. The bound edges of the quilt are hand-stitched together.


Since I now had an extra strip of quilted five-inch wide fabric, I decided to make a little pouch that could be used to carry rotary cutters or scissors. It closes with Velcro, and I added a little fiber to the zig-zagged raw edge of the flap.





You can see how big the tote bag is in relation to the approximately eight-inch long pouch.




I also tucked in a pot-holder made by my friend Carolyn Ormond for her church's bazaar, and a coffee mug filled with coordinating fabrics.



If you would like to see another awesome Secret Santa gift from the CyberBee exchange, visit my friend Janice's blog to see what she created for Jean.