Super Autumn Super Tote

A few months ago I followed along with an auction on Instagram that was raising money for a charity called Courage House. From their website "Courage House isn’t just a house; it is a home. A safe, loving environment for children who have been rescued out of sex trafficking." 

When I heard they were doing another auction, I wanted to do something to help. And so, with the changing of the seasons, this Super Autumn Super Tote (pattern by Noodlehead) was born. I was a little worried about the color combo at first but I absolutely love how it turned out. Hopefully you do too, so you can bid on it! 

There is a layer canvas between the outer fabric and the orange lining so it's pretty heavy duty. You'll be able to haul all of your gear around, no problem! I used a nice big zipper meant for a parka so it's pretty easy to open and close and there are more of the goldfish lining the outside pocket..

I hope you'll visit the auction on Wednesday and bid on this or any of the over 100 other items. There is so much great stuff up for grabs and you'll be making a difference in a girl's very difficult young life.

Allison

So many swaps and bees

When I first found the modern quilting world about a year and a half ago, I was so excited to jump right in. I would see my favorite bloggers - like Alyssa - making gorgeous things and I wanted to be the recipient of those gorgeous things! This opened my eyes to a whole world of happy mail day possibilities.

I joined a few sampler bees on flickr and got right to work, making blocks for my bee-mates and looking forward to the packages I would get in return.

the blocks I made my group for my very first bee

I've had a lot of fun joining various bees and swaps since then. It's always so much fun for swaps in particular to learn about the recipient and make something just for them. As a matter of fact, I have finished up 3 swaps in the past month or two that were a lot of fun.

The Sew Sew Modern swap was the most recent. I was a little nervous when I got my assignment because my partner is kind of a big deal - Anne Sullivan of Play Crafts. She was great though, giving lots of feedback and advice all along the way. She didn't know I had her so I was pretty excited when she said she really loved what I had made so far. I ended up making her a patchwork Super Tote and improving a little flying geese pouch and she loved them both. She has much better pics of them on her blog too if you'd like to see.

After I sent this off it was time to anxiously check my mailbox every day until I got this amazing package all the way from Cara in the UK!

I love it! I really, really wanted an Aeroplane bag and this one is even better than I could have imagined. Cara did an amazing job and I've already had to fend off a few Seattle MQG members from running off with it! Cara also made me a sweet little Lotus Pond pouch and added in some great extras. I've never used a hera marker so I'm excited to try it out. Oh, and she has really adorable tags!

More on the other swaps later. Have a great week!

Allison

Super Tote

I bought Noodlehead's Super Tote pattern back in November when it was on sale for the holidays and I've been meaning to make it ever since. So naturally when it finally came time to make it, I made two! The first was for a swap that I'm still finishing up so more on that later. The second was for me after I scored some gorgeous Jungle Ave fabric before it was released to the public. Thanks to Stash Fabrics for selling some of your sample spree goodies a little early!!

I was SO excited to get this fabric. It's Sara Lawson's first line and part of the Art Gallery Fabrics Limited Edition brand. It was hard to narrow down just a few favorite prints to use in my bag - I didn't want it to be too overwhelming - but I got it down to the funky pink text print (Word on the Street) and the black and white polka dots (Dotted Boulevard) for my main prints. I used another AGF print for the lining and two more Jungle Ave prints (Floral Asphalt and Electreecity) for bag accents.

I had some sweet metal zippers in my stash that worked perfectly for the bag opening. I made a few changes to the lining pattern and left out the elastic pockets on this one. I did a smaller zip pocket on one side and tried to do a pocket similar to the outside one for the other side of the lining but I don't like it. It's really floppy. I need to figure out a way to fix it so maybe there will end up being some elastic in this bag as well. Any ideas?

I've been using this bag a bit already and I love it. My whole purse fits inside along with tons of other stuff that I obviously need to be hauling around (yeah right) so I think it will become my new "small personal item" on flights. Hah!

Allison