Finish: Tote Swap
My guild, South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild did a secret tote swap, and we revealed the totes last night. We used the reversible tote swap tutorial (although there were many, many amazing variations that people made!) and it was such a great time.
Given:
For my partner, I got our guild leader Tina, who also recently won the Judge’s Choice ribbon at QuiltCon. So there was a little pressure there! I know her fairly well, and I know family is super important to her. After looking through her flickr faves and inspiration mosaic, there seemed to be a number of things that incorporated triangles, so I wanted to throw some of that in there, too. And finally, I really wanted to do something paper-pieced, just because she is the improv queen and thinks my fascination with paper-piecing is a bit crazy!
Color-wise, she likes lighter jewel tones and essex linen. Put all that into the design blender, and I decided to work with the house motif. I remembered that her blog logo features a cute blue cottage, so I decided to make a paper-piecing pattern out of it. (Thank you Penny’s class!!) The triangles I used as a background and to bring in the jewel tones on the other side. The inside fabrics are picked out herself without her knowing what they were for.
Overall it was a lot of fun, although as always there are things I would do differently. It was my first bag (not counting the little drawstring bags) and now I’m ready to tackle something a bit more fancy. 
Received:
For my tote, Lori received my name. When she presented the tote to the group (before saying who it was for) I totally squeaked out loud because it was just SO ME. Look at all those awesome low volume and text prints?! And Joel Dewberry in aqua, chartreuse and navy…Yah that’s pretty much perfect!
She put in insul-brite batting so that I can use it for keeping food insulated. How amazing is that?! I absolutely love it and it’s already become my go to bag.
Our guild swaps are always so fun, I can’t wait for the next one!
-Anne
You did a great job on that tote! That cottage block was da bomb. If you decide to give up computers as a career, you have a second career in designing paper-piecing foundations.
Thanks so much! I technically used the computer while working on the block, so maybe I’ll just do both!
that house is ridonkulous!!!!
Hahahaaha Thank you! I think my favorite part of paper-piecing is that even if you make some absolutely “ridonkulous” pattern…you generally only have to make it once. >_>
You did a wonderful job with the Tote!! The cottage is amazing.
Thank you so much! It was a lot of fun, although I wish I’d left myself a bit more time to play with the design.