QuiltCon Tote Bag

Good Morning,
It's Sunday and I am up early while everyone is asleep.  I can't believe QuiltCon was a week ago.  It has been a busy week and all week I meant to post about the matching tote bags I made for Ruthie and I last week. 

When I looked at the QuiltCon logo it reminded me of Patty Young's Rainbow Textured Basics that I had been admiring at my two LQS the "Quilt Asylum" and "Stitched with Love" for more than a month.

Literally in the afternoon before leaving for Austin last Friday (and 30 minutes before my neighborhood fabric store closed) I decided to make these tote bags.    I drove to the store got what I needed, went to dinner with family and then came home and went to work.  I should have been sleeping but who needs sleep the night before a marathon day of traveling across the state and walking my feet off at a convention center? 

Back to the totes:   I debated about which fabric to use as the main fabric and in the end decided on the "Natural Basic Texture" fabric in Patty Young's Textured Basics collection.  I used the "Multicolor Shoreline" stripe as an accent and the Multi Vintage Houndstooth" for the applique.   I wanted to do something a little different for the straps and added hardware for the first time ever. 

I've had this Texas map digital design from Big Dreams Embroidery for a long time and I have been dying to use it on something neat.  I found a embroidery font similar to the logo and went to work. 

The bags came together quickly since there was not a whole lot of piecing, really the most challending thing was the Texas applique which took a while to program and stich out.

I will probably carry this tote as my purse some during the spring, so I made a matching zipper pouch in the "Multi Diamonds" pattern of the same collection.  I've made about 40 of these zipper bags and this will be the first one I actually keep for myself. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are having a great Sunday.