Oh the Cuteness!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world's greatest organic cotton tote bag. They'll be available for sale in my Etsy shop before the week is out! I posted a photo of these totes in progress on Instagram a while back (though I'd had the fabric set aside for them for about three years lol), and they were delayed by the move south. But here they are, in all their glory! I'm so happy with the way they turned out. I drafted the pattern myself and it was a lot of work!   I modeled their construction after a tote bag I've had for years and years, and it's always my favorite one to bring with me out of the huge pile I own. The main bodies of these bags are made from organic cotton canvas (Check out my cute little tag!). The outer shell is quilting fabric, double-stitched and independently seamed from the body for maximum strength. This makes it so the bag doesn't need a lining so it can be folded up and tucked in your purse:  My new sew...

This is a post about your first quilt.   Yes,  you . I've had so many of my friends look at me as I'm binding a quilt and lament, "I wish I knew how to quilt." I used to say the very same thing. And while I don't claim to be any kind of expert as I've only completed  a couple of baby quilts thus far, I know that anyone who can sew a straight line can also make a quilt. My mom recently came to visit me and we were going through some of my fabrics when she fell in love with a fat quarter of a sweet Japanese cotton/linen blend printed in neat little squares to look like patchwork. She asked me to quilt it up so she could use it as a table mat. As I was about to begin I grabbed the camera and documented it all. Four hours later I had a beautiful little quilt, and a tutorial. I hope all of my readers out there who have always been too intimidated to try quilting will give this a try. Half a day and a few simple materials is all it takes, and you ca...