I mentioned in my one of my recent previous posts that I was working on some last minute Christmas gifts.
Well I finished the gifts last night – two tote bags for two people in my life who love the Star Wars saga:
They have roomy interiors:
And both external sides of the tote bags have pockets. I used coordinating solid fabric for the inside of the pockets for some contrast.
Now all I can do is see if the tote bag recipients like them!
Oh and John worked on a last minute gift too – a set of cutting boards make from the scraps that his friend gave him of their new wood floors. I think they will be pretty pleased when they see the offcuts/scrap wood from installing their floors turned into something useful!
Last night I finished the Noodlehead Firefly Tote that I started in early December at a bag making class as Treelotta Fabrics quilt shop.
I made it with the same fabric and gold zipper as the Noodlehead Range Backpack (see post Adventures in Bag Making: Range Backpack DONE! ) I made the month prior. I did add a bit more “pizazz” to the tote bag by adding in some sparkly gold handles.
Here are the photos of the completed Firefly Tote!
And here is it hanging out with it’s coordinating backpack:
If you purchase the pattern, the pattern designer, Noodlehead, allows you to make it to sell on Etsy, etc. (but no commercial production, just small handmade shops) as long as you credit her. I think the tote size and the smaller “project” size bag would sell in my shop but it took so long to make that bag I am not sure at this point.
Speaking of my Etsy shop, I am up to 11 sales since opening in November and I still plan to post about my shop in the future. We had a nice but busy holiday with my partner’s son visiting from out of town and I am rather behind in blogging!
My partner John enjoys playing poker (Texas Hold’em) with his friends (and he is pretty good at it); and in addition to their monthly poker nights, once a year they have a huge three-day poker tournament.
For the annual poker three-day tournament in May this year, I decided to make John a special playing card/poker themed tote bag for him to take to the tournament:
It was quite the hit at the tournament and several of his poker buddies wanted to buy one (one lady wanted to order 3 of them!). Unfortunately the fabric is difficult to find and I have to order more online).
The tote bag was so popular that one of the poker league coordinators asked if I could make one as a raffle prize for their upcoming fundraiser poker night for one of their league members who is battling cancer. I am going to work on that this weekend as I was able to find some quick card themed fabric on Spoonflower.
The tote bags I’ve been making are pretty popular (see previous post Tote, Tote, Tote Bags) and here is one I made my friend Kathy a couple months ago that I do not think is on that post:
I found a great deal on drop cloth (used to make the handles, base and lining) on the Home Depot website a couple months ago, and I plan to make a whole bunch of tote bags “production” style. I have some awesome canvas and quilting cotton fabrics picked out to use for the outside of the bags and the pockets.
Postscript
The weather has turned quite lovely in the Denver metro area (for a while I thought we were becoming the Pacific NW with all the rain we were getting) and we are again enjoying our evening “cocktail” dog walks on the green space behind our home. We started the evening cocktail walks (not always alcoholic beverages!) last summer during the pandemic when everything was closed and you could not go to a pub or restaurant.
Now the pubs and restaurants are all open (at least those that survived the pandemic), seating at full capacity (in most counties), but we discovered we really like this little tradition we started.
Here are a couple photos my partner John took of the sunset the other evening while we walked Mike the Miniature Schnauzer, and had our cocktails in our portable cups:
tierneycreates 