Perfect Quilted Tote

Last week I finished up an impromptu tote bag that I decided to make as a Christmas gift! The pattern is Elizabeth Hartman’s Perfect Quilted Tote and it was a well-written pattern that was very straightforward to me. You can’t ask for much more than that from a pattern.

This was another “sew from my stash” project, at least for the colorful quilted panels. Most of the fabrics are from Tula Pink’s Acacia line and are left over from the Acacia Radio quilt top and backing, but there’s also a bit of Cotton and Steel, Alison Glass, and other scraps thrown in. I bought black cotton for the lining and black denim for the outer bag and handles. I didn’t realize until I was already sewing that it was stretch denim, but fortunately that didn’t cause an issue.

I forgot how fun it is to make these quilted panels! I’d done it once before several years ago when I made Jose’s laptop sleeve but hadn’t thought about it since. It’s so easy and would be a fun technique to use for any kind of bag — or even just for a scrappy improvised wall-hanging.

As always, I now find myself wanting to make one of these for myself! Add it to the ever-growing list, I suppose…

p.s. We never had to rake our yard at our old house — we only had two trees and they didn’t really shed their leaves. But we’ve got a big maple tree (I think?) in our back yard here and clearly need to go buy a rake. Ha!

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