Cats & Quilts - a match made in heaven... (except maybe those stubborn little clouds of fur that latch on to the fabric!)

Kitty Quote of the Day

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul. - Jean Cocteau

Sunday, December 18, 2011

A Finish For Secret Santa at Work

We have a secret santa swap at work too & unless I am stumped as to a great gift to make that my partner will appreciate, I try to make this one too so it can be personal & one of a kind.

My partner this year was Carol, a beautiful lady who manages our indigineous playgroups for some school funding. The success stories that have come out of these groups make me realise how little I know about how some people just get by in our affluent society. She is rightly proud of her heritiage & having seen lots of beautiful aboriginal fabrics in the past, I wanted to make her something using some. As she flew off to France (including Paris!) on Friday to meet up with her daughter who is on a student exchange there, I thought a bag would be just the go.

I had come across a very handy pattern called the 12 Pocket Bag on the blog of SewCalGal. It has handles made of webbing so is very sturdy & able to hold a good load too. My bags always seem to be overloaded & weigh a tonne so I like that in a tote bag. The instructions made me think a little but I haven't made many bags so that is not a reflection on the pattern & I eventually did the lining slightly different so it was boxed like the outer bag.
I went to 2 shops for fabric & Murphy's law, all the beautiful fabric I had seen had disappeared in to others stash's at home. After much digging I finally found this dot painting one in the $6 pile at Spotlight (the Joondalup store sould really do with a good cleanup in the quilt material section!).

Unfortunately on the day the gifts were given out I was at my quilting group's Christmas party so didn't get to see Carol open it but was told she loved it & was taking it away with her - yippeee!


I can assure you it doesn't take very long to make. After having had a busy week I started sewing on Wednesday after the Calsthenics AGM at 11pm. I had cut the fabric one night previous when I couldn't sleep but ended up recutting the dot print fabric as it was printed on a very obvious angle (not so obvious when I originally cut it at 3am one morning!). It was finished & in it's Santa bag by 1.30am ready for giving the next day.

I can see me making this up again in so many different fabrics & have a couple of colour requests from workmates already. Time will tell whether there luck is in or not!

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

7 comments:

  1. what a lovely bag Tracee,you are very good at making bags,i love mine and take it everywhere and i have had so many people remark on it and even my girlfriend who is an excellant sewer commented on how well it was made,so anyone that gets a bag from you is very lucky Tracee.xx

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  2. That is so darling!! I love webbing handles too, my bags haul library books so I need them, lol! Love the fabric!

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  3. nice bag tracee......merry christmas mate

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  4. Love the bag Tracee... of course she loved it and will use it lots...
    Happy Christmas..
    Hugz

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  5. That's beautiful fabric that you used, and a very nice bag. I hope Carol loves it for years to come.

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  6. Gorgeous bag Tracee, you are a whizz.

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  7. Tracee, your bag is absolutely perfect.

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Thank you friends for leaving a comment on my post - love to get them! Tracee xx