Halloween Tote Bag Swap!

Way back in August, I signed up for the Halloween Tote Bag swap over at Aunt~Pitty~Pat's blog. I thought it was about time that I showed you the really neat totebag that I received and also what I sent to my partner. My partner was Cheryl in Virginia and she made the neatest totebag. I've actually used it as a purse. She machine quilted spider webs on it and that gave me the idea to do that on a tablerunner I'm working on. :-) There are two pockets on the front and lots of room inside!!







We had to send goodies with our totebag......3 fat quarters, some sweet treats, a Halloween gift item and a spool of thread. I've already used the fat quarter with the bats on it and have plans for the Halloween cat fabric. My grandson loved the candy and I am going to use my cookie cutter for some pumpkin cookies at Halloween. Thanks so much Cheryl for a boo-tiful totebag swap!!

Here is the bag I made for Cheryl............

I love this pumpkin fabric called "Happy Jacks" from Alexander Henry. Then I found the "Boo!" fabric and it was perfect.

The photo on the right is taken just before I sewed the handles in place. This is a fun and easy totebag to make and I plan to do a tutorial on it come Spring. Yes, that may seem a long time away but there is good reason for that. The time will be right for this come spring. :-)

I tucked in three fat quarters, some packs of needles, the spool of thread and some Halloween buttons...........and then...........
I folded the bag very nicely and placed it on top of those goodies .........and added some sweet treats. I got lucky......Cheryl said Mallo Cups are her favorite and I had no way of knowing that. I just remembered that they were a favorite of mine when I was a kid so when I saw them at the store, I had to put them in her package. :-) She liked her totebag, too, so we were both very happy swap partners.

She doesn't know it but she almost got this totebag ...........
It's not easy to tell from the photos but this one is about twice the size of the one I sent her. You see, this is the first totebag I was making for her and I just started cutting fabric and stitching. I knew what I wanted to make but I was kind of doing two things at once and it didn't work. At the time I working on this, my husband was trying to solve some computer problems for me so my mind was divided between answering his questions and also trying to be at my sewing machine.

The bag we made was to be at least 13" or more in size. I was planning one about 15" and then just as I got ready to sew up the sides, I realized that I had sewn in double side panels and the bag was way bigger than I wanted. I promptly set it aside and started a new bag and finished it in time to send it off before the swap due date! I kept the large bag for me as it will hold alot and worked great to fill with goodies for my recent trip to Iowa.

Obviously, you can now see that my bag project needs a little work before I post that tutorial. LOL! There is a prototype already laid out and I'll work out the "challenges" on that one and then make another one before I finally post the tutorial. In the meantime, I am working on some wooly things and a couple of tablerunners that you might enjoy seeing. Wooly stuff is coming up tomorrow. See you then!
Sandi