Still here......

I'm still here.......spent a long weekend on the coast in sunny clear skies while back here in the valley it was chilly and snow showers in the morning. I'm back just in time for a big storm that's supposed to hit us tonight, tomorrow into Friday - big dumping of snow if we believe the weather forecasters. Wind is picking up, a couple snow showers so far........I'm ready to snuggle in for the next few days.

Yesterday afternoon I started a big tote bag, finished it up this afternoon. It's going to be a great bag for conferences to load up with all I need and to put brochures and such in that I pick up at booths. It was a bit hard to work with because I used heavy weight interfacing on both the lining and the outside fabric - I wanted it to be strong - believe me, it is - I can carry bricks in this bag! The inside has a zippered section on one side, two pockets on the other side and then I added a couple clips to hang keys or such on. It took much longer to make this bag than I expected, hopefully the next one will go much faster. And I definitely will be making another one - am thinking I'll raid the boxes of old blue jeans and piece them to make another one. The pattern also includes a smaller version that can be used as a purse, think I'll make one of those at some point too. This would be a great pattern to use handwoven fabric on - I'd probably use it along the top yoke as a decorative accent rather than for the entire bag....great use for leftovers from other projects. Oh, the pattern is called "Mailsack" by Pink Chalk Studio. I bought it at my local Bernina store, Top Stitch.