I'm a Bag Lady

I'm a bag lady, I'll admit it. I love tote bags.  I admired a bag like this that belonged to my son's MIL, "A," while I was in California. Yesterday I got home from work to find a box from her with this wonderful tote bag!  The tote bag I had been using for years to carry my lunch and other stuff back and forth to work every day was showing it's age. Now it has been replaced with this beauty.

Thank you, A!

It's in the Bag!

 About a year and a half ago I was showing off a quilt I had made to a fellow quilter. I had put the quilt in a tote bag I had made over 20 years ago. It was made in brown calicos and was a traditional block. My friend said, "Lynne, you need a new bag. This one does not represent you."  You can read about that exchange here.

So I went home and did a lot of thinking. My new bag had to have letters, and it had to have something bright and fun. What I would make was easy. Figuring out how to make my letters fit into a very small space was much trickier.

 This crazy party house (the Red-Eye) did not make it into a quilt I was working on at the time. I loved it's wildness, it's wackiness and it's complete disregard for the rules.  It HAD to be on the bag.

Since a bag has two sides, it was obvious to me the other side had to be a "daytime" house. And of course, Millie had to be included.

Here are photos of both sides of the finished bag. It draws comments wherever it goes.