Mouthy Stitches Bag - A Finish

The bag for my secret partner in the Mouthy Stitches Swap is finished. The swap mandated that we all use the Skip to My Lou pattern for a Simple Reversible Totebag. It took me a long while to settle on what to make as my partner is wonderful and I did not want to let her down.



Eventually I decided to give applique a try and add some hand stitching. This idea of leaves on squares was present in many of the mosaics of the swap participants. I went to the pattern by Brioni Greenberg in Fat Quarterly Issue 4 for some guidance and inspiration and then adapted it.



I wanted the bag to be asymmetrical so I added some hearts to connect the back to the front. I hand stitched with perle cotton and also with some Wonderfil 12 wt orange thread. The applique, orange machine stitching and machine quilting on the back were done  with a 40 wt Aurafil orange thread.



The newspaper text print is by Sweetwater from their line Mama Said Sew. I had to add an antique black glass button next to the button definition. The other fabrics are some linen and some cotton neutrals, a Chicopee print by Denyse Schmidt and French text is from a line called Penelope by Holly Holderman.



The back has more definitions, including embroidery, selvage and patchwork.



A little hand stitching on the back too. The heart fabric is special, it is from Umbrella Prints and is one of their quilting weight fabrics.



Although there were a couple of false starts, in the end this bag came together really nicely. It is reversible but I am going to hold off showing you the inside until my partner gets it as it might just alert her in advance. Now all I have to do is make a key fob and I am ready to send this off.

And, this is my first finish for Rhonda at Quilter in the Gaps Finish-A-Long. One down, 8 to go. I still am in need of a lot of luck.

I hope you have enjoyed your weekend.

Best,

Leanne