Quiltingboard Forums - Not a quilt, but quilt inspired

For Christmas, I planned on making a reusable grocery tote for my mom. The plan was to print a picture of my kids on special fabric and incorporate it into the tote. Well, the special fabric was cream colored and could only be dry cleaned. Not such a good idea for a grocery tote. I was left trying to figure out a nice gift.

A few months ago, a fellow quilter from this board was cleaning out her scrap stash and I bought some of it from her. Included was a set of squares already sewn together and some of the leftover material from those squares. The leftovers were the perfect size for a tote! Once I started playing w/ the materials, I found inspiration and a plan came together.

I used a tote I already had as the basis of a pattern; but mostly, I winged it. It's no where near perfect and the detailing is atrocious. But I adore it!! I really don't want to part with it! LOL

Inside out
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...g/DSC_1211.jpg[/img]

Right side out
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...g/DSC_1217.jpg[/img]

I made the binding by myself. The binding was made from my inspiration pieces -- they were squares already sewn together that were in the box of scraps.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...g/DSC_1215.jpg[/img]

Don't know if you can see it or not, but I did a bit of trim work on the corner to give it some personality.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...g/DSC_1216.jpg[/img]

It's going to be hard to part with this tote! I love it!

And yes.. irony... the reusable, environmentally friendly tote made from recycled scraps is stuffed w/ plastic grocery bags to give it shape for the pictures. LOL