I designed a tote for Connecting Threads.

A few months ago, some of my co-workers and I got together to brainstorm about introducing some new, more contemporary projects to Connecting Threads, our online quilt shop. We each came up with a project to design and offer on the site as a free pattern, and mine's finally up! It's so neat, it's the first thing I've ever designed that someone else has made.

Cute As A Cupcake tote

My projects were designed to show ways to use applique.

Fly-a-way tote

In addition to drawing up the patterns for the actual applique and writing the pattern, I also sewed an applique example so that the test sewer and the person sewing the photo samples would know how I wanted the applique to look.

Before I worked on this project, I'd never done a blanket stitch, but it was pretty easy and gave me the look I wanted.

See how it turned out?

Tulip Tote
I had LOTS of help writing the patterns, and they've been tested twice, so the instructions are clear and easy to use, even for a beginner like me. You can see them up on the web here along with the quilts, coasters, and pillows my co-workers designed.

I'm so excited!!