November's project - FINISHED!

So here we are, November 27th, and my project is finished! 2 days ago already!  It just took me 2 days to get a picture of this gorgeous tote bag.  I really didn't have a recipient for it when I started the project, but that has changed.  Our son is bringing his girlfriend home to "meet the parents" - and she's coming here for the first time when we're planning to open our Christmas gifts.  That's going to work out really well, except that we started a tradition last year - we pulled the name of a family member, and have to make that person a gift.  I have a feeling that it may be a wee bit uncomfortable to see all of us opening our lovely hand-made gifts, and not have one to open yourself, so she'll be getting this tote.  She's currently attending university, so having a largish tote bag will hopefully come in handy.  I hope so anyway!

Now for the proof: 

I made the bottom boxy, so it will hopefully be a little more practical.  I hope she likes grey and yellow!

This isn't my November project!

I know, I know, I have a lot of projects to have finished by the end of the year, and this isn't one of them, but...  It's been a UFO for quite a while, and I finally decided that I needed to finish it before Christmas.  It's the Miranda Day Bag from Lazy Girl Designs.  I think that having a set of designer handles since 2009 or so was part of the push to finally get it done.   I pulled the fabrics for it in May or June, and got it all cut up a week or so later - and, then it sat - and sat...
Yesterday, I thought that maybe I should finally complete it - and I did!  I'm a little surprised at the size of it - I'm really "into" smaller purses these days - having tendonitis in my shoulder, partly from carrying a big purse or bag on that shoulder, didn't help!  Putting pre-formed handles on it takes away the option of carrying the purse over my shoulder - but it's almost big enough to carry my sewing machine in!  Well, almost....  Take a look for yourself!

Some finishes...

I'm such a tease!  I've shown a few projects here, but forget to show you the finished item.  Well, this is your lucky day - I have 3 finishes to show you!  First off is the wedding quilt for my nephew and his lovely bride.  I chose to use the "Falling Charms" pattern from the Missouri Quilt Company, using 4 "Boho" fabric charm pacs, and Kona  "Snow" for the blocks - and here's the finished quilt: I didn't have my quilt demo partner to hold up the quilt, and the ground outside was far to wet to use the yard, so I draped the quilt over my couch.  I tried to get most of it into the picture, so it'skind of tucked to make it fit.  There's also a picture of the quilting - my quilting and blogging friend Amy used this design recently, and I thought that it would really suit the straight lines of this quilt, so that's how the center of the quilt was quilted.
Next up is my "boy" Jelly Roll Jam quilt, which I've donated to our Christian School fundraising dinner and auction.  I used a "Good Morning" jelly roll, and separated the strips into "boy" and "girl" colours, and got the tops done a few weeks ago - now this one is done.  I used a great bright turquoise polka-dotted flannel on the back - here's what it looks like:

I just did Stitch-in-the-Ditch quilting around every 3 strips of fabric, and then quilted a star in every block (you should be able to see the quilting on the back of the quilt).

And finally, our quilt guild committed to make placemats for our local Victorian Order of Nurses to hand out at Christmas to every client that receives Meals-On-Wheels.  We could do whatever we wanted; it was suggested that we make the back something more generic, so they could be used year-round.  I had just bought the newest McCall's Quick Quilts magazine, and loved the placemat pattern enclosed.  I pulled out my Christmas-sy fabrics, found a great apple orchard border-print for the back.  My placemats are ready to go!

Cutting it close!

Yikes!  How can it be Nov. 7th already?  I just found out that I have 10 hours left to post my Nov. project for my Lovely Year of Finishes project!  Which is okay in some ways...
I have several little half-completed projects - some will be Christmas gifts, some are things that just NEED to be finished....  I'm not really sure which category my Nov. project falls into - this may end up being a gift, just in case I need something for an unexpected guest, or I may keep it for myself - we'll see.
I started this tote bag a few months ago, hoping to have it finished for our annual school bazaar, but life got too crazy, and it was put aside.  Now seems like a good time to finish it - especially because I need a quick project for November.  We usually open our Christmas gifts earlier in December - our kids are spread out in different directions, and they all have jobs that require 7-day-a-week shifts, so picking a date earlier in the month almost guarantees that we'll all be able to be here before the hectic-ness of December really sets in.  This year, the kids informed us that they'll all be home on Dec. 9th and 10th, so we'll open our gifts then.  We also chose the name of a family member to make a gift for this year like we did last year, and I'm VERY quickly running out of time to work on that gift (and I have one of the males in the family, so this tote bag will definitely NOT do!).  So, here's the picture of my bag-to-be:

The bright piece on the right is the body of the bag; the lining is in the center, and the interfacing is on the left side.  I have the squares pieced for the handles somewhere, but I can't locate them at the moment - and I'll probably put some batting in them to make it easier to carry full of groceries or other items.  The bag will have square bottom corners, so it won't be quite as long as it looks.  

I'll also have a pic of the completed wedding quilt up by Sunday - I'm still working on the quilting, and then the binding will have to be attached, but the end is in sight!  Now I just need to find wedding gift wrap somewhere...