Mother's Day Gifts

Buying gifts for Mother's Day is always difficult for me.  My mom is really easy to buy for - she would love a gift card to just about anywhere.  But that seems so impersonal.  My mother-in-law is very practical, so I can never think of a non-boring gift to get her.

My idea was to make reusable grocery bags.  I found this great pattern for the Jane Market Bag which is kind of a resulable-grocery-bag-plus.  Sure you could use it for groceries, but it is also really cute and could also be an all-purpose tote bag.  The pattern is GREAT! These are a few of the things I love about it:

  • It is very reasonably priced (only $6) and it is definitely the type of pattern that I would use again.
  • It is very well written.
  • It isn't difficult but it still taught me something new (my first time with pin tucks)
  • It is a great stash buster
  • It is really satisfying to make because it doesn't look homemade
I made 2 bags for each of them.  My original plan was to make three, but I am glad that I stuck with 2 because I am a slow bag maker and it took me a couple of evenings to put these together.  I used Pellon 808 interfacing to stiffen the bags up which definitely made the process take longer, but I think it made the bags a little studier.  

I made 2 bags with this County Fair fabric, one for my Mom and one for my mother-in-law.  
 This one is for my Mom.  I used leftover fabric from the University of Utah quilt I made for my stepdad.
 And a meadowsweet bag for my mother-in-law.  I love these fabrics, but I haven't found a good project for them until now.
So these are waiting to be packaged up and walked over to the post office this afternoon.  I live a few blocks from a mall with a post office in side, so I might just have to do a little shopping and make sure these bags aren't sent empty!

In other project news, I am currently working on a quilt for my sister for her high school graduation.  It is twin-sized and she is going to take it to college with her.  I doubt she even knows this blog exists, but just in case I am just going to post a little sneak peak.

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