For those of you who have been with me for a while, you already know of the group of quilt buds that I’ve been hanging out with for years. I can’t begin to tell you how much their friendship has meant to me over that stretch of time. We go to retreats together about 4 times a year and Becky hosts us at her place for regular sew days…after having 5 boys she has the largest table for all of us to sit at for sewing!

Just a while ago I made myself the In Control bag by ByAnnie patterns to complete my bag set. It started with the most amazing piece of fabric that I just fell in love with…the Brushstrokes Multi in the Nerodiseppia Collection by Benartex. The A Place For Everything 2.0 was the first one I made, followed by the Ultimate Travel Bag 2.0, the Scrappy Sewing Pod from the book Lots of Scraps It’s Time to Quilt and finally the In Control bag.

After completing In Control I knew I wanted to make them for Christmas for all the ladies according to their fabric and colour preferences. This wasn’t really that hard to do as we all know each others colour/fabric choices after hanging out with each other for so long. For Becky and Patti I had to get a little creative with obtaining the proper fabrics!

Patti’s was the first one I worked on, and since I don’t really have any fabrics in her favourite colour combination of red and black I actually had to tell a little white lie in order to get a couple of fabrics from her to make her bag. I already had the coordinating black fabric and purchased the black and red check, but I needed something else to work with them. I was able to get a really nice print from her for the front and back pockets that worked really well with the plaid. Check out her slippers in the photo…they match her bag!

Becky’s was next. Once again a little white lie…I told her that I was making a quilt with circles (that was the lie!) and asked if she had any of the circle fabric left over from a large bag she made to transport her sewing table as well as a matching Bionic Gear Bag. She had just enough scraps left over for the front and back pockets of In Control. I hope my friends can forgive the lies. LOL.

Marg had already made the Retreat Bag 2.0 from Emmaline bags using this wonderful “thread” fabric that I had also purchased. Since Marg and I like a lot of the same bright colours hers was an easy one to gather coordinating fabrics for. I was tempted to keep it for myself!

Gail has a thing for elephants and it just so happens that Tula Pink is her favourite fabric designer. How fortuitous that Tula has a great elephant fabric called All Ears that was the basis for Gail’s bag. I’m particularly fond of Tula’s tiny dots and stripes fabric, and also have some of her other fabrics from various lines so I had no problem utilizing those, so Gail’s bag is made entirely from Tula Pink fabrics.

I’m thinking that my In Control bag will be great for toting around all my English paper piecing project supplies to wherever I want to work on them. For the most part I followed along with the pattern, but I have to admit to making a couple of minor changes. Below you can see a couple of close-up photos of all 5 bags. Maybe it will encourage you to make one of your own. Patti, who hates making bags, was just glad that she didn’t have to make it herself!