Teacher Appreciation Gifts 2014

This coming week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  Last year, it was later in May, so I thought I had more time.  I had purchased fabric to make more bags already, but I hadn't really started anything until yesterday.  I was going to make them all out of batiks, but upon a visit to my local quilt store, I found this fabric on the clearance wall and felt it was perfect to go with the red that the nerdlet insisted upon for her teacher.

After working with it all yesterday, I still like it a lot and I'll buy the rest of the bolt if there is any left on my next visit.

I'm using the same reversible bag pattern that I drew up for last years bags.  I'm still using the first bag I made like this heavily and while my dragons have detached somewhat, the bag itself shows no signs of any wear even from multiple washes and hard use, mostly carrying loads of books.

So far, I have four bags done.  For some reason, they are taking me longer this time to make.  I'm not sure if I am spending more time pressing and ironing or just being too much of a perfectionist.  I haven't had to seam rip or redo anything so I don't have an easy explanation for the slower work.  Luckily for me, Q entertained the girls for me most of yesterday so that I could work mostly uninterrupted.  This year, I am making gifts for the bus drivers in addition to the teachers, speech therapists, and aides so I still have a lot of work to do.