Crafty.....continued

I finished another crafty project this week. My friends are adopting two girls and their final court date is today. I wanted to get the girls a little trinket with their new initials on it. I found exactly what I wanted at Things Remembered but you could only get the trinket attached to a tote bag - they couldn't be sold separately. Even better! Every girl needs a tote, right? And then, I was inspired by this woman. Seriously, she may be the craftiest woman in the world. On her blog she had posted the following pictures:

How cute!! Little fabric appliques! I knew better than to try anything fancy or with curves, but I could manage a letter "A" couldn't I? Straight lines. Easy to cut, easy to sew. So I chose some cute pink fabric and got to cutting. Then I began to sew. Uh-oh. It is impossible to sew a tote bag. I mean, I could get it shoved under there, but I couldn't go around any turns. I would have to make 16 separate straight lines, taking the tote out of the machine each time. But I don't know how to sew by hand so I gave it a shot. It was no good. This was not going to work. So...........I could possibly, maybe, TRY to sew something by hand. I know two "stitches". Once, years ago, a family friend tried to teach me to quilt. You go in-out-in-out-in-out with the needle several times and then make one big pull of the thread. I tried it. Not happening with my non-quilting needle and bulky canvas tote. I try what I think to be a regular sewing stitch. In-pull-out-pull. This looks horrible. The stitches are uneven and erratic. Wait. I used to cross-stitch. A looooong time ago. So I tried a pseudo-cross stitch. Not the "X" kind but the straight kind. I think it worked! It even looked okay on the "wrong" side of the tote. So......hours later I HAND STITCHED little letters on a tote bag. I'm quite certain that these letters will fall apart sometime next week, but the tote is still cute without them so I think it's okay.