sewvivor sewalong - sweet retreat's little sister

hello again, sew-vivor fans!
here we are at the post for challenge 2: quilted bag.
when this challenge was posted originally, well before i auditioned and such, i thought instantly that it would be my weakest project.  no high hopes or anything for it.  just... blah.
i pinned a billion different ideas, but none of them really wowed me.  i stumbled across the "sweet retreat's little sister" bag pattern while at joann's one day, and decided it would be my project.  i picked out my fabric, and did some of the quilting the night before i left for colorado, and then finished it up while out of state.  turns out, i should have read the instructions a few dozen times before doing anything.  i had to requilt some things, and others were fudged as well.  and the binding... oh was there lots of bias cut binding.  oy!  but it's all finished now, and i had this super cute lorelai just sitting around to model my bag for me.  everything looks better with kidlets, right?
this bag has a whole lotta pockets on it, which makes it even more awesome. one on each side, two on the front, two on the back, and 3 on each side on the inside. i told you... a whole lotta pockets.  and that zipper was fantastically easy to put in.  and it looks great too.  love it.
this bag was a pretty good size,so i'm a little afraid to see what it is the "little sister" of... lisa and i were pretty certain if kent curled up in a ball, he would fit inside quite comfortably.
love those side pockets. although having to sew that curved edge... not so much love.
hugh would have easily fit inside the bag. with a whole lotta room to spare. now on to the solo bag photos, just to get a smidge more of the details while lorelai ran around like a crazy person.
and on a final note...
while this bag turned out better than i envisioned it day one in colorado, i am quite thrilled to be getting back to quilts.  big, flat, rectangular, snuggle up in quilts.  okay, maybe they're not going to be big enough for me to snuggle up in... but at least they won't be bags.
i shouldn't be talking too much trash about this challenge.  it was good for me to do something like this and try something new.  and i keep seeing posts about this weekender bag people have been making... perhaps that will end up on my desires to sew list.  in the meantime here is some info about the bag pattern:
sweet retreat's little sister by whistlepig creek
here is a fantastic tutorial i wish i knew about before i made the bag.  makes everything a whole lot more visual than the itty bitty drawings in the pattern:  tutorial by the designer
how funny.  the designer is from colorado.  it's like it was meant for this bag to be put together at lisa's house.