A Thank You Tote

...well, maybe it's not quite big enough to be a "tote," but...y'know...puns...

Anyway.

Last week, someone I don't know very well did something very nice for me, so I made a zippered bag as Thanks, which I will give to her tomorrow (or at least drop it off where she works.)  The bag is constructed the fairly easy way, stitching a sandwich of one outer layer and one lining piece on each side of the zipper, opening it all flat and sewing around the edges, leaving a bit free to turn it right-side-out, then sewing across the opening. (There are tutorials for this, which I found after I started making zippered pouches this way.)  Where I made it overly-complicated and, I hope, an extra-nice thing to receive, was in what I did with the exterior pieces.

For this side, I cut and assembled 50 1¼" squares from my scrap stash.  I've made patchwork from very small pieces before--often for use in doll dresses--but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I made a small patchwork of even-size pieces, and pieces that I cut with a ruler and rotary blade, instead of pulling threads to make sure it's on grain.  Such freedom...

On the other side, I drew letters freehand and appliqued her name, which I'll show part of here:

I wanted a kinda late 1980s/early 1990s color scheme, and, hoo, yeah, I think I got it.  I didn't use any kind of stabilizer, and my Necchi 539's satin stitch isn't its best feature--which is entirely my fault for using a zig zag presser foot that's just a smidge short and then not wanting to mess with the pressure on the foot so that the feed dogs actually move things like they should.  (If I ever wanted to try free-motion quilting, though, I should be golden.)  So this looks rough, which is actually the look I was going for.  Really.  Really.

And the inside, which is lined with a poly-cotton blend, so it has a nice luster and is smooth but doesn't disintegrate quite as readily as pure polyester.  I hope.  I remembered to stitch the lining down on either side of he zipper, because I have a history of forgetting to do that, which leads to...um...frustration...as the lining frequently creeps up and gets caught in the zipper...  I know a lot of people line bags like this with cotton, and sometimes I do, too, but I like the change in texture you get with a synthetic lining.  See, I do think a little bit about the finished project before I finish it.

Sometimes.

What do you think, are zippered bags like this good ideas for gifts?  Have you ever made a zip bag with lots of outside decoration?  Would you like to receive something like this?