Finally finished on Monday morning

Groovy tie dyed sock monkey

What a delightful time I had with Sandra on FNSI. We played around with her new embroidery machine and I got a really cool little sock monkey patch out of it. He looks tie dyed because we didn't have all the colours called for, so we improvised.
My project, the Mary Englebreit fabric tote bag, made according the instructions in Tone Finnanger's Sew Pretty Homestyle was sort of nightmarish. I kept reading the directions, looking at the pictures, but I couldn't figure it out.
Thinking it was me, I got Sandra to read it. She and I agreed what I was doing appeared to be right, but it wasn't working. At all.
Eventually, I struck out on my own and got the bag put together.

Doesn't look light the stuff of nightmares... and yet

However, in the cold light of day, some seams had become hopelessly bound up together in a big lumpy mess. I had to rip them out and start again. Oh, and because I clipped the curves, I had to put the seams back together properly by hand, mending the seam as I went. Arrgh!
After the amendments, and sewing the handles on, I revisited the book.
It seems the illustration I was looking at was all about the bottom of the bag, not the top. Though it must be said, the illustration is oriented to give one the impression it is the top, not the bottom. So, I photocopied the illustration and glued it in correctly -- well, correctly to me at least.
Now, the instructions make sense to me.
Sometimes, FNSI is about skills revision...and a bit of desktop publishing.