The Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour - ROUND UP!!

Welcome back! If you have been following the tour of Canada all week, this will be a lovely glance back and our trip and a great round up of all of the prizes too. If you have missed a few spots because you were napping in the back seat - we'll show you the stops that you'll want to go back to. Click the link and you can revisit. If only it were so easy on a real road trip!   - Janelle

Here's Marsha:

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It looks long but it's worth it to read to the end. 

Hint: Patterns, fabric, classes, bag bling. Just read to the end, ok?

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Wow! That was some trip! I had a crazy vision that I was on this epic road trip all over Canada, visiting people, making bags, making wine, drinking wine and ... what happened after the wine? All of you guys were in the car with me so somebody should remember how we got here! That "Cracksy" is some powerful stuff. But then again, from this jetlaggy feeling in my head, it might have really happened… 

Last night, we were making roomy dufflebags and enjoying Happy Hour with Shelaine at Shelaine's Designs in Ontario. That's probably how we all came to be waking up here in Janelle's sewing room today. Apparently, all that sipping also made Shelaine quite talkative, "For me this tour has been an eye opener and I have learned so much from each of the bloggers! I have enjoyed everyone posts and enjoyed being along for the ride. I also tried a different learning forum, and for me it was a great experience. I very much enjoyed the course I chose and learned many new skills that are going to serve me well in a variety of other projects. Another benefit of the blog tour was getting to know fellow Canadians and the camaraderie that our small group has shared! Thank you for including me in this tour and I look forward to our next adventure."

Shelaine's Weekend Duffel Bag

I remember we had driven to Shelaine's place after a decadent afternoon at Fiona's Tangled Blossoms Design studio overlooking budding vineyards and the Bay of Fundy. We'd had the voyeuristic pleasure of hanging around as she took the hammer to a carpet bag. (Pattern designed by Samantha of Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H, who's so awesome she could be Canadian.) I could swear over all that banging, I heard Fiona say, "I've loved every moment of our Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour. It's been a fabulously fun and exciting ride!"

Fiona put's in a professional zipper pocket!

Before that happened though, we had to make a quick getaway from Michelle's Creations in Alberta on Thursday. Michelle had just sewn herself the most stunning work of art using Janelle's Craftsy class. But her rather stiff bodyguard "Catherine" suspected we were casing the place and plotting a heist of the clutch bag masterpiece. I don't think Michelle knew what we were up to when she said, "I loved the opportunity to be part of this tour, and getting to know my fellow Canadian bloggers better. To top it off, I got to review a great class and make a beautiful bag. It's been great fun!"

Michelle perfects a clutch bag lining.

Mwuhahahaha! Wait 'til she finds out what I've got up my sleeve for the next caper! Mwuhahaha!

It's straining my memory now, but I think we were on the other side of the Rockies at Reece's Happy Okapi on Wednesday. She had turned several drop-dead gorgeous pieces of fabric into an even more stunning travel organizer. (Travel + Organize?? Hmmm... I'm not buying it!) Thankfully, my memory hasn't failed completely yet and I get to pass on this message from Reece: "Thanks to everyone for following along with us on our adventure. I hope you enjoyed the reviews and found them helpful."

Reece's travel is organized!!

I'm (almost) sure on Tuesday we were still in Quebec waiting to haul Ula and Deb away from their kids. Deb had been hard at work making fabric pots to cook her kid's toy rabbit, but she claims they were "nesting baskets". Mmmm-hmmm! Somebody should keep an eye on what goes on over there at Sprouting JubeJube. We tried to be quick but before we could grab her and run, Deb whipped out a whole laundry list of love:

"So glad I got to do this tour because:

1. I got to try making something that I don't usually make
2. I got insight about other classes that I found useful and even added some to my wish list
3. I can honestly say that I was looking forward to seeing everyone's post just because of the level of knowledge of the ladies in the group
4. I'm looking forward to the next tour to see how many things I will forget to post about next time around (heeeheee)"

Plenty of organized rid-rac here!

I think I caught some kind of bad memory bug from her. 

Ula on the other side of town at Lulu & Celeste was also making baskets, or was it a tote? Oh yeeeeeah! She made a market tote out of oilcloth. Well, half of a market tote... From somewhere beneath a couple of children, we heard Ula’s cries for help. Or maybe she was saying, "Thanks so much for following along on the tour! I hope you had as much fun reading all the reviews as I had. It was great having an excuse to buy more oilcloth!" Her words were a bit muffled on account of all the glue... Maybe it's best not to mention the glue. Don't talk about the glue!

Meanwhile, back at the beginning, this wild cross-country ride started on Monday. Janelle gave me a tank of that potent gas from the Alberta Oil Sands, I tossed everybody into the pouches and totes I'd been making for two weeks and hit the road. I did remember to take the cats out of the bags first before I put all of you in. You're welcome!

Marsha's pouches say "Hello Canada!"

This really has been an epic escapade for me. And I'm not talking about just the last few days; the past 2 months have been jammed with watching Craftsy videos, sending emails, making lists, learning to edit photos, sewing, writing, hunting down links, learning some more, cursing, crying, caffeine, research... did I say cursing? I haven't gone with this little sleep since... since... let's just leave that thought right there, shall we?

Thank you all for joining us on this tour. If you missed any of the stops, be sure to go back and check them out. These ladies worked really hard to bring you their reviews, plus each one has a special link to get you 50% off the class they reviewed. Don't miss any of them.

 Here they are again (because it would seem you have the memory bug too):

Emmaline Bags -- Tour Kickoff

Seam of my Pants -- Learn to Sew: Simple Bags with Nicole Vasbinder

Sprouting JubeJube -- Sew Sturdy: Home Organizers with Annie Unrein

Lulu & Celeste -- Sewing With Oilcloth: Bags & Baskets with Kathy McGee

Happy Okapi -- Sew Sturdy Travel Organizers with Annie Unrein

Michelle's Creations -- Mix & Match: Clutch Bag Techniques with Janelle MacKay

Shelaine's Designs -- Sew Better Bags: The Weekend Duffel with Betz White

Tangled Blossoms Design -- 20 Essential Techniques for Better Bags with Lisa Lam

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Now let's talk about those Sur"prizes"

Tomorrow at 2 PM Atlantic Time (1 PM Eastern, Noon Central, 11 AM Mountain, 10 AM Pacific... yes we have that many time zones, plus the half zone in Newfoundland and Labrador, which makes no sense to me whatsoever!) Oh dear! Lets start over…

Tomorrow (Sunday) sometime around brunch time, all 8 blogs on the tour will post a Flash Giveaway. It will last for 24 hours only! (That means it ends on Monday at 2 PM Atlantic, 1 PM... no no, let's not start this again.)

Prizes

Prize Pack A (Canadian, US and International entries accepted)

• 1 Craftsy Class: “Mix & Match: Clutch Bag Techniques” by Janelle MacKay of Emmaline Bags

Prize Pack B (Open to Canadian residents only)

• $32CAD store voucher for Tangled Blossoms Design (Redeemable in fabric and S&H)
• The Manhattan Bag PDF Pattern
• The Manhattan Mama Hardware Kit

Prize Pack C (Open to Canadian residents only, unless you are prepared to pay for the extra international shipping.)

• The Totes Ma Tote PDF Pattern
• The Totes Ma Tote Hardware Kit

Prize Pack D (Canadian, US and International entries accepted)

• 1 PDF Purse Pattern (winner’s choice) from Blue Calla Sewing Patterns

Make a party of it. Bring your friends and let's see if, together, we can break the internet between Sunday brunch and Monday afternoon nap. You know you wanna. I would if I were you.

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See you tomorrow! À demain Marsha

Thank you, Marsha!  Wow, this tour gives a whole new meaning to the term "travel handmade".  I loved being a part of this event. The bloggers put so much work into it and I really want to thank them for letting me be a small part of it. Thanks to all.  So DO like Marsha SAID! Revisit ALL of the blogs tomorrow to participate in the wonderful FLASH GIVEAWAY!  What a wonderful way to say farewell to the tour members.  Thanks ladies!

I would love to hear about what class review you enjoyed reading about in the comments!
Or… just tell me if YOU have been to Canada.

May all of your bobbins be full,

Janelle