My lovely bag

I was very very lucky- my secret partner in the latest Mouthy Stitches swap (tote bags) was Nicky and I did amazingly well! I got this parcel on Saturday and was supposed to blog about it yesterday with the appliqué tutorial today but I got my days mixed up. The appliqué tutorial was posted yesterday so please go back and have a look if you came by for that.Anyway this is what I got, I am so so happy with it!....Intriguing...Wow! Look at the cool Carl the Chameleon on the front- lovingly quilted too and pieced with my favourite colour (yellow)!The leaf on the side is a detachable keyring with a little zip pocket- ideal for a trolley coin or an emergency fiver! The back has an amazing secret zip compartment based on the same leaf design (but obviously much bigger) and I can't work out how on Earth Nicky did this, it is truly amazing.And the note (on a sweet hand drawn card)- I don't know how she can be in awe of my work. Seriously, the points don't ever match in anything I do and it's all a bit slap and dash, this is skill I could only dream of! Go to Nicky's blog if you don't believe me.And the inside (yes I got a pieced inside too, how lucky am I?) has my initial, a pieced star and a porthole!It is really fantastic and it's the one in the whole pool that I was really hoping was coming to me! Thank you lots and lots Nicky!