Winner! Winner!! Winner...s?

Today I announce the WINNERS (yes, winners!) in my Lexie Barnes' Sew What Bags giveaway.
But first a brief prattle...I love this time of year. Last night I needed to transplant some of the leggier of my young charges into larger pots with more growing room.I brought wine. And organic potting soil, and little green cups salvaged from the dump in Northfield a few years ago. It's now "illegal" to remove things from the dump. This is not a topic that makes me happy. Scavenging, salvaging...recycling? Why not? What about back in the day when I was a single dumpster diving mother? Any clue how much money I was able to save? How thin of a shoestring we lived on? All because of upcycling, recycling, and scavenging. Baugh. Anyway, that could turn into a heck of a rant, so I shall move on. I have a particular love of the baby herbs which I run my hand over every morning and evening in part to strengthen their stems, but really so I can sniff them. Tomatoes are in big pots now, and some squashes as well. And then the temperature plunged to 23 overnight. But in time, spring will truly come.
And when it does, some lucky people are going to be all ready with new knitting totes that they made themselves! I decided that instead of robbing my stash this was an excellent reason to go fabric shopping. I found fabric for one bag. Then another. And another.I could have gone on, but was afraid Mr. Wonderful would have a seizure if I shopped too heavily, so I limited it to three bags worth of cloth. But I only have one book (unless you count my copy, which you just ain't getting!) So, I decided to change things up a bit. Two runners up will each receive enough fabric to make the tote on page 87, and one Grand Prize Winner will get Lexie's (signed!) book AND some fabric. Objections? I didn't think so. But there's a catch. I really want to see what you guys come up with. If you make a bag from Lexie's book, and I do hope you will, please post it in her Flickr group created just for this purpose. So with that in mind, allow me to introduce our two runner's up:

Lyndy, who said "Sewing was my first love. I took up knitting because I needed something portable when my son started sports. I love making bags, and your "patterns are guidelines" comment is SOOO true for me too."
Glad to hear it Lyndy. If I could convince the world that patterns are guidelines I'd be a happy woman indeed. Follow them to a T if you want to, but if you think something should be changed, don't be afraid to change it!

and

KSee, who said "I too made some of my kids clothes when they were very young. My son would wear out his knees (before it was fashionable) I know the book would help me finish up some felted bags and dust off the sewing machine."
Well get dusting, because you've got some sewing to do, KSee!

and now...drumroll please.....
Our Grand Prize Winner
Vanessa!
"WOW!!!! Thank you for introducing me to Lexie Barnes! wouldn't this make the most perfect spring bag? I think Lexie now has a new follower!
P.S. I love your blog AND your book!"
Well, thank you Vanessa, any lover of my book and blog and a Lexie convert is a friend of mine! Enjoy your winnings, and please do let us know how you get on with them!
I'll be busy with my own little pile, because three bags is never enough when it comes to fabric. I found myself some remnants, and some not so much...and I had to have 2/3 yard of that chicken fabric from the giveaway pile...and then there were the bees...Time to get that machine cranking!
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you all for playing!