I'm in the process of making one right now, I have a trip the end of the week so I am a woman on a mission. lol It's not a small project by any means, and it's pricey to make. The only real problem I had with it (besides turning it inside out and right side out, that was hard!) is the piping, I just don't do enough of that to be really proficient, but I finally got it the way it needed to be. It's kind of hard to wrestle the panels under the zipper foot when you have no flexibility or give, because of the stiffness from the Timtex. That said- I love this bag! I finished the outside of it yesterday, just have to press it and today I'm making the lining and adding a zippered pocket to that. It's a really nice size and I plan to make another one in a more spring/summer combo at some time in the future, so you know I wasn't TOO traumatized by the stupid piping. lolol I'm using a geometric fabric, not Amy Butler's. It's black with orange/red/olive/peach squares all over it, it's by Blank Textiles. The lining is black with those same colored dots on it, dime-sized dots. DH has the camera or I'd show you. Because it's not the weight fabric that is recommended, I reinforced it with an iron-on stabilizer on all the exterior pieces except for the piping.

The hardest thing about making this sort of a change is actually taking the plunge - my suggestion is if you are not thrilled go ahead and take a chance. I appreciate everyone's comments. I am suprised with such positive remarks considering the pics are really not good examples - it really looks great in person though. Thanks again for everyone's suggestions and comments. Hopefully this post will be helpful to someone else considering making a big change. With that said - I'd like to suggest for the forum that people ALWAYS post their actual colors when they post a picture. I know the lighting, computer screen, etc can make things look different but it is very helpful to see something in action as opposed to on a paint swatch. I would have found it invaluable.

Thank you everybody for your opinions! I really like "talking" these things through with lots of people. Why is this so difficult? So, this is what we decided to do. We just moved into a new house, and we need several pieces of furniture. We need a dining room table more than chairs bc my DH accidentally threw out the leaves to our table during the move (long story) and the current table size configuration doesn't really accommodate our large family very well. We have chairs, although they are beat up bc they weren't the best to begin with and have taken over a decade of abuse, and they are functional. So, we decided that our priority should be the table. So, I think we're going to go ahead and buy the above trestle/pedestal table and wait on the chairs (unless you all can talk me out of it!). Although I love the chairs, chairs are the big expense in a dining set, and we can wait on those since we have chairs, and we can think about whether they'd match the table once we get the table (we wanted to go bold and get the chairs in red). Anyway, we figure that it would be best to spend those funds on getting furniture we don't even have for rooms, instead of replacing furniture we have. Plus, with 4 young boys, those chairs would take so much abuse; so, may be it's worth waiting a little bit until they are older and won't be so messy (does that ever happen?). Thank you for talking me through this. It's hard to resist the temptation to go out and get everything at once and furnish the house in one swoop. Do you all still like the table or is the table by itself a mistake? Thanks!

"I would be searching for another white plate (with a similar "texture" to the larger white one) to hang above the others, so you have a total of three." oh man, now you got me thinking.... and it took me about 9 months to find the white one! I'd been searching for similar, yet different enough, authentic moroccan plates for so long and gave up to go with the white!! I actually got that plate in Morocco, so something from PierOne or the like wasn't going to do it for me! But seriously, I think the white plate in the spot I envision will fill the space and be dramatic alone, and I have a spot in another room for the other plate.