My name is Ethel Coffman and I make these purses and totes. (fact: I love making them!) After my retirement until the summer of 2015, I was a quilter. Due to a serious health event in June 2015, quilting large items became a thing of the past. But by His Grace, I survived; and being a purse addict forever, I discovered the same design principles I used in my career as a graphic designer, and years of quilting experience, could be applied to create my own handbags and purses (Vera Bradley, now made in China, lost a good customer).
I’m a retired graphic designer, a devoted wife, proud mother of four truly awesome sons and four daughters-in-law whom I adore, and six amazing grandchildren. Also mom to a 95lb fur baby named Lupe.
My goal is to make 2-3 handbags a week. And if you add up the cost of materials and my labor, you’ll quickly understand that it would be much more profitable to be a walmart greeter. But not nearly as rewarding! I love creating beautiful handbags!
Well over 50% of Handbags by Grace profits go to Wycliffe Bible Translators missionaries Devin & Charity Schlote.
Ethel Grace
South Bend, Indiana and Pitkin, Colorado
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—