OK, firstly, I confess there is some shameless stealing of images in this blog post! Problem is I made things and gave them away, but forgot to take pics.... so I nicked theirs!
And then I had something made for me and I knew I couldn't take a pic that would do it justice, so I nicked that too!
I do hope that Kelly and Charlotte will forgive me....?
Anyway, I had a great time yesterday playing with my friends at the Village Haberdashery's open weekend. There was banter and shopping and a lovely day spent with Annie, Charlotte and Kelly.
I've been really lucky to have some great and much needed support from these girls over what has been a lousy year, so I made some little Christmassy gifts (although I realised the one I'd made for Annie was totally inappropriate & is having to be replaced!)
So I made a couple of sacky bottle bags - I wanted them to look like a Santa sack, rather than a sleek tailor-made bag (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) So I used some of my stash of Countdown to Christmas - I went a bit OTT buying it last year to say the least. The bags are loosely based on the pattern in Quilt Dad's Pretty in Patchwork - Holidays book, and I made one with the same kind of inset and another using the robin embroidery from Annela's class in FQR. Both bags are lined and one has a selvedge tie, the other a ribbon. I also bought some reels of Lu Summers' tape, which they seemed almost as pleased with as the grog!
We had a great day together - Annie had some customers too, which we managed to be helpful to, I think. But in the main, we just had fun and a lot of laughter. (And heaven knows, that's been lacking over the last month or so.)
Anyway, in addition to all the merriment, Kelly arrived also bearing gifts. I don't know if anyone saw her blog a few days ago with the wonderful cushions photographed in the park. One was a fab scrappy rainbow cushion which was 'made for a very good friend of mine, I hope it puts a smile on her face! ' Well, it's safe to say my grin was ear to ear when she presented it to me. It's a perfect cuddle size, and will no doubt be much utilised in the coming weeks!
On top of all that, I came home and got cracking on the Christmas sewing I'd been unable to get in the mood for, and the mojo is well and truly back!
Just as well, as there's a lot to do, not to mention a batch of brownies to whip up and send out to some lucky recipients...
So I think it's time I sought treatment for my Summersville problem.....
Having first not been sure about it, and then having been converted at FQ Retreat, where I bought some fat quarters from Lucie, the lovely Summersville has been sitting on my stash shelf winking at me occasionally while I totally lacked inspiration as to what to do with it.
At the last LMQG meeting at Tricolette last month, however, I saw it in large quantities and it clicked - bags! I've already blogged the go anywhere beauty and fabulousness that is the red wallet, and before I went into hospital I had cut out the makings of this Noodlehead tutorial.
I'd used Scandi in black for the outside and pocket, and the same pattern in orange for the lining, and I had some natural webbing for the strap.
It was a bit of a faff to make, with the grommets, and I certainly realised I should have been much more circumspect with the interfacing - it made the fitting of the grommets a right to-do! And I discovered I needed to stitch the strap to the bag as well, because unless you make a slouchy (non-interfaced) version, it seems to be too heavy for the grommets to hold it right.
But it's a bit quirky, and I like quirky! I really like the orange lining!
I think for now I might have made enough bags!
I'm currently washing a new red sheet that I bought to be the backing of the raw circles quilt, and judging by the pink foam amassing in the machine's porthole, pre-washing it was a very good plan! All I have to decide now is whether to machine or hand quilt it....
I'm linking up with TGIFF on Crafty Shenanigans today.
