Bag It & Finish It Up Friday

Firstly, "Happy Thanksgiving" to all my American friends! I hope you have had a wonderful day.

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Yipee!!!  I have three small finishes to share with you this week!

On visiting Amanda Jane's "Finish it up Friday" Party a few weeks ago I spotted someone had made some small drawstring pouches for carrying vegetables from the supermarket instead of using plastic bags (and, I'm very sorry but I don't know who that was).

As I am mad crazy about not using plastic bags more than absolutely necessary, imagine my delight, later, when I found a scrap of net curtain fabric I'd "inherited" from one of my stitching friends ..... well, I just had to make some pouches of my own, didn't I ?!!!

I couldn't believe how difficult it was to get a photograph to really show off such a simple pouch!

The fabric wasn't easy to stitch .... it wanted to fray all the time! Good job there's only a tiny bit left .... I can't be tempted to do too much with it! Tee, hee ..... wanna bet!

I trimmed the edges just before machine stitching each seam, and I've used French Seams which will stop them fraying further.

In the next view you will see that even when filled with potatoes, tomatoes and lychees, it was still pretty difficult to photograph the pouches! 

Oh, and yes, that's a new game bag in progress in the background which was meant to be in another blog post, but, since I neglected to take a picture of the pouches on their own ..... here they be!!!!

The other side will say Rummikub. Hopefully it will make it easier/quicker taking our tiles from the bag rather than having to turn them over and spread them all out on the table. You can find the tutorial for the Game Piece Bag over at Patty's blog - Elm Street Quilts ..... HERE.

Don't look too closely! The backing is cotton wadding and
I am afraid my needle pulled the wadding through with every stitch!

After being disappointed with the lint all over this piece I'm going to use interfacing on the other side so the same thing doesn't happen again!

These three little pouches are my first entries into Patty's linky party.

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Finally today, I couldn't resist sharing a photo from my Handicraft group. 

Last year a few of us attended a Goldwork Workshop run by one of our members. I still haven't finished mine, and in fact if you have a look at my left hand column you will see how far I've got  ..... no, wait, actually I have done more, must update the photo!

Anyhow, this is Jenny's! I love the way she finished it by adding a fir tree branch. All those who have finished their pictures seemed to complete them in different ways, and I wish I had pictures to show you, but I don't always have my camera with me!

Another project to finish! No pressure, eh!

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

Linking to Crazy Mom's - "Finish it up Friday"

and Elm Street's - "Bag It"

November TUSAL and WIP

Hello my stitching friends!

Today I am joining in with Daffycat's TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long).

If  TUSALs and ORTS are a mystery to you pop over to Daffycat for all the gen - but don't forget to come back and visit here too!!!

I'm a little late as we are supposed to link up to coincide with the New Moon .... which was 18th November, but I am excited to tell you of my latest project and the use I found for some of those ORTS, so I hope Daffycat won't mind too much!

Most of these ORTS are from the butterfly cross stitch I've been stitching this summer, which unfortunately I can't show at the moment as all the photos are on my phone  ..... ooops! I will eventually work out how to download, or upload them, whichever the correct term is!!

Anyway, down to my TUSAL post!

The little pile of cottons on my cutting board are what we call ORTS.
I've been popping all my little ends of cotton into my Mini Thread Catcher (on the left).
The jar on the right is my collection from the last year .... the pretty cottons in the folded paper are for the sampler I'll tell you about in a minute.

Someone once asked me what I was going to do with my ORTS, and I have to confess ..... I didn't have a clue at that time ...... but they have actually come in handy for my latest project.

By way of background .....
 I've been following Queeniepatch (of Queenie's Needlework) with her wonderful "Sunday Stitch School" over the last year and have been meaning to use some of the unusual and pretty stitches she has shared.
I would strongly recommend that you visit Queenie HERE to read more about her "Sunday Stitch School" and her quest to learn some lesser known stitches.

Only last week I discovered some fabric I'd cut ready to make a small bag to keep vegetables tidy  in the fridge .....
in a light bulb moment I decided to use that fabric to make a stitching sampler for easy embroidery stitches ..... which would eventually become a stitching project holdall ....
but then I remembered I had been meaning to find a project to practice some of Queenie's pretty stitches, and decided this piece of Osnaburg,
 backed with cotton wadding, would be just the right size for what I have in mind!

I expect some of you will remember my saying that my ORTS are normally miniscule ..... 

but recently they've been getting longer, 

and I was able to use these longer threads as guidelines to keep my stitching evenly spaced.

In the picture above you can also see another project I'm working on ..... 

the name badge I've wanted for sooooo long. 

This was another idea prompted by Queeniepatch: reverse applique or MOLA, and you will see what I mean if you take a little peek HERE.

I've made a small start on my stitch sampler with the following two stitches:

Lesson 42 - Rambling Rose

Lesson 43 Moss Stitch 

Oh, and lastly, this is where I've got up to with my MOLA or Reverse Applique, 

which could actually be classed as a "new to me" project!

Now don't forget to pop over to Daffycat's blog where you can find out who else is linking up with their TUSALs this month.

Thank you for visiting today.

Keep well and safe, and carry on stitching my friends!





Hugs,
Barbara xxx