Bag It - 3 entries

Hello my friends,

Thank you everyone for all your lovely comments on my most recent posts ..... I will be replying as soon as possible, but I wanted to quickly enter this post for Bag It, then I will be back to visiting. Soooo ..... Many apologies for my delay in reading/commenting, but I haven’t forgotten you!

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I am rather late but hoping to enter these Mini Thread Catchers (about 2 1/2" high) and Tissue Cover at Patty's "Bag It" party. They were all made in October, therefore within the “Bag It” timescale.

I wrote about them HERE.

However, maybe you would like to make yourself a Mini Thread Catcher? You can read how to make one HERE, or THIS version has more pictures.

Or if you would like to make Tissue Holders read HERE - the quick version, or HERE for the neater finish which only takes fractionally longer to make!

Any queries, don’t hesitate to let me know. If you don’t want to comment on the blog, you could always email me. Email address in RH margin.

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Thank you Patty for holding your “Bag It” competition. It’s been great fun, and a super opportunity to meet likeminded bloggers!

Happy Christmas everybody!
Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Friday Night with Friends / Bag It / Finish It Up Friday

Last night I was stitching with Cheryll (of Gone Stitchin') and friends as part of "Friday Night with Friends", and stitched the finishing touches to this Game Piece Bag:

While writing I'm taking this opportunity to link to Patty's (Elm Street Quilts) "Bag It" competition, oh, and as this is also a "finish" I'm linking to Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) for "Finish It Up Friday".

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I'm so pleased that I treated myself to a new quilting ruler a few weeks ago!

The old one had had a nasty accident ..... a long time ago ..... I finally decided I couldn't put up with not having that corner any more - can you imagine how awkward it's been every time I've gone to start cutting my fabric and realised there's not enough ruler there  ..... and how does it always end up that the broken side is the one I'm using !!!!

Anyway, I didn't really look too closely when I bought this new one, I was more interested in the fat quarters I couldn't resist ..... it's a ruler for goodness sake ..... but, silly me, until now I hadn't realised how much clearer the numbers were! It's so much easier to use.

The new ruler helped me cut the fabric so much quicker, and the pattern was so easy to put together. I used Patty's Game Piece Pattern - here!

And by Friday night .... all I had left to do was to stitch those horrid ends in, and stitch the turning gap closed. Thank goodness for my Easy Threading Needle.

This morning Mitzy just had to help with the final photo-shoot! 

I was really pleased with the finish,
especially as my stitching matched up beautifully

Thank goodness Mitzy soon decided she had found a great new place for a rest and I was able to carry on with my photos! She's not allowed to lay on this tablecloth very often!

I am so pleased with this bag and can certainly recommend it! It's just the right size for all the Rummikub tiles, and will work really well during a game as you can pull the cords a little tighter and a hand can go in and take a tile without anyone being able to see the tiles.

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I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today, and that you will have a little time to pop over and visit these links, and see what is going on! They are all great fun, and there is a lot of amazing stitching to see!

Thank you to Cheryll, Patty and Amanda Jean for hosting your link ups!

Linking to:  "Friday Night with Friends" / "Bag It" /  "Finish It Up Friday"

Thank you for visiting everyone. I hope you will come back and visit again.

Happy stitching!

Hugs,
Barbara xxx

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"

"Bag It" - 2017

Have you seen ..... Patty at Elm Street Quilts is holding a competition for bag making!

Running from18th September through to 15 December 2017, however you must only enter bags you have created and made after 18 September.

All the rules are on her blog HERE (or you can also click the button in my right hand margin to go to Patty's blog directly).You will see lots of tutorials for different bags. Go on, you know you want to join in! Have a read, find out all the nitty gritty!

I just love the fabric I used for this little bag, read all about the bag HERE (the idea is that the bag is small enough to sit comfortably on my wrist while I knit, holding my ball of wool so it doesn't roll all over the floor).

I intend to use some of the main fabric to make a larger everyday bag, and probably incorporate some of the other fabrics you can see here:

Not quite sure which I will use yet, but they are my favourite fabrics at the moment.

Are you going to join in? Go and have a look at Patty's blog, see what's happening!

I'm looking forward to seeing how many bags you can make!

Barbara xxx

Oh, I am not affiliated to Patty's blog in any way, just thought the bag competition looks such a fun idea, and I'm sure we all love making bags!