RECYCLED DENIM

Well as I missed the competition deadline on the PP Forum, I am putting pictures here of the bag I made from the jeans Annette let me have to cut up. I am really pleased with the result, it is only a bog standard tote but I managed to use quite a lot of the original bits off the jeans, as you will see...

Front of the bag - I used most of the long leg pieces from the jeans for the main body of the bag, inserting a pretty polycotton fabric I had between the strips for a touch of colour, I quilted feathers all over the denim to stop it stretching and give it a bit of strength as these were well worn jeans....

close up,

the loop is from the back of the jeans waistband,

it is there for a reason...

voila...this is how the bag closes, the long tag going through the loop was inside the waistband of the jeans, it says BOOTCUT, I thought it was fun so used it, I first had to 'touch up' the embroidery as it had frayed a fair bit through many washes I guess...

You may be able to make out they are from NEXT,

the size too!!!

Just had to put one of my special labels on,

cheers Liz...

back view...

I sewed a pocket inside,

one of the rear pockets,

I have done it in such a way that is actually a double pocket...

tada.

Thank you Katy for coming up with the great idea.

Thank you Annette for the jeans.

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I forgot to put in the previous post that Ros had sent Rebecca these seeds, she can't wait to sow them Ros, she loves strawberries, so does her mum

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FUN BAG, REBECCA AND MORE

One of the girls on the PP Forum was going into hospital and Katy decided to organise something for her, she was thinking of making a bag to put the somethings in and I volunteered to make one for her. I had had an idea buzzing round my head for ages about a bag design so this was my opportunity to see if it did indeed work. Based on a Hexagon, I wanted it to have lots of pockets and be reasonably big enough inside. I made it as the old fashioned Dolly Bags were made, I was very pleased with the way it turned out, in fact I actually wanted to keep it for myself, so what I did so I couldn't keep it was to put a secret message round the points for Alison, that way it had to go.

Starting on the Green for go pocket it says...

For

Alison

love from

your

PP Forum

friends...

this is a view showing the inside of the bag...

this is the bag closed, love the look of it like this,

looks like beach huts in a circle...

showing the handle in 'long' mode...

and this is 'short' mode handles...

I hope she liked it along with the goodies which were put inside, which was

fabric of course -

I am going to put a tutorial of this on my other Blog eventually

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Thank you to everyone who has asked about Rebecca and how she is getting on, what a lovely lot you are. I can say she is doing remarkably well considering what her mouth must have been through. She is almost back to normal chatter, hahaha, and is managing to eat reasonably well she is finding it difficult to keep food to one side of her mouth at times, so I told her it doesn't matter how long she takes to eat, just don't put large amounts of food in her mouth, which at home is fine, but when she returns to school next week, they only have 10-15 minutes for their lunch..hmmm....we shall see.

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This is my fabulous Postcard from Marian on the PP Forum -

the swap was for Climate Change/Leap Year/Valentine,

it is all on there...think about it....thanks M I love it, clever girl...

 Some gifts arrived from my lovely friend Ros today,

these are for me, a Lavender sachet which is gorgeous, I have it by my

sewing machine as I am there most of the time, the hexagon is a coaster but

way too pretty to put cups on I have that by the computer as that is the next

place I am to be found, the Cosmos seeds will be popped in the garden soon...

 Rebecca received a Lavender Heart which she is going to hang in her bedroom and some Scottie dog cut outs, which I have my eye on......hahahaha

thank you so much Ros, you spoil us you know.

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Yet more stamps arrived for Love Quilts -

these are from Juliet on the PP Forum...

 and these are from my lovely little friend Susan from Liverpool -

can you spot the odd one out?????

 thank you girls, these will go in the post to LQ on Monday.

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Not sure if I have mentioned that on the PP Forum, Katy came up with an idea for us to use some recycled Denim. I had to ask Annette for a pair of her old jeans, which are here, cut up ready for use. I started my 'thing' today, one more hour and it would have been done, but I ran out of time so it will be finished tomorrow. Thing is though, I think I have missed the entry date as I have not been on the Forum for a couple of weeks, gave myself a holiday so to speak. Oh well, never mind, I shall finish it tomorrow regardless, shame to waste it now.

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I treated myself to some books from Amazon the other day, but I made a right hash of the order, had to get Annette to sort it for me tonight. Which she has, thank you Annette, sorry your mother is so thick!!!! hahahaha

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WHAT A DAY

One to be forgotten but will probably be remembered for a very long time.

Rebecca, had to go into hospital today for an operation to remove a tooth that had grown into her jaw.

Only her mum could go with her, so it was a case of waiting for text messages all day of what was going on.

Terrible waiting for news all day.

She went to the hospital at 12 noon, they did the anaesthetic at 4.20 pm she was in theatre for 1 hour 10 mins.

Then it was a matter of waiting till she had eaten and drank something. She couldn't eat without her mouth bleeding which upset her, she had only sips of water. Neither of them had had anything since 6am that morning.

Annette was exhausted, Rebecca was crying, one of the nurses was really rude to Annette. NOT good....

But she is home, they let her go at 10pm, why so long, they hadn't even removed the tube in her hand for the anaesthetic , they did that just before she left.

Just one of the many joys !!!!! of living in Northampton.

VARIOUS THINGS

On Saturday it was my group's first meeting of the year and as promised two of the ladies did  a small work table each for me so I could have an easy day!!  Debbie did this very pretty brooch work table, she had made me one for Christmas, I loved it, as did the ladies when they saw it, hence the class. Rebecca made one for herself on the day, then today made one for me whilst showing me how to do it. Thank you Debbie and thank you Rebecca...

Brooch for Christmas from Debbie...

it is actually black and white...

Rebecca made this for herself on Saturday...

Large one for me by Rebecca, small one by me...

I have an idea for this...

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Rosemary on the PP Forum had a lot of embroidery transfer to give away,

I applied for some and got these, I am going to send them to my

lovely friend Ros as I know she will really love these...

hahaha look at the price....

and you get all these for 6d.....not 6p.....

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I received this wonderful ATC from Carol -

a Bee cos that is a play on her surname -

being sent to a bat which is what I am called on the forum!!!

and this one from Tessa, using her circular attachment on her machine -

I use a drawing pin myself...thank you girls, I think they are both great

again on the forum this time a postcard swap

theme chosen by Jytte, was one of three...

Valentine with a twist

Leap Year

or

Climate Change

I opted to put all three on the postcard...

Climate change being shown by the dead tree on the left and the one in blossom on the right

Leap Year shown by the date carved on the tree

Valentine with a twist shown by the hearts carved on the tree -

question is was it the carving or the hot hot sun which killed the tree?

I sent this one to Tessa...OOPS

it should have gone to Marian, so I had to make another one....

same but ever so slightly different...

this one is for Marian the correct recipient...

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I know you have seen these before but I have actually finished them now and am quite pleased with myself that I did the edges not using satin stitch as I normally do,

hmm maybe it will grow on me????

Matching pair...

Again no satin stitch on edges, but I do like this one

and

I came third in the competition for using the Zeelon

Maggi came first

Ange came second
Well done girls yours were stunning of course...

this is my finished Boutis journal page, it is A4 size, took ages to do but,
strangely, I enjoyed every part of making this, even though I have been informed I used all the wrong stuff in doing it, heyho, I used what I had on hand, I like it so that is the main thing, I feel I will do this again sometime...

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Still PP forum related, one of the girls on there, Margaret who now lives in France, offered to send me some of her stash pieces of fabric to see what I would make with them. She actually sent a whole load out to other girls on the forum too, mine came whilst I was at my group along with a second package from her, I had to wait until today to open them though as I was totally exhausted from the day at the group. It always wears me out for some reason, maybe it is time for me to stop, I don't know, I will give it some thought this year I think. Anyway here are the fabrics she sent to me, oh yes, she said in the message that she was sending me fabrics which she thought 'matched' me!!!! What do you think folks did she get it right????

first package...

second package...

thank you Margaret I will have to think what I shall make with them.

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FOR BREAST CANCER

On the PP Forum, one of the ladies - Rosemary - had a great idea, we could make a quilt together and raffle it to raise money for Breast Cancer. She asked the ladies on the Forum and in other clubs she belonged to, to make blocks of a certain size, but varying patterns, in the colours Pink and Cream. She got so many blocks sent to her she has enough for three Quilts I believe, well certainly two, and then something else.

She got in touch with me and asked if I would Quilt one for her. Rosemary was assembling the Quilt - poor girl, been there done that - and I think you can see from the picture below she made a stunning job of all those different blocks. This is the First one she has put together for this worthy cause and this is what came to me. She told me she didn't mind what I quilted on it as long as there were some Hearts somewhere. Hmm!!!!

When it arrived, I laid it on my table for a few days just looking at it, then I got out my notepad and began to sketch a few ideas for it. The first idea I had was actually great, but not possible because of all the seams in the blocks, and the very centre of the Quilt is not any particular design as such. So it had to be the old Vermicelli for the centre. Then the lovely pale pink inner border could be the Hearts Rosemary wanted, followed by what? Again I had to avoid all those seams in the centres of the Pinwheels all round the edge.

Then I remembered what I had done in the Hexagons on Tessa's Quilt recently, I remember liking that very much so there it was, the design sorted for the Pinwheels, I could do a flower round that mass of seams then the large loops for the 'flower'. All will become clear as you look at the quilt further down. I can show you this now as Rosemary has received the Quilt today.

At Rosemary's house finished and  ready to go to Jan,

great job Rosemary...

the centre of the Quilt, vermicelli - sorry...

the inner border with Hearts and

the outer Pinwheel blocks showing the 'flowers'...

close up for you...

I really enjoyed doing those Hearts I will use them again sometime I am sure...

back of above picture...

back of corner, don't know if Rosemary has seen that

I sewed my logo in the corner...

and here is the full Quilt for you to see...

 and of course the back...

Thank you Rosemary for trusting me with the quilting of this Quilt I really enjoyed myself on it. Thank you to all the ladies who took part in the making of it. Well done Rosemary, a great idea.

As soon as I have any information on the selling of the tickets I will get back on here to let you all know......in case you are interested that is in winning this Quilt, or indeed the others!!!