Friendship Bag Exchange

Yep! Another exchange with the NNC group!!  This time it was a Friendship Bag exchange.

Mel and I were partners for this exchange, sending to each other.  When I saw the mail lady pull up at the end of the driveway, instead of right up to the mailbox, I knew that the package was from Mel.

Here are photos of what Mel sent to me:

 

See the bird on the bag??  This year MW added a 'challenge project', a bird, for the Anniversary Meet.  I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of birds going back and forth between members.  This one is the first!

The bag is reversible!!  Even the handles!!!  She is so clever!!

And look at all that was in the bag!!  Buttons, ribbon, brads, fabric, tiny clothespins, thing-a-majigs (how do I explain this one?!?  you use the thing-a-majig to pull string tighter, like what you might have on the string of a hat, to keep it from blowing away), and a small cross stitch key chain kit.  The white and black tin, to the left of the bag, has 2 smaller tins inside of it; they'll be great for tea, buttons, endless possibilities...

Mel, thank you so, so much for all the goodies!!!!

One of the requirements was that you had to make the bag (the other requirement was that you had to fill it!).  Now, this was totally new to me.  I fretted over what I was going to do, searched online for various patterns and tutorials, and finally settled on a version of a bag that Martha Stewart made (check out this tutorial:  http://www.marthastewart.com/254095/heart-felt-bag-1).  Instead of felt, though, I used fabric.  But I used her idea of an interfacing between the two fabrics...  However, my bag was definitely going to be without handles... sorry Mel!

One of my favorite colors is yellow, so I decided to theme everything I was sending to Mel around yellow.  It's like sending a bag of sunshine, no??  I went through all my yellow fabrics, and came up with something bright yellow with flowers.

Here are photos of the bag and goodies that I sent to Mel:

Even without handles it's not THAT bad looking...

And some sunshine goodies!

I do so enjoy these exchanges with the Needles 'n Crafts group!!  Check back in a couple of weeks for my posting on the Anniversary Meet; I'll be posting about what I made for the exchange gift, as well as that &@#* bird that MW chose as our challenge project.

Thanks for dropping by!!

January and February are done!!

Where has the time gone??  The first quarter of 2012 is almost past!  Whew! the time does fly!  And I haven't even started March yet!!

Huh!? What??  Do I have you confused yet??

Actually, I've been stitching on the Little House Needleworks monthly series that came out in 2010.  So far I've got January and February stitched up.  But I haven't even started on March! and my plans were to have each month stitched up before that month was done!

Here are pictures of January:

and February:

Sorry!  I'm NOT telling what I'm going to do with them, not just yet....

Okay, I'm off to go start on March....  Thanks for dropping by!

Needlework Retreat

Last weekend I attended a needlework retreat, Still Stitching with Susan, here in Myrtle Beach.  Susan is none other than Susan Greening Davis.  I've taken classes with her before, several years ago, when The 3 Needlewomen were teaching, and she was one of them.  But that's ancient history!

The teaching project for this retreat, worked up rather quickly, once the outside edge was finally stitched.  As you can see, I've still got to do some cutting and weaving, inside of my klostered/satin stitched areas.

We were given some wool felt and a button-print fabric to make a small bag with, and the small sampler will be attached to the wool felt.  For the larger stitched project, we were given another bag, already made.

I like the bag just as it is!  It is great for holding the fabric and threads for the project sampler.

No retreat would be complete without the chance to buy more stash, right?!!??  Well, I won't disappoint, lol.  Here are some pictures of just a few things that I purchased...

I bought 2 different bags, both gorgeous, and hand made!

I just love fat quarters!!!

It's hard to resist beaded scissor fobs!  And the scissors case is so easy to make!!

I was told to just cut a heart template, cut 2 pieces of fabric, put some batting between them, fold the heart in two and stitch up the sides and edges.  How easy is that??  Your fabric could be pieced, crazy quilted with stitches and lace, or any other way that you want it embellished...

I enjoyed myself at the retreat, and look forward to next year's chance to sit and stitch with friends.

Lots of other projects are in the making...

Thanks for coming by!

Diane