Putting things in bags

     I have been making lots of bags recently, small, and medium sizes mostly and at last, after much practice I can put in a zip straight! I have learned to put tabs on the zip ends and the best bit is finding the right beads to tie on the zipper pull. That’s my favourite bit! Here are some made from small pieces of fabrics I have loved….. First of all I liked the idea of a gardener’  rescue bag, it could be filled with seeds, hand cream, some new gloves, all things I would use myself.

Then I thought about sponge bags or do you call them wash bags? I used a white shower curtain fabric to line the insides to make them waterproof. If you try this use quilters clips rather than pins to hold edges together so you don’t make holes in the plastic inside fabric.

 

There are some great how to do it videos on YouTube done by some very kind and generous stitchers who show their methods. 

And I must admit I have enjoyed photographing each bag with things from home to show their size and possible use.

Look at these cute Dolly Mixture beads, just perfect for the decoration. Dolly Mixtures are children's’ sweets in the UK, I don’t know if you have them in other countries.

Here’s the last one:

I think this one is my favourite, I made it thinking about going to the beach, now we just need better weather …..

I hope the post looks right on your computer, hasn’t Blogger changed recently and I’m still trying to find my way around all the buttons! Maybe it doesn’t suit my tablet either!

Happy weekend everyone who reads this, it’s the football final tomorrow so we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers and toes, but good luck Italy too,

Kind regards, 

Sue 

Wet spring days in Lincolnshire

 It’s raining again, yesterday it rained all day and tomorrow the forecast is no better! So to cheer you all up I thought I would show you our spring flowers which absolutely love the damp weather. Our garden is best in the spring and primroses, cowslips and bluebells put on their dresses of many colours and spread themselves through the grass. They seed into new places every year, sometimes combining themselves to make something I call a primslip, where a primrose meets a cowslip!

This is my latest make, a generous sized market bag made from cotton fabrics and a foam covered wadding which makes the sides stand up very nicely. The fabric was given to me and it looks like a Kaffe Fassett print, just right for a bag as I couldn’t bear to cut the big fabric design up for a quilt.

So now I’m thinking picnics, sunshine, sandwiches and coffee in the park, so the bag needed a quilt and this delphinium blues one was just right for the photo. The quilt pattern is so simple, a bricks and mortar pattern which I turn to again and again, I love its simple style.

I can’t wait to wear a summer dress. I bought a new one by mail order recently, but am I a strange shape or are dress manufacturers measuring with the wrong tape measure? It is lovely fabric and will be fine when I have taken it up and in and put a zip in the side to give it a better fit! Should one have to do that? I bought a size 12 and it is too big. I haven’t been a size 10 since before my babies so I suppose I should just be pleased!!

That’s the lovely thing about making quilts and bags, generally speaking, they don’t have to fit!

I hope the sun shines for you this week wherever you are living,

Kind regards,

Sue 

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Renewal

 Dear Readers, 

It has been such a long time since I posted on my blog and so very much has happened to us all. The last year has had huge highs and very many lows and although time at home has seemed vast, there have been few moments or indeed the heart to write cheerful blogs about about quilting.

But here I am and in this new time I feel I can start again and I realise I have missed my blog. I post on Instagram as Green_Star_Quilts but it’s a small space and a bit frantic sometimes, and I realise I enjoy the calmer, larger atmosphere of this blog.

So here I go, thinking I will start again and I hope this brings my readers some happiness and a lifting of the hearts if you too have had a sad time during the pandemic which has touched us all.

So over the last year things have changed a bit and I have stopped taking commissions for quilts. My website Greenstarquilts.com has closed and I have started making individual quilts and bags to sell at my local craft collective which is called With Love From Lincolnshire. This has brought me so much pleasure, it’s lovely to part of a vibrant group of makers and means I can use fabrics from the drawers and cupboards in my sewing room as I please. I have loved coming up with new ideas and making bags and mastering the putting of zips has been quite something for me!

I find that Blogger has changed a few things and I am clicking buttons but may take a few posts to get things to look right! I’m using my iPad to post and that seems to make a difference too. I’ll get it in hand soon.

If you are reading this, then thank you, I love the idea that we are sewing in different countries all over the world and making quilts to sell, as gifts and to give comfort.

Maybe you have felt like me over the last year, but also maybe there is a lifting of spirits, our hobbies mean so much to us all and have kept many of us going,

That’s all for now,

Very best wishes and kind regards,

Sue