A Quilty Gift

I received the most wonderful gift in the post this week. This beautiful bag was made for me by Jennifer of Glinda Quilts. I feel really guilty actually. She is an online friend that I've recently made through a sewing bee. She had blogged about the Pants Bags she had been making and I commented on the post saying I was really lazy, didn't bother to unpack my case when I went on holiday and just stuffed my pants into the corners of my case. Well, she replied straight away saying she would make me one, and even wanted to know what colours I liked!! You know, quilters are some of the kindest, most generous people I have ever come across.

This bag is so beautifully made! Jennifer's sewing skills put mine to shame !
What is more I am totally in awe of the design of this bag. Don't think old school pump bags that were hard to draw up, this bag glides open and closed with amazing smoothness. It took me a while to understand how it works (yeah, I'm the sort of person that struggles to operate even the simplest of things)

Fortunately my son showed me - it's two separate drawstrings, so that when you pull it closed the fabric doesn't all bunch up at one end. Duh! I guess everybody knew about this except me - well, I know now, and I'm going to have a go at making one.

The other thing I really like, that I wouldn't have thought about doing, is attaching the band in two separate pieces so that there is plenty of room for the strings to move freely.

I really look forward to using this bag next time I go travelling. In the meantime I really wanted to look at it and appreciate it, so,  ....... ooh, Look! some knitting just happened to find it's way inside !!

I'm very pleased to say it makes an excellent knitting bag too !! Thank you so much Jennifer. Your kindness has made me very happy and I'm going to have a go at making one for someone too :)

Talking of knitting, I have been busy trying to catch up on my Greenfields Africa Challenge. I've completed 2 baby cardigans, and another is almost finished.

For this one I used up a couple of balls of Rowan Purelife Revive that I had bought a while back to experiment with. This is an eco friendly yarn as it is made with 36% recycled silk, 36% recycled cotton and 28% recycled viscose. It isn't a baby yarn, but I had played with, decided I didn't like it, so it needed using up. Why didn't I like it? I didn't like the feel of it in my hands as I worked. I love working with cotton, I like using silk when blended with wool, but this? It just didn't feel good. Also it has very little stretch. It will breathe nicely, so it will be good for a little African baby in that respect, but I won't be buying this yarn again.

 

The second cardigan was made with my all time favourite yarn Debbie Bliss Eco Baby. This is sports weight organic cotton, and the only reason I was happy to part with this was because the oddments I had were from old dye lots that didn't match. Some prudent placement of white stripes however meant that you can't tell where one dye lot ends and the next starts.

And finally, the WIP uses another of my favourite yarns - Rowan Belle Organic by Amy Butler.

This is 50% organic cotton, 50% organic wool - BUT, it's been discontinued !! 

I love this yarn. Why did you do this, Rowan ?? Was I the only person in the world who liked and bought it? 

This is made completely of oddments, and I didn't think the lime green would last out to complete the stripes, but it has and I'm very pleased with it.

So, I'm probably still a little behind with my challenge to myself (I want to make 52 items for the charity during the 52 weeks of 2013, but I can always catch up with a few quickly knitted baby hats!

It's been a productive start to September so far.

Have a good weekend, with lots of craftiness!   Julie