Bags!

Spring is well on its way! This wonderful spread of snowdrops was a lovely surprise in daughter and SIL's garden. Until they've been in their house a year, the garden will, hopefully, keep producing surprises.

Bag making has been the craft of the past few weeks. At the suggestion of a customer, I made a couple with zip fastening tops.

This one has already been sold! The pocket on the front is a new style for me. It has darts at the bottom for more fullness.

I'm really pleased with how this bag, above, came out. The coloured panels are patched pieces edged with bias binding. It was a bit of a fiddle to do but really finished it off well. It also has an internal zipped pocket (another new procedure for me). My mother wanted a bag for her music folder so I gave this one to her for Mothering Sunday.

Bag number 4 is almost finished - I think it's about time I made something different!

Bye for now
Teresa x

November Update!

This is not the sort of beautiful garden photo you normally see on blog posts, admittedly. But this is my 'before' picture: before the builders moved in (and after it was cleared of plants, rocks and my shed). This was a couple of weeks ago, and it already looks very different again. Basically, it is now a giant mud hole.
 

Despite all the chaos that is going on outside, I have been getting on with some crafting. After the successful sale of my previous larger, quilted, zippy bag I have made a few more. I had fun making these - all very different - which is what I like to do. I couldn't bare to make dozens of things all the same.

I thought I ought to get into the swing of things and make a few Christmas themed things. The purse is upcycled from a tea cosy I made before but never used. The 2 bundles are sets of 4 coasters.

Oh, and what's this?  I do believe those bags are mine - in a real bricks-and-mortar shop!!!! It's actually a small flower shop that has opened the upper floor as a Vintage and Craft Emporium, and the owner thought my crafts fitted with the style she was aiming for. A lovely Facebook friend alerted me to the request for local craftspeople, and the rest is history.

I hope all of you, my fellow bloggers, are well. I've been keeping up with blog reading but have missed a couple of you lately that I like to follow. I can't complain, though, because I am finding it more difficult, these days, to make time to blog myself.

Bye for now
Teresa x

New Beginnings!

This photo is taken from near the edge of our garden, which is on the opposite side of the road from our house. That's our house behind the bushes - the cream one with the roof lights. The house is about a foot lower than the road level, down a couple of steps; the garden is long and narrow and is a few feet above road level.

This view is from the top of the veg plot, with a couple of metres more of lawn and trees behind me. We've had a good supply of strawberries, lettuce and rhubarb so far this year and the rest is well on the way. Sadly, it now looks very likely that this is the last year we will be able to 'grow our own' here.

My shed will also have to move elsewhere - probably at the back of the house. However, the reason for all this upheaval (as per my big hints of a few posts ago) is a good one. Our son has, as of yesterday, obtained planning permission to build a house here! In an ideal world we would not have to make use of our garden this way, but with house prices in our area being so high, it is the only way he can afford to have his own place and stay in the village.

In crafty news, I seem to be starting too many longer term projects when I should be making quick, smaller items to build up some stock. Here's my latest bag creation, made from chopped up jeans and furnishing fabric scraps. I've also finished off a project for a friend and made a few more phone covers (photos next time).

I dug out some Christmas fabric to get ahead of myself for future stalls and have started on some lavender bag sets. I can hardly believe it, but I bought a Christmas present the other day (in July!). It's never been heard of before, but I saw the perfect thing and thought I might as well get it.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Progress?!

 There are 2 mighty oak trees on our lane. Wonderful specimens that I have known all my life, and that have stood here probably hundreds of years while change has gone on all around them. They were originally surrounded with fields with the lane running alongside. Then along came the by-pass (just visible to the right of the second pic) which was later widened into a duel-carriageway (in the early 1980s).

Also in the 1980s came the construction of a large estate (to the right of the above oak). This oak is the furthest from my house - you can just see the next one behind it.

As children my brothers and sisters and I loved kicking through the piles of oak leaves that built up against this wall in the autumn.

 This is the other side of the oak in the first pic. I noticed a lot of ivy growing up its trunk this year that I don't remember seeing before. I hope it isn't a sign of anything sinister!

This is the next oak tree towards our house. It's a bit smaller than the first one and is beginning to show signs of age. It's had quite a lot of ivy growing on it for years and tends to be a bit slower in responding to the seasons.

Where the smaller trees stand in this pic (above) is where a 3rd mighty oak once stood. We were very sad to see it go, almost 20 years ago, when it was (conveniently) condemned and chopped down to make way for this entrance road for 4 new houses. Our house is out of sight, on the left of this pic, just underneath the huge, new house to the left of the telegraph pole.

Here you can see our garden, as of a few weeks ago (opposite the huge, new house), where OH is rotovating ready for planting. It's now planted up and the crops are well on their way. There are promising signs for a good crop of apples and plums, too.

This may, or may not, be the last year we will be able to plant our garden. We are awaiting a decision from the county council and, if things go to plan, things will change drastically, including the moving of The Shed!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Taking the Plunge!

I've taken the plunge and listed some of my crafts for sale on Folksy!! Although I set up the 'shop' ages ago it's taken me a while to get around to actually listing any products. There are only a few items there (it seems to take me ages to list one item - perhaps I'm putting too much information, but I get a bit carried away) so I'm not going to publicise much until I get it a bit more established. I'll only be selling to the UK, at first, too, because I haven't yet looked into postage issues for further afield.

I recently joined a new stitching group that meets in the bar of a local hotel. It was set up via Facebook a couple of weeks ago and is proving quite popular. Needing something to take along, I grabbed a copy of Craftseller with a pattern for crocheted hearts in it, and started on these (above). I was also able to help someone who was having trouble with her crochet. Others were helped out with various problems and some admitted that they'd have given up at the first hurdle if they'd been at home alone. So the group has already proved it's usefulness, with the added bonus of meeting new people with similar interests.

My son's van could do with a good clean! Someone decided to add this 'artwork' while it was parked outside the gym. He was hoping they'd finish it the next time he parked there but, instead, something else was added that I'm not going to show you!

This little chap, and a friend, were making so much noise outside the living room window I knew they were angling to have a photo taken. Trouble is, they were also darting about so much that I couldn't get them both together.

Bye for now
Teresa x