I love it when the shows come round! Mum and I went to the Great Northern Needlecraft Show last Friday and relished the opportunity to browse round the stalls, buying fabrics to add to the stash and think about new challenges and the opportunity to try something different.
I bought some fabrics to make mum a ‘twisted roses bag’ and some bits and pieces to make ribbon Christmas decorations. Plus a lovely book of Japanese inspired designs (including another bag pattern – can’t wait).
This is a bag kit, waiting to be made, which my Mum kindly bought me for Christmas when we were at the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate last November
The kit, from Euro Japan Links is comprised of a number of Japanese cotton strips for the outer bag and straps and a large piece for the lining. I am really looking forward to making this as the design is really simple and the Japanese fabrics so lovely.
Gaining confidence I decided that I would get a pattern and this time chose and buy the fabrics separately. The pattern, Serengeti, bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, was from one of my favourite bag designers, Monkey Buttons and having a colour palette in mind I wandered from stall to stall to collect fat quarters to make this bag.
This time the bag was quilted using Hobbs Heirloom fusible cotton wadding. This proved to be much easier to use than the interfacing which was provided for the Pennypot bag (I would definitely recommend using Hobbs for this kind of project – stockists can be found through a Google search). Hobbs is iron-on fusible on both sides and it can also be lifted and re-stuck if necessary (for example when turning a lining through after attaching to the outer part of a bag.)
I was even happier with this one!
