Bags galore!!!

Oh well it is time to get down to the first of my retrospectives.  Perhaps beginning with the bags I have created is a good starting point so here goes with 'Bags Galore'.

The second quilting retreat I attended Judy got me hooked on making bags.  I still use that first bag even though it is looking rather shabby these days.

So of course when I came home I had to make another one, which became Kath's bag.

Then came the bag I made for Summer school's silent auction and ended up as Sue's bag!!

The next one went into a silent auction at church and became Lynn's bag.

This was Celia's bag - I call it my daytime / night-time bag.

                             
                                
                                                                      Daytime

                                  
                                                                night-time

This is the bag I made on this year's quilting retreat.

                                

                     
                                                 

Well that's it - I did say bags galore and I'm not sure if I missed one along the way.  And I am making one at the moment for this year's summer school. . . .

My new blog

Well I don't know how this is going to work out but in the last two or three years I have gone from someone who did nothing creative outside of my work life except for maybe a bit of knitting or crochet to someone who can't stop creating and finding new skills.  It began with quilting first and this sort of set me going as I then added creative writing and then painting in watercolour and more recently doodling.

To begin with this might be very retrospective as I look back through various projects until gradually I catch up with myself into posting more current work and projects. But first a backward glance at the variety of stuff I am engaged in (when I am not working as a full time Unitarian Minister that is.)

This was my first real quilt which I made for my mum - it took nearly two years from start to finish but it was worth it. Large quilts still take a long time but I only really have one day in the week when I can get down to sewing.  I have joined a quilting group which is a great help. There will be more pics in another blog to catch up on more current quilt projects.

This was an early watercolour (postcard size) - I just love working in watercolour.  I don't go much with drawing first but tend to just paint straight onto the paper.


W-i-n-d   
 

A favourite time

I remember dad.

Is winding wool

             arms extended

             aching as you wind

             swinging round past outstretched hands

Surely. . . 
               here my love for yarn, began

                         in the feeling of the textures

               as you wound.

I remember when
I did the winding too. . . 
               first tight
               then loose. . .
your gently swaying arms allowing me
                to keep a flow
                a rhythm
                in my winding.

Thank you for this memory, dad.
               another time
                I might have chosen
                to write another wind

but today
               it is winding wool. 

                   -o0o-


This was one of my first poems - written from the scribble of a free write (subject w-i-n-d) in one of Judy Campbell's writing retreats. (That lady has a lot to answer for - she is the one who got me quilting too, and now each year I go on a writng retreat and a quilting retreat with Judy.)  Since those early days I have joined a local writing group which meets once a month and I go when I can to open mike nights when I read some of my own work.  I have started to try and write short stories too and maybe I shall post one of those . . .  sometime!!.


Finally my latest craze is doodling.  My friend Lynn Holland introduced me to this and she really has got something to answer for because I really can't stop doing them.  Sometimes called 'Zentangles' or 'zendoodles', either way they are crazy, fun, therapeutic and totally, totally addictive.

          
 Well that's all for now.  I shall have fun posting on here occasionally.


 

Sure