Bags and Chrysanthemums

Time for another post.
I have been busy continuing with my recycling and have created more bags and
totes. 

This one was created from an unwanted vest top and skirt. The main body of the bag used up the front and back of the vest top.    The gusset and strap of the bag were made from the length of the skirt as was the lining. I made a stencil of leaves and used oil sticks to stencil the design over the surface of the fabric except for the lining which was left unstencilled. All the stencilled pieces were then made into a quilting sandwich and I followed the lines of the original design on the fabric to do the free machine quilting.This tote has a zip closing the full width of the tote.


This bag was made from a recycled floral pleated skirt.  The colours were very pastelly so I painted the flowers with metallic acrylic paints.  All the pieces were then free machine quilted using a matching metallic thread. I used clear plastic shower curtain rings to attach the handle to the body of the bag.


The fabric for this bag used to be a 'batwing' blouse.  I wonder how many of you remember the 'batwing' era. I suppose it will reappear sometime when the fashion industry think we have we have all finally disposed of them as they did with flared trousers.  The design was a flower and leaf design which lent itself to quilting.  The centres of the large flowers were covered in large dots.  I decided to use French knots for these which were highlighted with gold gilding wax.  I used an old pair of twill 'flared' trousers for the piping and the strap.  A recycled green skirt which had the colour of one of the leaves in the design was used for the lining.
There are a few more bags waiting to be photographed and will hopefully be ready for the next post.

As well as the bag making I have been doing quite a lot of photography. Now that the weather is picking up (Hmmm - well it was until it snowed and here is the proof.


This is what is still on the North Yorkshire moors four days after the snow which closed most of the roads and left thousands of home with no electricity for four days.  Brrrr. And we thought that we were getting an early summer!!!)
Before the snow we had been on a couple of photo shoots on glorious warm sunny days.

As I love macro photography, I went to a florist and bought a large purple chrysanthemum to photograph.  This was an excellent buy as it has lasted over two weeks already and is still looking reasonably good.


This was taken just after I removed the net protector which kept it closed.  I was able to do lots of photography at each stage of its opening.


Over a week later I noticed that new petals were growing from the centre so I used a glycerine and water solution and sprayed the flower - the glycerine holding the water droplets in place.


I am preparing to give a talk and presentation of one of my textile projects on Tuesday so if the weather is nice!!! we can call into Whitby on the way and take some more photographs and have a delicious fish from our favourite 'Chippy'.

That's all for now so until the next post.......

Cheers everyone.