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Sunday 15 September 2013

FAREWELL SUMMER

Hi everyone

Summer seems to have disappeared rather quickly, although (ever the optimist) I am still confident we will have a few more sunny days before the bad weather sets in.  Perhaps we will have a warm autumn.  The forecast for today is pretty grim, although at the moment (early morning) it looks lovely outside.  Cool, but very sunny - hope it lasts longer than predicted.

This week has been full of bag-decorating, card-making, list producing (for what I need to get ready for Christmas events), an 84th-birthday supper, collecting kittens that I am fostering and, despite the frequent soggy weather, gardening.  It seems to be a bit of a rush to get things tidied up in the the garden for winter now that the weather has changed.

The working week began with decorating bags with my cake-making friend, Linda.  We made some lovely cupcakes (sadly not edible ones), which we lightly padded and then fixed them to the jute bags.  I forgot to take photographs (what's new?), but will do next time we meet up - they do look good and I hope they will be popular.

Decorating jute bags seems to be a popular activity at the moment and it is interesting to see the variety of methods that are being used: ironing on pictures, material, etc, making things, ie cupcakes, to fix to the bag, as well as printing - not sure how this is done, although I know you can buy pre-printed ones using your own design.  Here are a couple of photographs of ones I have decorated this week:


This was produced using a panel of fashion and sewing pictures that I found.  I have cut the small pictures up and using Bondaweb, fixed them to the bag.  A slow process really, lots of cutting, trimming and ironing.


This is a work-in-progress as I want to add glittery mini-butterflies to the design.  I used a similar process to the above bag, good old Bondaweb.

Last week I promised that I would post pictures of some of the beautiful Heucheras I bought from the Wisley Plant Fair and here are some of them:




The colours are so gorgeous.  The first flower bed nearest to the back door into our garden was turned into a Heuchera bed last year and the plan for this year is to move the table and chairs on the patio well over to the left so that when we look out onto the dark, grim and grey winter days we will see these beautiful plants and the weather will not seem so grim and grey.

Many years ago we purchased two geese (no, not real ones).  We put them in various places around the garden and have to anchor them to the ground because various members of the Pie Five like to jump on them or knock them over!  Here is a rare photograph of them upright.  We, unimaginatively we know, named them Goosey and Gander:


Final picture for this week is of my two new foster kittens - I was able to name them and in keeping with my love of plants I called them Rosie and Violet.  They are 9 weeks old and, as you can imagine, very small.  On day one (Thursday) they were nervous, Violet more so - she is on the right hand side of the photograph.  Three days later they are bundles of adventurous inquisitive fun.  You can find out more information about them on the Woking Cats Protection website


Last but by no means least, don't forget to visit this week's Handmade Monday blog posts.  I love to see the variety of work the contributors to this event make - everyone is so talented.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog post last week - I love to read your comments and the feedback and help is always appreciated.

My Friday Guest Blogger spot is 'open' if anyone would like to join in.  I have some lovely bloggers signed up already and I am looking forward to getting things up and running again.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

Have a great week everyone - 'see' you next weekend.

Jill

19 comments:

  1. Hi Jill Love the "Sewing" jute bag and those huecheras ( arrgh spelling) are super. We are cold here too.

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  2. Liking the look of your butterflies particularly although the patchwork design one is very clever. It is a great idea that I hope are very popular for you. Hope you have a good week.

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  3. I'm fascinated by all the different ways people can customise the jute bags. I love both the bags you've shown, but I think my favourite is the butterfly one. Have a great week

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  4. Lovely bags, they are very popular so I'm sure you will do well with them, I was going to put my logo onto one for when I'm about town.

    Jan x

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  5. The jute bags are just lovely. Are you doing Christmas ones? Love the Heuchera, and the new kitties x.

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  6. Both your bags looks lovely. I like the one with the sewing panels a lot. Your little kittens are such cuties. Bit jealous.

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  7. I love your jute bags, what a fun idea to iron on pictures, the result is really effective!

    beautiful plants too, its so lovely to have something looking perky in the garden during the colder months isn't it x

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  8. I love the jute bags and the way they are decorated. Give my love to Violet and Rosie.

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  9. The heucheras are lovely.
    I'm a big fan of bondaweb too - I use it to attach fabric to the cards I make - so I appreciate all the work that goes into something that sounds so simple as just ironing on!!

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  10. You sure have been busy! We are hoping that Summer is on its way over to the Southern Hemisphere....looking forward to seeing your bags.

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  11. It's sounds like an incredibly busy week for you. Love the decorated bags. Summer will never be over as long as you have something with butterflies on it :-)

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  12. I'm with you, not keen on this cold weather but it looks like we're stuck with it. The decorated bags look wonderful. I really like the one with the fashion panels. Oh you have more cute visitors, they do look so tiny and timid. I bet they'll be running around in no time. Have a lovely week.
    Ali x

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  13. Those bags look wonderful, I'm sure they'll be very popular at your fairs. I love the plants that you've bought - such rich, autumnal colours.

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  14. I really love the sewing pictures bag. I would never have thought of using bondaweb, what a great idea. Do you get the bag all sewn up or do you make it yourself?

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  15. Decorating bags like this is such a blank canvas and a perfect way to let your imagination run wild. Like the butterflies.

    Violet and Rosie are so cute - how do you manage to give them up in the end?

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  16. The jute bags look great. Bags are really popular at the moment, so i hope they sell well for you.
    The kittens are very cute. I admire your ability to foster them..and give them back :)

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  17. Love the bags. It's amazing how many different ways there are to decorate a simple bag. What next have you got planned....
    Violet and Rosie are so adorable. I echo Fiddly Fingers comments - I would be heartbroken to give them up xx

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  18. Hello thank you for sharing your post on my What Are You Doing Blog Hop last week!

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  19. How gorgeous are your bags? I love how something like a plain jute bag can be transformed into something quite special.

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Thank you for your comment - it is always lovely to have feedback and I hope you enjoyed my post.