Mixed bag(s)

I am confined to barracks as we have Jim, the heating engineer here fitting our woodburning stove. I am turning a blind eye to the chaos and the mess and getting on with things. Normally I get out of doing the vacuuming because I have bad tinnitus which is aggravated by the thing (seriously!) but I think I shall be close friends with it by the time Jim finishes today's workload. Roll on tomorrow... but first I finished this bag for tonight. I have finally used up every scrap of this green stuff. I bought one metre of each pattern and have made three bags from it which I'm very pleased with.

This pattern is one I bought from an Etsy seller last year and every time I make it I have to remember to tweak it as it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I like the shape and I hope the recipient tonight will be pleased with it. I also made another big bag over the weekend which I might keep for myself.

This was made using a tablecloth I bought in the charity shop for 50p and some material I was given by a curtain making shop just to get it off their hands. I have a little bit of it left and I'm going to combine it with some lovely chintzy curtain fabric. Might do that tomorrow in between giving Jim endless cups of tea....

Just wanted to share one of my treasures from the antique fair at the weekend where I got carried away looking at postcards on a stand selling vintage buttons and handbags. I was so wrapped up in the messages on the back I didn't realise until I got home that I'd bought two sent to the same person by her mother. They both depicted French actress and music hall star Gaby Deslys. Wasn't she beautiful? Look at the that fabulous hat made with moire silk! Of course I then had to find out about her and I read that J M Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) was very keen on her, trying to write something for her to appear in, in a silent film. It never came about but I'm not surprised she took his fancy.

The postcards to Lily from her mother are so precious. They start with 'Have you forgotten my address?.... obviously Lily was not as devoted as she could have been... but I decided to scan them in and use them in a card making idea. I'd also bought a set of cigarette cards and scanned those in too, combining the two things like this. They might be a bit twee for me but I like them at the moment and may make a few more. After all, until Jim has the fire in I'm going nowhere!