‘Tis the season to be jolly

I have stayed up late to work on xmas presents (and to make sure 16 yr old gets home from party at decent hour!)

At the moment I am making a gift to match these shoes of a friend of mine. She mentioned how much she liked Carly’s beaded bag and how she needed a bag (and a bracelet would be nice) for the shoes she wore to the valedictory dinner. Quite a broad hint I couldn’t possibly miss!!!!

I doodled around on paper and came up with the following design. As she goes to the gym quite often and lifts weights, I thought it quite appropriate that it actually looks a bit like a weightlifter. I wonder if she’ll notice.

This was the beading onto the fabric, the closest colour match I could find. I then shopped around for some beads, glass and crystals, to make the bracelet. The lovely coloured glass beads are from Treasure Island Beads.

This picture also shows the bag made up before the drawstring is added. I will have a look for some perle cotton to make a twisted cord and sew some beads as loops to thread it through.

Last week we went on a lovely outing with the Embroiderer’s Guild to visit the Johnston Collection in East Melbourne. We only had two ladies not quite make it to the right carriage on the train! (we boarded at three different stops in Geelong) The Johnson Colllection is displayed in one of Mr Johnson’s houses and each Christmas a different region decorates the house. This year was Bendigo’s turn. The Embroiderer’s Guild of Bendigo decorated the Green Room, the CWA (Country Women’s Association) decorated the kitchen, ceramicists decorated the French sitting room, spinners and weavers had a room upstairs, as did the fibre art group and the patchworkers. All the displays were amazing. Next year it is Geelong’s turn so our Embroiderer’s guild branch will be decorating the Green Room. If you get a chance to visit, xmas is a great time to see these fantastic displays of art.

Cheers