Marguerite Bag

Hello and thanks for visiting! Its been ages since I did a "proper" blog post - all my recent ones have just been to tell you about my podcast, but I've really missed chitty chatting so I thought I'd rectify that with a post today.

We're just back from a lovely dog walk at Greys' Court, which is a National Trust property. We didn't go into the house, or take many photos, as we had a reluctant teenager with us, and had to keep moving, but here are a couple of pics of the bluebells, which was our primary reason for choosing Grey's Court.

Back home, in making news, I have finished a beautiful bag, the Marguerite Bag. It's a pattern by Emma Wright, as featured in issue 166 of Inside Crochet magazine.

The pattern called for Wool Couture Cotton but I used Drops Muskat, which is a mercerised cotton, in colours Denim, White and Sunflower.

I blocked all the squares on my lovely wooden blocking board, by simply spraying them with water and leaving to dry. Once blocked I was able to really easily assemble them into the bag shape, which is such a clever design.

The next job was to add the straps. I went a bit off piste here - the pattern called for a chain of 64 stitches for each strap but I wanted my straps longer so I did 130 chains. Then I felt like it needed to be wider than the one in the pattern, so I added a row of trebles all around. 

Finally I chose some lovely bright fabric with which to line it.

I used the sewing machine to make a rectangle taller than the bag, then I cut down in a big zig-zag around to mirror the points and dips of the squares (diamonds ?). I ironed a seam allowance and then hand stitched the lining in place.

And here is the lovely Brenda modelling the final result...

I'm totally in love with this bag, I love how summery and bright and sunny it is. Now we just need some weather to match!

Til next time,

Jillxxx

Hello dear friends and readers :)
Welcome to this week's Finish for the Weekend :) Please see below for instructions on how to join in.
I'm sorry there was no post last Friday, I had nothing finished and nothing much to blog about either!

There have been a lot of storm systems about this week. What sort of name is "Brian" for a storm ?! (no offence to all the Brians out there) And who names these things anyway ? Over the water, in my homeland of Northern Ireland, it's been particularly stormy: lots of places closed down - schools, banks, parks - however I think they survived relatively unscathed. My Mum had a few of her garden pots blow over and smash, but thankfully no structural problems with her house.

Here in England just now it's a beautiful autumn day, and as I type the wind is still gusting ferociously through our garden, a great day to hang the washing out. I love this photo of near horizontal t-shirts.

So how's your week been ? Mine's been pretty good, nothing majorly exciting or anything, just a lovely balanced week of friends, coffee, chores and of course crochet.

For this week's finish I have a cute granny square bag made in a rather riotous Sirdar Click yarn.



I started this last year when we were driving up to Scotland to catch the ferry over to Northern Ireland at Easter. I had just had the dreadful news the night before that my Dad had died really quite suddenly, and then we had this 14 hour journey of hell to get through. I cried the whole way in the car, and then, as the traffic was so bad, we then missed the ferry. By the time we actually got on the ferry I was ready for sleep really, but in the absence of anywhere to lie down I did some crochet to keep me busy. All I could think to do was a granny square. I'd no idea what to use it for but I had to do something.

Whilst in NIreland I decided it was going to become a bag, so I crocheted another granny square the same size, and then also crocheted a strap. The strap was just around 7 stitches wide, and enough rows of dc to make it the right length for a cross-body bag.
These 3 bag-parts have been lying in my work basket for about 18 months now! It was time to finish it off properly.



I sewed the granny squares together on 3 sides, just normal sewing. I had thought about dc'ing them together but as this wool is quite chunky I thought a dc join would be too bulky. I then sewed on a gorgeous tomato-soup-red big button and crocheted a length of chains to make a button loop.

The final step was to line the bag. I'm not a massive orange fan so it was a good opportunity to use up this spotty orange fabric that had been in my stash for some time.

I used the sewing machine to sew the lining fabric sides together, and to hem the top, and then I hand-sewed the fabric inner to the crocheted outer. And ... ta-dah! A lovely sunny and bright granny square bag ....

It's another one of those projects where I just think to myself - why did I leave this so long ?? - because it only really took another hour or so of work to complete. Anyway, its done now, and I think I'm going to add it to my stockpile for craft fairs.

There may not be a FFTW post next week as I am going over to NIreland - just Little Tomboy and me - as its half-term holidays for us. We are leaving the teenagers here with Daddy, and a coupe of friends are joining us for a few days. I'm very much looking forward to going "home" and spending a few days just relaxing.


Happy half-term everyone!
Til next time,
Jillxxxxx


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Welcome to Finish for the Weekend, a weekly chance to link up and share with the blogging community some of the projects you have completed this week. The only rule is that your post must be about an item you have finished this week, hopefully to help reduce some of those piles of UFO's!

Here's how to join in:

1. Write a blog post about your finished project.

2. Link back to Finish for the Weekend by adding this text as a link on your post:

http://emeraldcottage.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Finish%20for%20the%20Weekend

3. Publish your post

4. Link back from here to your post by clicking "Add Link" and adding your post's URL

5. Spread the bloggy love by visiting and commenting on the other Finish for the Weekend posts.

The Finish for the Weekend post will open for new links on a Friday at 12noon London time, and it will stay open until Monday at 12noon to allow for overseas bloggers to join in. These times may vary but I will do my best to keep it roughly the same. Looking forward to seeing all your posts !

Children's Granny Square Bags

There was just enough time today for a couple of quick makes - the last of 2014. It's so cold and frosty outside, I wanted to play with some lovely warm colours, and, having decided to make a little bag for each of my girls, I asked them to choose 3 or 4 colours apiece. Little Miss chose her usual palette of zingy pinks, and greeny-blues ....

.... whereas Little Tomboy went for the rather less girly primary colours ....

Each bag is made up of two simple 6-round granny squares, and one big long strip which forms the sides, base, and strap. This strip is just 2 long rows of (UK) half-trebles, and joined to the granny squares using a double-crochet along 3 sides.

The bags are lined with fabric from my stash - flowery for Little Miss ....

.... and a sort of goldy colour for Little Tomboy.

Add a button to the front of each bag, and a fastening loop (a length of 8 or so chains) attached to the middle of the back, at the top ....

....and ta-da! Two sweet little granny bags :)

Well, that's it for 2014 :) May you all have a happy and peaceful 2015

xxxxx