From Small Acorns ....

I have to admit, I really like oak trees. I love their size and majesty, the shape of the leaves and even the acorns. I don't know why, it's just one of those things. Thinking back, I guess it started in junior school. The school was split into four "houses" for school games competitions, with each house named after a tree; oak, larch, beech and fir. Needless to say, I was in oak.

In recent years, the oak leaf in particular seems to have crept into my arts and crafts. A few years ago I collected some fallen oak leaves from a tree near my house and scanned them into my computer. I used them as templates for pottery oak leaves which I sponge glazed and gilded. They were sold at a local craft exhibition a couple of years ago.

Last year, I used the same scanned templates to make felt leaves which I wired together with felt acorns that I needle felted. The felt oak twig was exhibited at the local art society exhibition last year and promptly sold. Have to admit I slightly wish I had kept it now.

A few weeks ago, I came across an old pair of curtains in a local charity shop which were made from the most fabulous oak leaf and acorn fabric. I'm not sure I would actually want curtains in the fabric but they were soon dismantled and washed. I have just finished sewing a peg bag in the fabric and a door stop will be following shortly. Have to say, I really like the peg bag. Hopefully it will be a good seller.

If I was to use from small acorns do mighty oak trees grow for From Rags To Bags, it certainly started as a small acorn and definitely isn't a mighty oak yet. I think at the moment, From Rags To Bags is still at the sapling stage but it has definitely put down strong roots, so who knows how it will grow in the future.

From Rag to Bags!

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine gave me a tablecloth that had been hand embroidered by her grandmother. It was in pretty bad shape with torn and frayed corners but lovely floral embroidery in the corners. She knew I used old table linens to make some of my items, so thought it might be of some use to me.

The cloth looked like it had been very well loved over the years, so it did seem a shame to throw it away. Also a lot of time had obviously been spent embroidering the cloth all those years ago, so I putting my thinking cap on and came up with a couple of solutions.

The first idea that sprang to mind was fairly obvious - lavender bags. As the embroidered area was quite large, the two lavender bags I made were larger than usual but that didn't really matter much. My friend was delighted with the lavender bag I gave to her and I kept the other.

Thankfully I didn't rush into making four lavender bags. I got waylaid by other projects and by the time I got back to the remainder of the cloth, I had had another idea. This time I made a peg bag for my friend with the rest of the cloth, which worked equally well. My friend was delighted and the cloth has been successfully repurposed into some useful items once again.