A Bag For My Friend ♡

 

Hello lovely lovelies♡ A lovely Sunday welcome to you♡ I hope you enjoyed a pleasant week. I did. I had fun stitching a bag for my friend, and indeed, added the finishing touches this morning....hand stitching the lining to the bag.....hand stitching the handles on......sewing the flap closure. Why do the finishing touches always take so long??!! My friend fashions lovely crochet pretties, so she wanted a carry-all to hold her yarns, patterns and whatever other woolly accoutrements needed for what she is working on. Of course, this is not quite like any knitting/crochet bag one would find in a shop. Snippets of lace, a fabulous, rather large, doily butterfly; a needlepoint, twirls and twirls of ribbon meandering through a buckle, ribbon flowers, doilies, vintage jewellery, needlepoints and whatever else tumbles out of my treasure trove of pretties seem to find a place on any one of my bags, giving each one a little bit of oomph!

The lining is a fabric with phrases of lyrics from old hymns printed on it. I used this fabric with a wry smile. Back in the days of my friend's and my youth, we would sing hymns and choruses in church and youth group. Alas, my friend never did sing in the church choir. Let's just say she made a "joyful noise unto the Lord"; something of which she would remind me constantly.....and still does, actually. Alas, she was (and is) tone deaf. Yes indeed, she always found it a bit tricky to distinguish the variances in pitch of different tones. But, she always enjoyed singing, which really is the only thing that matters, isn't it?? When we do get together we still chuckle about those youth group days and her discordant voice rising above the mellifluous strains of others. I must say though that my beautiful friend has so many other talents and gifts and blesses others' lives each and every day. She wouldn't mind at all my mentioning her unmelodic singing; why, she would only too happily tell you herself. =)

When my friend espies the lining fabric, I hope her mind will wander back through the years, to those fun days of church youth group and smile at all the memories. There are so many happy memories of church youth group days. I must say, as I fashioned leaves and pansies from lengths of ribbons and stitched all the pretties onto the bag all these wonderful old hymns came to mind......This is the day that the Lord has made.....Amazing Grace......Great is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see......♡ Aah yes, every morning I am reminded of God's mercies and blessings to me; His love for me. Love, love, love those grand old hymns.

A new bag for my friend. A bag which was fun to fashion. But then, playing with ribbons, cast off needlepoints, vintage pretties and bits and bobs is always fun to me. I hope my friend is not adverse to a knitting/crochet bag embellished to the hilt. If one is going to have a bag why not have  one dripping with a saturation of pretties smothering it. =)  As my friend happily crochets or knits away perhaps those grand old hymns will traverse down the corridors of sweet memories, and she will make a joyful noise unto the Lord♡ As it is Sunday, later this evening I will pop into Kathy's lovely place to see what the merry band of slow stitchers are stitching. Have a lovely day, lovely lovelies♡

Until the next time.....