First CQ Messener Bag Post 13

If you have been following my blog long, you may have wondered what ever happened to the messenger bag I started last year.  (Sorry for the lighting in the picture above!) To be honest, I find it difficult to spend my time working on items for myself.  So, I set it aside to work on other projects. Gifts, round robin blocks, and items for swaps are easier.  It could be because they have deadlines.  But, I think it is because I enjoy giving hand made gifts to people in my life.  (The deadline thing does light a fire though...)

While working on the block I embellished for Flora, I wanted to try a different idea for the wings on a dragonfly.  In the past, I used strips of 4mm silk ribbon, this time I wanted to stitch them. I knew I wanted dragonflies on a specific section of the panel of my messenger bag, so I pulled it out to practice before adding one to Flora's block.

I also wanted to try using the straight and long stitch method (needle painting) to create a birdhouse.

Hmm... Looking at the first picture in this post, I realize the dragonfly and the birdhouse are definitely NOT proportional.  Oh well.  This will be for me and I like them anyway...

Messenger bag panel - bare

Messenger Bag panel - with topiary

While working on Barbara's block, I wanted to test out an idea I had for a topiary.  As I planned to use silk ribbon, and silk ribbon is not cheap, I did not want to test it on a doodle cloth.  There was not an ideal place for it on the panel of the messenger bag I had been embellishing; so, I pulled out another panel I had pieced for the bag and found a home for the topiary.  (This topiary was inspired by the memory of a motif in The Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible by Joan Gordon. And the beads were purchased from Crazy Quilting Supplies - I am not affiliated with the book or the shop.)

Once I finish my Winter/Christmas wall quilt, I believe the messenger bag will be my next Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesday project.  In the meantime, perhaps I will find a few more ideas I hope to try out that will work on one of these panels!


Thank you for stopping by!
Renee