back through the mists of time

well possibly not quite as far as that.  During a recent trip to the loft, repository of craft overflow, to search for some yellow material (found it but not quite right so will look to get some more) I stumbled across a long forgotten craft item.

Now had I been asked prior to the loft discovery "what was the first applique you did?" I would have laughed and said a dragon, what else.

This is the item I would have been referring to. A small randomly patched cushion, and I do mean small, with the dragon in a fine dress weight velvet.  The satin stitch edging is a bit higgildy (or as members of the quilting group would say, a little unique) but I am still rather fond of it.

dragon applique

However my sojourn in the loft has shown that answer would have been incorrect.For there tucked into one of the bags, only one of its wooden handles still attached lay the truth.  My first applique was a swan, a brown swan (I wanted the blue one but I was last to pick) running stitched onto a hessian bag.

Long necked duck (swan) bag

I think I was seven, this was a school project, all the class made one. Having found the bag memories came back of trying to make the best of brown over blue, of being quite disgruntled there were so many letters in my name that there was not enough thread left for me to do my whole name in one colour. Or in the same shade when it came to my surname.

Although when it comes to waterfowl I prefer ducks, the swan was OK, just a long necked duck really (there once was an ugly duckling) and in many ways ugly was how I thought of my bag once it was done.

I was not at the time upset when the handle got broken, in fact I was almost pleased not to be able to use it while it waited to be fixed.  It has been waiting a long time.

More name than thread

I like it better now, perhaps a touch of nostalgia has made it more appealing, or perhaps my tastes now encompass the subtle as well as the bold.  So I guess I am looking for wooden handles so I can finally fix it and allow it back out of the loft and I guess as a non-plastic bag it is all fashionable now!