Post 343 Another lunch and bag

My main commitment today was late lunch at Jolley's Boathouse Restaurant in the city. This was my birthday lunch with 3 friends. We have lunch for each of our birthdays.  Jolley's has been renovated during a Covid lockdown and has a new chef. It's a favourite of mine and I wanted to try the new look and the new cook. 

No pain in my mouth so time this morning to return to the Nicola Jarvis Blue Wren and create the bag. There wasn't time to finish it, but I could get a good start. 

I cut out the Blue Wren and appliqued it to the Bottlebrush linen and worked the legs and feet.

Yesterday I had found some fabric in my stash that I thought would make good lining.

I got the bird appliqued and the bag cut out before I left for lunch.

This is a stock photo, from Jolley's website.  I didn't think to take one while there. We were  sitting at the table in the middle, obviously with four chairs, and there were people on other tables.                                It was raining today and the windows were closed. It was a little noisy at first but quietened down. 

The food was superb, as was the company. I have no qualms about stretching my birthday celebration out over a month. An early January birthday in Australia has always place limits on celebration, with friends away on summer holidays. I'm not fussed. I would, however, always choose to celebrate my birthday in a place on the water - ocean or river. It's one of the things I like about the Mitre - which incongruously still appears on the heading of this blog. 

I was home about 5 pm (yes, a long lunch) and set about constructing the bag. I needed to use plain linen on the sides and base. The lining fabric was short of the depth of the bag, so I supplemented with calico in the base. I think the colours and theme of the lining work well. 

There was enough of the lining fabric to put a pocket on the back. It's handy, I think, on shopping bags (or totes, if you prefer).

As can be seen, I haven't ironed this yet, but I think it has worked - both as a useful bag, and as an item for the Guild Exhibition next month.

The rest of the evening was spent working on the next bird. The Western Spinebill is ready to cut out tomorrow and applique on to the Kangaroo Paw linen.

Once again, I will work the legs directly on to the bag. 

I might get it done before our Sit'nStitch afternoon.

For now, another salt water mouth rinse and bed.