Quiltingboard Forums - How it started with my handbags/purses.....

Dear quilter friends out there - I thought I should share with you how my „handbag/purse” making came into life. It will also show you how God gives you gifts you don’t know you have until something happens and you get pushed forward to use them to bless other people. And of course it blesses you too as usually you love what you’re doing.

So sit down and pour yourself a cup of coffee/tea as this is quite a story!!!

We needed to get our lounge-room settee newly covered and went into the shop we bought it from to choose the material. The salesman gave us a whole lot of books with samples to take home to see how it matches, walls, carpets, etc. but asked us to please bring them back as they still needed them. DH: “yes, you better tell her”, me: “what would I do with it?”, DH “well with you everything is possible…”, me: “unless I gave them to my friend Anne, she always finds things to make with all sort of stuff (corks, old bottles, material, etc…)” Anyway we left the shop and 2 weeks later we were back with the colour we had chosen. My DH stayed in the car and as I handed over ALL the sample books, the salesman greets me with a HUGE bag full of sample materials that were outdated!!!! Here I was, wondering what my DH would say and not having the heart to tell this nice salesman that really I didn’t need that stuff.

As I got in the car, DH: “what’s in that bag?” I told him…. his answer: “what on earth are you going to do with all that junk?”, me: ”give it to Anne!” I have to tell you that Anne only comes to visit once a year and her visit had just been…..

Anyway, some time later I decided that I needed a church bag where I could fit my Bible, writing stuff, extra set of glasses, etc. So I search in the upholstery sample stash and found a nice piece big enough for the bag I had in mind. OK, it was done and I was quite pleased with the result. Shortly after my DDIL comes for a visit, drools over my church-bag and asks if I couldn’t make her one too. So off we go searching in the stash again and here is my next handbag done. Of course my DMIL who was visiting at the same time thought she could use a bag too to take a few things with her when she goes to town for a bit of shopping, again the stash was searched and that was the birth of my 3rd handbag!!! Needles to say that when I took my handbag to church, the girls just went crazy over it and put in orders – by now I think most of them would at least have one or 2. Of course some of them asked if I could make larger ones, so my brain spit out ideas for city-shoppers. In the meantime I would have made at least 50 as a girl-friend of mine has a boutique for ladies over 40/50 and she ordered quite a few for sale.

Just a funny bit to this story: as the ladies from church met on our special day, we talked about the handbags and a friend of mine asked me if I could make sure the handles were sewn one real good as she said she would use the bag with her Bible in it to bash anyone trying to assault her on the street so it had to hold…..and then her fantasy went completely haywire!!!! She said I should call my handbag “Bible-bashing-bags”!!!! And then we could put a sign at the entrance of our town “This is the birthplace of the Bible-bashing-bag”!!!! Needles to tell you we had lots of fun and the place sounded like a pen full of hens!!!!

I never thought I had such a gift and I thank God for showing me and giving me the courage to give it a try so I can bless others.

I sure hope I haven’t been too boring with my story!!!