The Jeanius of Port Perry.

These pictures are the Jeanius bags that were done at a workshop on Saturday in Port Perry. Aren’t they fantastic? All but one of the ladies are from a group that hooks together on a regular basis – constantly coming up with interesting projects and workshops, so I was flattered to be invited.


The one non-Port Perry hooker found out about the workshop while at Rittermere. She was doing bags for Christmas gifts and was using the article from A Needle Pulling Thread, so she was excited to come to the session. Hers are the adorable, non-Mola animals at the bottom of the images.

Actually the workshop was an “assembly” day, since all the flaps were hooked when everyone arrived. Thanks to a Mola workshop with Iris Simpson a month ago, there were beautiful, colourful Molas waiting to be turned into bags. And some other pretty wonderful subjects as you can see from the pics.

So the day consisted of making sure the flaps were the right width for the jean leg, whipping if they were and hooking additional or pulling loops if they weren’t. And then we were off on the assembly line. Among the group were a master quilter and another sewing machine maven who had both figured out how to attach their pocket using the machine. I still haven’t been able to figure that out yet, though am in full agreement that it would be much faster.
Every time I run a workshop, some kind of improvement that comes from the group. Since everyone approaches things a little differently, the cumulative thinking is always coming up with ways to make it easier.
As a result, the bags just get better and better.

The quilting guru also figured out a way to do a mitered corner border on this bag. It looks really good, doesn’t it? And it’s the perfect way to make a small image larger without additional hooking.

A ready-made shoulder strap from another purse (that had clips on the end) became a strap for one bag with built in key holders at the end. The clips were fished in through the lining, but will be most useful for holding keys. People just keep coming up with these brilliant ideas.

The group treated me to a yummy buffet lunch and lots of good hot coffee, which was great since we were working in a mid-reno church basement, in which the heat had been turned off. By mid day, we were all donning scarves and jackets to fight the chill.

All in all it was a very good day. They are a great and active group. It was great to spend the day with them. And as usual, they did me proud.