Finally finished!!!...decided after some sleepless nights to stick to the African basket theme and incorporate various sized, coiled, circles in the same colours as the basket itself...Found an italian belt that was also woven and the right width for the stripes of the basket. The yellow and black material I used for the drawstring top is also African waxed cotton and was waiting to be used for the appropriate project...it's great using materials from your stash, in fact all the materials I used were from my stash...it's a big stash and at the moment I refrain from buying more even though the temptation is huge. I suppose space is the deciding factor.

Back of bag The next big challenge was what to do on the ends of the leather drawstrings...solution was to sandwich the ends between 2 more coiled circles...3 needles later and it was done!!!

Ps... still having trouble with formatting text...will get it right one day!!! - Maro

Pouch

"Tsesto" keyring and my logo

I then decided that a keyring with a Cypriot twist must go on the African bag...so i made a "tsesto" keyring. A "tsesto" is a flat wicker basket that was used as a tray or for drying homemade macaroni in the sun or, just as a decoration.  I also made a couple of little patchwork pouches to hang off the bag ...just so you don't loose your mobile in the deep depths of the large basket. Applied my logo and rushed over to Nonie's to take these photos. Now, all I hope for is that it will sell for a decent sum to make a difference to one of the 128 orphans at the Makarios Orphanage in Kenya.    

Front view 1

Front view 2

Just too many ideas going round and round in my head so thought i'd get going...lets see if this works. Hoping to show you the finished product by the end of the week. And if anyone is thinking, what's Nonie
 working on...don't you worry...plenty to see in the very near future!!! What with silly exam time and, end of year, things are as usual...hectic. -Maro, who is definately having trouble formatting text...oh well!!! )