Jessie’s Bags on the road to Reading PA

 The rain didn't stop us.....

Even though it was a rainy dreary day Jessie’s bags packed up the car with fabric and hit the road.





It took a little more than an hour to reach our destination Reading PA.  It is a beautiful location nestled in the hills.

 I enjoyed the visit to the Heritage of Green Hills very much.

      


 .......one of the things I enjoy the most is meeting all the new people....




 We brought our bag building workshop to this retirement community so that any who wanted to volunteer could help Jessie’s Bags with our project.

  We met a lovely group of ladies who quickly got to work helping us make bags for Breast Cancer Survivors.

We put together fabrics for  at least 10 bags!

 

We hope they will be helping us with our project on a regular basis, so Jessie’s bags will be on the road again….

Jessie goes to Middle school

Jessie’s bag is on the road again. We are out and about a little bit every week.

#jessiesbagsontheroad

One of the stops this week was a local Middle school.  Jessie’s Bags loves working with young people. There is a group of young ladies who are volunteers, at a nearby middle school one day a week.

a new Jessie's Bags Button!

They have created a flyer for Jessie & her bags. 

This week they quickly put together a button for Jessie’s bags that we love.

 The time we spend together is interesting. We see all the things young people are interested in, they love music and they love to be creative in what ever they do if its fabric pieces bows or pulling fabric apart

Putting Jessie's labels on tags!

The group of volunteers also helped us process 

some donated fabric into bags.

 We appreciated the help and as they head phones in place, talked & sang they worked and accomplished a great deal. This experience is reminding me what it is like to be young.

 Jessie enjoyed being there this week trying to get a sewing machine up & running, she was eager to teach the girls how to do a little sewing. Their young energy recharges our battery.

These young people are Excited about life and eager to do everything. As they were talking trash about each other, play the dozens, and teasing each other you see the fabric of their lives. The friendships are obvious. The jealousy is also there but they work side by side accomplishing a goal, Helping Jessie make bags.

Guess who's cell phone rang ! Her sister calling to check on Jessie!

It’s good to be reminded of youth........

Jessie’s Bags also visit a lot of senior centers and nursing homes to work with and visit with her sister and the older ladies. It’s interesting to see the fabric of their lives. They smile and tease each other they talk about old time’s places they have seen things they enjoy. Sometimes the talk is about the surgeries on my knee my hip. I also notice the sibling rivalry still abounds. Jessie and her sister still compete and still fuss like two little kids. They also compete for my attention. And when I buy something for one I must buy two. The friendships are obvious. The jealousy is also there but they work side by side accomplishing a goal, Helping Jessie make bags.

So Many similarities between the old & young……  we welcome all to help Jessie & our bag project making bags for breast Cancer Survivors...

..Thank you see you next time!  We appreciate the help..... Thank you Ladies.

Enjoy the journey

Sometimes I get so busy with life. So caught up in the everyday life,  things like grocery shopping, cooking, washing clothes, taking care of doctors’ appointments for  Jessie, & her sister & my husband & mother in law and myself.  I also  working on bags everyday  and I handle Jessie's  bag building  workshops. Jessiesbags.com

I was up and out starting my day early. I had to go to the post office, cleaners,& market.  As I was driving I looked up and saw a beautiful sunrise.

I decided to pull over so I could get a few photos. If you follow us on Instagram you will notice that we like to take pictures of the beauty around us. I call it inspiration. The bible tells us God’s artistic works are awe inspiring.

Sometimes we are so busy we don’t stop and enjoy the view.

 I want to look out every day and see the beauty around me.

 Sometimes it can be overshadowed by life and busy work. One article I read recently someone reminded a busy couple to always enjoying the journey. I really liked this and am looking for ways to do this in my life. Maybe I will sit on the deck and watch the sun come up or take a drive to see the sun rise every day & Pull over and take a few pictures.             

  

  see more photos on  Instagram #Jessiesbagsontheroad

My house is situated so that in the morning from my office window I see the sin rise. In the evening I can lie in my bed and see the sun set. 

 Maybe I will stop every day turn off the TV and watch the window channel in order to enjoy the journey.

Thank you

Thank you so much for your fabric donation, and your quick response.

 I send a  Philadelphia designer a request for fabric donations on Monday.

   Tuesday we had a box in the mail, and we were so excited to see the new fabrics. 

 We quickly started looking through and the ideas started to flow.

 bold colors

 and patterns.

We have a plan to touch things once. So as I unpacked we started cutting the fabric into usable pieces. We didn't want to stop.  

Wednesday day two and 85 year old (soon to be 86 next month ) Jessie began sewing some of the pieces, At 1:30 and she has completed a few bags at the end of the day 5 bags need just handles to be finished and other pieces are started.

Thursday we are going to an adult day care program  and I will take some of the pieces with me for them to help us finish processing. They will help us remove paper & tags. Any scraps we will use to make into bows for our tags.

 few photos of what we have transformed into bags so far.

 We hope you love our designs ideas as much as we do. 

we support Breast Cancer survivors .... giving them Jessie's Bags 

.

Thank you for supporting us by  Sending  us your  discontinued fabrics & even fabric Books we love to have them!

 If you have other items that are trash that you think we may be able to use in our bag making process we appreciate these as well.

 follow us on Instagram for more photos #jessiesbags

Road trip !

Road trip!

Spring is in the air!

The sun was shinning bright!
Jessie's Bags was on the road!

 It was a beautiful day for a road trip to Ashbridge Manor.  

About an hour’s drive from our North Wilmington location is Downingtown. 

 I put the windows down and cruised...as Florida Georgia line would say.

We up-cycled some greeting cards and fabric scraps to create unique tags for our bags.

 We also gift wrap some of Jessie’s bags.

Now they are ready for delivery.




  This visit was to meet with volunteers who helped us make tags for our bags.They gave Jessie’s Bags some cards that they had been saving for recycle now we can turn these into tags for our bags. One of the ladies even donated her pinking shears to our project. We love it when we receive these personal donations to our cause.

 You can see more photos of our visit on Ashbridge Manor’s Facebook page. 

Thank you ladies I enjoyed the visit and hope to work with you again soon!

Early morning is the best time of day for me I love the quiet. The whole house is sleeping; I can see the dawn the sun slowly creeping up. This is the time I am most creative. You may notice my blogs are sometimes written and posted around 4 or 5 in the morning.  This is also the time I will get up refreshed and work on the designs for Jessie’s Bags. Jessiesbags.com

The colors and fabrics are often like a puzzle. We use recycles fabrics so my choices are usually whatever has been donated and whatever I find available as I start to work. I like that because it means I sometimes pick up a piece that doesn't necessarily match but I like the way it looks with the pieces I am working on. Sometimes it’s about the contrast.

Bright summer colors!

So you may see one pop of color on a bag that is primarily another color. You may not think it works but I do. Sometimes someone will ask me to replace a handle. I often think this is the way it comes. This is what makes it a Jessie’s bag. It is not a matchy, matchy design and we don’t make custom bags.

 But guess what you can design and make your own bag you can use your ideas and design what you like. We love other people’s creativity too.  All you have to do is join us and volunteer when you make a bag for a Breast Cancer Survivor, You can create your own bag. Either Jessie will sew it or she will help you learn how to sew it. This is what happens when we visit locations with our bag building workshop. Everyone can join in the process. We like original designs The Bags I create are called by Jessie’s name because she created the design and idea of the bags in the first place. You know I don’t mind I know I am Jessie’s Bags, and whenever someone likes our bags it’s a positive reflection on both of us.

#jessiesbags

Summer Flowers & Bugs

Crises averted all is calm in Jessie’s world

We are no longer at DEFCON 3.

 The solution was to buy a new sewing machine. 


This may seem simple however we had only about $30.00 in our budget at the time. So the discussion began..............................  The price to repair a machine last time was $125.00, versus the cost of just buying Jessie a new machine which cost $199.00. The repair would take some time. The new machine would be available immediately! This was an important factor to all involved. We need a machine ASAP. 



One of the ongoing concerns of Jessie’s Bags is that we give away most of our bags to support breast Cancer Survivors!
We rarely have any income from the bags. We rely mostly on volunteers and donations to keep us afloat.



We are currently working on a program that will give us volunteers as well as provide us with a source of income as we make our bags. We approached a local company about working with them in their locations providing a bag building workshop. As we move forward we will let you know more about our partnership as it begins to unfold.

One of the things I notice about older folks is they usually tuck a few dollars away. Maybe it’s because of living through the depression. So I asked Jessie do you have any money toward a new machine. Her response was not really, but it’s the first of the month and my check should be here today since the first is on the weekend. Wow she is the one with the memory issues but I didn't know what day of the month it was.

   So Jessie bought herself a sewing machine! Yea! Happy Dance!

In the meantime I took the old machine away from her because she was still trying to repair it. I dropped it off to the repair shop. If it is not too much we will repair it as we have a backup that works.

Crowd funding wasn't necessary at the moment !

Sometimes the solution is simple, and things just fall into place without a lot of anxiety.

 Not most times but sometimes…





Crises averted all is calm in Jessie’s world......

jessiesbags.com