Kew Gardens & Royal Curtains

[Offcuts]

Here is a little video from Kew for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8onYGw7ThmE

[sazziej]

Another great Offcuts video.... love the commentry... 'swaggy thing' made me , looks like you were on for a great total.... can't wait to read a report on yesterday when you get chance...

GOOD LUCK TEAM MONDAY!.......

and remember... we use morsbags because anything else is rubbish!

[beattie]

Here we are back on the stand bright and early on Monday morning
Sorry we didn't post anything yesterday - during the day we were too busy making 61 bags with some of the squillions of people visiting Kew yesterday, and then we went to the pub to eat.
I woke up a while after going to sleep and found M/c sitting on the edge of the bed with the computer on his knees, posting away. I can't find his post now, but we're sure that he did write it. I'm very sad that it seems to have got lost.

By the end of yesterday, Team Kew had helped make 183 bags and it looks like there are some pods being set up as Pol has had some label orders from the Kew area.

I'll post more pictures later as we're trying to knock out a few bags to give to today's attendees who won't be able to sew. Bernie gets the "Early Bird" Medal in perpetuity - we were camping side by side til this morning as today he goes home. I looked out and found he'd folded his tent and disappeared. When we arrived at Kew he'd already notched up 2 bags on the tally. Whatever time had he got here? The answer was 7.45 - just when I was peering out of the caravan - and he had to wait over half an hour til Annie On The Gate arrived and opened for business,

[Ivybags]

Wow - what a total - and what a star Bernie !!
Hope you have a great last day

[sazziej]

Hope you all enjoy today.

[Krisaby]

Love the video and commentary. The net curtain screen with the bags etc. pinned on is such a good idea. Grand bag-making total and superb publicity. Well done you lot!

[beattie]

We're back in the caravan after saying goodbye to everyone outside Kew this evening. Thank you, everyone from Start, for arranging such an enjoyable event, and thanks to Pol for organising the morsbags side of it. I think it went swimmingly, which seems a good metaphor in view of the weather.
But we were very lucky in the last two days and have not had any rain that I've been aware of.

We were even busier today than we were yesterday, with keen punters sewing before the show had even opened officially. We had lots and LOTS of people who'd never sewn before. At last, though, we found a use for all those plain beige, cream, white and "snurge" colour bags that don't go very quickly. Pol had provided a pack of fabric pens so that parents with children could sew while the children decorated a plain bag with the pens. And the people opposite had a flat shelf on the back of their stand that was just right for children to rest bags on while drawing on them....

So how many bags did we make today? We did almost as well as yesterday with a total of 59, making a grand total of 242 for the five days.

Here are a few pics from today.





As we were packing away our kit this evening the lady on the Vintage Couture/ upcycling clothing stall nearby commented on the energy coming from our stand. She said "It was after 5 on the last day and we still had people sewing and cheering!"

Joey, one of the trustees of Start, told me that there were 10,000 people in Kew Gardens today. And we must have seen, been seen by, or talked to at least half of them.

[pol]

I get the feeling that Offcuts is saying "It is a free bag!! Believe me!" True guerilla morsbagger look -

















I'll let the pics tell the stories - although the one of the fantastic green fabric being ironed is to help illustrate the wondrous story of a couple coming back to Kew with a rucksack bulging with lovely fabrics that they'd been home to get and donate... swiftly made into into morsbags of course - many thanks!

I'd like to copy Sazzie's idea of highlights: * seeing a lady in a wheelchair leaving the area looking thrilled with a beautiful beaded morsbag that matched her outfit * chatting to another lovely lady for a while before realising she was a neighbour and would I like an unwanted roll of her fabric?! * generally bubbly, enthusiastic, creative people who were a joy to talk to, * Sazzie's chocolate biscuits * actually I was going to do better than this, but need to get to bed - early start; suffice to say, a wonderful day - approx 242 morsbags were made at Kew and some 350 were given away - and thank you so much to Bernie, Beatties, Offcutsses today and all the other day teams for their untiring enthusiasm and patience in making morsbags come rain or shine, blunt scissors or sharp - safe trips home everyone - 'til next time! x

[beattie]

A bit more from Sunday -

Pol had very kindly brought a delicious morscake for us to eat - and we did.



Some of us had a go at the driving challenge on the stand next door. You had to see how far you could get on 0.1 litres of fuel. The Sazzies had tried it out on Saturday



This was the leaderboard in the morning -



And this was it in the afternoon -



M/C and I had a walk round the garden - I spotted several variations on "Trees"



I've realised that it's hard to work out what these figures are, but they're both men on stilts. The far one is particularly difficult to make out, but there IS a chap under there. I wish I'd hung around for a better photo.

I was intrigued by all the different trees in this shot -

[Offcuts]

Pol,that pic will give people nightmares

I will post some better ones!!

[Offcuts]

My highlights were

* the lovely Italian lady that I was talking to whose 8 year old little girl had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and had all sorts of worries that I was able to offer some advice about. She said that you never get used to living under the flight path in Kew!

*the amazing friendly and like minded stall holders

* the select club who made 3 morsbags

* going on the stage and talking about morsbags

* meeting up with our wonderful morsbagging friends

* meeting Lynne from Notts, who didn't have time to make a bag. She told me about a fab textile workshop where we think morsbags will go down a treat

* Beattie telling off the chief executive of Start for not advertising soon enough, notwithstanding 6+ morsbaggers were working at full pelt for 5 days!

* Masterclock telling me off for keeping my sunglasses in the fabric snips bin and commiserating fully with Grumpy

* Pol for donating the net to Leicestershire

* Masterclock cutting out and ironing at an event (Yes!!)

Here are some less scarey pics. The turtle was based on my turtle brooch gift from the sazzies





More videos to follow! Tomorrow is a duvet day!

[Krisaby]

Superb reports everyone! Another AMAZING Achievement. I have said it before but I can still say it again - YOU ARE BRILLIANT!

[Ivybags]

Speechless - what an amazing event - thank you for your wonderful write ups, and fabulous pictures. As Beattie says - they say it all

Well done Team Kew

Ive been saving this one up for you all

[sazziej]

Another great batch of reports - thank you.

Safe trip home to the Beatties and Bernie and happy duvet day to Offcuts....

[b.steadman]

Bernie is now back at work (and under the flight path of Gloucester airport ) but had a fantastic 4 days down at Kew.

Just added my bags to the tally and the grand total has just gone through the 98,000 barrier

Some of my highlights were meeting the Sazzies, Pol, Joby, Grumpy and Maggie for the first time, talking to people from all over Europe and USA, as well as having a quick chat to 2 separate people about Morsbags in German .

I'll now be gearing up for my next show in mid Sept, and now have a few great looking bags from the display to show off what we can do.

The overall standings in the Morsbags Eco driving challenge are:
1. Pol
2. Beattie
3. Bernie
4. Sazzie

Looking forward to the next big event wherever & when ever it may be.