Scraps in Progress

The Pop-Up Shop

2010-12-05T20:51:00.000Z

Hello everyone! Where does the time go? I've been a bit off the radar lately ... but I have been up to something. Since the summer I've been steadily making things in my spare time with a view to opening a Christmas Shop. Think of it as a kind of 'Pop-Up' shop in my very own kitchen.

I invited friends and work colleagues - and I'm pleased to say it was a success. Mind you, I don't think I could have done it if my lovely Mum hadn't helped me and I was really nervous beforehand. The fact that it went well then spurred me on to book a stall at a Christmas Street Fair near to where I live in the University area of the City. That was today ... and it was awesome! I pretty well sold out - it was so busy I didn't even have chance to look at any of the other stalls. Luckily the snow has gone and the sun was shining - couldn't have been better. I think I might have hit upon a way of satisfying my creative urges in a way that fits in well with my day job (which is very important to me - it pays the bills and besides, I like it and I like the people I work with so it will always take precedence). This way I can pick and choose when and where I set up shop so that I have time to build up stock in my spare time without feeling pressured. Could be a win-win situation!

I sold lots of these clown tree decorations - good job as I got a bit carried away and made a gazillion of them.

Christmas Fairy Comes Early

2010-09-26T15:32:00.000+01:00

This year I am thinking ahead for Christmas. Do not be fooled by this. I will still be running round like a headless chicken come the middle of December. I bought some wooden clothes pegs and spent this morning making a prototype Christmas Angel. There are several things I will do differently if I make any more but I'm pleased that it worked out roughly how I thought it would. I'd like to make some more but I don't know when.

Like a lot of others I was aghast to hear that Bloglines was closing - I've changed to Google Reader and what a revelation! Turns out that Bloglines wasn't picking up feeds from some of the blogs on my list and hadn't been for a while. The demise of Bloglines prompted Chooky Blue to write this interesting post about the different ways we access blogs - well worth a look. I'm also pleased that Blogger seems to have sorted out the Spam issue and I'm no longer having to delete comments all the while.

I promised The Girl I would make some bunting for her to put up in her student house - bright fabrics this time. Every week I send her a parcel with something in - maybe a sachet of hot chocolate mix or a face mask - something small that doesn't cost too much to post. I write a little note on a postcard and I try to send a different one each time. If only I were so diligent about posting on my blog - sigh!

This and that

2010-08-21T21:26:00.000+01:00

The summer has got away from me somehow, and we've done some fun things but there hasn't been much time for creativity, what with the decorating, picking The Girl and all her belongings up from London and taking her back again and various other days out and family occasions.

We spent a week in Wales (all four of us, in the caravan, and no arguments) - here's The Husband on the sand dunes - the dog is not ours! The weather wasn't brilliant but we had a good time nonetheless.

All I've really had chance to do is a bit of knitting - the teddy bear posse is getting bigger and I've started a Tea Cosy - goodness knows why because I only ever make tea in a cup with a teabag.

I haven't even read much - I have eventually finished The Seamstress and I read half of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises but didn't manage to finish it by the time our Book Group met. This is most disappointing as I was aiming for a book a week in 2010 - epic fail, as The Boy would say.

What next?

2010-07-11T20:46:00.002+01:00

It's been a bit hectic round here - we're having all the interior walls stripped, repapered and painted. This would be bad enough if we were a tidy, non-hoarding family. But being as we are, giving the decorator room to move necessitates the movement of piles of stuff. A fair amount of this has gone into bags to go to charity shops but my sewing room is also being used as a temporary home for boxes too - I can't get to the table with my sewing machine.

Meanwhile I'm planning what to do with these felt flowers. I've been doing some knitting too - pictures next time.

World Cup (?) Bunting

2010-06-20T20:59:00.000+01:00

In our house, you have to have an excuse for putting up bunting. I have mentioned before that the husband does not 'get' the concept of house decorations, seasonal or otherwise. I try my best, but even after nearly 21 years of marriage I haven't quite converted him.

So - World Cup Bunting! (We'll gloss over the fact that The Girl was heard to say, "Why have we got American flags up?". ) In truth, I just like the red, white and blue combo and it goes with my blue and white crockery. This was my first try at making bunting and it was really quick and easy - I used bias binding and attached it to the flags with a zig-zag instead of a straight stitch - I know my limitations and I would never have 'caught' in both sides of the bias binding and the flag with a straight stitch.

And ... I made cupcakes. I was desperate to use my new cupcake wrapper die cutter - I bought some pretty wrapping paper from Paperchase and used that. Think I should have used smaller cake tins but not bad results and the kids were impressed.

Ooh er!

2010-06-11T22:19:00.001+01:00

I had these 3 1/2 inch crumb blocks that had been maturing for about a year and a half so I decided to make a doll quilt with them. Couldn't quite get the hang of the perfect on point setting but it'll have to do, even with the misaligned seams. I don't aim for perfection on the grounds that your goals should always be achievable.

A day out and a finish

2010-06-05T15:15:00.001+01:00

It's half term here in Leicester so on Wednesday The Husband, The Boy (a.k.a. DS) and me went to the Black Country Living History Museum. We have been several times before and it is a great day out. Despite all the modern attractions of the X-Box, Wii, Nintendo etc. the Boy really enjoyed going down the helter skelter on the fairground and was fascinated by hoop rolling which he went back to more than once.

I also finished my Dad's birthday quilt - a week late, but what's a week between family? He was pleased with it anyway.

Recycling

2010-05-30T20:34:00.000+01:00

When I was little my mum always called me 'Untidy Idy' - things haven't changed much. This is my kitchen table - I just throw scraps on the floor. I cut fabric on this table too and do the same with any fabric scraps - I just sweep 'em up afterwards.

The room that I sew in has a (very old) carpet on the floor - how rubbish is that for sewing? All the bits of thread stick to it like nobody's business. I've been making gift labels with my Die Cut machine.

I never buy card, I hoard cardboard from packaging and recycle that. I'm not saying that I never intend to buy any card but I really like the idea of getting something for nothing so I save any packaging that could be made into labels. You'd be surprised what you find - you really look at packaging in a new way.

Yorkshire Tea packaging.

Strawberry Crisp Breakfast Cereal.

The packaging from the Birthday Cake my Dad bought for me in February.

Various food and (chocolate) packaging. The grand plan is that if (and when) I make some biscuits as a present, I can add a biscuit label!

Out and About

2010-05-20T19:07:00.001+01:00

Up to London again last weekend where we went to the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A and the Victoria and Albert Art & Love Exhibition at the Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace. I know it sounds like heresy, but I think I actually liked the Buckingham Palace Exhibition the best. We had a meal at the Italian Kitchen on Saturday night and my Mum and I headed to Liberty's and Anthropologie on Regent Street whilst The Husband and DS went to HMS Belfast. DD was meant to be joining us but overslept!

Couldn't quite bring myself to purchase anything at any of the shops - outrageous prices - I did wander round Anthropologie clutching a blue bowl but eventually put it back as I am absolutely convinced that sooner or later TK Maxx will have something similar for half the price. Anthropologie was a lovely shop though, we stayed in there for ages having a good look at everything. But then again, what's not to like about TK Maxx? My last purchase from there was this lovely hand painted lantern made in India, which you see here cunningly displayed with my latest make, a little bag for a friend's birthday. I have no pictures of London - owing to the fact that I forgot my camera. You will note that I also have no candle for my lantern - one of these days I'll get my act together.

Home Sweet Home

2010-05-05T20:48:00.004+01:00

This week by coincidence two of my work colleagues became home owners for the first time. I saw some nice mugs with 'Home Sweet Home' written on them at the weekend - to jazz them up a bit I cut out some flower shapes and stuck lollipops through them to make a 'bouquet' of flowers to put in them.

And in a further burst of creativity I made some 'New Home' postcards for each of them. I don't have much novelty fabric but I am a sucker for anything with houses on - which came in handy.

I must apologise because I think I've been coming up as 'no-reply' on comments on other blogs. I don't know why this is - I haven't changed my profile for years, anyway, I've put it right now. And another thing ... am I the only one who has to put their Google password in twice when they are commenting on blogs? Seems like blogger doesn't recognise it when I put it in the first time and I always have to enter it again.

Tiny Bear

2010-05-01T17:06:00.001+01:00

I like knitting bears - they're fast and easy and don't take much wool. Would you believe that this little chap is made of just 5 knitted rectangles?

You tie off the corners for the ears and make a neck by tying wool tightly about 1/3 of the way up the rectangle and the snout is made by making a circular running stitch and pulling it up a little. The arms and legs are just rectangles sewn up and stuffed - attach them with wool and a button at the top of each limb and there you go. Really quick but ever so effective. The pattern is from my favourite knitted toy book, The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley. He's about 6 inches tall, I made a similar one to put in my daughter's birthday box.

Sunshine in London

2010-04-26T21:47:00.000+01:00

Not a great deal of crafting going on this weekend - we went up to London to see my daughter. She loves it there and we hadn't seen her for a while. My son misses her a lot - here they are together - you wouldn't think there was seven years difference between them.

It was such a lovely day, the sun didn't stop shining. We went to Tate Britain and Greenwich. Top tip - if, like me, you prefer nice strong tea, on no account order a pot from the cafe in the Tate - it is unbelievably weak. I would have complained, but the family said they couldn't bear the embarrassment - so English!

Quilt Top

2010-04-17T20:32:00.000+01:00

Were you taking bets on whether I'd pop up again any time soon? The sun was bright today so here's a pic of the quilt top for my Dad. For such a simple pattern it sure is taking a long time to finish. The colours aren't very seasonal are they? They were when I started it.

I was going to try to do something a bit more fancy with a border but I'm thinking that it's going to be better to cut my losses and quilt it as it is - I don't think my Dad will mind.

Sometime soon I'll also update my side bar - I have read lots of books this year already. I need to get rid of the 2009 books and get with the times.

Dipping a Toe Back in the Water

2010-04-12T20:06:00.001+01:00

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Hopefully not too many of you will have removed me from your bloglines in the meantime. I didn't intend to be away for so long, though I have been shamelessly lurking on lots of blogs. Truth to tell, I just haven't been that creative lately. At the risk of boring you, things have been a bit up and down workwise, my job role was made redundant and although I had some project work to tide me over, I had to go through what seemed like a long period of uncertainty until I got a new role in the college. Whilst this isn't the worst thing in the world and it happens to a lot of us nowadays, it just wasn't conducive to the creative juices!

But now ... the clocks have gone forward, I'm feeling more motivated and I'm ready to blog and roll!

It was my daughter's 20th Birthday in March and I filled a (large) shoe box with 20 wrapped presents and posted it to her in London. I had fun choosing little items that would (a) not weigh too much - got to save on the postage you know, and (b) all fit into the shoebox. The presents included: a silver wig, an alice band complete with pink velour cat's ears, a set of battery operated fairy lights, super sour jelly beans .....etc.,etc. I didn't get a picture of the box or all of the presents together, but I did make 2 of them myself - a tiny knitted teddy bear (no photo) and a tote bag decorated with machine appliqued flowers (which I did remember to photograph).

I've also been working on a quilt for my Dad, I started it in October with all good intentions of completing it for Christmas. Ha! What was I thinking? Christmas came and went. I bought him a jigsaw. It is his birthday at the end of May: he'll be 75. I am convinced I can complete it by then. I'll post a picture of the flimsy soon.

Meantime, I have booked places for me and my mum to go and see the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A next month. It has had loads of coverage in the media here - patchwork and quilting are the flavour of the month, though Germaine Greer didn't approve in her Guardian article.

It's good to be back!

Fiona

P.S. Of course I bought my Dad more than a jigsaw for Christmas. But I always do buy him a jigsaw because he likes them.

Autumn

2009-10-10T21:39:00.004+01:00

I made a rag wreath to put up for autumn. I followed the instructions here and it was a breeze, I only had to cut into a couple of fabrics to get a wider variety of colours - the rest came from the scrap box and were mostly in strips anyway.

Since I started reading blogs, especially ones from the US, I've wanted to put up decorations for autumn. A couple of years ago I started to collect ceramic pumpkins when I could find them (which is not many places) so that I too could decorate my house in a seasonal way.
The husband does not understand this at all and was heard to moan that 'no-one else has ivy and pumpkins on their mantelpiece'. No imagination. He also insists that the clock remains in the middle of the mantelpiece. (In case you thought I thought it looked good with the pumpkins).

I don't go too much for real pumpkins - when my daughter was little we made the mistake of giving our carved pumpkin a name and she was upset when I said I would have to throw it away. Unbeknown to us she retrieved it from the bin - we only discovered this when a really terrible smell manifested itself in her bedroom and was tracked down to the now-mouldy pumpkin. Shortly afterwards Pumpkin went on holiday, on the train (and she believed us).

Pansy Doiley

2009-09-08T20:31:00.004+01:00

I've surprised myself with this doiley. I taught myself to crochet from a book (so I suspect I may well be doing lots of things wrong) but I've only ever really crocheted granny squares and afghans before. I shamelessly took inspiration for the doiley from this one that I saw on Knot Garden's lovely blog. Took a while to do all of the 16 pansies but I finished it whilst in Wales at the end of August. It was meant to be a Christmas present for my Mum, but she saw the pansies in my workbag and asked what they were for so that was that secret out of the bag.

The Tropics?

2009-07-04T15:29:00.006+01:00

No - the Palm House at Kew Gardens. Last weekend (yeah, I know, I'm Johnny Come Lately when it comes to posting) my Mum and I had a city break in London. On Saturday afternoon we took the train to Kew and believe me, it might as well have been the tropics it was so hot. I don't think I've seen so many pretty summer dresses in years.

You can just see the edge of the Palm House peeping out of the top right hand corner of the photograph above. We only managed a small portion of the whole gardens - I'd like to go back again. On Sunday we went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the morning and in the afternoon to the final performance of Latin Fever, starring Darren & Lilia from Strictly Come Dancing. (The next series of which, by the way, I shall boycott if the newspaper reports are true and they are going to get rid of Arlene Phillips in favour of a younger model - good grief, she's only a year older than Len Goodman and no-one's talking about getting rid of him.)

So, nothing on the creative front to report, think I've got ennui.

Wales

2009-06-21T16:47:00.007+01:00

Some pictures from our annual holiday to Wales at half-term. My family have been going to the same place since 1948. It hasn't changed much, we always joke that it's like stepping back into the 1950's - yellow cellophane on the dress shop windows, a 'Picture House' with the week's film chalked on a blackboard above the door. My kids fish in the same rock pools that me and my cousins used to and make sandcastles on the same beach.

2009-05-09T16:22:00.002+01:00

I've gone back to the knitting - I've seen this little bunny egg cosy on so many blogs that I had to buy the pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits. I'm not very good at doing the faces - the one on the left is about the best - the one in the middle has one eye that is larger than the other and the one on the right has a funny nose. I hope I'll improve but the sad thing is that I did the one on the left first.

I wanted to try out some different colours but cotton yarn can be on the pricey side so I went online and found Texere Yarns - they do lots of yarns at very reasonable prices so I ordered these nice bright 4ply cottons in 40g reels.

A Finish

2009-05-03T13:33:00.002+01:00

The cot quilt is finished - big enough to last a while I hope. I had some red and white wavy stripe fabric on hand which was ideal for the backing. You can see how very simply I quilted it - but it was enough, I think, and meant I could avoid the bulky bits where 8 seams meet which would have been a recipe for disaster as far as my quilting is concerned.

Remember these?

2009-04-26T12:09:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm pleased to say that they did eventually transform themselves into a bear. I don't know why I left it so long to sew them up because it was easy peasy when I finally got round to it, mainly because you don't need to darn in the ends if they are going to be inside the bear anyway.

I think I might call him Norbert (pronounced the French way - i.e. 'Nor-bear').

Hour Glass Quilt Top

2009-04-18T20:57:00.008+01:00

I finished a top! Yay for me! Can't you just tell it's Easter and I've been on holiday over a week? I've had a lovely time doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted - no deadlines to meet, no 'to do' lists to worry about. Just a bit of crafting here, a bit of spring cleaning there (but not too much - got to pace myself, you know) with a bit of reading in between.

This is the cot quilt I'm making for my friend's new baby. (If you click for a close up, excuse the stray threads but the sun was out so I had to run outside to photograph it whilst the going was good - I will snip them off later.) Had the devil of a job to avoid the same fabrics being too close to each other - I just gave up in the end and hoped for the best.

I'm hoping it won't take too long to quilt - I'm just going to do nice, simple, straight lines. Next up will be a quilt for DD to take to university in the autumn - she has requested it especially so I can't disappoint her. It reminds me of when I went to university and my Nan crocheted me an afghan to put on my bed - it really brightened up my room and everyone liked it ... seems like a long time ago now.

Better late than never

2009-04-16T10:57:00.001+01:00

Okay, so I missed the Easter boat - I did change my blog banner to show my Polish painted eggs but as I didn't post before Easter that was a fat lot of good. Then, I saw these chicks at Knot Garden, who linked to the pattern at Fuzzy Thoughts. Quick, made all in one piece, got to be my kind of activity - albeit that I made it yesterday instead of before Easter.

I was full of good intentions at Christmas to really make an effort to post more regularly but I seem to have fallen by the wayside again - I think I'll stop going on about it and just accept that work gets in the way and there's only so much that I can do.

How do you keep patterns that you print off the Internet? Not long ago I bought a laminator from Aldi - they are really cheap nowadays. I've found it really useful for laminating instructions - saves them from getting all creased and I like to be able to prop them up where I can see them when following the instructions. I keep them in a box file.

Notebooks

2009-03-08T11:20:00.002Z

I don't buy many 'novelty' fabrics - they're not really my thing, but occasionally I can't resist the general overall design so I buy them and worry about what to make with them later. I don't like to cut them up small because you lose the effect of the large pattern. So, I take them out, look at them fondly and put them back again. Until now. I came across this great tutorial from Bloom and Blossom via Sew Mama Sew and it's just what I've been looking for. So far I've made 5 notebook covers and I'm going to be making more - they are so quick and inexpensive to make and excellent for keeping by when you need an emergency gift or indeed just a gift for the sake of it. My Dad has earmarked the Landscape one for himself, DD has bagged the Bon Voyage one and my Mum likes the teacups.

I made the notebook on the right in the picture above the same as the instructions - I didn't have any linen so I used a sort of linen-look instead. Now I could have said 'faux linen' if I'd wanted to. The word 'faux' always makes me laugh. When I was young we called man-made fur 'fake fur', then all of a sudden a few years ago it seemed to become 'faux fur'. Why? Does using the word 'faux' make it more up-market - it only means fake in French? What word do the French use? When my brother told me he had bought a 'faux fur throw' I nearly fell about laughing.

Some of you commented on the picture DH took of the buses in London. When I told him about the feedback (he does not read my blog), he said he had another picture. He goes up to London several times a month for work and happened to be there on the day of the State Opening of Parliament. Because all the roads were closed off there were huge traffic jams. He always has his camera with him and snapped this picture of a traffic jam composed entirely of London Buses on Waterloo Bridge.

2009-03-05T21:19:00.005Z

Another friend had a baby - I'm hoping to finish his quilt before his fifth birthday!! I've never made a 'proper' hourglass quilt before and as it's a boy I've chosen red, white and blue. I thought I would probably have to cut down the blocks to make them nice and square but (fingers crossed) they seem okay so far. I used the EZ Angle ruler to make the triangles from strips. This quilt seems to have a lot more new fabric in it than I usually use - though naturally there is fabric from the odd shirt or two tucked in there.

London Calling

2009-02-28T18:33:00.003Z

Bit of a blog break there - we had a few days in London over half-term - didn't take any pictures myself but here's a couple that DH took - the London Eye at night and a row of London buses with The Gherkin in the background. I know feelings are mixed about The Gherkin, but I think it's a great building.

When I was a kid, if we ever went to London we always had to 'look out for someone famous' - the premise being that London is full of famous people and you've only got to keep your eyes open to spot one. Needless to say, we never say anyone remotely famous, until now that is, when we saw David Blunkett catching a train to Sheffield while we were waiting for our train home.

Part of the reason for the break was that my daughter had a briefing session for the course she is starting at University in the autumn, so we thought we might as well all go too (to London, not to the briefing session, that would have been well embarrassing).

I also found time to find my way to Fabrics Galore in Lavender Hill. I did succumb to temptation, but really, I think I need to call a halt to fabric buying and start using it - otherwise I'm in serious danger of running out of anywhere to put it.

Ecobag

2009-02-07T17:22:00.007Z

Nowadays it seems de rigeur to refuse a plastic bag in favour of one you've brought along yourself. Before Christmas I bought this Japanese pattern book for eco-bags from e-bay:

The link to the page on e-bay is here and shows more pictures from inside the book. There are lots of great quick-to-make bags to save on using up plastic ones. It's taken me until now, but here's the first one I've made. I used some old poly-cotton that has been hanging around for years waiting for its time to come. Well, poly-cotton, your time is now - 100% cotton would probably be too thick to use in this bag, in the book it looked like they used rip-stop nylon for strength, but the thought of sewing slippery nylon gives me the shudders - poly cotton is bad enough.

You fold up the bag into the little pouch that you can see attached to the top - about 3 X 4 inches - just right to pop in your handbag.

And here it is, modelling a loaf of bread to show its capacious properties. Actually, if I made another one I would probably make it a bit longer, this was the largest of 3 size options and even so, I think it's a tad short. The other problem I had was converting all of the measurements from centimetres to inches, because my rulers only have inches on them. Even though we 'did' metric measurements at school, I'm still an unreconstructed ounces, pounds, inches, yards kind of a woman. Still, that's my problem, the instructions in the book were really clear and I just followed the pictures. I'll definitely make more bags from the same book.

Can you tell what it is yet?

2009-02-03T20:49:00.002Z

Leslie and I have been chatting about feeling the yearning to knit but not wanting to make a man-size jumper but something small, like a baby item or a teddy bear (big hint there). We loved Lucy's knitted bear, Rainier, and it reminded me that I made a bear from a pattern in the same book as Lucy last year (you can see it here), and that I had actually knitted up all of the individual pieces for another one in the summer. But sewing up the pieces is my least favourite part of the process so I just left them to fester in the meantime. Now I've published a picture of the pieces I feel kind of obligated to sew them up so watch this spot.
When I fished them out of the bag I had put them in, I also found these. I bought them in Carlisle at Christmas, they are made of papier mache, the large head is about the size of a ping pong ball. I thought they would look good with arms and legs made of yo-yos. (Though goodness knows when, if ever, I'll get round to that!)

No-sew Valentine Garland

2009-01-24T13:09:00.014Z

I'm back in the creative groove. I am always so behind in making seasonally appropriate items, but no longer - look at this - a whole three weeks in advance of the day. I was desperate to use some of the red and white fat quarter fabric that Andrea had sent me and this idea had been in my head for a while (several years actually - I like to let my ideas mature don't you know).

I thought I might as well take a few pictures along the way so here it is - my no-sew heart tutorial.

BTW - the background is my old cutting board that I don't use for cutting fabric, it is messy and horrible but ideal for a base to cover the table while I glue.

Here's all you need:

cardboard from a cereal carton or the like
scraps of batting
glue gun
cotton fabric
ribbon

Step 1
Draw round a heart template on your cardboard, I used 5 hearts in my garland but you could have as many as you like.

Step 2
Cut the hearts out of the cardboard

Step 3

On the coloured side of the card, use your glue gun to put 3 dots of glue on the heart shape (one near the point and the other 2 either side of the 'V', if you see what I mean). There is no need to spread the glue all over the card, this is just to hold the batting in place so that it doesn't move around so three dots are all you need.

Step 4

Plonk the card glue side down on a scrap of batting - I used what I had around - you want it to be a fairly high loft to give the heart some shape.

Step 5

Cut the batting level with the edge of the card.

Step 6

Cut your fabric about 1/2 inch bigger than the heart template (I just drew round the template I used for the card and cut the fabric a bit bigger by eye, but you could make another template just for the fabric)

Step 7

Position the card, batting side down on the wrong side of the fabric, making sure that it is placed in the middle of the fabric.

Step 8

Holding all the layers together, turn it over and pin the fabric to the batting.

Step 9

Pull the fabric over to the back of the heart and glue it down all around the edge with the glue gun. I made sure that I stuck down the top and the bottom of the heart first, because you have to pull the fabric quite firmly and that way it doesn't shift around too much. The back of the heart should then look like this ...

... and the front of it should look like this.

Step 10

Take a piece of ribbon long enough to go through all of your hearts with excess at the ends to hang your garland from. Glue the ribbon to the hearts with a dot of glue at each side of the heart, leaving about an inch of ribbon between the hearts.

Step 11

Use your heart template again to cut more heart shapes, this time out of pelmet vilene - you need to cut a smidgeon within the line you have drawn so that you can't see it from the front of the heart. Because I am a lazy good for nothing woman, all I did then was to glue the pelmet vilene onto the back of the hearts - after all, no one's going to see them, they're against the wall. But ... you could do it in a couple of different ways, depending on your inclinations. You could either use the same fabric as the front to sew a heart shape to the back, turning in the edges as in applique, or, you could use heat'n'bond to fuse fabric to the back of the heart.

After you have done this, your garland is ready to hang and will look something like this.

Which looks okay - but we all know that more is more and I think the addition of some ribbon bows does add a little je ne sais qu'a (or even je ne sais quoi - who would believe that I've got A-Level French?)

And there you have it - a very quick and easy Valentines Garland

Ta Da!

2009-01-18T19:03:00.004Z

Good grief! It's a finished quilt, and not just a cot quilt, or a single bed quilt, but a humungous double bed sized quilt.

Now, I would have tried to get a better picture, but you just can't get quality quilt hangers these days. They mumble from behind the quilt and say things like "My arms are going to fall off if you make me do this much longer" or "This is so unfair, I've just started a game on Runescape - if I don't get back I'll be locked out". No stamina, that's their trouble.

Quilting this was a bit of a marathon, though I say so myself. My machine has a tiny space under the arm and always stops with the needle up so it wasn't the easiest of things to do. Which could be why I am craving this machine - it's not available in the UK yet, and will probably be out of my price range when it is, but it is very tempting.

I finished the top for this quilt quite a while ago, you can read about it here. I loved putting it together, and followed Patti's crumb chaos instructions.

The border fabric is navy blue, not black, and I free-motion quilted it with a pattern of leaves. I quilted the centre of the quilt in wavy lines - I thought it was in keeping with the wonkiness of the quilt, but I'm still not sure that it doesn't look like I can't quilt straight. Still, as my kids would say 'Whatever', at least it's finished.

Some people have all the luck

2009-01-11T17:27:00.002Z

And this time it's me! Andrea and I had arranged what turned into a New Year Swap between us and just look what she sent me.

A most beautiful sewing box that she made herself (how awesome is that?) and four lovely fat quarters. I could just squeal in delight - in fact I think I will anyway because after all, you can't hear me.

Here's a close up of the exquisite workmanship. I could never, ever make anything like this myself and I can't stop looking at it. It has certainly brightened up this dull January.

And - better late than never, here is a pic of the swap I received from Sandi in Chookyblue's SSCS. Once again my luck is in - don't you think the Penny Rug looks good in my kitchen? Seems a shame to put it away until next Christmas.

I'm not very good at New Year's Resolutions but I've copied Clare, in resolving to answer all my comments this year (just so long as they're not no-reply). And, don't faint, some time very soon I may just be able to show a pic of a finished double-bed sized quilt. Wonders will never cease!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T13:53:00.003Z

I am so in tune with the season ... finally got my stocking garland up today!!!

The latest in my collection of Christmas houses has been up for some time though. (They seem to be getting smaller every year)

Here's how they look on the mantelpiece - the light's no good (too sunny!!!! unbelievable!!!) but you get the general impression.
I would like to wish all who read this (now very occasional) blog a Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Christmas Stockings

2008-12-16T18:28:00.003Z

See - I can still sew! These are my Christmas cards, I started them months ago with every intention of finishing them nice and early. Best laid plans .... they were finally finished last Sunday.

I wanted to take some good pictures before I wrote out the cards but the light has been terrible lately. I've made more than I can send so I'm going to turn some of them into a garland for my above my mantelpiece so hopefully will get a better piture then. They are made in the same way as fabric postcards - just in a different shape (you can click the picture for a closer look). Very fun to make - especially if, like me, you have lots of ribbons to hand.

2008-11-17T19:18:00.001Z

I don't blog, I don't comment - I'm a bit rubbish really! Can you guess where we went at half term? Great weather for the end of October.

I still haven't got my crafting act together but I have dipped my toe back in the water - I've nearly finished my gift for the 2008 Secret Santa Swap (good job really, seeing as it's got to be posted on 25th November). I've also been doing some Christmas related stuff - photos to follow. In the meantime here's a picture of the garden of the Grand Trianon at Versailles.
Did my legs ache after spending all day walking in the grounds!

The English Riviera

2008-09-21T22:10:00.003+01:00

Last week I spent a night in Torquay in Devon as I had to speak at a conference (get me!). Lest you should get the wrong impression of my lifestyle and job status - this only happens once in a blue moon, so I made the most of the sea view from my very swanky hotel room. Torquay is known as the English Riviera because of the temperate climate - hence the palm trees.

Other than that, nothing much going on here - been quilting my crumb chaos quilt but it's slow going so not worth a picture yet - maybe next weekend!

It's for a girl

2008-09-02T17:49:00.004+01:00

If you know someone's going to have a baby, you've got months of notice in which to make a quilt, right? So why do I always leave it until the baby is born to even start it?

I delivered this to my friend D's wife yesterday. Actually, I didn't do too badly as the baby is only 3 weeks old. I'd had a few days leave from work so at least I could get going on it pretty quick. Of course, I'd wrapped it all up nicely in cellophane with a nice fabric bow (the ribbon stash comes up trumps again!) and then remembered I hadn't taken a picture of the finished article! Doh! I couldn't bring myself to undo it as I would have probably had to use new cellophane but I think you still get the gist of it from the 'wrapped and folded' version. I wanted something simple and quick to put together so rail fence seemed to fit the bill in pastel blues and pinks. I used a very thick batting so it would be nice and comfy-cosy for a baby. Can't say the quilting is anything special, and there's a few small tucks here and there but I asked DH what he thought and he said (a) he wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't pointed it out and (b) they added to the artisan feel of the piece! Good enough for me.

My other best news is that DD got the grades she needed in her A-Levels and won a place at University in London. She is taking a 'gap' year this year (much to the chagrin of her father) so she won't go until September 2009 (and needs to find a job in the meantime) but we are all very pleased and proud of her.

Holidays

2008-08-11T20:17:00.003+01:00

We've been on our annual summer holiday to Wales - mixed weather, but not too bad. The credit crunch is meant to mean that more people are holidaying in the UK this year instead of going abroad, but in fact, it wasn't as busy as it was when we went in early June.

I took some knitting with me - more bears, but smaller ones this time. I'm knitting 3 at the same time - one each for DD, DS and DS's friend M. Nothing much to see yet apart from a pile of tiny bear parts (someone remind me that I don't do detail or tiny, I obviously temporarily forgot and thought I was someone else).

Unfortunately while I was away, Elf Donna announced the Secret Santa Swap for 2008 - no surprise that it filled up and closed before I'd even shaken the sand from my suitcase with a massive 128 swappers. Probably just as well, because my productivity of late is somewhat lacking, but I have fond memories of the lovely swap I received last year from Cheryl and I'm sure it will be even more successful this year.

My Mum has also introduced me a to new blog - not quilting or sewing related but this one is all about cakes. Called the Caked Crusader it is dedicated to the promotion of the most delicious looking home baking and is also quite quirky and funny - highly recommended!

Knitted Bear

2008-07-04T18:07:00.003+01:00

I'm always too tired to sew in the evenings but I don't mind knitting or crochet now and again. Socks are a bit beyond my capabilities and I don't want to knit a whole jumper. Knitting a bear seemed the perfect solution - I already had some bear coloured cotton from a charity shop (which I bought before I even thought about knitting a bear - but as a hoarder who is firmly convinced that 'it will come in useful one day' my purchase is justified). The pieces are small and you get a finished item in no time.

The pattern came from this lovely book, containing lots of really great patterns for knitted bears - and I found out from the book jacket that the author lives in Leicestershire! (I'm hoping that I have managed to link the picture to the Amazon page where you can search inside - if not, at least you can see enough to search for it).

And do you like my Sweet Peas? My Dad planted them for me - I think they are my favourite flowers but the season is so short.

Lilac Time

2008-06-14T18:11:00.003+01:00

It's been a while again, hasn't it? Still run ragged at work so not much going on here in the creative department. I have finished up all of the rectangles I had on hand for the lilac top - can't decide whether to just leave it as it is and call it a cot quilt or add borders to make it bigger. I do like this pattern though, I'd like to try it in plaids from shirts or multicoloured scrappy.

I'm thinking there's definitely a lilac and green theme going on here - this is the flower bed opposite the shed where I hung the photograph. I like the way my foxgloves have come out all white.

It's not mine ...

2008-04-30T19:30:00.005+01:00

... but I wish it was.

I couldn't resist sharing the picture of this vintage string quilt that I spotted on e-bay. What a great way to set those string blocks, and don't you just love the wonkiness of it? I so want to try this layout myself. It may not be precision pieced from uniform shapes but it makes me smile just to look at it - it's joyful, that's what it is.

Rectangles

2008-04-26T18:27:00.003+01:00

Remember these blocks? I did make a few more - maybe enough for a small lap / cot quilt if I put sashing round them. But ... whilst I love the effect, I fear I haven't got the patience or tenacity to make a whole quilt one block at a time. Which is a pity, as I have cut out enough 2 1/2 inch squares, half-square triangles and rectangles to make one (and it took me hours).

Still, nil desperandum, squares and half-square triangles always come in useful but I was trying to think what I could make with the rectangles - they are 2.5 X 4.5 inches so I couldn't use them to make flying geese. Could have done a very simple rail fence. But then inspiration struck - I remembered I had a copy of this book.

All the quilts in the book are made from simple rectangles so I used one of the patterns. They are really a form of one patch but you can vary the way you set them. I used the layout here.

I wasn't sure at first, but now I've laid out a few of the 'blocks' together to check the effect, it's growing on me. My kind of quilt really, simple and scrappy. And best of all, quick.

Time for Tea

2008-04-06T15:28:00.004+01:00

Next up on my list of projects - a tea cosy. My team get into the office at 8.00 and make a pot of tea. Now, whilst there is enough in the pot for me, I can't get in any earlier than 8.10 as I have to drop my son off and the tea in the pot is lukewarm by then. So I made a tea cosy - keeps it nice and hot and waiting for me when I get in.

I can also reveal my finished blue quilt - I was getting heartily tired of it by the end so the borders just got straight lines quilted on them. It covers the ugliest sofa in the world - I would show a picture of it but the deep red buttoned velour and fringe round the bottom would be offensive to many of you. (As it is to me when the quilt rides up and you can see the offending fringe peeping out beneath). Also excuse the bare plaster on the walls - the sofa is in our kitchen and we haven't finished the redecorating yet.

A bit of productivity

2008-03-28T17:28:00.003Z

Hooray for the Easter Holidays, I've had a week off work and I've been able to get to my sewing machine and actually make something - and boy does it feel good! I'd been wanting to make one of these little doorstops for ages -the tutorial is at Oh Fransson! which I found via Jane's blog, Sew Create It when she made one. They really are a doddle to make, so as well as making one for our kitchen door I made some for presents too. It's a lovely pattern with nice clear instructions. I didn't line mine with fusible fleece (didn't have any) but I used some pretty curtain fabric that has been maturing in my stash for a while (well, it's plaid - how could I resist - I knew I'd use it eventually) and the flowered middle squares are cut from remnants from fabric sample books that I bought for 10p a page and again have been maturing for a couple of years (see, it was an investment, for every piece of fabric there comes a season if you wait long enough).

The doorstops have a zip at the bottom so you can take out the filling and wash it. Do you think I've got enough zips? This is my zip stash. I get them for 10p each - usually they are about 3ft long so I can only make things where you can cut the ends off - like these doorstops or the quilted bags I've made before. Have you seen the price of zips? I just feel I might as well get a lifetime's supply at that price. (I think I might have a stash problem - what with fabric, ribbons and zips, but it's harmless.)

Guess what I used for the filling? I didn't want to put loose beans in because some of them will be presents for homes with animals and small children. My original plan was to just sew up the beans in a bag and put that in but then I saw these bags of rice at Sainsburys for 43p and one of them popped in unopened is enough to weight the bag (I do pop a bit of wadding in the top of the doorstop to keep the shape).

We went to Market Harborough today and look what I found at a Charity Shop - a book on quilts and a vintage Laura Ashley dress and a child's dress to cut up for patchwork. Things are looking up.

I am still here ...

2008-03-10T19:47:00.003Z

... haven't given up blogging or quilting, just finding it difficult right now. Other aspects of my life (mainly work) have kind of taken over. Can't say I'm pleased about it because I'm not, I always said my quality of life would be diminished if I didn't have some kind of creative outlet that was just for me. I am struggling to find a work-life balance (not helped by the kitchen upheaval - pics to follow in another post, or the bout of flu that I'm just getting over).

This is the sum total of my quilting efforts since Christmas, though I have to say I am ridiculously pleased that the lines so far have all come out straight. Next I'm going to meander in the squares created by the grid pattern.

I would also like to thank those of you who have e-mailed to check on me - it is much appreciated, as is this lovely table mat that Anne sent me, just to cheer me up!

This doesn't seem much of a post after over 2 months without posting but hopefully I'll get back into swing of things before too long.

It's a sandwiched quilt!

2008-01-06T16:58:00.000Z

I think I'm back in the groove. I knuckled down last night and sandwiched the blue recycled quilt that I made over a year ago now. Of course I haven't the faintest idea how I'm going to actually quilt it but I'm thinking simple is good at this moment in time. Although my back aches now, my kitchen floor is brilliant for sandwiching quilts.

Yesterday we also ordered a new kitchen, we had the existing one put in a few years ago but I couldn't begin to tell you about the sheer incompetence of the builder that did it. Some, but not all examples being: plumbing the outside tap to the hot water supply, installing the dishwasher with a chink in the hose so it leaked all over the newly installed laminate floor, building a frame for the new glazed internal double doors without remembering that it would be impossible to get it in through the back door ... oh, how we laughed! Not. Anyway, though the kitchen looks passable, it hides a multitude of sins so we've bitten the bullet and we're going to get it all put right by a reputable (fingers crossed) firm. I'm going to have a new bigger cooker, which I'm really looking forward to (particularly since the door fell off the one I've got). The fridge door is on it's last legs too, and the first dishwasher we had erupted in flames. Definitely time for a change.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T13:57:00.000Z

I waited right until Christmas Day to open my Secret Santa gift from Cheryl - and it was certainly worth the wait - just look at all the goodies she sent me! I'm intrigued by the Peppermint Bark - we don't have anything like this at all in the UK - and you may have noticed that it is all sitting on a lovely Christmas table runner which just fits nicely across my hall table.

We have been in Carlisle since Boxing Day and just got back yesterday so not much done on the creative front (what am I talking about - I haven't done anything creative in weeks). I seem to have lost a bit of impetus - my sewing room is a tip, which doesn't help. Another reason is that I've got three tops waiting to be quilted and I don't want to start piecing another until I've quilted at least one - I really want to see them out on display and not folded up in a plastic bag. I think the thought of sandwiching a big top is becoming a bit of a mental barrier. Still, it has to be done, no pain (in the knee region), no gain.

I'm not much of one for New Year's Resolutions, but I do want to get back on track both with blogging, which I have missed enormously since I've been so busy at work and with getting on and being creative.

Part of Cheryl's Christmas Gift was fabric with pre-printed quilt labels with quotes on them, and one of my favourites was this one, "The best things in life ... aren't things". With that thought in mind I'd like to wish everyone reading this blog peace and happiness in the New Year.

Christmas Parcel

2007-12-10T19:04:00.000Z

My Secret Santa Swap arrived! All the way from Cheryl at Polka Dots and Rick Rack. I opened the (big) box - sorry, couldn't resist it - to find this gorgeous bag filled with presents wrapped in polka dot paper tied with polka dot fabric bows. What could be better? I am going to save the presents inside until Christmas Day but I am thrilled just with the wonderful bag made of such lovely fabrics. I don't think my photograph does it justice but in my defense (a) the battery compartment is now being held closed with a piece of sellotape and (b) there has been no sunlight in the UK for days so I was doing my best at night. Better pics when I've opened the presents but you've got to admit, it does look nice and Christmassy against the evergreens.

I think Cheryl has a very generous nature, not only did she send me a wonderful present but if you visit her blog she is running a drawing for a beautiful Christmas Quilt - but hurry, there are only two days to go!

At the weekend I actually tidied the house - now I don't mind if you step over my threshold. I put my Christmas row of houses on the mantelpiece - I bought the one on the left last year and the one on the right this year. I hope they carry on making them, I'd love to end up with a whole street!

Work-Life See-Saw

2007-12-03T19:46:00.000Z

Aaagh - it's been a whole month since I posted anything - what is the world coming to? Well, I'll tell you, my work life balance has become seriously unbalanced that's what - I've got an impending audit at work and it has taken over my life! I am soooo sad. Once it's over I hope life can get back to a semblance of normality. It's a good job none of you can call on me because I couldn't let you over my threshold - my housekeeping skills are minimal anyway but even I can't stand this level of untidiness for much longer.

Needless to say, not much creativity going on here, I just managed to finish my Secret Santa Swap (sneak peek above). Posted a little bit late, but at least I finished it. To cap it all I've just dropped my camera on the floor and the catch that holds the battery compartment closed has broken off - rats!

Roll on the Christmas holidays, that's all I can say.

2007-11-04T17:56:00.000Z

Okay, so it's several days after Halloween, but as this cake is just about the only creative thing I seem to have accomplished in weeks I couldn't miss an opportunity to post a picture.

So easy too - make a chocolate cake, buy some ready-made orange fondant icing, roll it out, cut out the pumpkin features, whack it on the top of the cake and voila! DS had a Halloween party for himself and four friends instead of trick and treating (though we gave out treats to anyone who knocked on the door but there were only three knocks anyway).

I'm seriously thinking that I must stop purchasing fabric, for a couple of years now I've collected shirts, bought fabric online from the U.S. (mainly sale fabric, very little at full price) as I concentrated on building up my stash. But ... the time has come when even DH commented that it was getting 'a little excessive'. Early on in my blogging days, I wrote a post here, about how I cut a small piece from every fabric I purchase, stick it on a business card with double-sided tape and catalogue all my fabric purchases in slide-pockets. I started off with just an A4 ring binder - it has now grown to 2 huge lever arch files. Here's a few of the contents. I still find this a great way to look at my stash. I have to keep the actual fabric in boxes on shelves, as the room they are in is very sunny and they would all fade if I didn't (might fade anyway for all I know). But, I have got a lot of fabric - I never buy with a particular project in mind, I just buy fabric because I like it. I've got a good range of colours, some of it is new and some of it is recycled and I think I could make mostly anything I want to now - if I had the time!!!!

So what did I do this morning? Yup, in between trying to write up a contract (I really know how to have a fun weekend) I went to a LQS that I didn't know of before and only just found out about. Well, what bargains were to be had! I've always loved the 'Bon Voyage' range from Makower but I absolutely refuse to pay £9 a yard (which is what it was retailing at). I got 3 yards each of 2 designs from the range for £1.25 a yard! Novelty fabrics aren't usually my thing but I bought the one with the Jam Jars for my Mum. The embroidered braid and the cute red polka dot bows were from the market yesterday. Do I know what I will make with any of this? No, of course not, but for me, that's the exciting bit, I couldn't bear to shop for fabric knowing what I was going to make with it first. And whilst I am going to be good, if I pass a thrift shop with a lovely cotton shirt for a pound, I'd be mad not to buy it, wouldn't I?

Road Trip

2007-10-27T21:11:00.000+01:00

Did you wonder where I'd gone (again)? We took a week's break over half term and headed back to Florence. This time we also went to Rome, just for a day - on the high speed train it only takes an hour and a half from Florence.

The last time I was in Rome was over 20 years ago and boy, have the crowds grown. Admittedly, then I was a student and spent weeks there so could amble at my leisure, but we didn't actually get to go in St. Peter's or the Colosseum - we would have spent the whole day in a queue. Instead we walked round the city to see as much as we could - as you can see from the photograph the weather was great that day.

In Florence, we climbed up to the top of the Campanile (over 400 steps and I am way out of condition, believe me). I took this quirky view through the stonework.

And this is one of the vegetable stalls in the market at San Lorenzo looking very seasonal. I caught up with some reading too, never started 'Reckless' which I had put on my sidebar as the next up to read but have read three others (all recommended) and am halfway through a fourth - I can read at the speed of light if I've got no work, no cooking and no sewing to do!

Next up - I must get started on my Secret Santa Swap - I know what I want to make, it's just a question of converting the plans to reality.

2007-10-14T11:34:00.000+01:00

My Fall Quilt Swap arrived! And isn't it gorgeous? It was made by Darlene at Quilting Daze and I am absolutely thrilled with it. She is such an accomplished quilter - it's just perfect - thanks Darlene! I know that mine also made it safely across the ocean to my swap partner Alice.

This afternoon I'm going to see the exhibition by Lutterworth Piecemakers so I might just see Jane or Lynda there if I'm lucky.

A Tiny Bit of Creativity

2007-10-06T16:47:00.000+01:00

I'm still here! Hate to whinge but whilst I actually love my new job I am sooooo tired it's untrue. It's on the same sort of level as the tiredness you feel when you have a new baby. It will get better but right now I haven't got much energy for anything other than work and I am hopelessly, hopelessly behind in my blog reading (sincere apologies for not leaving comments - I will improve!). So, in a bid to restore the old work-life balance I thought I'd work on something small. I had seen the idea for a celebration banner on a couple of blogs and had been wanting to try out something similar for a while.

As you can see, I have only got as far as making the letters for the first word. What I'm thinking is that if I make enough letters I can do a kind of mix and match to be able to put them up to say Happy Birthday, Happy Christmas, Happy Easter etc. etc. I made them the same way you make fabric postcards with Timtex in the middle but they are only 3 X 4 inches. I hung them up with these dinky little pegs I bought off e-bay - I put a ruler there for scale so you can see how tiny they are. My goal is to make enough letters for DS's birthday at the end of November.

Phew!

2007-09-24T21:02:00.000+01:00

With a bit of luck this will get posted out by the deadline of 30th September - just the label to do now. Once again the colours aren't as yellow and mellow as in real life but you get the general idea. It seems to have taken a while but I have got quite fond of it. I want to use yo-yos again in a different project soon - those tools make them so quickly.

2007-09-16T22:09:00.000+01:00

Where does the time go? I haven't done anything quilty for weeks apart from sporadic bursts on the Fall Quilt (nearly finished, but not quite). I see that I haven't posted anything since August 27th either.

Nothing much to report really, I've been busy, but not with anything creative. DS started a new school term (and for those that remember my faux pas last year, yes, I did send him back on the right day). DD started her last year at Sixth Form College and is in the process of applying for a university place for next year. Starting a new job in a college makes me feel like it's the start of the year for me too so I resolved that I am going to be more organised instead of living my life in my usual haphazard fashion. Oddly enough, I am very organised in a work environment but I just can't seem to get it together in my home surroundings. I put together a folder with tabs for Weekly Menus, Daily tasks, Weekly Tasks, Shopping List, etc, etc - we'll see how long I stick to it.

One place we did go was the 800th anniversary of the town of Coleshill, Warwickshire being given a market charter by King John in 1207. My Mum's family have lived in Coleshill since at least 1748 (maybe longer, but that's as far as I've got with the family tree so far). There was jousting and renactments of daily life in medieval times including breadmaking and a blacksmith.

And my latest e-bay purchase was a copy of Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking. I think this was a bit of a bargain, as the cheapest second hand copy on Amazon was £58 and I got my copy for £17. I haven't seen any second hand copies cheaper than that. If I spent as much time actually quilting as I do looking through quilting books I'd triple my output!

Coming along

2007-08-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

You wouldn't believe how long it has taken me to come up with a design for the outer border of this quilt. It has gone through several stages - most of them abandoned because of my lack of applique skills. It would have been good to use bias tubing but not right now (yes, I am a bone idle good for nothing woman and you all thought I was industrious). It would also have been good to do hand applique but I can't get my head round that one right now (and possibly ever). So I took the short cut - machine embroidered stems and fused leaves. However, what I really wanted to do was to use one of my new yo-yo making tools to make the tiniest size of yo-yos and use them in this project, so at least that's a first. Here's the progress so far with the first leaves fused on but not machine appliqued yet.

Fall Quilt Progress

2007-08-23T17:18:00.000+01:00

Here's the start of the Fall Quilt - it will get a bit more busy than this before it's finished. It seems weird to have pulled all of those fabrics and yet used only the tiniest piece of each one. I cut 2" strips to get the squares so I may feel the urge to make another in a different pattern once this is finished.

Finn surprised me by tagging me for Nice Matters - the logo is so pretty I've put it on my sidebar for a little while. I would find it well nigh impossible to limit my nominations to just 7 people - so instead I'm just going to say is that this is a great international community and I love being part of it.

2007-08-20T16:43:00.000+01:00

First of all thank you to everyone who left a comment on the mile a minute top - much appreciated! But be warned - it is infectious, once you start making them you can't stop - check out Andrea and Lynda's blogs to see theirs, and Patti, who started it all, has completed a mammoth 534 blocks

I couldn't resist joining the Four Seasons Quilt Swap and pulled these fabrics from the stash for the Fall Quilt. Can I cram them all into a quilt that has a maximum size of 18" X 18"? You betcha!

My other non-quilty news is that I have got a new job in a college, starting in the middle of September. Even better, it is within walking or cycling distance of home so I might get a bit fitter, you never know.

'Mile a Minute' Progress

2007-08-11T16:44:00.000+01:00

My string bag is now virtually empty - I'd been making 10 blocks at a time and I don't think I've got enough strings left to make even another 10.

Here is the result - a year's worth of strings and oddments that I think many people would have thrown away (though I have to confess that I did use my pre-cut 2.5 inch squares for the centres just to have that bit more variety). I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making this and how much I love the finished effect. The colours though are a bit bleached out in these pictures, they are brighter in 'real life'.

I am just so sad that I'll have to wait another year to build up enough strings for another one. I know I could use strips from yardage but I just don't think I'd get the same effect - this uses lots of odd long triangular pieces from cutting straight the sleeves and yokes of shirts and besides, I just love the notion that nothing is wasted and it's kind of for free. I'm going to put a dark navy border on it to make it up to a big enough size to use as a throw on my kitchen sofa.

Siobhan commented that sewing mile a minute blocks is kind of like therapy and I couldn't agree more. I've had a bit of a stressful time lately for a variety of reasons culminating in a trip to London for my son to have an MRI scan last Monday. We were in an awful car accident nearly two years ago and my son was badly hurt and in intensive care for a short period. Thankfully there is no lasting damage and the driver of the car who caused the accident was prosecuted, but for insurance purposes my son has had to have MRI scans of his head. This was the third try - he had a panic attack in the first, traditional enclosed tunnel-like one and then they tried another wider one which was supposed to be less claustrophobic but he still panicked. This was the last resort, a 'wide open' scanner where he didn't have to go into a tunnel and I am glad to say that he was okay and stayed still enough for them to do the scans (not easy for a ten year old) and he was very proud of himself. On the positive side, after that was over the two of us had a lovely afternoon and evening in London (including a trip to Hamleys Toy Shop in Regent Street for a reward) before heading home on the train.

This morning we went to Birmingham. I like to go to the 'Rag Market' - of course it doesn't sell rags any more but it does sell fabric and has lots of haberdashery stalls. I like markets anyway - I'm far happier in a market than a globalised chain store.

Have a good weekend everyone.

2007-07-24T19:49:00.000+01:00

I am addicted - after seeing Patti's 'Mile a Minute Tutorial' I just had to try it out. I have a bag full of strings that I need to use up ('cos otherwise they will multiply and become two bags).

These are true strings - button bands and collars off shirts, hems off skirts I've cut up for the fabric and uneven pieces from straightening yardage so hopefully the blocks will come out at least a little bit wonky.

I'm going to try not to use any of my evenly cut 2 and 2 1/2 inch strips - though I might renege on this if the blocks all start to look a bit samey and I want a bit more brightness and variety in the fabrics. I can make 10 X 6 1/2 inch blocks in an evening and it's nice, relaxing mindless sewing with no cutting to do - bliss. Thanks Patti!

2007-07-19T18:07:00.000+01:00

The Doll Quilt made it to my swap partner JoAnna without mishap so I will now post a full picture of it.

I haven't been able to blog, sew or comment much on other's blogs lately so please don't think I'm ignoring you. I've been a bit preoccupied by some things that I need to sort out and it's taken up all of my time at weekends, hopefully all will be resolved in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to some sewing time this weekend anyway. I haven't gone without sewing for so long in ages - I'm getting withdrawal symptoms.

Flower Yo Yos

2007-07-11T17:55:00.000+01:00

I was looking for round Yo-Yo makers on the Clover website when I saw that these Flower Shaped Yo-Yo makers were coming out.

Quilt shops have just started to stock the round yo-yo makers here in the UK but the flower ones don't seem to be available yet - I bought these 'buy it now' from E-Bay.com. I think I need a bit more practice to perfect the technique and I have no idea whatsoever what I will use them for but I just couldn't resist them. I think it was the pictures of the finished products that I saw here, they look so pretty. The bigger ones are 1 1/4 inches and the smaller ones 1 3/8 inches and they are very quick to make. And this, I'm afraid, is the sum total of my sewing activity over the last week and a half: life, work, rain, and other stuff has got in the way.

2007-07-06T21:19:00.001+01:00

I finished the CW Doll Quilt and although the colours and pattern were very different from the first one it did grow on me - I see more in my future! I also found a neat label that I thought went with the era quite well. It is now on its
way to the Swap recipient. I'll post a picture of the completed quilt once she's received it.

I also got this book in the post today,

which I first saw on another blog (but sadly I cannot remember which one) and have had on my wishlist at Amazon for ages. It is so lovely, the text is in Japanese but there isn't much of it, just pages and pages of photographs of feed sack fabrics. You can see more of the content here at Amazon.

2007-06-30T09:30:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of pics today.

First of all the completed Doll Quilt #1, it's just got minimal stitch in the ditch quilting and around the applique pieces. I'm scared to do anything more adventurous in case I 'ruin' it. Afraid the lighting in the photo isn't brilliant but yes, you've guessed it, it's still raining.

And another bit of the CW quilt, I've sandwiched it today so I should be able to finish and post it well within the deadline. I'd show the whole thing but I'm not sure if you are supposed to or not.

Raspberries and runner beans

2007-06-24T17:52:00.000+01:00

As it's been raining non-stop I've made a start on the CW(ish) Doll Quilt. Here's a bit of it.

I did nip down to the allotment in between showers to try to pick some raspberries - there are loads of ripe ones but I haven't been able to pick them because it's always raining.

I picked quite a few but then it started to rain again so I came home. I did remember my camera though and the rain will do the runner beans good.

Have you seen Jen (Fairybread) and Jen's (Hedgehog) posts about Quilts for Leukaemia? I've made a few of the red and white blocks for Clare, but was beginning to worry about the fact that while it's relatively easy to show support by making a block, Clare still has to purchase the backing and batting. Luckily, the two Jens did more than think about it, they have come up with a cunning plan - at Quilter's Quarter, an online store in the US, there is an option to buy a Gift Certificate that can be emailed to Clare, which she could then use to buy batting and backing fabric. Quilter's Quarter accepts PayPal, and they felt that quilters, if they were able to donate, would be confident that their donation would go toward quilting supplies and not toward a bottle of wine! (Clare does live in France!). The smallest gift certificate is US $10, but they think the store might be prepared to accept 2 people each donating $5 to make up one certificate.

I am not for a moment pressuring anyone to contribute - all of our circumstances are different and it is always an individual choice, but it is a very worthwhile cause and if you have made any blocks you might want to know about this.

2007-06-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

On the Doll Quilt Swap front, there's good news and perplexing news. The good news (for me at least) is that my partner likes Civil War Reproductions, so I get to keep the quilt I'd already started. Usually I am not bothered about whether I keep a quilt myself or not, but I'd gotten quite attached to this one and I really wanted to put it on the wall in my kitchen - so much so that I had in fact cut out all the pieces for its twin. I've just got the put the binding on the first one and then I'll post a picture. So far, so good. The perplexing news is that I don't have a huge collection of Civil War reproduction fabrics, so ... I've just pulled all the fabrics that look as if they might be from that era to give a similar overall effect. What do you think - will they be okay? I think they will be fine, and in fact there are a few that are repros. This is an unexpected challenge for me. I like all of the fabrics - I wouldn't have bought them otherwise. But I wouldn't normally use this selection all together. And yes, I know I could limit the number of fabrics I use, but once a scrap quilter .... In the Doll Quilt in the last post I used over 40 different fabrics - just because it's a Doll Quilt doesn't necessarily mean that you have to use fewer fabrics. And for me, the scrappier the better - now I've just got to decide on a pattern.

Meanwhile, I went to my first ever Quilt Group meeting in Lutterworth, where I met fellow blogger Jane, from Sew Create It. It was such a friendly group and there are some very talented members if the Show and Tell was anything to go by. It made a nice break in a week where work has taken over (again, and I know I keep going on about it but it accounts for the fact that it's been two weeks since I last posted anything).

I also found this article a couple of weeks ago about how women are using the web to forge friendships - have a look, it really reinforces what most of us know already, but it is interesting in that it shows that men don't use the Internet in the same way as women at all.

Doll Quilt #2

2007-06-11T21:34:00.000+01:00

I knew I was right to get cracking - the sign up for the Doll Quilt Swap has had to end early, due to the sheer number of people wanting to join up.

On the home front, the scraps are now transformed into... this layout. I string-pieced the scraps for the sashing and fused and machine zig-zagged the flowers. I'm hoping it'll piece together okay as there are a lot of seams in the sashing which could be bulky when it's all sewn up, but so far so good. I have, of course, got a lot of scraps left so I maybe see another Chinese Coin Doll Quilt on the horizon (get a grip, girl, you haven't finished this one yet). With a border, it should measure 18 X 22 inches.

Doll Quilt #1

2007-06-10T18:32:00.000+01:00

I'm all fired up for making doll quilts now (note how nonchalantly I cast aside my earlier vow to finish things up before starting another project - maybe there's hope for this completer-finisher yet). I thought I would try to make more than one before the swap deadline so that when I know who the recipient will be I could pick one closest to their taste (okay, this might be wishful thinking but humour me).

Anyway just to give you a quick peek, here's the start of Doll Quilt #1, which is very much to my taste, I just like looking at the scraps, never mind a pieced top!

Almost there ...

2007-06-09T15:18:00.001+01:00

... with the Road to Arkansas top - I've put three narrow borders on - another two to go but I've kind of lost impetus - too much scrabbling on the floor to measure.

I've also joined the Doll Quilt Swap, Amy posted about the first one a while ago but I missed the deadline for signing up. This time round it seems very popular and I'm really looking forward to seeing all the different quilts that people make. If you want to join the swap, sign-up is open until June 17th.

This week the door fell off our (built-in) fridge, I left my debit card in a shop and the flush mechanism on our (one and only) toilet stopped working. But ... I got these shirts in a charity shop sale for 50p each.

Bits and Bobs

2007-06-01T19:30:00.000+01:00

Just pottering about really. I made a fabric basket for my SIL's birthday, haven't made one of these before so it took a while but at least it worked. Here it is without contents.

And here it is with added toiletries - I did wrap them in cellophane and add a bow but that was after the camera batteries ran out. Of course, being a person who thinks ahead, I looked for the 2 spares in the charger - needless to say they weren't there. I have a 10 year old son, three guesses where they were? Yes, you're all correct, in his PSP of course.

I also received a lovely parcel from Jane - she drew my name for her 50th post. We were both tickled by the thought that of all the bloggers around the world I won, and yet we probably only live about 30 miles away from each other.

A couple of you have asked about the pattern for the quilted bags a couple of posts ago. The pattern I used was from a book, but Dani has been making the bags too (check them out) and she put this link to instructions for a similar bag on her blog if you are curious about how to get the square shape.

Other than that, all I've been doing is starting to put the borders on the bright Road to Arkansas quilt that I pieced a while ago. I really hate to have too many UFOs - I try to kid myself I'm a free spirit but if was a stick of rock I'd have "completer/finisher" in letters right the way through - it makes for a very stressful life, that's all I can say. I have a Yellow Brick Road quilt all cut out and ready to go from recycled shirts but can't bring myself to start it until that top is finished. Trouble is, my mind is always about 300 quilts ahead of the one I'm actually working on, there are just so many possibilities and so little time (and so many beautiful quilt books to drool over).

Have a good weekend all, the weather forecast is sunny!

Finished

2007-05-29T19:19:00.000+01:00

I've finally finished the Depression Block Quilt - we went up to Carlisle for the Bank Holiday weekend so I took it with me to handsew the binding. I do like the peacock feathers but I think it might be a while before I use them on another quilt because they did take a long time.

And I made a bargain purchase, this book, Quilted Planet by Celia Eddy, normally retailing at £25 but on sale at £10 (and I have seen it for sale at £25 in my local branch of Borders). It has examples of many types of quilts from all over the world - just goes to show, there's nothing new under the sun.

Now I'm going to sit down with a cup of tea and catch up with all the posts I've missed over the weekend.

2007-05-17T19:50:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged by Clare to reveal 7 things you didn't know about me:

I have a phobia about tinned baked beans. I just cannot bear them, I hate their smell, their appearance and I couldn't possibly eat one. I can just about bring myself to cook them in the microwave for my kids, but I have to do this without touching them or getting any of them on my fingers. I couldn't possibly wash up plates by hand that had the remains of beans on them - ugh. It would make me retch just to touch them.
I have the widest feet ever (and very short toes) they are a UK size 3 1/2 in length but I would have to buy shoes in a size 6 to get anywhere near the width I need. Hence a lifetime of squeezing my feet into shoes that are too narrow and buying shoes just because they fit, never mind if I like them or not. And don't talk to me about sandals - it's only in the last few years when manufacturers are making wider models that I've been able to find a few that fit and still look reasonably fashionable.
Can't bear the hairdressers - I would rather go to the dentist! I have to do it because I like fuchsia streaks in my hair and I would rather have them than not, but it's an ordeal.
I can't tell left from right instinctively. If you said to me 'look up' or 'look down' I would instinctively look in the right direction. Can't do it with left and right, I have to stop and think about it and work it out. I dread being asked for directions because I get my lefts and rights all mixed up and learning to drive was a nightmare because I had to concentrate twice as hard on working out where the instructor wanted me to go. If I need to write out directions for myself I have to put arrows going in the right direction instead of writing left and right. My kids think this is hysterical.
I have a B.A Honours degree in Art History achieved when I was 21 and young and foolish and a Masters Degree in Training and Performance Management achieved whilst working part time in my late thirties when I was older and a bit wiser.
I never ever wear yellow, orange or green clothes on account of the fact that I have very sallow, yellowy skin (just think Marge Simpson without the blue hair) and these colours provide the most appalling contrast. Don't I make myself sound wonderful - it's not that bad but I do look seriously awful in those colours - hence the fuchsia streaks in my hair - much better.
I wish I could dance, my favourite music of all time is big band swing from the 30's and 40's - it would be terrific to be able to dance to it properly but my left/right dysfunction kind of puts the kibosh on this. I did go to 'Latin in Line' a couple of years ago but as you can imagine I had to concentrate pretty hard and the instructor was sarcastic to me for going in the wrong direction.

I must surely be the last one to do this meme so I'm not going to tag anyone else. I have finished quilting the peacock feathers but I won't put up a picture of the finished quilt until I've put the binding on.

Red

2007-05-15T18:17:00.000+01:00

Guess what this is going to be?

Crazy patchwork of course.

I have never before had a go at those stack and shuffle crazy patchwork blocks - mainly because I love love love chain piecing, sooooo quick to cut and to sew. I've learned from this that I'm not really a block by block kind of person. But I also love the random effect of the stack and shuffle crazy quilts and the thought that it might be quicker than piecing a crumb block. So ... my cunning plan was that if I made some red and white ones for Clare's Quilts for Leukaemia I could just make a few blocks without having to commit to making a whole quilt and find out if I liked the technique or not. Then ... I thought if I was doing a crazy block for Qs4L it would look pretty if I embellished it with a bit of ribbon and rick-rack and, shock, horror, use the embroidery stitches on my machine, which go unused from one year to the next.

Well, dear readers, I have to tell you - I nearly put my eye out - twice. Completely my own fault - kept forgetting to set the stitch back to straight when I changed the foot from the normal one to the 1/4 inch one and of course the needle hit the foot and splintered, both times. My machine was screaming at me - really, it sends out a high pitched wail when something is not right. Luckily there is no damage to me or the machine. And the crazy patchwork technique? Well, I might try it on a bigger quilt someday, but probably without the embellishments (unless I take the necessary safety precautions, like wearing a pair of goggles). And I have to agree with the criticism that you often hear about this method - there does seem to be a lot of waste.

And the winners are ....

2007-05-12T15:23:00.000+01:00

I made two more bags which I think are slightly improved on the first one I made - in the same way as the first pancake is never quite as good as the rest of the batch. The names were drawn by my own in-house randomiser - DS and his friend R. We were very professional about it and typed out all the names, folded them up small, put them in a box, put the lid on, shook it up and picked two out - DH was the presiding officer.
All very exciting. It was lovely to receive all your comments and I wish everyone could be winners but the two names drawn out of the box were ... Rebecca and Tami.

Just chilling out at the moment, this has been the work week from hell - didn't get back home until 7 p.m. on Thursday and I was so terribly tired I went to bed at ten to nine! So much for work-life balance. Now I must get back to the peacock feather quilting as my thread has arrived, hope I haven't lost the rhythm.

A year ago today ...

2007-05-06T17:20:00.000+01:00

... was my first ever blog entry, doesn't time fly? This is actually my 98th post - I was trying my absolute best for my 100th post to coincide with my bloggiversary but couldn't quite make it - anal or what? Still, though 100 posts a year is chicken feed to some, at an average of 2 per week I don't think I've done too badly considering I work full time and I've got 2 kids (make that 3 if you include DH).

There seems to be a bit of a tradition developing to have a giveaway as a celebration of blogging anniversaries so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. This was meant to be a doll quilt but somehow it turned into ... well, I'm not quite sure what, but it's bound to be useful. DS thinks it's a pencil case, DD thinks it's a make-up bag. I used a pattern from Lise Bergene's book, A Passion for Patchwork, very easy. All comments on today's post will go into a hat and I'll get my kids to draw a winner at the end of the week so please do leave a comment. It may not be this very bag though, it is my first attempt and so I might make another one.

I never thought that I would still be blogging today, I nearly gave up early on and probably would have, if it weren't for the encouragement of another blogger. It will probably come as no surprise to many of you that that person was none other than Finn, she took me under her wing, encouraged me to comment and told others to 'visit'. And her kindness, I think, typifies the community of bloggers that post about quilting and crafts. It is a community that shares ideas, inspiration and thoughts and is welcoming to all who join it. Now there can't be much wrong with that, can there? I am thrilled to be able to have connected with so many people from all over the world and I just wish that I had more time to sew and blog - darn that job!

I'm trying Leah and Belem's tips to make the pictures clickable - but I have to confess to a slight disaster on the hollyhock front so maybe I won't be too sorry if that particular picture doesn't click! I thought I'd practice a scalloped edge but I made the 'inward' curve of the scallop too sharp instead of gently curved - hence less than perfect bias binding at those points. Ah well, you live and learn and 'it is a practice piece' - I'll go ahead and finish it anyway. I can see that becoming my stock phrase from now on!

Quick Update

2007-05-01T19:00:00.000+01:00

The hollyhocks are progressing - I like just making a small quilt, though my son, quilt aficionado that he is, did ask me if it was 'just one block' for a larger quilt. I was quite impressed with his encyclopaedic knowledge of (one) quilting term and it would be good to make a whole quilt of different flowers, but not right now.

I did a bit of free motion machine embroidery round the petals - I like the effect on the darker ones, not so sure about the one at the top on the left. However, I sure ain't going to rip it out and I'm viewing this as a practice piece anyway.

In my last post Connie commented that the photographs weren't clickable to make them open up in a larger size in another window to show more detail. I would like all my pictures to be clickable, but sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren't and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Does anyone know what you have to do to make them all clickable? (In words of one syllable avoiding the need for shedloads of html.) All hints gratefully received.

Hollyhocks

2007-04-29T11:00:00.000+01:00

Some time ago I swear that I saw a small quilt somewhere on the net with a hollyhock appliqued down one side and sort of Chinese coins on the other and I was thinking it would be a neat thing to try on a doll quilt. I thought I had saved a picture of it. I found that I had not. What's a girl to do but make one up herself? I searched Google Images for hollyhock pictures and used them as inspiration to draft a simple version.

Now, it would have been nice to do hand applique on this because I like the slightly raised effect it gives and the softness of it but ...

(a) the design is way to complicated for a novice like me to hand applique

(b) even if it weren't, it would take me weeks to complete it and my whole raison d'etre for trying doll quilts is that I might even finish a few.

In my usual copy-cat mode I really liked the tiny machine stitches Jane used in her Trumpet stars quilt so I thought I would give that a go instead. Here's my progress so far, I fused all the fabric and I've zig-zagged the lighter leaves and stem and I'm liking how it's going up to now. I might do a bit of freehand machine embroidery on the tops as this is very similar to doing fabric postcards. I had fused some yellow centres on the flowers but the colour was too bright so I ripped them off and I'm going to substitute a more subtle hue. Hoping to work on it in the evenings this week (work permitting).

I like hollyhocks, the garden of a house near my son's school is full of them in early summer and they look absolutely spectacular. Never had any success growing them in my own garden, they either don't come up or when they do they are the spindliest plants you've ever seen with one solitary flower. I'll make up for it with my fabric version.

Not much further on

2007-04-23T19:55:00.000+01:00

I'm still plugging away at the peacock feathers - have got about 3/4 of the top done now but I've run out of thread so I'll have to have a break until more arrives. The tension on the back has it's own charming idiosyncrasies - when the new thread comes I'm going to tie something round the foot like Keryn and see if that improves it.

I saw on Alison's blog this morning that she took a class where they were given this non-slip rubberised stuff to use when quilting. I've been using it to do the peacock feathers and it's fabulous, it really grips the top because you can press your whole palm on it and not just the tips of your fingers - I'm sure it's better for your wrists and it's dead cheap too.

'Fraid that's about it from me - my job is getting just a tad stressful at the moment - I think it's stifling my creativity a bit.

Pot Plants

2007-04-16T19:07:00.000+01:00

Don't these pansies look nice altogether? Last Wednesday we called in at Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. It's a National Trust property and quite unusual in that it has been preserved in a state of decay and the contents are just as the last owners left it - quite amazing, particularly the attics which are full of old trunks and toys. It has superb gardens and grounds to walk in. The pansies are in the 'Auricula Theatre' (only it has pansies and not auriculas at the moment - I have seen it with auriculas in previous years - click on the link above and there are lots of photos of the house and garden in the gallery).
Meanwhile I've been plugging away at the Depression Top quilting - thanks so much for all the kind comments on my quilting (though I should say that the picture I showed does show it in the best light and that it probably wouldn't stand up to very close scrutiny to say the least).

2007-04-10T08:48:00.000+01:00

Hope everyone had a good Easter break, we are back from Wales - more of that later. I took lots of stuff with me to work on but way underestimated (a) my own capabilities and (b) the amount of time actually available in between digging on the beach, and generally wandering about - this was no quilt retreat. However, before I went I did sandwich my depression block top - here it is, don't know what happened to my maths capability either because if you look you will see there is a scant 1 inch of spare backing at the top and bottom - I assure you I didn't mean to be quite so parsimonious as that. So far I have only managed to quilt about a quarter of the top, I'm using the peacock feathers that I've seen on Tazzie and Tanya's blogs and I must say I like them even better than meandering. I can only do it in short bursts though - I use up a full bobbin and that's about as much as I can do in one go.

The weather in Wales was superb, as you can see from the photos. Our family has been going to the same place, Tywyn, in Gwynedd, since the 1940's.

In those days my Nan and Grandad took my Mum and her brothers when they were children and camped. Then when static caravans took over they would rent a caravan and eventually my Mum bought a caravan on the site and my uncle has one too. When I was little we used to go on there on huge long holiday trains with many carriages from Birmingham but now hardly anyone goes on holiday by train. Whilst the weather was good, my Mum's caravan is quite old and on it's last legs, it had developed a couple of leaks in the water pipes over the winter so I couldn't have a shower and it may have been lovely in the day but it was bloomin' freezing at night. The photos are of Aberdovey, the next town along the coast - there was an article about it in one of the UK newspapers which described it as stepping back into the 1950's - and that's just what it is like, very unspoilt and traditional. DS loves to dig in the dry sand and you can collect bucketfuls of shells, and in Tywyn there are rock pools to fish in - a kid's paradise but not so attractive to my 17 year old daughter, who stayed at home with her Dad so it was just me, my Mum and my son who went. By the way - I haven't altered the colours in the photograph, the sky really was that blue, in early April, in Wales. (For those of you for whom the significance of this is lost, the weather in Wales is famous for rain and lots of it. But when the sun comes out it is heaven on earth.)

Non-quilty (but slightly crafty) post for Tracey

2007-04-01T19:11:00.000+01:00

I hope this is going to work because I've got 8 pictures to upload! Tracey asked how I made the boxes for my cakes and I told her I had bought a box-making tool in a closing down sale. Another friend of mine, who makes her own cards, had been telling me about them and how easy it was to make boxes with them. Tracey wanted to see it so I thought I'd show what a fab tool it is, it didn't come with any instructions so I just had to figure out what to do - for all I know I'm doing it wrong but it seems to work.
STEP 1
Gather equipment - box tool, card, rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat.
STEP 2
How big does you box need to be? I wanted a box to hold these tin Easter Eggs that I have bought for my Mum and DD. The egg is 3 inches long, 2 inches wide and 2 inches high.
STEP 3
So, I need the bottom of the box to measure 3X2 inches and if I add on 4 inches to the length and width for the sides I need to cut a piece of card measuring 6 X 7 inches. That will be the bottom of the box. I then need to cut another piece of card slightly bigger - 6 1/8 inches X 7 1/8 inches - for the top - easy with a quilter's acrylic ruler. This is all the measuring you have to do - no need to draw lines on the card or anything.
STEP 4
Butt the card against the raised edge of the box tool - see the marks in the plastic - they are grooves to score down, the first one is an inch wide, the second 2 inches. I used the end of a paintbrush to score. Just turn the card round and score down each edge.

STEP 5
Can you see the marks in the card? It is now scored and easy to fold. All you have to do is to bend each line to form the 4 sides of a box.
STEP 6
Cut down the fold at each end of the box and cut away the excess card to make tabs to glue against the side - no need to be super-accurate as they will just be glued down and unseen.
STEP 7
Glue the tabs and fill the box as desired.
STEP 8
Put the lid on the box (1/8 inch bigger all round seems to be perfect for a lid that is just slightly bigger than the bottom) and wrap. This tool and the rotary cutter and ruler make box making a breeze - I stopped to take photos but if I hadn't this box would LITERALLY have taken me no more than 5 minutes to make and wrap up.

Doll Quilts and Easter Eggs

2007-03-31T12:03:00.000+01:00

I've changed my blog banner in line with the season to show my pysansky eggs, I bought them new from Poland on e-bay, they are wooden and handpainted. I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to put them away after Easter though. On trips to Austria and the Czech Republic I've seen shops that sell nothing but painted eggs, mainly real eggs where the white and the yolk have been blown out. They look fantastic in the shops but there is so much choice that I've always gone out without buying any because I just couldn't decide which ones to buy.

Another new purchase which I've ummed and aahed about for a while before buying is this doll's bed from IKEA. I'm feeling quite attracted to the idea of doll quilts like Finn has been showing on her blog lately but I wanted somewhere to display them. Hence the bed, which DS put together for me last weekend. My husband's only comment, predictably, was 'Yes, but where will you put it?' I have to grudgingly admit that it is quite big for a doll's bed so I'm not entirely sure where I will put it. At the moment it's on top of the freezer - such a classy place to display doll quilts! I sewed up a few plaid squares just to get started which has spurred me on to finish cutting the fabrics for my plaid YBR from shirting.

Confession Time

2007-03-23T22:34:00.000Z

Both Joyce and Meggie kindly commented that it was better to make chicks than cakes for the Easter Treat Sale at the school on Friday. Sadly, I am not the virtuous woman you think me to be - I made cakes as well. Here they are. Don't know what they tasted like - in truth I just enjoy wrapping them up to look pretty, I'm a big believer in the art of presentation and a sucker for cellophane. The tin sign behind them was a Christmas present from my Mum - isn't it lovely? It also means that I can use some of my ribbons. I get them from a stall that comes to Leicester Market on Saturdays, they are so cheap that I buy them even if I have no immediate use for them - you could call it a ribbon stash.

Haven't had chance to sew much apart from the chicks but will be going away to Wales over Easter so I'm going to take my machine and try to make up for it then. I really want to try the peacock feathers that Tazzie has been using to such good effect instead of just meandering as usual.

And ... the clocks have gone forward, hooray, more light = more productivity. Have a good weekend all.

Spring Treats

2007-03-22T11:57:00.000Z

As it's the time of year when chicks come into their own I've been making yet more for the Easter Treat Sale at DS's school.

They are all the same this time, so much quicker to make from strip piecing than cutting and sewing individual squares. You've probably all had your fill of daffodils by now but I couldn't resist taking a picture of the ones at the bottom of our garden. The weather was so good last weekend that even the rabbit got out onto the lawn for a few hours, it's been rubbish since, cold and windy but the forecast for the weekend is sunny. We live in hope.

Blog Banner

2007-03-13T19:28:00.000Z

I know zilch about html so my blog has always been very plain. I do quite like it that way but I've always wanted a more decorative banner at the top. I thought new (beta) blogger would make it easy, but not so, I tried and tried but couldn't insert a picture in the header. Then I found Peter Chen's blog with simple instructions for how to do it. I followed them and yay, it worked!

The picture you see up there at the moment is some of the shirts I have bought in charity shops and cut up for patchwork, I am going to make a Yellow Brick Road out of them for my next project. I like the idea of changing the banner each month to show a different picture.

Aside from that I have nothing even vaguely quilty or crafty to report so how about a picture of an enamel mug I bought in Prague? It seems like a bit of a bizarre thing to post but perhaps it will make sense when I say that the reason I bought it was because it reminded me of Tonya's wonky houses.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments on the String Bag - it was so simple to make but I feel very virtuous using a reusable bag made from reclaimed fabric instead of a plastic one, though my daughter did say that people would think I was a hippy. Nothing wrong with hippies is there?

String Bag

2007-03-07T17:21:00.000Z

Don't faint, it's me, posting for the third time in four days! Must be spring fever.(Or should that be string fever?) As strings are all the rage these days I got out my strings that I've been sewing on and off for about a year. I first wrote about them here and here My original intention was to make a throw for the sofa in my kitchen (and one of these days I'll post a picture of it without a throw on it because it may well qualify for the title of most ugly sofa in Britain). In its defence, though, I must add that it is very comfortable. Because I knew that the throw would have a lot of wear I used what we in the UK would call calico (for the foundation - the strings are cotton shirts or quilting fabric), which is a very thick utilitarian furnishing type fabric, not like the printed calicoes in the U.S. I am now thinking that maybe this wasn't such a good idea because of course it is also turning out to be very heavy. And ... having made a 10 1/2 in string block for Nancy's birthday, I also think I've made my blocks too small, they finish at 6 inches square. So, I made a great big shopping bag. I'm trying to think of what else I could use the blocks for because I do think they are too heavy for what was intended (actually, even the bag is quite heavy, but I think it will be okay). Then, I'm going to start again with a lighter foundation because my string bin is overflowing.

On another note I feel I must apologise that I haven't been commenting on blogs much the past few days. No excuse really except I'm just so tired, after travelling to Chesterfield yesterday I've been to Stoke on Trent today and I just find driving so tiring. I've promised myself a blog fest tomorrow night where I'm going to catch up on what's been going on out there and comment away merrily.

Chesterfield

2007-03-06T21:11:00.000Z

Just a quick post. Today I had occasion to travel to Chesterfield in Derbyshire for work. Wherever you drive in Chesterfield you can't miss the famous crooked spire. I would have taken my own photo but as I was driving at the time it would have been a bit impractical, not to say dangerous. Now, this caused a problem, as I found pictures of the spire here and here and here but as they are all copyrighted I couldn't use them in my blog (fair enough, I wouldn't really want other people to use my photos either). So ... how about a vintage postcard from e-bay - the spire hasn't changed much in the meantime. The links I gave earlier tell you the history of the spire and some theories as to how it got to be so crooked.

Bargain!

2007-03-04T18:49:00.000Z

DH has bought me the loveliest book - we were shopping in WH Smith when I saw it. It didn't have a price on it so I took it to the cash desk, fully expecting it to be in the £20 - £25 range as it is a big thick book cram bang full of beautiful colour photographs of fabric. She scanned it and it came up as £9.99, we did not have to think twice, but it did seem ridiculously cheap. When we got home I looked it up on Amazon, here, and their discounted price was £21.45. I think there must have been an error when they stored the price on the computer system because it wasn't on sale or anything and WH Smith don't seem to discount much these days.

It is such a fabulous book, I would gladly have paid that much anyway. It has photographs of textiles from the last 200 years, categorised by motif, colour, period and design, mostly from the collection of the author. Amazon describes it as 'the biggest and most lavish survey of printed textiles ever published'. There are many American cotton fabrics from the last (20th) century included. I like the way the descriptions are written too, because although it looks like quite an academic book, they are written in a chatty, conversational style. Certainly well worth borrowing from the library if you get the chance, I would highly recommend it.

I knew this would happen

2007-02-26T18:19:00.000Z

Remember those brights? The ones that were meant to be leader/enders whilst I sewed the blocks for the lilac top? They kind of seduced me and I couldn't stop sewing them. Chain piecing was just bliss after piecing block by block. In the book I took the pattern from, Quilts from the Heart, by Karin Renaud, calls this setting Road to Arkansas but I looked on the net and it came up as a completely different pattern. I think I've seen the same pattern, or something similar on Finn's blog a while ago. Whatever it's called (and I hope someone will tell me) it was a joy to whip up. The picture quality isn't great but I didn't finish it until after dark last night and DS kept moaning about the cold when I asked him to hold it down outside this morning (kids these days - they're so soft, I blame it on central heating). Maybe I'll get a better picture when I put the borders on.

This'n'that

2007-02-18T14:54:00.000Z

Just been pottering really, I was off work from Wednesday to Friday because it's half term and the kids are off school. It was my birthday on Friday which I never seem to have to work because it always coincides with the school holidays. I don't know what the postman thought of the card from my friend 'S', as it was addressed to 'Dollface' which is what she calls me. Anyone with a face less like a doll than me would be hard to imagine, but I always laugh because it makes me feel like a gangster's moll from the 1930's.

Once again, I have not been able to quilt, because DS has renewed his enthusiasm for the art. He finished off his second quilt and then started on his biggest quilt top to date with 6 1/2 inch squares. The gorgeous novelty fabrics are all courtesy of the amazing generosity of Amy, the Calico Cat. When I posted about DS and his quilting last year, she sent a huge parcel of novelty prints for him. He just loves them and the ones you see in the picture are just the tip of the iceberg, there must be enough for another 3 or 4 quilts besides.

I made a couple of purchases from the Charity Shop on Saturday - this lovely flowered tape measure and a great big tray which I shall paint as it is currently a vile shade of orange. I find trays really useful for putting blocks and patches in whilst I'm working on a top.

Spring Flowers

2007-02-17T17:00:00.000Z

Just changing my profile picture - I bought these primulas a couple of weeks ago. Spring flowers are the best and these are nice and cheerful. I'll do a 'proper' post later but I had to post these to get the URL for the profile. I was going to delete the post but then I thought they were so pretty they deserved a post all to themselves.

Sidetracked

2007-02-10T16:00:00.000Z

I strayed off the quilt road this week. In the town where I now work there is a charity second-hand bookshop so I like to pop in and see what's come in now and then to add to my extensive collection of craft books - yup, I buy books about crafts I don't even do, I just like the pictures.

Anyway, whilst I was there I picked up these books on making stuffed toys. And herein lies another tale (but it is part of the story of this post). When I was a small girl I had a friend who went on holiday every year to Budleigh Salterton in Devon, a very traditional, very posh, very English seaside resort. Every year she would buy from a little shop there, a delightful miniature mouse made of felt, with covered pipecleaner arms and a dress made of gathered silk ribbon. Let me tell you, I craved those mice, they were so tiny and so pretty, but they were obviously handmade, probably by someone local in Devon so I had no chance of having one myself. I also suspect that they might have been quite expensive and that I wouldn't have been able to afford one anyway.

I've never forgotten those little mice, and I've never seen a pattern for them, I've tried to make my own over the years but failed miserably. So when I bought these books I had a little look for any mice patterns and lo and behold - there were mice patterns in the Beatrix Potter book, but to be honest they looked a bit rat-like and evil, not what I was after at all. But ... in the Jean Greenhowe book, Favourite Toys, was just the thing I was looking for - a little mouse made of felt. I made a few alterations to the dress to make it more gathered and to add a shawl or a collar but the basic pattern was fine. At almost 3 inches tall they are probably a bit bigger than the ones I remember from my childhood, but I think it's the closest I'm going to get (and anyway, I couldn't be bothered with pipecleaner arms). What I like most about the pattern is that they have such nice smiley faces. And for someone who doesn't do much handsewing, making them is getting quite addictive.

Star Blocks and Bright Squares

2007-02-04T14:44:00.000Z

Not much to report - a couple more star blocks for the lilac quilt top. I don't have a huge stash compared to some of you, so when I cut the fabrics for this top I cut up all the greens I had, including the bright yellowy toned one in the bottom row, second from the right. Well, it doesn't work, it's toned down a bit in the picture but in real life it zings out like a neon sign - that block will have to go. I cut a few other green fabrics in that colour tone too, incuding the green in the centre square in the block second from left in the bottom row. I'll keep that block but I won't be using that green in any of the others. I probably cut for too many blocks anyway, so I've got plenty left to play with.

Now, I wouldn't like you to think that I don't like brights, I just don't like them in this particular top.Sewing these blocks you really need a leader ender project to maximise time and fabric usage, right? So I cut out some 2.5 inch squares and I'm going to make a Road to Arkansas with them at the same time as a leader/ender project. Perfect use for the green squares I can't use in the lilac and green quilt.

Can't believe it's February, where does the time go?

London Eye

2007-01-28T19:28:00.000Z

A couple of pics taken from the London Eye, 'the world's tallest observation wheel' on the bank of the Thames. The views are great but we won't mention the hour and a half that we waited in the queue, even though we had pre-purchased tickets. We have been in London for the weekend with my Mum and my brother and his wife to celebrate my Mum's 70th birthday. The trip also included a visit to the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising, a real nostalgia fest of all the brands that we grew up with here in the UK. The museum sprang from the collection of one man, Robert Opie, who collected all sorts of packets and tins. It has moved to London from Gloucester and is in the chic Notting Hill area, very close to the Portobello Road Antique Market.

We always seem to run out of time on trips like this, we wanted to go to Liberty's, but couldn't make it there before catching our train back to Leicester. We don't go to London all that often, yet the journey there only took an hour and ten minutes by train and you can get fairly cheap tickets now if you book well in advance. Soooo, no sewing this weekend.

2007-01-20T19:37:00.000Z

I've been baking. I love to make cakes. Where I last worked, I used to run General Knowledge quizzes at at lunchtimes and make cakes, so that they paid an entry fee and got a free cake and all the proceeds went to charity. I think they just humoured me with the quizzes and all they really wanted was the cake! Whatever, it meant my favourite charity got a donation. Me and DS made these choc-chip muffins this morning. I used a recipe from Jan at Be*Mused - it worked out perfect! DD had her friend to stay over last night so they had them for breakfast (at about 11.30) and DS and his friend had some this afternoon.

I made a little pillow and sheet to go with the doll-quilt - I think it adds a little something! I posted it to the little girl - it's always exciting to get things through the post (well, I think so anyway).

I picked up a couple of plaid shirts at charity shops this afternoon - that only makes about 20 I've got to cut up now! Best get on with it then.

2007-01-14T17:18:00.000Z

Well, I've been merrily ticking things off my list this weekend. First, I did my tax return - it has to be in by January 30th. I have been putting it off and putting it off, and how long did it take me? About 30 minutes! I used to do some self employed work as well as a salaried job so that is why I've ended up having to complete one, though I haven't done the self employed bit for 3 or 4 years now.

So, once it was out of the way I could enjoy myself. My friend's little girl had asked me to make a patchwork quilt for a little animal doll she has. It only needed to be 5 X 7 inches. I cut 1 1/2 inch squares from leftover strips from Antique Cutie to make it. Somehow I don't think miniature quilts will ever be my thing. On the picture for scale (though I don't think I'm in much danger of anyone mistaking it for a full size quilt) you can see my favourite sewing tool, a pair of little thread snippers. They are so cheap but sharp and they just fit my hand and I don't know what I'd do without them. You can see how much use they've had from where the paint has rubbed off. I saw another pair when I was in Carlisle and bought them so I could have a pair by the sewing machine and a pair by my sofa in the living room - at £1.25 who could resist? What is your all-time favourite sewing tool?

I also made up a string block in honour of Nancy's Birthday Request. Thought you might like to see the clutter in which I work - and you know what, I kind of like it that way! I did another star block too, but I'll wait to show that until I've got a bunch more done. Hope the pics will enlarge if you click on them, but it doesn't always seem to happen.

Now I'm back in the throes of working I think my posts will get more sporadic again. I think I'm better at posting in the summer - you can work better in natural light. DH and I went for a walk this afternoon as it was actually bright and sunny - we are thinking of moving, probably in the same neighbourhood, but we need more space so we thought we'd go out and see what we could see. Not a lot, I think people wait for the spring to put their houses on the market. Means we've got to get our act together by then too, and sort out that loft. Oh yes, that would be the one that is so cram bang full of stuff that you can't walk from one side of the room to the other :-( It's going to be a mammoth task!

A couple of blocks

2007-01-07T20:57:00.000Z

Not a very productive or pleasurable weekend (and I didn't even get round to doing my tax return, which was what I'd got planned). A series of unexpected events and requests meant that I had very little time to myself or to do what I'd been looking forward to.

But anyway, I am getting very tired of cutting the pieces for the star quilt so one thing I did do was to dip into the bags with the cut pieces and pick out the pieces for a couple of blocks. I'm suspecting this top might just be quite a long term project. I didn't time it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that each block is taking me about an hour to make at the moment. I know I'll get faster the more I do, but I'm left with a sense of bemused wonder at the speed that quilters like Anne and Bonnie work at. Mind you, I did make two string blocks as leaders/enders whilst I was making them, so I suppose you could have the time if you didn't count them.

2007-01-02T15:14:00.000Z

Here's a pic of the finished Antique Cutie - tried to use the light to show what quilting there is - apart from the quilting in the sashing it's all stitch in the ditch and round the bay leaves. I'm glad I took the opportunity to photograph it because I think that was the first and only time the sun has shone in two weeks (and even then it didn't last long).

Despite my resolution not to go to the sales I did have to go into town today to get DS some new school shoes - we were in the shoeshop for one hour. It has one of those ticket systems for being served and it seemed like everyone else in Leicester had the same idea as us. He couldn't do without a new pair of shoes so we just had to wait our turn. So, I bought him a pair of trainers while I was there too - got to save that time where you can.

As I happened to be in town I couldn't resist these dinky little slipper socks when I saw them - they are adult size, not children's. What a bargain for the princely sum of 50 pence each - hand made and all (not from the shoeshop I hasten to add). I got 2 pairs, one for me and one for DD - what's the betting that she pronounces them hideous?

Update: she is now wearing the red pair!

Took down the Christmas decorations when we got back - we usually do it on New Years Day but DH didn't get the boxes down from the loft yesterday. For once, the house is relatively tidy, I'm going to make a real effort for it to stay that way. It's been great having some time off over the holidays even if only to be able to update the blog a bit more regularly.

2006-12-31T19:49:00.000Z

I forgot to add in my post yesterday that if you click on this link to Amazon, you can read an excerpt from 'The Quilters'.

Last night I made a red and white square for Clare at Dordogne Quilter. It was a complete cheat really, I had some red bandana-print fabric and just cut out the hearts, fused them on and blanket stitched round the edge. Kind of effective though, I think. I might do some more like that - at least I know they'll come out at 8 1/2 inches square.

I'm still cutting out the pieces for the lilac, green and cream quilt, which is slow work - I've got about 60 different fabrics and each fabric is used just once for each block part (hope this makes sense, Keryn of Quilting Twin explains it much better here in her blog, which is where I got the pattern and idea from). At the end I'll have 8 bags of fabric, for the different components of each block, numbered 1 to 8. I'm not going to lay out the pieces first, I'm just going to dip my hand into the bag and pull out the bundle that I come to first and when I have 8 bundles numbered 1-8, I'll have all the parts for the block and it'll come out how it comes out. Each block has to look different, because no fabric is used twice for a particular part of the design. I am so looking forward to the random scrappiness of making the quilt, but it could be some time before I have all the pieces cut.

I will try to take a pic of the finished Antique Cutie tomorrow - I think I need to do it outside in the light, meant to do it today but forgot about it whilst cooking New Year's Eve lunch for my parents and my brother and sister in law. Weather's terrible anyway - really windy and rainy, some cities have postponed their New Year's Eve celebrations.

What I've been reading

2006-12-30T19:51:00.000Z

I ordered this book, second hand, before Christmas and it arrived on 23rd December, just before we set off for Carlisle and read it while I was there, in one sitting. I'm sure many of you in the US will be familiar with it, but if you are not, I implore you - go out to your library and borrow a copy. It is so fascinating to hear stories about quiltmaking in the early years of the last century and the relationship between the making of the quilts and the lives of the women. Their lives were so hard and the quiltmaking gave them both the opportunity to express themselves artistically but also to come together socially. Psychologically, it was an activity that took their minds away from the everyday hardships. I have been thinking about this and I do think there are parallels in the modern world. Whilst our lives are not hard physically as they were for the pioneer women, they are stressful, the world seems to move at breakneck speed. I work full time and I know full well that if I didn't have a craft activity of some sort to return to in my 'leisure' time, my quality of life would be diminished. For me, as I have said in my profile, the act of making something is as good as it gets. I have found that once something is completed I lose interest, I don't have much compulsion to keep everything. It's a bit like building a den in the garden when you are little, it's the building of it out of sticks and grass and whatever that is enjoyable, once it's built, the buzz has gone.

The stories in the book reminded me of my grandmother. My Nan was always making things, for as long as I knew her. She used to make wedding dresses in the forties, and in the fifties she made beautiful dance dresses for my Mum, sadly none of which survive. When I was little she made all of my dresses, I don't have any of those either, which I would dearly love to. She was always doing something, and her sewing machine was always 'up' in her front room, it was never put away. Later on, she took up crochet, but like those pioneer women, she didn't buy new wool. She went to jumble sales and bought old handknitted garments and washed them and unravelled them to re-use the wool. One of the first recyclers, I think - though this would be entirely in keeping with the women in the book, who rarely bought 'new' fabric. When I went to university she made me an afghan to go on my bed and it was bright and cheerful and everyone admired it. My Nan did the Daily Mirror general knowledge crossword every day and she bought me books, whole carrier bags full of books, because I loved to read.

So, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions (other than to try to be a little bit more organised so that I can buy myself a bit more time). For me, sewing and quilting isn't about the finish, it's about the doing. (Though to be fair I do like to have 'finishes' - I don't have many WIPS). I do what I can do in the time that I've got and I don't beat myself up if I can't. I have enough deadlines and tasks to complete in my working life, I'm not about to replicate that at home.

Talking of the home front, we have had a lovely day today. My friend and her small daughter came round this morning to play on DS's Nintendo Wii (very scarce still in the UK). DD had a friend sleep over and a friend of DS came round in the afternoon. I love for my kids to have their friends round. Because we lived in the country when I was young, that just didn't happen spontaneously. Since I was 18 I have always vowed to live on a bus route. Public transport = freedom as far as I'm concerned.

Blimey, this has been a bit of a philosophical post - must be that glass of Pinot Grigio Frizzante!

Crochet Squares

2006-12-28T16:13:00.000Z

We spent Christmas in Carlisle and came back yesterday. Whilst I was there I crocheted some squares for an afghan maybe. The patterns were from this book by Jan Eaton, there are lots of different patterns that you can mix and match, just like patchwork! (Vera also has some lovely pictures of crocheted afghans on her blog today) I've had the book for a while and it's interesting to try to crochet all of the different squares, though I think experienced crocheters might find the patterns quite easy. I like to crochet, but I'm certainly not the world's best - yup, the squares are all meant to be the same size, say no more! I don't worry too much, they'll stretch!

In the background in the photo is a present from DH, a daylight task lamp. It was a real bargain, they usually retail at around £45 here in the UK but this one was on special offer for £16 - probably because it is the most vile shade of pastel pink. I don't care, it does the job and provides the light I want.

I don't have to go back to work until January 3rd so today I finished quilting Antique Cutie and machined the binding on. I love to handsew binding down so I'm looking forward to doing that tonight - I'll post a picture when it's all done.

And finally, proof that I'm getting older (and possibly wiser) - the January sales have started and I can't be bothered to go. All this getting and spending over the Christmas period gets a bit much - why waste time in shops when you can sit at home quilting?