The Littlest Thistle

That Rainbow Windmill

2012-02-12T23:50:00.001Z

Oh yes, the oft mentioned, but otherwise much ignored, rainbow windmill cushion cover top has finally been pieced! I used the Windmill block by Lynne which appeared in the Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers book. I photocopied it and then blew it up to fit on an A3 page, making the final block 17" finished. I added on some borders to make it up to a 20" square. The rainbow fabrics were all from my stash, and the grey is Kona Coal.

My next step will be to add fusible fleece to the back of this bit and quilt it, but I'm not sure how to quilt it. I did think perhaps of concentric circles, but then thought that may be a bit of a nightmare to mark out... Anywho, I'm open to ideas, what would you do to quilt this (that doesn't include FMQ, I haven't had my lesson yet lol)

Hope you all had a good weekend, I've been cultivating this bug more, so now I have no voice and a chest infection to boot, how lovely..

I almost forgot, I met my one thing, one week challenge this week too :o)

Third Finish Along Finish

2012-02-11T23:00:00.000Z

As promised, here's a photo of mum in her new skirt that I handed over last weekend when I was down there. Possibly because I accused her of looking startled the last time I got a photo sent up, this one is from the waist down... I used the Sew What Skirts book to create the pattern from scratch, which was a lot easier than you might imagine, and voila:

So that's my third tick on the Finish Along list for this quarter yay!

I was cutting out the last of that blinking rainbow windmill cushion, and thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone and get my last 3 blocks for the Japanese x and + swap cut and sewn too, so here they are:

Right, back to that cushion...

May I Present To You...

2012-02-11T01:57:00.000Z

The paper pieced octopus for this month's Piece Bee With You mama Lynne. She wanted, and I quote, 'aquatic organisms' (so that would be sealife to the rest of us ;o) ). Someone else had already claimed a jellyfish, and a flock of goldfish had sprung up (do goldfish do shoals? That just seems odd somehow) Anyway, so I claimed the octopus before anyone else got in there (although at just over 60 pieces, perhaps there was a reason no-one else had rushed there :oD ).

I have to admit now that I made the eyes French knots, piecing them in might have given me a healthy shove over the edge (and I'm really not healthy right now as I have tonsillitis and the offending parts feel about the size of golfballs :o/ ) Still, I was proud of my fabric finds, they both seemed to work really well for the pertinent parts. He's about 7 1/2" x 7 3/4", and I hope I've left enough of the requisite space around for her to play with if needed.

And now it's time for bed, and then the rest of the weekend is MINE, all MINE mwahahahahaha

Bloggy Love And Awards

2012-02-09T21:35:00.000Z

First up today, is a lovely parcel that arrived today from Jennifer at A Knotted Thread. I won her giveaway a few weeks ago of some Kate Spain stationary items that she'd stumbled across at Michael's:

I also got to share the glad tidings that should she browse the scrapbook aisles, she'd find a few more crossover designers! Isn't this little haul fab though? I already have ideas of where to use them, but I need to get the roof problem fixed first (don't ask!)

Next, the lovely Kay over at Kay's Kids has tagged me for a Liebster Award. This award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers and I'm supposed to list the names of five blogs I follow that fall within that category. Having had a good thunk, I thought I'd boost a few blogs that could do with a bit more love, so here are my choices:

1. Dianne at Quiltova (who's having a giveaway right now, bonus!)

2. Fiona at Celtic Thistle Stitches

3. My stunted twin Susan at Canadian Abroad (who is also having a giveaway)

4. Fellow WCSMQG member, Lynz at Domestic Light And Magic

5. And another fellow WCSMQG member, Fiona at Poppy Makes

I really wanted to do more, but the rules said 5 *sigh*

The rules are to list the five blogs and make contact by leaving a message in the comment window letting the blog owner know they've been tagged.

Do a post telling who the award came from, copy the rules an choose your 5 recipients, and finally put a copy of the award on the side bar you your blog to be copied by the award recipients.

WIP Wednesday/Weigh In Wednesday

2012-02-08T20:06:00.001Z

I've been feeling rather guilty the last day or two, not commenting on some of my friends' blogs. It's not that I don't love them, just that I really don't love their Fugly Fabric, and, well, there were threats of having some delivered if you dared to make a comment ;o) If you fancy giving a good home to some unloved fabric, however, pop over to see the linky party that Lucy's hosting.

Finishes This Week:

The Double Decker iPad Cover:

A skirt for mum (sorry, no photo, it'll be a few days until photographer, model and skirt are all in the same country!)

Signature blocks for both Sew Bee Joyful and Piece Bee With You:

In Progress This Week:

Block 8 of the SHQ QAL completed, only 4 more blocks to go!

No Progress:

That blinking rainbow cushion...
February's Piece Bee With You block

To Be Worked On This Week:

That blinking rainbow cushion...
February's Piece Bee With You block
Japanese x and + blocks for swap
Finish the bag I was working on 2 weeks ago
Start on FTLOS swap small item (as a couple of the fabrics for the main item are on back order)

Weigh In Progress:

Weight loss goal: 26 lbs / 11.8 kg

Stage: 3 weeks complete

Week's loss: 2 lbs (0.9 kg)

Total loss: 13 lbs (5.9 kg)

Distance to goal: 13 lbs / 5.9 kg

Exercise done: Running up and down the escalators at the station x 5
Walking up and down the 120 stairs at work x 9 round trips, plus multiple little jaunts between the 3 floors we work on
Walk to/from work: 5 @ 8 miles (12.8 km) total and @ 2 1/2 hrs total
Lunchtime walks x 2 @ 45 mins solid walking, plus 2 shorter times

Total time exercising: about 4 hours walking

Now that things have calmed down a bit, and I have nowhere I have to be for several weekends, I'm going to break the Wii Fit out again. Although I don't have a hard and fast target date, I'd like to have shifted the remaining 13lbs in the next 6 weeks or so in time for my trip to Ireland. Hopefully I can keep up the 2lbs a week now that I'm in phase 2 of the diet...

Linking up to:

Sew Happy Quilt QAL Block 8

2012-02-07T22:19:00.000Z

I think my new policy of doing work for myself at weekends and work for others during the week is working well. I'm counting the QAL as a thing for others as it will ultimately become a Blanket of Love for Kat. I've been keeping up as they've come out, and here's block 8, the Peek-A-Boo block:

I've been trying to make all the print fabrics come out even, and so it was the turn of the red and pink to go together. Although it's not so clear here, the pattern on the red fabric is actually the pink, so it's not as unlikely a combo as it may sound (honest guv!)

Tomorrow I have a bee block to start to tackle, paper pieced octopus anyone?!

Some Siggy Blocks

2012-02-06T23:04:00.000Z

Well I got another Finish Along finish done yesterday when I handed over the skirt I'd just finished to my mum (and promptly forgot to take a photo - doh!) Maybe dad can oblige...

So here's a couple of siggy blocks I forgot to share to go with last week's bee blocks so don't leave you pictureless!:

Happy Birthday To Me...

2012-02-04T12:00:00.001Z

Okay, so I'm down at mum and dad's this weekend for my birthday today. As this is published, I shall be in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral taking photos on a course with my dad run by my good friends Lee and Eif It's been a while since I've been at the cathedral, and I shall have to remember not to break out in any of the chorus sections of Verdi's Requiem (which I was performing the last 2 times I was there). Anyway, whilst I'm being amused, I thought I would share my birthday pressie from my gran:

I have one of the original machines, but this gives me access to the bigger dies, and I have a number I have my eye on for bag making embellishments...

Hopefully I'll catch up with you all in real time again tomorrow :o)

Fabric Rescue

2012-02-03T17:00:00.008Z

It all started when I found the Dylon spray starch at Tesco and decided to give it a go (having previously been using the Lakeland stuff in a trigger style bottle). Well, it make the fabric stiffer, but it also made a HUGE mess of the iron, as in, the iron actually stuck to it, a lot. Ugh! So then I had to go and get iron cleaner. I was originally going to head back to Lakeland, but then my erstwhile lunchtime walking buddy said that John Lewis was good for cleaners and things too, which reminded me of their fab sale of Joel Dewberry (@ £5.12/m) so we had to stop by and see if it was still at those ridiculous prices after pay day, and guess what, it was... :oD This is all in the name of future bag making. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it... ;o)

Oh, and for those who are deeply concerned by the iron, I did get some iron cleaner in Lakeland, and some more starch...

Happy Mail And Help The Aged

2012-02-02T22:12:00.001Z

I got some lovely happy mail today, all the way from my feisty friend Oma Linda waaaaay over in Albuquerque, isn't this a fab valentine?

Now I was doing my good service for the elderly today, when I took my gran to get an iPad. This is her very first computer at the grand old age of 87! We have often had conversations in the past 5 years or so about how she regretted not going with my Uncle Bill (her brother) when he went to the Silver Surfers sessions at the library in the late '90s after his wife died. At the time she feared it would be just another thing that could go wrong, and it would take up space, and it might not catch on anyway... Now, of course, every time she watches a cooking program on TV, instead of the recipes being available on Ceefax or Teletext, they're all online, as, I think, are the further info sections for most of the programs she watches. Anyway, she has macular degeneration, and thought that a keyboard would be too hard for her to see easily, so she had ruled out all the advancing things such as laptops, however when we were down at mum and dad for my dad and aunt's joint birthdays, she was sitting beside my aunt, who had got an iPad for Christmas. They had a whale of a time sitting on the sofa playing with this, and finally my gran had found a computer she could live with. First things first, on the Monday she got straight on to Virgin about hooking her up with broadband, and they duly came last week to install it. Alas, last Thursday when we were meant to go, it snowed, so we had postponed until today (since my car was in the garage for the last few days being encouraged to bear up). It's all home and settled now, but unfortunately the authentication server didn't feel like playing this evening, so she's going to get her neighbour to have a shot at it tomorrow.

Entirely unrelated to this, my dad also decided that he just had to spend his birthday money on an iPad too - fear not folks, if you have relatives that work for Apple, my dad is working singlehandedly to keep them in a job, what with the iPhone, iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac (ahem!) You may also recall that I gave him a Kindle for his birthday (you know, he needed another gadget ;o) ) so he requested that he get a double-decker cover for these for when he's travelling, and here it is:

The front pocket will hold the Kindle, plus a cable or two I think, and the main pocket will hold the iPad. The flap covers both openings so they both, hopefully, remain secure. I will have to make gran a cover now, but I think I'm fairly safe in the assumption that she can live with a single decker one, unless she wants a front pocket for her CD player that she listens to her books on...

Linking up to TGIFF and Sew And Tell Friday (buttons in the side bar :o) )

Fresh Sewing Day, Work In Progress, Weigh In Wednesday

2012-02-01T19:57:00.001Z

Phew, how many link ups can you do in a day? Well let's try for 3...

It's a Fresh Sewing Day with Lynne over at Lily's Quilts. Looking back at January, it wasn't a month full of finishes so much as a month of progress:

I've been participating in the SHQ QAL with Jenna over at Sew Happy Geek. I'm completely up to date on them, including yesterday's (which I finished last night). There's 5 more blocks/weeks to go, and once I'm done the top will be going to Kat for Blankets Of Love. I've also got my 2 bee blocks done for the month, an Owl for Colby for Sew Bee Joyful and an anglepoise lamp for Deborah for Piece Bee With You My completed projects consisted of granny's scarf, a tote and something I'm not actually allowed to show you in entirety, so this sneak peek will have to do! I also completed a Kindle cover for dad and a couple of Japanese x and + blocks for the swap , plus got my sketch done for my main item in the FTLOS swap.

WIP:

Finishes this week:

My 2 Bee blocks for the month:

In Progress:

Block 7 from SHQ QAL:

New bag designs:

I started to make a new rush job item last night, it's cut and fused, and I'll hopefully share pics tomorrow night.

I've also picked up some things I needed for my FTLOS partner for her small item, and the fabric is winging its way here.

No Progress:

My rainbow windmill cushion (waaah) - okay, I could have worked on this on Sunday, but my bag mojo was flowing stronger, and on Saturday night I ended up feverishly drawing overly angled lamps (and a couple of other failures)

To Be Worked On This Week:

Rush job from above
SHQ QAL block 8
Piece Bee With You February block (aiming for no procrastination this month!)

I'll be down at mum and dad's for the weekend, but I may get mum's skirt done when I'm down there - we'll see...

Weigh In Progress:

Weight loss goal: 26 lbs / 11.5 kg

Stage: 2 weeks complete

Week's loss: 4 lbs (1.8 kg)

Total loss: 11 lbs (5 kg)

Distance to goal: 15 lbs / 6.5 kg

Exercise done: Running up and down the escalators at the station x 5
Walking up and down the 120 stairs at work x 9 round trips, plus multiple little jaunts between the 3 floors we work on
Walk to/from work: 4 @ 7 miles (11.3 km) total and @ 2 hrs total
Lunchtime walks x 3 @ 45 mins solid walking, plus 1 shorter time
Walk from Hillhead to Old Dumbarton Road for WCSMQG and then on to station: 2 miles (3.2 km) @ 40 mins

Total time exercising: about 5 1/4 hours walking

Linking up to:

January Store Front Meet Up

2012-01-31T21:49:00.000Z

Today I'm linking up to the first Store Front Meet Up being run by Kelly at Blue Bird Sews

For those of you who are new around here, I'm Katy, and I sell under the name of The Littlest Thistle . My business has up until this point been predominantly making and selling one of a kind artist teddy bears that I design myself from scratch, and make up in a mixture of mohair and faux fur. I sell online at my own website, at specialist bear fairs, and have also had them in an etsy shop (which is currently moth-balled as it wasn't a successful bear-selling venue). This business is actually just a sideline at the moment as I work full time in the IT industry as a software test lead (one has to put food on the table and keep the roof over one's head somehow!)

Kelly asked us a few questions, so I shall do my best to answer honestly, and not sugar-coat the truth (I usually do this anyway, as anyone that knows me will tell you!)
What's coming next?
Well for me, I'm moving away from the bears (see the 'What's selling and what's not working' section further down). In their stead, I'm working more on bags, pouches and other little items to sell at local craft fairs. There are a lot of things that I see floating around that great interweb that I have not seen available locally at the craft fairs I have attended. I'm not sure if it's that they won't sell or just that no-one's tried - I'm thinking the latter. I'm currently in a design phase for things however, so it will probably be April or so until I have stock for a stall.
I want to do a complete overhaul of the site and the blog design once I'm ready to launch the new stock, and bring my Etsy shop in line too. I'm also considering maybe selling some of my photos. I've been asked about them previously, but it's quite an undertaking finding decent printers who can reproduce the colours well. I also have a pile more photos to add to the site, which will be done at the time of the overhaul. I'm eyeing up either the Easter weekend or the May Day bank holiday weekend for this task I think.
What are you working on now?
As I said above, I'm in design phase for some things, mainly playing with bags and frame purses at the moment, but I have a little list (currently about 100 items long ;o) ) of different things I've thought of. There's no way I'll make them all now, but I'd like to build up a stock of a variety of things that have been sewn, including, perhaps, some miniature bears around Christmas time. I've also been thinking of possibly selling some of my patterns so as I'm designing I'm writing things down, we may be some time!
How are the preparations going?
I've been stocking up on fabric supplies with a view to a variety of projects to suit all ages, especially during the Black Friday and post Christmas sales. I also bought a large selection of zips and bag making hardware at various points over the autumn. I now have a list of things I need to get come next pay day, such as thread, fusible fleece and interfacings, none of which are exactly exciting, but are actually integral parts of bag making and sewing in general. Luckily I was able to get a trade account at a craft supply company, so although it means buying in bulk (by the 25-30m roll of interfacing for example!) it is a great saving over buying in a shop.
What's selling and what's not working?
What's selling: Err, nothing right now lol I'm not actually trying to sell right now, well, not actively so, although there are bears currently for sale on the site.
What's not: My bears. I love them dearly, but they are extremely time consuming to make (I would estimate at least 16-20 hours is spent between designing, transferring patters, cutting out the pieces, basting, stitching, unpicking round 1 basting, basting round 2, stitching round 2, insetting foot pads, stuffing, sculpting the face, sewing the nose, adding the eyes and ears, sculpting the paw pads, jointing, stuffing the body and closing up the bear seams), and they are also not cheap to make, with a fat quarter of mohair retailing at anywhere between £15 (for very short sparse pile mohair for minis) and £40 (for the longer pile and more luxurious finish) Given that one of my larger bears can use up to a half yard of fabric, you'll be able to imagine what materials alone can cost, and that doesn't include the ultrasuede or faux cashmere for paw pads, glass eyes, a variety of joints, various weighting materials, stuffing materials and thread. I'm sure I will come back to making them, but probably on a smaller scale (apparently there are only so many people with room for a 2ft bear ;o) )

So there you have it, my plans for the year. I'll keep you posted in this monthly link up series of how it's going :o)

Can I Just Say...

2012-01-31T00:14:00.000Z

UGH! Y-Seams!!! Deborah asked for Mid-Century Modern designs for her blocks for Piece Bee With You this month. The Y-Seams were entirely my fault, as I drew them in, but I couldn't see a way to draw them out - grr.

Anyway, hope you like your angle-poise lamp Deborah, because those angles did not leave me poised!

Hope everyone else had a better sewing day!

My Sunday Sewing...

2012-01-29T23:39:00.000Z

So my Sunday has involved quite a bit of time with a pencil, rulers, paper, tracing paper and some French curves. That was followed by a lot of quality time with my rotary cutter and piles of fabric, followed by some stitching and note taking, so quite a fun day pattern designing all round. Here's a sneak peek of a couple of things I've been playing with:

So what have you been up to?

First Bee Block Of The Month Done!

2012-01-28T00:34:00.001Z

And a whole 4 days left in the month...

Anywho, Colby asked for Owls for her month in Sew Bee Joyful, any kind, made any way. Here's my offering, a paper pieced, rather kooky little guy. I seem to be wearing this expression a lot these days in the day job:

Tomorrow I need to work out what I'm doing for Piece Bee With you. Deborah wants mid-century modern designs, but my first attempt had WAY too many pieces (and Mr Owl has 42 pieces, to give you an idea of how many WAY too many might be...). Wish me luck!

Linking up with Sunni:

Plea For Help...

2012-01-26T19:39:00.001Z

Okay, I'm hoping one of you wonderful people can help me. Recently I saw a fab Echo cushion on someone's blog that was made with co-ordinating solids, and even had a link to where to get them. For some reason, at the time I was reading it, I wasn't in a position to note it down, and now I can't remember where it was - waaah! I know exactly what I want to do with my fat 16th bundle of it (supplemented by 4 fqs that were missing from the first bundle), but I need some co-ordinating solids to do it, and since I'm lacking a Kona colour card, and the Klona one doesn't seem to have any matches, I'm at a bit of a loss... So can anyone remember where it was? Or does anyone happen to know the co-ordinating yellow, orange, pink, green, navy and grey for this?

**EDIT, I found a few bundles of matching solids at Sew Fresh Fabrics, thanks to everyone that looked**

Okay, now in response to your pleas for help, my diet plan... I'm doing the South Beach Diet (see the link, or there's also a book for it that you will find in most book shops). I will not lie to you, this is not a diet for the faint hearted. It requires lifestyle changes, and if you can't make the changes long term then it's not the diet for you, find another solution (seriously!). The basis of the diet is that you start off with 2 weeks of no carbs, that is no fruit, limited veg, no pasta, flour, bread, potatoes, alcohol, sugar and a whole pile of other stuff, it is also low fat. After that you add tiny portions of carbs on a weekly basis, so, say, week one you add in 10-15g per day, and on week 2 you go up to 20-25g and so on. In the initial 2 weeks you lose quite a lot, and then it slows as you add the carbs back in. You'll eventually reach a week where you don't lose anything, and at that point you've found what your average daily carbs should be to maintain weight. If you still have weight to lose, you take the carb intake back to the previous week where you lost weight and continue until you reach your goal. In the maintenance phase (ie forever more) you should remain at roughly the ideal carb intake you found that week you didn't lose weight, although the end of the world is not nigh if you have an occasional treat, you just compensate for it the next day or so. It's all based around your Glycemic index, so if you imagine phase 1 as your 'system reboot' phase, phase 2 as your 'initialising' phase, and phase 3 as your 'good to go' phase, then you should end up with a healthy diet (spot the computer geek here ;o) )

Food wise, there are some things with a lot more carbs in them than you think, so you will gain a whole new appreciation for reading labels, trust me sugar lurks in all sorts of things (ketchup anyone?!) To give you an idea of some carb levels, a portion of wholemeal pasta (and actually read the side of the packet and weigh out a portion, it's smaller than you think) has about 50-60g of carbs, regular pasta has even more. A slice of wholemeal bread has about 20g for a thick slice (as in a thick sliced loaf rather than what you hack off yourself ;o) ). When you think that the average person should be on about 80 -120g of carbs in a day, that should give you some idea of the choices you will have to make. On a day (when not in phase 1) that I choose to eat, say, wholewheat penne with pesto and goat's cheese, during the rest of the day I hold off pretty much on any other carbs with, say, salad for lunch, and a breakfast of cottage cheese whizzed up with 1 tbsp frozen fruit, a little bit of Splenda and some walnuts.

You also need to exercise. That doesn't mean you have to take up half marathons or anything, and initially it will be hard, but if you can take a walk round the block 4-5 times a week and build it up, it will get easier. How do I know all this? I've done it before. It works, but I went off piste in the last 4 months or so and carb loaded again (and probably fat loaded too). Hey, at least I can recognise where I went wrong ;o) If you want more info, let me know and I can e-mail you a bunch of stuff I pulled together, including a ton of recipes, marked for phase appropriateness and some (although not all) with full nutritional information included.

WIP Wednesday/Weigh In Wednesday

2012-01-26T00:22:00.000Z

My big news for today is that it was our first WCS MQG meeting at Cushion and Cake on Old Dumbarton Road. Oh what fun! We had Lynz, Fiona and Nikki, plus 2 of Nikki's friends, Stephanie and her mum Anne. Poor Pamela that runs Cushion and Cake was probably exhausted by the time we finally left at 10:30 pm! Such a fab 3 hours of chatting, show and tell and exchanging tips, plus several of us are intending to attend Pamela's fabric printing class in February. The shop itself has loads of local art and crafts for sale, and was the perfect venue for the night, can't wait til next month! Sheila, you'll be please to know it will be on Thursday 23rd February :o)

Onto WIP Wednesday, I'm sorry to say, there's been lots of WIPs but no finishes this week. I'm actually okay with the no finishes thing, because I'm thinking it'll be a while before there are some due to the number of WIPs that all have dependencies on them!

WIP In Progress This Week:

I got my block for the SHQ QAL done yesterday when it was posted. I'm determined to get this done within the QAL timeframe to send off to Kat for Blankets of Love, I'm actually pretty pleased with how this turned out and how it lined up, except for that top corner green bit, which is a teensy bit off joining the blue, and when joined to the next block will lose its point slightly. I might have had a little dance around the room in glee at the rest matching up though ;o)

I also got my sketch done for my FTLOS 2 swap partner for her main item. I know exactly what I want to make her for her small item too, but I don't need to sketch that, although for everything I do need to order in supplies!

This will be a square cushion surrounded in the grey too, but I lost the will to colour in lol

I got my rainbow charms cut and posted off.

I've got both my Piece Bee With You and Sew Bee Joyful blocks drawn up and copied, so I'm ready to go, but as they're paper piecing, I'd rather leave it til the weekend when I have a chunk of time to spend on them (although that does go against my 'To Do For Me' and 'To Do For Others' rules), plus I want to try the non foundation type this time for one of them.

I cut down loads of fabric for my rainbow windmill on Saturday, but then lots of other things intervened over the weekend and I was rather grumpy! Hopefully once I've done my bee blocks I can get on with it!

To Be Worked On This Week:

Nothing new to that list of in progress above!!! (well, except for next week's SHQ QAL block

Weigh In Progress:

Weight loss goal: 26 lbs / 11.5 kg

Stage: 1 week complete

Week's loss: 7 lbs (3.2 kg)

Total loss: 7 lbs (3.2 kg)

Distance to goal: 19 lbs / 8.3 kg

Exercise done: Running up and down the escalators at the station x 5
Walking up and down the 120 stairs at work x 10 round trips, plus multiple little jaunts between the 3 floors we work on
Walk to/from work: 5 @ 8 1/2 miles (13.7 km) total and @ 3 hrs total
Lunchtime walks x 2 @ 45 mins solid walking, plus 3 shorter times

Total time exercising: about 5 1/2 hours walking

Linking up to:

Mid Winter Stitching Check In

2012-01-23T21:58:00.001Z

It's time for a check in of the Winter Stitching project:

I've tried to update my Winter Stitching List tab as I've gone, but let's see where we've got to:

1. ~~1 commissioned teddy bear - almost completely sewn and ready for jointing and stuffing~~ Done - 04/11

2. 1 teddy bear for a raffle at GYTBE - ~~marked out on the fur and ready to go~~ ~~cut out and tacked 09/11~~
Done - 17/11

3. ~~1 zippered pouch tutorial for my guest blog post on Sew Happy Geek next week - I have most of the bits, and a plan, just need to make it and take photos 27/10~~ Done - 23/10

4. Bee blocks for Piece Bee With You for October, November, January, February and March

October is done 23/10

November is done 30/11

January is sketched out and ready to be tackled

5. Bee blocks for Sew Bee Joyful for October, November, January, February and March - I have fabric pulled for October, and a plan, but that's it so far

October is done 31/10

November is done 30/11

January is sketched out and ready to tackle

6. Wall hanging for the Table Runner and Wall Hanging swap ~~- fabric is pulled, and wall hanging designed~~

Done 30/10

Added extra included:

7. 4 redwork blocks for a special project, aka dad's Christmas pressie - ~~patterns are traced, and fabric and thread bought~~ ~~Stitching is under way~~

Done 22/12

8. 2-4 cushion covers for my gran for Christmas (~~I'll need to see how easy they are) - thread for Big Brother's Little Brother (aka the overlocker) and cushion blanks have already been bought~~

~~Pintucks are done 16/12~~

Done 20/12

9. 1 bird mobile for my granny for Christmas - ~~birds are cut out and ready to be sewn, twigs still need to be collected~~ ~~1 bird sewn 20/11~~

Done 27/12 (forgot to take photo)

10. 1 dress for me for the Christmas party - ~~I have fabric, and am planning to use the Party Dress book for the pattern~~ Abandoned due to change in party plans

11. 1 skirt for mum - all the materials are ready to go, just need to draw up a pattern using the Sew What Skirts book

In progress, muslin is complete, needs a little tweaking

12. 1 skirt for me - Liberty pincord already on hand, pattern to draw using the Sew What Skirts book and notions to buy as required - Abandonned for this winter until my porkier waistline diminishes, oh well, winter 2012 stitching list anyone? ;o)

13. 1 skirt for me - grey and yellow patterned fabric already bought, pattern to draw using the Sew What Skirts book and notions to buy as required - Abandonned for this winter as per #12

14. 1 skirt for me - another cord one, this time in burgundy, using a Burda magazine pattern - Abandonned for this winter as per #12

15. 1 skirt for me - another other cord one, blue polkadot pincord, already on hand, pattern to draw using the Sew What Skirts book and notions to buy as required - Abandonned for this winter as per #12

16. Panda girl to finish

17. 1 lunch bag tutorial - as this came 2nd in the poll I ran, although this might be a new year project!

18. 1 tunic for me that I already have all the fabrics etc for, and even have the pattern traced, from Sew Serendipity

19. A large pile of bags. I have loads of my own patterns etc drawn out, and piles of fabric, so I may be having a very merry January and February working on these :o)

1 in progress so far

20. 3 Amy Butler Sew Along bags for January, February and March

January done, twice 13/12

21. 1 coat for me - this may be totally pie in the sky! I'd love to be able to make a coat from the pattern in Sew Serendipity in this fabric - - Abandonned for this winter as per #12

Additions to the original list:

22. ~~Fix Tedster's music box and his sore back~~

Done - 08/11

23. Sewing kit for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day

Done 10/12

24. Collection of stocking fillers:

Done 23/12

25 Pattern tested for Sara at Sew Sweetness, details of which you will have to wait for until September!

Done 11/01

26 Make a Kindle cover for my dad:

Done 12/01

27 Make 5 Japanese x and + blocks for the swap on Flickr:

In progress, 2 done:

28 Make swap goodies for my FTLOS partner.

I've done a sketch for the main item, and totally know what I want to do for my smaller items too, but now I need to wait for orders to get in so I can get started...

29 Participate in the Sew Happy Geek QAL, and get my top done by the end of March to enter into the prize draw, and so I can send the top to Kat as a charity quilt for Blankets Of Love:

First 5 blocks done, and on time too:

30 Take part in Sarah's Stained QAL:

It starts in February, and I'm kind of vacillating around which fabrics to use. I'd thought of Morroccan Mirage, but Hadders got there first, but then Sarah's comment about using her Little Apples bundle reminded me that I have some layer cakes sitting there, for which this could be perfect, including Little Apples:

31 Organise monthly meetings of the West Central Scotland Modern Quilt Guild - the first meeting is this Wednesday, so exciting!

The Ones That Got Away

2012-01-22T20:28:00.000Z

I had a big oopsie when I was doing my Nosey Parker post the other day. I totally forgot the bears! I think it's probably because even though you do sew them together, I tend not to think of them as sewing projects so much as a sort of 3D creation. Anyway, I promised a certain reader that I would rectify that, so here is my beary story of my proudest moments.

When I was at school we were lucky to live near a big teddy bear fair that latterly took place twice a year that was pretty much just up the road from our house. We went faithfully every time, and always adopted new hug members, however when I went to uni mum and dad moved, there weren't any fairs nearby, and my bank account couldn't support a bear habit anyway! There was one tiny fair that appeared just after I finished uni in East Kilbride, and I was determined to visit. I blew my entire budget on a pattern and bear makings for a fairly small bear (at 9"), and then was scared to cut into it, having spent what was then a lot of money to me, on something I didn't want to screw up. Eventually one day, a couple of years later I bit the bullet and went for it, and Oracle was born. So here he is, my very first bear:

Over the next few years I tried a number of different patterns by different designers, and when I was in South Africa I was lucky enough to live near a shop that actually sold all things beary, and the owner's mum (who always manned the shop at weekends when I was there) persuaded me to try designing my own pattern. With the help of Ted Menten's Teddy Bear Studio book, I came up with a pattern of my own, but it was 2 years later before I tried to make him. Here's Spike, my very first design:

It would be fair to say he's a little different from Oracle, but he was the forerunner to M&M, who was nominated for a BBAA the following year (for those that weren't around to read the back story, those are 'cookie crumbs' down him after he ate the heart shaped box of cookies):

I haven't entered another competition since, but I think my other proudest moment was mastering double neck joints and jointed mid-limbs which first appeared on Bearacht, the aging process, that I applied to Edwood and Woodward, and trapunto toes, which first appeared on Bunch, who was also my first bunny:

Hope you enjoyed my beary tour :o)

Over At The Other Place

2012-01-22T00:03:00.000Z

So there I was, sitting here minding my own business, when I felt a sharp little dig in the ribs. I looked down to see a very disgruntled small bear, who was extremely displeased that I had not published his blog post about Christmas yet... oops! Here is round one anyway, there will be more to follow next week from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Charming Friday

2012-01-21T00:19:00.000Z

I love fabric swaps, especially charm swaps (5" squares for the uninitiated). For a relatively small outlay, you get a huge range of what are effectively good sized scraps that you can then use in a variety of projects. I have been particularly addicted to rainbow charm swaps, so when Emily said she was running a Somewhere Over The Rainbow charm swap, I jumped right in. To both rounds...

For round 1 I got red and chose a red dot, Montage by Michele D'Amore for Benartex:

For round 2 I got purple, and chose this Lunch Box print from Michael Miller. I'd originally planned for another purple, but I couldn't find it in Mandors where I'd got it before Christmas :o/

These are now chopped up and packaged up ready to be posted off to Emily.

I've also just received the charms from the Spoonflower I Spy Swap that the girls at Crafterhours organised. It took a good bit longer than a regular fabric swap, since Spoonflower print your fabric to order, and there were a couple of printing errors that required reprints. 56 of us each chose 2 prints, and they were all sent to US addresses, meaning the 6 of us internationals had a buddy to cut for us. Elizabeth was kind enough to be my buddy :o) Anyway, here they all are spread out, 112 different charms:

They are now all rather anally arranged by a whole bunch of categories with as wild subjects as 'cartoon foods' and 'childlike animals'. It will make it easier on me though the next time I need a scrap for something :o)

Nosey Parker In The Neighbourhood Post 3 - The Sewing Edition

2012-01-19T22:50:00.000Z

It's time for another round of Nosey Parker In The Neighbourhood with Kat over at Diary Of A Flutter.Kat

This round is all about our sewing...

1) How long have you been sewing? Are you a first generation sewer or was the knowledge handed down to you? Basically tell us about your journey...

Hmm, well I can remember doing embroidery when I was little as presents for the grandmothers for Christmas/birthdays, and doing a couple that are still around my parents' house. I can also remember breaking my mum's machine out a couple of times, and sewing a somewhat tent-like pinafore dress to wear to school when I was in 6th form. When I went to uni I inherited my gran's old machine, which I used to churn out a whole pile of fleece garments for various people while I was at uni but it was on its last legs, so when it developed a rather bad fabric munching habit, it was retired for good. I sewed a number of bears by hand over the next few years, and then I got a proper machine, Baby Brother, in November 2009 so that I could sew up the larger bears faster than by hand.

Last April/May I went looking for patterns for clothes for the bears and for a friend's daughter's Bitty Baby, stumbled across Sew Mama Sew at giveaway time, and found a whole new world of sewing in a variety of blogs. I think it would be fair to say this latest foray, by far the most serious one, has been going for about 8 months, and I got a new machine, Big Brother, at the start of October, to enable me to conquer bigger and more complex projects.

For the knowledge inheritance part, my mum does a lot of embroidery and knitting, but I only remember her using her sewing machine on hey-days and holidays roughly once every 5 years or so, so the machine sewing has been pretty much self taught (not least because the newer 2 machines have a whole range of things that neither of the first 2 I ever used actually had on them!) Although I inherited my gran's machine, I don't ever remember her actually using it!

2 of my babies, Big Brother and Baby Brother

2) Where do you sew?

Although I have a flatmate, he lives in his room, so what is officially the living room/dining room is mine, all mine! I have my sewing area set up at one end of it, with the sofa in the middle, and then the computer and TV unit are at the other end. After the grand new year tidy, it's actually still pretty clean, although I need to make some thread catchers for my cutting table and for beside the sewing machine.

3) What does your sewing room/area look like today in it's real state. Take a picture of it if possible and show it to us real :o)

This is what my area looks like now, pretty much identical to the post-Christmas ones, although with some more fabric on the shelves!

The cutting table, which is pretty clear, just my charms from the Spoonflower swap on the corner and the 2 pattern pieces from the SHQ QAL that don't actually belong there:

My sewing table. You can see a roll of fusible pelmet weight interfacing I bought for a project I hope to work on this weekend, and the other contents of my last parcels to drop through the door on the right hand corner of the table (the Echo line, waiting to be refolded and put away) In case you're wondering what's under the table, that's a load of my scrapbooking stuff (which I can't wait to put in the loft when that's sorted out)

Finally the fabric shelves, and the ironing board still set up from last night. At the end of the board you can see the 2 fabrics I bought for Emily's Somewhere Over The Rainbow charm swap, and some fusible woven interfacing I grabbed at the same time

4) What is the first thing that you made which you were really proud of? Show us pics of your favourite project.

Hmm, well not counting those original embroideries (only one of which I'd like to admit to!) as I have no photos of them, and discounting the mad fleece hat/gilet years, I think my dresses that I made for the SONP to take with me on holiday were my first really proud moments:

I had to completely adjust the bodice on both of these, since my bottom half is several clothing sizes smaller than my top half in pattern terms, and then my bust apparently wasn't quite the shape the pattern writers expected either, because both bodices originally gaped a lot above the bust. Although the dresses are actually from the same pattern pack, the gingham one is princess line, and the halterneck one was originally one solid front piece with darts, however, in order to make the halterneck one fit, I had to convert it to princess line too. It was a good job I started with the gingham one, because I could re-use the side front parts from that to work out where to adjust the halterneck. They're not absolutely perfect, but they are close enough for me!

In quilty terms, I was proud of my first (and thus far only) quilt that I did in the ATS QAL, and which was the very first thing to go through Big Brother after he was acquired, when I quilted it.

5) Do you always stick to the "rules" when you sew, or are you more improvisationally minded?

Rules?! Err, well, one of the great things about being self taught, is that you don't know that there are rules to break. Of course there may be one or two that would be useful to learn, but for the most part, other than that 1/4" seam thing in quilting, I tend to improvise as I go. I can, and do, follow patterns, but I will admit that they rarely actually get completed start to finish exactly as scripted. I pretty much only use patterns for clothes and bags (and in fact am heading away from bag ones that I haven't created now), but I did use the ATS QAL one as scripted for my first quilt so that it actually looked like it was meant to ;o) I have, however, been pattern testing for a friend for a couple of bags recently, and that's actually been quite cathartic, since for once you get to tell the pattern writer when they're talking mince :oD (sorry Sara... ;o) )

Now pop on over and have a nosey around everyone else's sewing rooms :o)

Work In Progress Wednesday & Weigh In Wednesday

2012-01-18T23:18:00.000Z

Welcome to the first of the dual purpose Wednesday posts. Firstly Lee's Work In Progress Wednesday, and secondly Erin's Weigh In Wednesday, which is really a work in progress on me rather than the sewing pile!

For the sewing WIP part:

Completed:

My only finish for the week was the Kindle cover for my dad:

In Progress:

I got blocks 3 and 4 of the SHQ QAL done last night, and the 5th block done tonight. Now that we've progressed into the more 'advanced' blocks we're moving to one a week rather than 2. I'm not overly thrilled with all my points, but this is a learning exercise...

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

I also got another x and + block done for the swap while I was at it:

To Be Worked On This Week:

Pattern test # 2
Bag started at new year

For the Weigh In part:

Ugh! Okay, I knew I wanted to shift some weight after what has basically been bored eating at work, and some unwise choices at home in the past few months. About 3 years ago I lost 3 1/2 stone (50 lbs/22 kg for those on other measuring systems). For the most part I was good for the next year and a half, and then I ended up working mad crazy hours for about 8 months at work where I wasn't getting home to make all my breakfasts/lunches/dinners, and I put some back on again. I then lost a chunk of it, but as I say, back a few months, unwise choices, and we'll leave it at that!

Weight loss goal: 26 lbs / 11.5 kg

Week's loss: 0 - just started

Total loss: 0

Distance to goal: 26 lbs / 11.5 kg

Exercise done: Well I ran up the escalator at the station this morning (about 40 steps running) and trudged up the stairs in the office to my floor twice (120 steps x 2) I don't think walking down them works quite the same! Plus I went on a lunchtime ~~route march~~ walk. I have also dug out the Wii Fit and The Biggest Loser so Bob and Gillian can shout at me again, but I'll be doing that on the days when I don't have a lunchtime sojourn.

Total time exercising: 45 mins (well I only started today!)

Sorry Erin, I'm not posting photies, no-one to take them (and no, I'm not setting up the self timer on the camera ;o) ) Maybe at the end I'll post one...

Linking up to:

Resolved To Sew 2012

2012-01-17T23:57:00.000Z

You will have perhaps noticed that at the start of the year I didn't rush out with a list of resolutions. I am not a person that can readily sit down on the 1st of January and say 'I'm going to lose weight, rush to the gym, learn to dance the fandango and master the art of balancing a ball on the end of my nose'. I have to want to do things for a better reason than 'It's the start of a new year and everyone else is doing it' (which is, of course, what makes the gyms unbearably crowded for the first month or two of the year!)

Anywho, Ali, at Very Berry Handmade, decided to give out an incentive for coming up with some sewing resolutions, and you know what? The prospect of possibly winning one of the 11 prizes has perhaps galvanised me a little more in the resolution department... (I'm after the £40 voucher from Fancy Moon in case you're wondering ;o) )

This happens to coincide nicely with a task I've had on my to do list now for ooooh, a week and a half or so, so here goes:

Attempt to tackle each of the projects that's on my 'To Do For Me' list
Definitely tackle every project on my 'To Do For Others' list
Try not to keep adding to the 'To Do For Others' list with quite so much alacrity (see next point, I'm not really being mean!)
Attempt to get stock built up for some local craft fairs
Learn to sew curves
Learn to free motion quilt
Start my Christmas pressie making in about June!

I'll be adding those 2 lists as tabs to the blog shortly, once I've completely collated them.

So what are your resolutions? If you have sewy ones, you too can be in with a chance to win with an extra entry in Ali's extravaganza. And if anyone's learning to do the fandango or balance a ball on their nose, they can teach me next year...

The Time Has Come...

2012-01-17T00:31:00.002Z

The Walrus said, 'To talk of many things.' Oh, wait, you didn't come here to discuss shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbages and kings.

Okay, the time has come for the FTLOS swap partners to be assigned out. It's oh so exciting, and the start of 2 months of teasing and breathless anticipation. We have all sworn on pain of death (or something like that) that we will not reveal who our partners are until they have received their goodies, so I'm warning you all now there will be 2 months of teasers, and you'll just have to put up with it!

Now, I think I alluded, in a previous post to the fact that I have some rather mad re-pins on Pinterest, but if someone could illuminate me as to why this pin should have been re-pinned 46 freaking times in the last week or so, I'd be grateful, I mean, is there some kind of mad cake pop making competition somewhere? And is it the bees or the burgers everyone's after? Who knows?!

Source: bakerella.com via Katy on Pinterest

Anywho, on that pondersome thought, I bid you all a good night :oD

Happy Mail, New Creations And An Apology

2012-01-16T00:02:00.000Z

Whew, what a busy week! Between busy days at work, making the super secret project and creating part of my dad's birthday pressie in the evenings, going out to dinner on Wednesday night with friends, and spending the weekend with the family at mum and dad's to celebrate my dad's 60th and aunt's 69th (both tomorrow) I've not had a chance to catch up with everything I wanted to! I apologise now if I normally read your blog, but haven't commented in the last few days, I was trying to play catch up tonight but Windows updater and Kaspersky's huge update managed to thwart me again - argh!

Anywho, if you recall last week I got my first parcel from Julie, and that its partner had gone walkabout on a scenic route. Well, I got to pick parcel #2 up on Thursday morning. It was as beautifully wrapped as the last one, I just didn't stop to take a photo this time, sorry ;o)

First up is an orphan piece of Pear Tree, plus 3 1/2 yard cuts of Rendezvous, and a couple of charm squares Julie generously threw in as well:

And the last piece of the magic parcel, a fat quarter bundle of the entire Moda's Half Moon Modern bundle (although the big yellow dots seem to be hiding behind the chevrons!) This has been billed as a great stash builder line, and I can imagine a lot of uses for it, but all of it's been folded neatly and put away for now...

My other parcel on Thursday was my prize from Pink Chalk Fabrics (well, the gift certificate I won with a weensy bit of a contribution from me ;o) ) The AMH voiles and Kokka Trefl prints were on sale, and since I had about $5 change on the gift certificate I added 2 of Melody Miller's new line... There's 1/2 yard of each, and I can see each pair of fabrics with very different uses! They are also folded neatly away at the moment though...

When I wasn't out working, collecting parcels, stuffing my face, partying or finishing off projects I'm not allowed to share with you, I whipped up a cover for the new toy I bought my dad for his birthday. I was hunting through my stash for the best fabric, and came across this home decor weight print I'd bought in a moving sale last summer. It's an orphan print, as I seem to remember it was on a table with other orphans, but I discovered just underneath it a nice Clarke and Clarke light green polka dot which matched perfectly.

Pretty much all the covers I've seen have been ones where the Kindle slides into a sleeve, but I wanted one that opened up and could hold other things. I will admit now (oh the shame!) that my cover is *whisper* bought. Yep, I got it before I got into sewing, and you know, much as I love to sew, I don't quite need to recreate something that functions perfectly well ;o) Anywho, mine opens up with a hinge at the top, but the pockets in it aren't really designed for anything more than a card to slide into, so I decided to go with an idea I had pinned last week and have it open like a regular book, but I had to completely redesign from scratch to get a pocket in there, and to get it the right size (since the new ones are smaller than the originals), and get some substantial elastic like the bits in my cover... Well, I kept that it opened like a book and the velcro closing from the pinned one and that was about it lol

It's now being charged and is ready and waiting for its first compendium of books :oD

Hope everyone's been having a great week/weekend, and I hope to have caught up tomorrow!

Work In Progress Wednesday

2012-01-11T23:26:00.000Z

Well it's been a busy little week here at the Thistle Patch (you know, as opposed to my usual quiet, sedate weeks ;o) ) The WSCMQG has a website, it's now up on the Modern Quilt Guild main site, and they've Tweeted and Facebooked us too! Lets hope it brings the members rolling in :o) I'm already expecting 6 or 7 people at the first meeting!

My only sewing finish of the week is, alas, a super secret until September or so, so sorry, only a teeny sneak peek of it:

In Progress:

I got my first week's blocks done for the Sew Happy Quilt QAL:

And my first Japanese x and + block done:

I also chopped up the paper templates for my rainbow cushion, but the super secret project finish had to take precedence progress-wise because of a mailing deadline.

I have this weekend coming down at my mum and dad's for my dad's 60th birthday weekend (and can I just say that one of my friends/colleagues that I was out for dinner with tonight was totally depressed to find he was older than my dad lol Sorry Theo!) I'm hoping to get mum fitted for her skirt, and the skirt actually sewn when I'm down there, as it's such a quick project, so that would be another tick off the FAL list :o) I have one small project to do tomorrow before I head down, but I'll share it when I get back.

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced:

I'm Versatile...

2012-01-11T00:39:00.000Z

No really, I am, and I know that 'cos Nicke said so ;o)

I now have to tell you seven things, so lets explore how versatile I can be 7 different creative ways...

1. So today I officially started up the West Central Scotland Modern Quilt Guild. You know, as you do on an average day... I was thinking about this before Christmas, or rather, I was thinking it would be nice if there was one, and since there wasn't, I rounded up my local blogging quilt buddies, did an 'arm up your back' persuasion thing (although really Lynz nearly leapt through the screen with excitement, I think she could have tried to kid on, even briefly, that she wasn't into it to hold onto some dignity ;o) ). If anyone wants to come and play, we'll be meeting at Cushion and Cake on Old Dumbarton Road in Glasgow on Wednesday 25th January at 7:30 pm. Even better, Pamela says she'll make lots of cake for us!

2. I counted up all the QALs, other ALs, swaps, bees, and other sewy commitments today... I will be making quilt blocks in many sizes, shapes, colours and styles, I will also be making a 'mystery item' in the FLTOS swap, plus 4 bags, some pouches and a few other things for the business, taking a curves class and making a skirt for my mum all in the next couple of months. That actually might not be versatility so much as sheer insanity...

3. My pinterest boards have 2 main themes, sewing things and cooking/baking. I pin far more creative things, but on days I catch up with the few cooking boards in my blog feed, invariably those pins get repinned at about 5 times the rate of any creative ones! As for the people pinning? Nope, no clue who about 95% of them are lol

4. For my birthday in a few weekends' time, I get to spend time with my dad and great friend Lee (who I made a mascot bear for last year) doing HDR photography in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (it's important to distinguish it from the Mersey Funnel, aka the Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral, google it, you'll see why ;o) ) . While I've had a play with HDR before, this will be with one of the big guns in HDR photography, so will be very interesting.

5. In March, I get to go on my annual photographic holiday/piss-up long weekend in Ireland with a bunch of very good friends. The last 5 years have been in Doolin in County Clare, this year we're moving up the coast a bit to Connemara, the photos that I've seen on line of which are fab. We'll be staying right by the seaside on the Atlantic coast (although I may forego going for a paddle at that time of year!) This year, when I get back, I swear I will actually process the photos. I will also process the photos from last year, and my holiday in Provence last summer, and the summer before that, and my 2 trips to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the last few months. I will, I promise! I want to get the photos on my site updated, or at least added to. I will also have a return of Jack's blog to record the bear's eye view. I'm sure he can't wait to reacquaint himself with the Guinness and Jamiesons...

6. In June I get to spend the Jubilee weekend in London with an amazing group of people at the Fat Quarterly Retreat. Can. not. wait. I have booked in at the Bates' Motel, worked out with my boss to take the Tuesday off to recover, and I'm mentally packing my bags already!

7. In October, I'm afraid I have to have an OMG moment! For my main holiday this year (those were only weekends above) I will be going to the US, to attend Sewing Summit. After that I'm getting to finally take a photography trip I've been wanting to do for about 4 years, and I'm hopping in a campervan to hit the Grand Canyon, Vegas, and a number of other national parks in California, Arizona (to all my beary friends that love to meet up in Sedona, what do you think, are you free? I can bring a bear :oD), Colorado and Utah (Linda, I'll be driving through the top corner of New Mexico too) Guess what's even better? I think I'm going to get a road trip buddy too! I'm pretty sure I've sucked Laura into this as well (although we'll try not to Thelma and Louise off the Grand Canyon, okay? Not least because it's pretty early on in our tour ;o) ). She has warned me about the last time she booked a trip like this with someone that the other someone had some slightly unfortunate occurrences that prevented them from going, but I'm going to be there come hell or high water. Jack will also be tagging along, 'cos he needs to get his photos in too, of course!

So how was that, versatile enough a list?

And now for nominees going forward. Oh dear, I suck at this part, trying to work out who may be reading, and who would actually care! So here's who I'm hitting up:

Susan at Canadian Abroad - we decided last night that we must have been separated at birth, but I got the height and she got the hussy ;o)

Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting - Susan's partner in crime, along with Hadley, for a whole new swap, that I actually managed to resist (well, for this round anyway) for fear of my head exploding...

You're Awesome!

2012-01-09T23:51:00.001Z

Julie, over at The Intrepid Thread, has declared today 'You are awesome and I am too' day, and Di, from Random Thoughts Do Or "Di", has bought right into this, and posted her son's Christmas song for his nieces and nephews "I'm Awesome", which I thought I'd share with you here:

So to celebrate the awesomeness of the day, I thought it was the perfect day to post about my Pay It Forward gifts.

I am actually in TWO PIF rounds, firstly, with Annabella at Life's Rich Pattern, where I was lucky to jump in quickly 20 mins after she posted, and secondly with Scott at Blue Nickel Studios (yeah, I couldn't believe there hadn't been hundreds leaping on that one by the time I came across it a couple of hours after he posted it!)

Now here's the rules (copied from Scott's blog):

1. I’ll make something handmade for the first 6 people who comment on this post (as I'm in two rounds). What I make will be a surprise and will arrive to you when you least expect it. Doesn’t everyone love a surprise?

2. I have 365 days to make and deliver it to you. But there’s a little catch, to get a handmade giftie from me, you have to play too! This means you take the pledge to send something handmade to 3 of your blog readers. It doesn’t have to be a quilt, just something handmade! Easy right?

3. As stated in #2 you have to have a blog.

4. Once you comment here, you have to post about Pay it Forward on your blog and keep it going!

Sounds easy right? So get commenting :o)

FTLOS Swap

2012-01-09T00:18:00.000Z

Okay, I might have officially lost my mind, but I have signed up for the 'For The Love Of Solids' swap on Flickr. It's not that I don't think I'll have time to do it (I have until mid-March to make/post it) but I signed up and then had near heart failure when I realised that this is a swap that has some serious quilting royalty in it. I mean I kind of knew they would be there, as I'd admired all the stuff on their blogs in the last round, but it was only after I said 'count me in' that I realised that I might actually have to making something for one of them - EEEK! Breathing deeply...

Anywho, here's my inspiration mosaic that I put up there. I realise that a lot of these aren't actually made with only solids, but I wanted to give an idea of techniques and things I liked as much as colours etc. I apparently freaked Sarah out with the number of circles in here, so she's probably up there in Shetland, sacrificing a few goats to the quilting gods in the hopes that she doesn't get lumbered with me ;o)

1. DQS10 Finished!, 2. Whirling Dervish Mini, 3. Cacophony of Color - Bella Solids Parade, 4. Fun and Colorful , 5. Mini Quilt 1, 6. AMH Confetti Pillow, 7. Pebbles, 8. Drunkards Path for Amber aka One Shabby Chic - PTS 6, 9. Penelope's Star Quilt, 10. Echino Squared, 11. Terrain quilt top, 12. Should I add the birds, partner?, 13. KCMQG Robert Kaufman "No Prints Allowed Challenge", 14. KCMQG Robert Kaufman "No Prints Allowed Challenge", 15. Seeing Squares quilt16. Not available

Now I've had a few of you bemoaning the fact that you have huge stashes of fabric to use before you get to buy more, so Katie, over at Swim, Bike, Quilt! has come up with a list of all the Quilt Alongs that are going on right now - there must be at least ONE thing you can use up that stash in :oD

Fat Quarter Blogger's Choice Challenge

2012-01-08T23:58:00.000Z

Okay, you will have to excuse the 2 posts for the day, but I really needed these to be separate! My friend Laura, over at Quokka Quilts, is having the most amazing giveaway. For those of you who are quilters and familiar with the Fat Quarter Shop, you will know that they regularly feature 'Blogger's Choice' Bundles, where a famous blogger choices a selection of 12 prints and 3 solids from the entire shop, which is then sold in a fat quarter bundle. Laura came up with the idea that we, the little people, should also get a chance to do this, and asked the Fat Quarter shop to sponsor a giveaway whereby the best selection of fabric is made into a half yard bundle and sent to the blogger who has created it. In fact, since it has since proved so popular, they're actually going to send out bundles to the 3 best choices. Amazing, right?

I spent a ~~ridiculous amount of time~~ couple of hours coming up with a bundle, but then they sold out of 2 of my choices, and the replacements just weren't doing it for me, it all seemed a bit blah, so I started again last night. They had also sold out of the one that I wanted to start with, but then I discovered that they had new fabric in since last week, so win some, lose some! Anywho, here's my bundle:

I went for kind of whimsical in bold basic colours, wouldn't this be fun to play with? Especially the 'how to make a paper hat' fabric :oD

This is my selection:

Adventures with Alice Lipstick Allover Characters Yardage SKU# 11458-121
Woodland Red Home Sweet Home Yardage SKU# 30404-30
Children at Play Cotton Blue Rockets Yardage SKU# DC5148-BLUE-D
Remix Red Argyle Plaid Yardage SKU# 10392-3
Treasures and Tidbits Blue Double Dots Yardage SKU# 10992-4
Floursack Blue Vine Flower Yardage SKU# 33079-3
Adventures with Alice Screamin' Yellow Blooms Yardage SKU# 11461-140
Annie's Farm Stand Green Annie's Big Dot Yardage SKU# 10098-Green
Floursack Green Round Leaf Floral Yardage SKU# 33078-6
Children at Play Cotton Yellow Making Paper Hats Yardage SKU# DC5147-YELL-D
Folk Heart Yellow Gingham Yardage SKU# 30396-50
Woodland Olive Flying Fairies Yardage SKU# 30403-60

Pure Elements Linen White Solid Yardage SKU# PE-408
Kona Cotton Royal Yardage SKU# K001-1314
Bella Solids Christmas Red Yardage SKU# 9900-16

I have, thus far, held off on buying this, but ya know, if I don't win, I may think about it!

I Have Mail!

2012-01-07T21:38:00.000Z

Yay, the postie came through for me! Well, the guys at the sorting office did anyway. When I added it up, I realised I actually had 9 parcels out there, as 2 of my purchases had had to be split between 2 priority envelopes, plus I'd forgot a couple of swaps. Anyway, I got 4 packages today, would you like to see what I got?

Now, granted, the first one doesn't look terribly exciting, but I promise it will do in about September/October (and I'm sorry you have to wait that long!)

Next was a parcel from Julie at The Intrepid Thread. Isn't this beautifully wrapped? And there was a thank you card included too. Julie has such a fab selection of fabrics, and great bargains, and she's happy to do you a custom listing to combine postage (this is actually 1 of 2 parcels sent the same day, the other is still swimming it would seem!). She often has great deals and giveaways on her blog too, so check it out! I'll be doing a tutorial for her newsletter later in the year, which I'm really excited about :o)

Onto the goodies in that beautiful parcel. First is a half yard bundle of Moroccan Mirage in the Marrakech colourway, which is at 30% off right now. Ever since I saw this used by Annabella (who coincidentally happens to live in Marrakech), in her Red City quilt, I've been tempted by this. The colours remind me of the ochre fields in Provence, so now I need to think up a big, bold way to display them. I don't think I can bear to chop into the complex patterns and reassemble them, as that kind of irks me for some reason - I don't mind 2 different ones sewn together, just not 2 bits of the same fabric unless it would line up perfectly. Yep, I'm entirely irrational ;o)

The second part was a half yard bundle of Pear Tree by Thomas Knauer. I can't see this as a quilt for some reason, but I can see it as bags, so I'm hoping to come up with a few combinations soon :o)

Next was a parcel from the Remnant House sale, 4 half metre cuts from Moda's Tailor Made line by Cosmo Cricket, plus a half metre of Makower scissors. I thought these would be great stash builders, especially for paper piecing patterns, as they often seem to pop up.

Next was an enormous parcel from Jody at The Fabric Shoppe. Jody will also do custom listings for combined shipping, which brings me to a rather embarrassing tale. I had actually shopped for this during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, and about halfway through December, when the 2nd other parcel I'd ordered had arrived, I was getting a little concerned about its whereabouts, so I went and checked on Etsy. I discovered, to my horror, that although I'd gone all the way through the Paypal bit for it, I hadn't actually clicked that last vital button to place the order. I was MORTIFIED! However she had a) kept the listing and b) was very understanding about it, thankfully! It then got caught in the Christmas post, but I was very glad to rescue it this morning.

I should explain that all of these were meant to be stash builders, so there's not really any collections of lines here, just bargains in the sale! First 4 half yard cuts, including Riley Blake, Robert Kaufman and Amy Butler dots (of all sizes!) and some trees from Just Wing It by Moda.

These are all fat quarters, there are dots from Robert Kaufman, Moda, Riley Blake and Michael Miller in there, along with some Cosmo Cricket 1934 numbers, Caleb Grey robots, a Tula Pink Frog Prince, Riley Blake mittens, Ann Kelle zig zags and Argyle prints, an Alexander Henry Hanging Around, Riley Blake circles and a Riley Black Sew Much Fun print.

Last but not least (and if you're counting parcels, this actually came with the interfacing), this is the 2nd round of the Echino swap that Sara over at Sew Sweetness organised. These are all 10" squares from the latest release, plus a few older ones to make up the numbers.

After leaving the sorting office and going to Tesco, the tip, to meet up with a friend for a bit, and organise a location for a new venture, I may or may not have spent a chunk of the afternoon sorting and folding and fondling fabric ;o)

Now if you'll just excuse me, I've a windmill to assemble...

January 1st Week Sew Happy Quilt Blocks Done

2012-01-06T23:43:00.002Z

Okay, everyone must have willed the postie along, because he brought me a 'we missed you' card today. I'm really hoping to get up there to the sorting office and find a bundle of parcels tomorrow, so can you all keep your fingers crossed for me again please?

In the meantime, I got the first 2 blocks for the Sew Happy Quilt QAL done.

First up is the woven block:

And then the snowball block:

And whilst I was at it, I whipped up the first of my blocks for the Japanese x and + block swap:

If you want to get in on the x and + block swap, signs ups are tomorrow, although feel free to get some in before then! You can make blocks in multiples of 5, and get the corresponding number back. I've decided that for everything I sew, I'll make a block with the same fabric, which should be a bit quicker than trying to cut everything for them and making a pile at one time, although I may do that in a few weeks if I need to make up numbers!

Hope you're all having a fab Friday! I'm now off to design my 2 bee blocks for the month...

I'm linking up to:

Happy Mail Day!

2012-01-05T22:09:00.000Z

I got a couple of nice things through the post today, along with an offer for a BA credit card, a reminder from National Geographic that my subscription expires in about 5 months, and my Graze box (yum!)

Firstly, Benta offered all her readers the chance to have a lovely bag made by her from her Aboriginal fabric she just brought back with her from Oz. Please note the text in the circled bit which was under the envelope flap ;o) (for the hard sighted, it says 'Hadley's Turquoise')

I got this lovely wee bag, a key chain and a nice card, thank you Benta :o)

The other parcel may or may not have been part of someone's big birthday pressie, but it needs new wrappings for now...

I'm now sitting waiting for quite the pile of fabric to be delivered, so please Mr Postman!

Work In Progress Wednesday

2012-01-04T22:44:00.000Z

Yay WIP Wednesday is back! Boo, it's back to the day job. Oh well, you win some, you lose some ;o)

So for my finishes this week:

My tote for the Finish Along (we'll ignore the fact that I've since discovered one handle is twisted, I had a nightmare trying to get the tension right on that bit for some reason!):

Granny's Christmas scarf:

Currently in progress:

Mum's skirt, for which I got the muslin done tonight, so it's ready for the fitting in 2 weekend's time:

To Start This Week:

My rainbow windmill cushion! It's my reward to myself for getting the above 3 done :oD

The Sew Happy Geek QAL - the first 2 blocks are posted now:

The Japanese x and + blocks for the swap.

Linking up to Lee over at Freshly Pieced :o)

First Finish Along Finish...

2012-01-03T21:34:00.000Z

Now don't hate me, but as I had my last day off before trudging back to the day job tomorrow (and given the 100mph winds we've had, I really may be trudging as the trains have all been screwed up) I thought I would get some of the FAL things done now, so I could play this weekend. I've actually nearly finished the tote, and will have done later, but I ~~couldn't be bothered~~ haven't got as far as sewing on the handles yet, the rest is done.

So here's my first finish, granny's scarf. The purple was described on the label in Mandors as jumbo cord, but it's actually kind of lots of wee lozenge shapes. On the outside is a brushed cotton with wee blue flowers, both of which I hope will appeal to her tastes:

Now I'm off to add tote handles and get a skirt pattern worked out...

Finish Along 2012, Quarter 1

2012-01-02T21:17:00.001Z

Okay, so hands up all of you with a project or two outstanding at the moment, you know, the thing you started and then got distracted by something newer or shinier. Come on now, don't be shy! Ahem, you at the back there, yes, you, stop trying to kid us on that you are entirely up to date in your creative life! That's better, thank you.

Anyway, recognising that many of us may start the year with resolutions along the lines of 'I must finish that crocheted plant pot holder I started for Great Auntie Mildred 4 years ago last Michelmas term', Rhonda, over at Quilter In The Gap, has started a Finish Along. This will run in quarters, and at the start of each quarter you sign up with a list of whatever projects you hope to get done that quarter, and at the end link up what you did to be in with a chance to win some prizes. As well as participating, I'm writing a tutorial for it for one of the tutorial weeks planned, and my finished item will then become a prize for the next quarter. I'll leave you guessing as to what it might be (as that's what I'm doing right now...)

With this all in mind, I gathered up all my UFOs (UnFinished Objects) and did an identity parade. When Rhonda announced this initially, I thought I would be scraping around for things, and then I discovered I actually had 13 of the things while doing the grand reorganisation - oops!

Here's my complete list:

First up, granny's scarf. This was meant to be part of her Christmas pressie, but I forgot to pack and take Little Brother down to mum and dad's, so it didn't get made then. I'll get it done in time for dad's birthday weekend in a couple of weeks when I'll see her, and I can get photos of her bird mobile too.

Skirt for mum. This was requested back in September with 'There's no hurry' but I'm feeling a bit guilty now! I'm hoping I can get a muslin for it done for the birthday weekend so I can try it on her, then the final thing should be quick and easy...

You may be forgiven for having a 'WTH?!' moment here. This is actually a dress (can't you tell? ;o) ) I got this fabric back during the Royal Wedding weekend with the intention of making a shirred sun dress with it. Guess what, Little Brother doesn't shir :o/ So I tried to sew the shirring elastic in as the lower thread, and then to pull it tighter by hand. Umm, yes, well, that turned out not to be a go-er really when I discovered that it sometimes got caught in the upper stitching - argh! And so it was abandoned until I worked out what to do with it next. I will need to unpick what's there - I'm not really looking forward to that, but I'm assured that Big Brother can shir, so I'm going to get them to show me how when I finally take my lessons that came with him in a few weeks!

This is the constituent parts of a bugbear, the reverse colours of my birthday giveaway bear from last year, and started about the same time. Alas, the day job rather intervened, and so it sat.

Then we have poor old panda girl. I had something of a crisis of direction when I came to her feet, so she was set aside, and hasn't been picked up since August. I must get back to her this year!

This is a combined set of charm squares from both rainbow charm swaps I took part in last year. Amazingly, considering there were 168 different possible squares, only 2 were repeated (and 1 removed entirely because I really don't like spiders!), so there's a note on top to remind me to add back in 3 corresponding squares. I'm intending to make these into a stacked coins quilt.

Yep, it's that pile again! I really am going to get to that rainbow windmill block cushion soon... I've even picked out the inner colours now too.

This somewhat pathetic excuse for a jelly roll is in fact a bunch of strips of Provencal fabric I cut up for a log cabin quilt that I planned when I was there on holiday last summer. Life just intervened on this I think, but I hope to get to it this year.

Obviously I was having an optimistic summer as regards buying fabric to make quilts, although to be fair, I didn't expect at the time that August would be taken out of play more or less due to the day job. I bought these with the idea that I would use them in one of the many sampler QALs that were taking place over the summer, but I just couldn't work out where to start, and kept getting distracted with other easier things. I'm now planning to use them for Jenna's Sew. Happy. Quilt QAL

Now this is the tunic that's meant to go with the brown cord skirt I made last September. It became apparent though, that I wasn't going to have time to make it prior to the skirt's debut, and somehow I never got around to making it after that.

Last June I made a baby changing bag for my friend Erin, and had, in fact, intended to make 2 at once, with a view to selling the second one. Taking into account a goal to try and sell more bags this year, I'd better finish this one! I just hope I can remember what goes where, and what I ran out of that caused me to stop this one in the first place...

Embarrassingly I won this in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day in May last year. The Green Bag Lady send me one completed tote to give away, and the fabric to make myself one too (precut). I put the premade one into my gran's stocking, I really should get my own one done now!

When I fell in love with Pips last September, I discovered it was already becoming rarer to find, so I bought a couple of charm packs without any particular plan in mind. Then in late November/early December I had a bit of a brainwave in a meeting at work while looking at a projected spreadsheet and came up with a design. I then chopped up a bunch of white squares, plus some extra charms from some yardage I had, and got them all laid out one night. This is the pile, all neatly labelled with the block layout, row and column for each block. I've now got 4 blocks done on it, but haven't got to taking a photo yet.

Anyway, I have to pick some projects to be done by the end of this quarter, so I'm going for:

granny's scarf
mum's skirt
Jenna's QAL
the windmill cushion
the tote

I think that's achievable :o) Now if any of the rest of you would like to play, sign ups are open until Sunday here.

Fresh Sewing Day/Month/Year

2012-01-01T22:49:00.000Z

As it's the first day of the new year, I thought I'd go for a round up of the last year rather than the last month for the Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts. My years started off crazy busy at the day job, and for the first 3 1/2 months I could barely think straight in my rare hours off (I was working 70+ hour weeks), so the year didn't start off terribly creatively, however the project ended, and I was released back to a normal work schedule and things picked up from there!

First up, my beary makes of the year:

Sage was my giveaway bear back in February. Theslow was a commission from my dear friends Lee and Eifion for a mascot for their photography company. Edward, Woodward and Maple we all done for the bear fair at Rivington. Bunch was my Easter bunny, now living on my friend Jo's sofa. Glinda was made for the Return To Oz blog party (a teeeensy bit late!). Hoagy was a commission, and Jimney Thistle was created for the raffle at the GYTBE, both arriving in November

For my next trick, it was doll clothes. Now this all came about when I was trying to dress Glinda, and my friend asked me to make some doll clothes for her daughter's Bitty Baby whilst I was at it! Sew Mama Sew has a lot to answer for really, because it was at this point I found hundreds of other sewing blogs and leapt in with both feet making things I'd never done before!

Then, it was time for big girls' clothes:

I took part in the Summer Of No Pants where I made the polkadot and Riley Blake skirts, as well as the gingham and batik dresses. I also made my mum a dress for Christmas (in September) and myself a skirt that I've worn numerous times (but it a bit big round the waist!)

Then there was the oddest request of the year. The ruff...

And then there were the swaps...

First up on the swap front was my very first mug rug, which I totally forgot to take a photo of and blog about (I hadn't quite got the hang of the swap thing at that point ;o) ) Isn't it funny that Jan the recipient, uses her cutting mat as a background too though? Then it was the Fluffy Sheep Quilting Mug Rug And Goodie Swap followed by the Sew Happy Geek Table Runner And Wall Hanging Swap. I got lovely things back in both of these, so glad I found all these Flickr swaps through my bloggy friends! I also joined in on 5 fabric swaps (well, 6 really, but one's still in the post). These turned out to be a fabulous was of building up small pieces of fabric for lots of projects, and I've been really diving into them of late. The 2 rainbows were combined, and duplicates removed, and that pile is destined for a stacked coins style quilt for me. The rest have found their way into one or two other things already, and I can see lots more uses in their future. The Echino one was especially fab though, as it's 10" squares, and by far the most affordable way to collect fabric from that line!

Then there were bags and purses:

I leapt into the Amy Butler Sew Along partway through the year, and got 7 of the patterns done (just realised I forgot one above, oops!). I also designed my own baby changing bag for my friend Erin, made from the best little scottie dog fabric. I also did a tutorial for a zippered pouch for Jenna, at Sew Happy Geek, made my first frame purse from a kit, and then designed my first one for a friend for her birthday.

After that were the pressies:

These included a clutch for my mum (missing from the last mosaic ;o) ), my very first quilt for my gran, made during the Across The Sea Quilt Along with Ellison Lane Quilts and Fairy Face Designs, a sewing kit made for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day in December, and for Christmas, cushions and a mug rug and hostess box for my gran, a scarf and a pincushion for my mum, and an iPod cover and wall hanging for my dad (I forgot to take a photo of granny's birds, doh!).

Finally, there were the Bee Blocks:

I joined 2 bees this year, Sew Bee Joyful, which started in September and Piece Bee With you, that started in October. I also contributed to a couple of charity quilts, Kind Stitches and Quilting For Kids.

Good grief, I was thinking this had been quite an unproductive year, but I think it's taken me longer to pull this post together than it did to make some of these things! I do have a few things outstanding though (ahem) so watch out for what will happen with them tomorrow...

Happy New Year!

A First On The Last

2011-12-31T20:18:00.000Z

I actually ventured into the newly created space earlier, and made my very first HSTs for a couple of blocks to send to Quilting For Kids. These are made using the 2 squares RST and cutting on the diagonals method, and I was very pleased to see the points are almost perfect. So there you go, I mastered a new technique on the last day of the year, it's never too late :o) Oh, and I'd just like to say that the bargain £100 Tefal iron that I got for £33 in the boxing day sale is working absolutely perfectly for seam pressing!

Happy new year all, hope you have a wonderful Hogmanay, and lang may yer lum reek...

New Year, New Sewing Area And A Little Winning

2011-12-31T00:53:00.000Z

I'm quite sure most of my colleagues are enjoying their days off work with their feet up, recovering from the excesses of Christmas, but for me, what I was most looking forward to was getting new storage for my sewing area and clearing it all up. I know, I need help and need to get out more, but really, it was a disaster! I wish I'd taken before pictures now, but I just didn't think about it - doh!

So it was that on Wednesday, having dropped my gran back at home, I hit Ikea, and oddly, despite the carpark being packed at 3:30, I was in and out again by 4... I came home with a new DVD tower (actually nothing to do with sewing, but I needed it in the reshuffle), an Expedit bookcase and one of the Trofast units with a selection of drawers. I spent part of Wednesday night building it (ignore the fact that I'd already driven 200 miles home in the pouring rain and horrendous rain, plus humphed all this stuff in from the car, down the long path and up the stairs to my flat) and then I finished building yesterday after I nipped into town for a few things in the morning.

There was much hauling out of fabric from its previous location (under my cutting table in what was becoming and increasing guddle) and sorting what would be going where. I did the big pieces yesterday and this morning I sorted all the scraps and fat quarters. Then I did much more cleaning, and I hoovered more thread up than I care to think about. I've sat here this evening admiring it, and read some blogs and a magazine rather than create anything new and make it messy again lol Still, I'm feeling all geared up to hitting it tomorrow with a vengeance!

And here it is, looking at my cutting table from the hall doorway. The tall towers hold DVDs, the CD racks hold my scraps. The white one holds the bigger pieces roughly fat quarter sized, or still foldable that way, and the black one has the smaller bits, however they're all split into zip lock bags, 2 colours per cubby hole. I thought about setting them free, but with only 7 cubbies, I couldn't have done every colour separately and my anal side objected ;o) I still have to hang my rulers up, but I need to think on that how best to do it. Under the table I have a bin for interfacing scraps, my interfacing and fusible fleece is on the trestle leg shelf, and I have white experimental fabric that I use mainly for dressmaking under the drawer bit, plus my jersey fabric bundle. Behind the bin are a couple of baskets with my dressmaking fabric.

This is looking back to where I was standing in the last one. The bookshelves are new (this is actually where the 2 original DVD towers and CD units, holding CDs, were) This has all my larger cuts of fabric, quilting on the left (mostly 1/2 yards), bag making heavier weight on the right, except for the top shelf, which has my quilting fabric precuts. I took some time working out how I was going to arrange this. I had all the bag making fabrics from a spending spree at a moving sale over the summer, and that is mostly full, but I didn't have anywhere near as much quilting fabric except for the solids. I think I've got it working for me now, and thank you to Hawthorne threads for their fabric folding, as theirs fits exactly 2 across on a shelf, so I refolded the rest to fit. (I also have to commend them on their fab packaging in sealed plastic bags inside the cardboard priority envelope, because it was POURING when I walked up to the sorting office yesterday morning to pick it up, and it had to survive the trip into town and back - the cardboard was distinctly worn) Also in view is a notice board on the kitchen door I've been meaning to hang for about 5 years (and which I'm hoping to hang the rulers from, but the pegs at the bottom are just a teeny bit too wide, so I'm thinking some S hooks off these) My ironing board now has a place to stay so it won't crowd me next to the sewing machine - previously the DVD/CD units had a crate in front with all my camera gear and laptop in it, which have now had to find other homes, but now I can set the board up here. You can also see my light cube/tent backdrops hanging on the door, and then, on top of the shelves, I have an embarrassing pile of WIPs (more of this in an upcoming post). My sewing machine is to the right of this pic, you can see the chair, but I didn't bother with a pic of this bit.

This is the other end of the room - the sofa (left) is about the size of a double bed, and separates this area from the sewing table and the rest of the room. The new Trofast units are at the bottom, under the carts with all my bear making mohair. You can see the geeky labels I put on all the drawers telling me what's in them. They are my own haberdashery, holding the likes of bag hardware, buttons, zips, velcro, bias binding, purse frames and associated glue, grid bag bottom, freezer paper, double sided interfacing for applique, iron on laminate, PVC, insulated batting, colour catchers and more. Next is my desk and computer, and on the floor in front of the radiator, you can just see my photography and craft book library (held here rather than my bedroom so that I actually remember I have the bloody things to use them!)

For full disclosure I feel I should point out the TV is in the remaining corner you haven't seen, to the right of this pic, just in case you thought I had a monk like existence that way ;o)

Anywho, as I was coming in yesterday, I ran into my neighbour, who suddenly remembered she had a parcel for me - according to the box, she'd had it since the 15th! Good job I ran into her, because they didn't leave a card, and apparently the baby has fried her brain... I couldn't imagine what it was, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was my winnings from a giveaway that Dorian at Busily Spinning Momma held back at the beginning of December. If you're wondering why some of it's in the bag, it's because one of the bottles leaked, and I was a bit worried about opening it, however when I did finally get to it, I found it was all dried.

The giveaway was sponsored by Plaid, who make, among other things, Mod Podge, which should be in every crafter's arsenal. This bag contains bottles of acrylic paint, and Extreme Glitter, both in red, green, black and white, and a bottle of glitter Mod Podge. The other bit is, obviously, a range of brushes. This should make for some glittery Christmas card creations next year :o)

My 2nd win was on Tuesday in the Pink Chalk Fabrics weekly giveaway of a $25 gift voucher (which I've already spent, along with a dollar or two I threw in myself ;o) ) There's a giveaway each week for blog commenters and newsletter subscribers, so check it out for a chance to win yourself :o)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-25T00:34:00.000Z

I felt strangely discombobulated tonight, after I realised at 11pm that I was all done even with a drive down here yesterday and a day today spent leisurely sewing granny's birds, making mince pies, marinating tomorrow night's dinner and doing all the washing up for the dinner that my parents had invited an elderly friend over for. Hope you all got everything done that you wanted, and I leave you now with my favourite Christmas song...

Have a very merry Christmas :o)

All Done On The Pressie Front

2011-12-23T01:13:00.001Z

Well, nearly done, but I'm taking the stuff to make my granny's scarf and the hand sewing for her mobile down to mum and dad's, so hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow night. In the meantime, here's today's creations, brought to you by Pinterest (well it may as well have been, I had pinned everything but my gran's stocking filler!)

I finally got the super secret project, aka my dad's Christmas pressie done. The last panel (the bike) was entirely done on Tuesday night after work/dinner and yesterday. I think I can cheerfully go awhile before doing more embroidery ;o) Anywho, here it is (please ignore the ~~crap~~ creative clutter in the background)

I'm blaming this project entirely on Nova, who posted a tutorial on Bec's Chasing Cottons blog a few months ago. It was the camera that did it, and suddenly I knew what I'd do for dad's Christmas pressie. So the first thing was to ~~lie through my teeth~~ evasively ask him to take some photos for a project I had coming up. I told him it was sewing related, and to be honest, all of the things in these panels are things I enjoy too, so I'm not sure if he had any idea what was coming. So, here's his beloved camera, his bike, his walking boots fresh from a week away, and a map of part of Loch Lomond and a compass. I used a variety of stitches with 3 strands of embroidery cotton, and I have to thank Clover and Violet for their sew along this summer which reminded me of how to do one or two of them!

After finishing the sashing/border/backing on this before lunch, I then tackled the small projects:

Firstly, my mum got her big pressie in September, however, I couldn't leave her parcel-less on the big day, so I made her a scarf, after seeing this tutorial, and several other similar ideas around the blogosphere of late. I found the voile completely by chance in the shop I wouldn't normally go to for fabric (Remnant Kings is my go to for thread etc in an emergency as it's near the office, but it has a pretty small and, um, diverse selection of fabric). Ironically I'm making a similar scarf for my granny, but couldn't find suitable voile anywhere in Mandors the day before, so hers will be jumbo cord and brushed cotton... Anywho, the voile I found has these lovely big silver and white flowers printed on it. I then found this nice soft cotton tartan to back it:

I also made her a wee pincushion for her stocking using a tutorial that Kim, from My Go Go Life, posted last week. This is my first attempt at cathedral window, and it was amazingly easier than I thought it would be! Having sorted all my rainbow charms I just received with the previous swap I was in, I removed all the duplicates from the first swap (the first swap was 2 per fabric) and I'm now getting to have fun playing with them :o) The button came from an Etsy buy a few months ago with no particular purpose, but which was perfect for this project.

Next is my gran's stocking filler mug rug and hostess box. I slightly cheated here as I had a bunch of these 2 1/2" charms sewn into 4 patches for a project I decided against in the end. This was a perfect way to use them up, along with a few charms that hadn't made it into 4 patches yet. These were from the Japanese charm swap from the summer (please ignore the mistake of the 2 poodles together - doh!)

For my final make, I did an iPhone cover for my dad. This came from a combination of tutorials, including this one from Sarah at Fairy Face Designs. I decided to throw in a pocket for headphones in case he wanted to take them with him on business trips. Please imagine a covered button on there, it will be added tomorrow with the rest of the hand sewing! I used some leftover black linen from the wristlets, and leftover fabric from the wall hanging (the lining and front pocket lining are in the red along with the button loop, and the button will be too) I made an interesting discovery that if you quilt onto batting without a backing fabric, you get fuzzy thread which leaves a kind of pinstripe effect.

Tomorrow I shall be leaving the flatmate on guard while I pick up gran and head down to mum and dad's for Christmas. I'll be taking the laptop, but probably won't get to post on here, although I should be able to read other blogs and my e-mails before I come back on the 28th.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas everyone, hope Santa's good to you all :oD

DONE, DONE, DONE

2011-12-18T20:29:00.001Z

Okay, I'm not done all my Christmas pressies yet, but I have finally battled the pintucks from hell into submission, and that alone was worth shouting from the rooftops!

These are the cushions for my gran's Christmas. I intended, initially, to make 2 each of 2 different styles, using the tutorials here and here, but having started the first set, it became obvious I wouldn't have time for set 2. (Please note that on my pin of the first tutorial I wrote 'Fab, easy, fancy looking cushion cover')

The problem with the one I did go with is that although the technique was easy enough, it took *forever* to actually do! The other issue was that it was impossible to tell from the original tutorial what sort of fabric dimensions one would need. To save others from similar pain, here's a few notes I made:

You can't do this project without an overlocker/serger (which wasn't a problem for me, as I have Big Brother's Little Brother)
Although the idea of pintucks made with the overlocker sounds easier than the 'official' way (which I have never attempted) you still need to mark out every line prior to starting, and you can only actually pin them one at a time
I got my time down to about 6-7 minutes to pin and sew one row on the overlocker.
There's a lot of rows @ 1 every inch
The ruffling bit is much quicker, that only took me about an hour
A piece of fabric that starts off 24" x 60" will shrink down to about 22" x 22"
This will be a challenge if you're trying to get two 20" cushions out of it...
But not if you employ the maths part of your joint honours degree and cut it into four 11" x 11" and then kill two birds with one stone over those remaining 2 cushions you couldn't work out how you were going to find time to do... (although that will only work if you bought a ridiculous amount of fabric to start with to make up the difference to 20")
This project uses A LOT of thread, and not just for the overlocked bits, making the ruffles and assembling the cushions takes up a fair whack too!
If you buy very friable material, you will need to French seam the entire cushion cover o.O

And so, here's the pics:

First up the panel, after trimming (sorry, I should have taken a photo of the messy 'before trimming' bit)

Please admire the neat inside French seams:

And here's the final cushions (I actually only have 2 cushion forms right now, don't ask!)

Now to finish more than I really want to list here lol Okay, well the aim is to complete the Super Secret Project by Wednesday night, so that Thursday can be filled with making little items for stocking stuffers, and a scarf for my mum, who got her main present in September. I may yet have to take some of the SSP into work tomorrow and Tuesday for lunchtime to get a bit more done!

And on that note, I shall love you and leave you, catch you at the end of the next finish...

SMS Giveaway Winner

2011-12-16T23:15:00.000Z

I'm taking a much needed break from the pintucks from hell to bring you the winner of my SMS Giveaway.

Mr Random Number Generator was brought into action to decide between the absolutely amazing 166 entries (really, either a lot of you had sympathy for the wee kit, or you're all my friends in disguise trying to make me feel better ;o) ) Anywho, this is what he said:

Which belonged to:

Congrats Shanny, I've sent you an e-mail :o)

Now back to those pintucks *sigh*

We Did It Wednesday

2011-12-14T23:21:00.000Z

If you stumbled across this post looking for the SMS Giveaway, it's here. If you're planning to stick around for the rest of the post, can I just say AAAAARGH! Only 11 days left, WTH?! I was doing so well, I was so prepared and then... then I have no idea, life I suppose!

Anywho, here's the finish of the week. The wee coin purse that is, you will recall the wristlet from last week...

These two will go to my friend tomorrow for her birthday, hope she likes them!

I have also been working on 3 other things that I can't show you - 1 because the recipient lurks about here, and the other 2 because they're not really in viewable bits. I've started sewing my gran's cushion covers. I know the end result will look fab, but it's a teensy bit soul destroying trying to do all those pin tucks! Granny's hasn't got further than a pile of fabric *sigh*

Anyway, to perk me up from my head in sand approach to Christmas, I rescued some happy mail from the sorting office today. First, my rainbow charms from the swap that Kati organised. That's 112 totally different charms there covering the entire rainbow, the woman deserves a medal for sorting that alone, never mind the huge amount of cutting she did too!

The other was the most beautifully wrapped parcel from Fabric Palooza (the purchase of which was entirely Katy's fault). not only did I get my Ty Pennington fabric (which I shall attempt to use for more sophisticated bags) but she threw in a magazine too, entirely free :o)

BTW, you don't actually have to be named Katy/Kati/Katie to be associated with this post, but it helps ;o)

And finally a little PSA for anyone in the UK/Ireland with children with autism. This was at the top of my weekly Odeon e-mail that arrived earlier, and I thought it would be good to share:

Sensory friendly screenings of 'Happy Feet Two', presented in association with Dimensions, will be taking place on Sunday December 18th at 11.30am in more than 60 cinemas across the UK and Ireland.

The screenings are recommended to anyone who would benefit from the subtle alterations made to the cinema experience, because of their sensory differences and because it allows them to attend newly released films with friends and family in an inclusive environment. Films are screened with the lights turned up, the volume turned down and with the trailers and adverts removed. People can feel free to move around the cinema or make a noise as they feel comfortable.

Cinema tickets can be purchased as normal from the cinema box office or online from Wednesday November 9th. Support workers / carers can attend for free with a CEA card. to find out more about the CEA card scheme and how to get one please visit www.ceacard.co.uk.

Dimensions is a leading provider of specialist support for people with learning disabilities and those who experience autism. To find out more, please visit www.dimensions-uk.org.

Last, but not least, I'm linking up to:

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

2011-12-12T14:00:00.004Z

*This giveaway is now closed, thank you to everyone for playing*

Yes, it's finally here, the 2nd Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day of the year :o) For those not familiar with this phenomenon, head over here to check it out, and get in on all the other giveaway action!

Anywho, here is my giveaway item:

Here are the details:

This is a trifold mini sewing kit which measures about 5" x 6 1/2" when folded up, and about 15 1/2" x 6 1/2" when opened out.
The entire outer and parts of the inner are Sherbet Pips, and the grey and white flowers on the inner are from Stof's basics line. The binding is Diamond Dots from Westminster.
It has one large and one divided pocket on the left hand section, and two spools of Guttermann thread, one white, one black, on elastic between the left hand section and the centre section.
In the centre section there is a scissors pocket complete with a pair of small sewing scissors, and there is a 2 page felt needle book between the centre and right hand sections, complete with 3 needles and 5 pins.
In the right hand section there are 2 small pockets complete with needle threader, and a two part elasticated section complete with a seam ripper in one section

I will happily ship internationally, and I'm sorry, but you must have a way of signing in with an account that plays with Blogger to comment and allow me to contact you if you win. The giveaway closes on the 16th of December at 11 pm GMT (sorry folks, at 5pm PST, I'll be tucked up in bed ;o) ) I will choose a winner using Mr Random Number Generator (as I'm lacking cute dogs/kids etc to pick in a more esoteric way) and will contact the winner by 12pm GMT on the 18th of December.

To enter I will not make you jump through any hoops, but you MUST answer one of the following, or, I'm afraid, your entry doesn't count (I know, how mean, right?)

If you are in the UK or Ireland, please tell me your favourite UK and Ireland online shops, especially ones with modern fabrics.

If you are outside the UK or Ireland, please tell me your favourite modern prints/designers.

Okay, that's it, one comment each please :o)

*edited to add* Please make sure you're not a no-reply blogger, I've had 3 already with no way of contacting them if they win :o(

Happy Early Birthday To Me...

2011-12-11T22:23:00.000Z

Okay, so it's not my birthday for another couple of months, but I had a fear all the tickets to this would be gone by the time my Christmas bonus came in, and one short brainwave later and I had solved the problem neither of my parents realised they had about what to get me for my birthday, and that was a ticket to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London next June. I have also booked my bed at the Bates' Motel (aka my aunt and uncle's) so I'm all set for a fab weekend of fun with bloggy friends from all over the world :o)

Anywho, following a trip down south for the Christmas party on Friday, I got a bunch of part 3 of the super secret project done on the train on the way down, but due to a number of issues (including an asthma attack on the Friday night leaving a rather unfortunate alcohol-puffer interaction) I didn't get any done on the way back yesterday... I spent about 12 hours asleep last night, and have spent most of today reading blogs, which rather crimped my cushion making plans for today, but hey, there's nearly 2 weeks till Christmas, at least 4 days of which I'm not working, it'll be fine... right?!

But I did get to work on planning these:

1st the purse to go in my friend's birthday bag - not sure whether to throw any of the black linen in too, mebbes aye, mebbes no (as they say locally) Your votes?

Then I've been thinking I might make my granny a bag. She apparently loved the Blossom bag I made when mum and dad were visiting a while back, but I swore I was never making another of that pattern again! I did think I might use the following fabrics to make her something though, with the orange and the grey as the outer and the white with the green as the lining print. We shall see on that one though...

Then I've also been playing with the photocopier and my Modern Blocks book and am thinking of doing a large windmill using the colours below and some Kona charcoal. That may have to wait till after Christmas, but if I'm a really good girl this week I might get it done (although who am I kidding, it's Sew Mama Sew giveaway week, I'll be trawling through every sewing blog going!)

Check back tomorrow for my giveaway item :o)

Some Finishes...

2011-12-06T21:50:00.001Z

Wow, it's felt like I've been working on stuff since last Friday without actually having anything to show for it, but I've finally got something! I have actually finished my Sew Mama Sew giveaway item (which I can't show you 'til next Monday) and I've got most of the way through part 2 of the super secret project, but amongst that, I cranked out these 2 bags.

Now you may recall me mentioning finding the Amy Butler Book the other day and deciding to make the next one in the series for my friend's birthday (to get ahead of the game on January's sew along ;o) ). As is usual with the AB patterns, the Everything Wristlet had everything but the kitchen sink in its cutting requirements, alas it didn't have everything by way of diagrams, and with not one photo of the inside of the bag, nor any idea what the thing was meant to look like, I decided I would change it completely (as my head was beginning to hurt - have I mentioned that I'm not well? Pity party please!) I went for a simple lining with a pocket like in my pouch. Oh, and because I had copious time, I thought I'd make one for me too, to go with my LBD on Friday at the Christmas party.

Here is the one for my friend, made from the larger pattern using black linen, and Echino for the outer, and a spotty purple quilt weight cotton for the interior, with a splash of turquoise from the Sandy Gervais Grand Finale line, leftover from my ATSQA quilt:

And here is the smaller one I made for me (same interior):

I also got a fabulous parcel through the door from my friend Susana in Hong Kong. Susana had noticed my post on the purse frames recently and offered to help me translate the book if needed. She also offered to send me a bunch of fabric she didn't think she'd get to use. Wasn't she generous? She also included a couple of postcards from her bear business.

Now, would you like the chance to win some fabric of your own? If so, head over to see the more famous Katy at I'm A Ginger Monkey who has a couple of bundles from 2 new fabric lines that aren't even in the shops yet.

And finally, there's been a few questions about my Christmas decorations because, as it turns out, not everyone has a koala dressed as a reindeer (shocker, eh?). So here's my TV unit, and the wee table with the phone on, which contains the sum total of my Christmas decorations (along with a bunch of other stuff that's there year-round)

Oh, and I'm linking up to Jenna's Manic Monday (others are on holiday for December) - and yeah, a day late, I'm ill, pity party, remember? ;o)

The Rules

2011-12-02T19:11:00.000Z

I think I overheard the most depressing sewing related conversation ever in Mandors the other day. 2 women were discussing fabrics that one of them needed to make a quilt for a baby boy. She was choosing fabric for a log cabin quilt, and was going for shades of yellow. The main problem that I kept overhearing was that for every fabric that her friend or the shop assistant chose, they didn't fit 'The Rules'. The fabrics HAD to be dark on one side, and light on the other, that was The Rules, and she wasn't allowed to break them, her teacher had told her so. Her friend was getting frustrated, the shop assistant was getting frustrated, and I couldn't find anything suitable either, 'cos, you know, I couldn't just stay out of it ;o) I think part of the problem was the shade of yellow she'd chosen to start with (which was a butter cream colour), but honestly, we could not get her to understand that the world would not end, and the Gods would not be chasing after her with a giant seam ripper if she went for, say, yellow and blue. She eventually got a couple of things, and her friend (and the shop assistant) breathed a sigh of relief, but I thought it was so sad that someone so new to quilting felt that she had to stick to this whole pile of Rules. There may definitely be something to be said for leaping in with both feet online where you haven't read a single Rule...

So, tell me, what's the best/worst Rule story that you've heard?

And because I couldn't leave you photo-less, here's the little pile I was buying, partly for my x and + blocks (and no, you'll be grateful to know, not all together ;o) ) and partly for another wee project in the new year.

Fresh Sewing Day And Incoming And Outgoing Swaps

2011-12-01T22:52:00.000Z

Phew, 1st December already! Where exactly has the time flown to?! Anyway, being the 1st of the month, that means it's a Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts, so here's a round-up of my last month's work...

Hmm, it seemed like I'd done more than this, oh well! I did man stalls at 2 fairs, and did plenty of stocking up of supplies, so it's not TOO bad I suppose :o)

So after a trip to the doc's (to get signed off for a week with an upper respiratory tract infection :o/) it was rather nice to be able to pick up a couple of fab parcels at the sorting office. First up was my wall hanging from the Sew Happy Geek Table Runner And Wall Hanging Swap from the lovely Karen. I admired this from the moment it was posted, however I got totally thrown by someone saying it was obviously a round table runner! It is, of course, a lovely round wall hanging (which totally appeals to my off-the-wall side) and I love the rainbow of colours. At the moment it will have to take up temporary residence on the living room door until I do my post-Christmas furniture reshuffle (I'm planning on getting more storage) but once my wall real-estate is sorted, I will find it a permanent home to display its full glory.

I was also lucky enough to get these gorgeous scraps in my parcel, aren't they beautiful? I can see much drooling and stroking in my future!

My second parcel was from M Is For Make, who was having a great Cyber Monday sale, where I picked up some Echino fabric for my friend's bag, and a couple of other pieces of Echino, plus a fat 16th bundle of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter. I have loved seeing the Echo line, but wasn't sure how much I would really like it, and this was a nice, cheap way to find out, with decent enough sized pieces to make some things (you'll have to trust me the whole line is there, I just wasn't feeling co-ordinated enough to fan it out!)

Here is the Echino for the bag, along with the contrast black I chose for the outer, and the dotty fabric for the lining. The photos of the bag in Amy Butler's book has a large feature button on it, and this button I found seemed perfect (sorry the detail isn't too clear, but it's a flower pattern in black on purple)

Are you still with me? Really? Okay, we the last thing I have to tell you about today is a new swap that will be starting up in January for Japanese x and + blocks. This will be a 'contribute from your own stash' block swap, where you make blocks in multiples of 5 (that is you can sign up to make 5, 10, 15 etc) and receive a pile of blocks back.

This is what they look like (photo via Amy at Badskirt):

Aren't these fun? Amy also has a fab tutorial on her blog for how to make one:

So are you in? The swap will start on the 7th January, with blocks posting by 18th February (so LOADS of time) It's open internationally, so you could end up with a quilt with blocks from every corner of the earth.

Okay, I'm done now, have a great day all!

Work In Progress Wednesday

2011-11-30T21:27:00.000Z

Right, I'll just say it now, I have a chest infection and I'm feeling sorry for myself, so no matter how crappy any of today's work looks, just don't tell me, okay? ;o)

My finishes for the last week are:

My Piece Bee With You circle of geese and signature block:

My first frame purse:

My Sew Bee Joyful signature block:

And part 1 of my super secret project (pop over and see Alli and she can tell you all about how it's horses in Arizona...)

I told myself that if I got that part of the super secret project done, then I could deviate for a day or two and play with something 'off-list'. Having the ick meant that today all I felt like doing was sitting there watching loads of things I'd Sky +'ed and sewing, so now I have a choice.

I could tackle the 241 tote, that I got recently in Anna's sale over at Noodlehead (after all, all of blogland can't be wrong about this bag!). I've got the pattern printed out at full size, 75% and 50%, so I can have nesting ones (or something like that :oD )

Alternatively, I could try out the pattern I dreamt up at work after I ~~got distracted~~ had a light bulb moment in a meeting (I'm attributing it to the Excel spreadsheet that was being projected, although I think my neighbour in the meeting probably wondered about the mad numbers I started scribbling down!) Anyway, I now know exactly how I want to use this little lot (not all that white, I assure you!):

The next part of the super secret project is prepped and ready to go, and I have plans for it and the birds for granny on the train trip down south next week for the work Christmas do in Manchester. My long suffering colleagues are used to my madness, what's another freaky thing to embarrass them with, right? ;o)

This week I also want to start on my gran's cushions, but that involves a trip to the fabric shop and Dunelm Mills. I may go after I visit the doc's tomorrow, so I don't actually have to go out again over the weekend. I also have to hit Tesco too - ugh!

I'm hooking up with:

(BTW, isn't it nice that those buttons match?)

First Purse Finish

2011-11-27T20:29:00.000Z

Not long after last night's post I decided I'd start the sewing for my frame purse, and was extremely happy to have finished it half an hour later! I decided to leave the gluing until today when I could do it in daylight, thus I tackled it this morning:

I'm happy with how it turned out, and that I managed to avoid the dreaded glue-ooze! Still, it has reassured me that a production line of purses should be pretty quick to put together :o)

I'm glad I changed how I sewed it together, that is sewing the inner and outer right sides together and turning the right way out through a small opening that I slip stitched shut. It made it nice and clean around the hinges, and also nice and easy to stuff into the frame!

I also had a play about with wonky stars for a siggy block today to go with my Sew Bee Joyful block:

It was my first attempt at these, and I think I need to learn to measure the 'point pieces' to cross 1/4" up from the edge, rather than trying to eyeball it! I've now got my Piece Bee With You siggy block to do.

I've also decided to sign up for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Their equivalent day in May netted me so many new friends and blogs to read, that I can only encourage everyone to take part, in hopping around to visit people as much as giving things away. They've changed up how it works for this round, to try and make it easier for people to find things specific to them, and it's only open to blogs this time round. I already have my item picked out, now I just have to think up a truly inventive question to ask people to comment on ;o)

Days Of Nothing...

2011-11-26T22:06:00.000Z

Well, perhaps not nothing exactly, this is me we're talking about! Anyway, this weekend I have nothing I have to do either today or tomorrow, which is about the first time in 2 months...

I have spent a chunk of my day today reading several of the books which dropped through my door of late, armed with mini post it notes and pen, and getting tons of inspiration for all sorts of things, including quilts and bags.

First up was Jessica Levitt's Modern Mix: 16 Sewing Projects That Combine Designer Prints and Solid Fabrics, 7 Quilts + Pillows, Bags and More:

There are some seriously ENORMOUS quilts in this book, but all are so fun and modern. It's easy to see how small parts of some of the quilts or other projects could be used in other ways. That king size circle quilt on the front is amazing, but I doubt I'll be making one any time soon unless I win the lottery - the solid for the front and the backing fabric requires 7 yards EACH!

Then there was the book pulled together by Suzanne Woods, Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers.

This has been touted around the blogosphere quite a lot of late, since the blocks inside are made by a pretty large collection of the great and the good in the quilting world. I went every so slightly mad in this book with the post its. SO many fab blocks, and with so many potential uses! There is everything from the simplest of standard piecing, to multitudes of HSTs, to funky applique and cool paper piecing.

Then there was Emily Ciel's latest book, Scrap Republic: 8 Quilt Projects for Those Who Love Color:

This book is worth building up your scrap collection alone! Again I found ideas that were not just restricted to quilts, I mean couldn't you see a fab cushion from that triangle quilt pattern on the cover?

Anyway, having lounged around for ~~half the day~~ a couple of hours, I decided I'd get my super secret project set up and ready to go. Here's a bit of it:

What, you thought you were going to get more than that? ;o)

Then I got busy cutting out the pieces from my purse kit I got earlier this month from U-Handbag.

I thought I'd give this a go before leaping in and trying to make my own sketches, but I'm going to veer from the pattern a bit as far as attaching the interior to the exterior goes (it will look more professional at the hinges, and is the method I've seen in many online tutorials)

I also cleaned up my sewing area, and got ~~a kill two birds with one stone moment~~ inspiration from the Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags book which was lying at the end of the table. A friend of mine is having a big birthday next month, and I've been planning to make her a bag. I hadn't decided what sort, but when I flipped through to see what the next bag was in the Stitch Along (which is back in January) I decided that it would be perfect.

I'm going to try shopping my stash first to see what I have in her favourite colours, and will hopefully get going on it tomorrow.

Now if you have any jokes up your sleeve (with a preference for the dirty ones) head over and see my friend Laura at Needles, Pins and Baking Tins who's having a giveaway to celebrate (somewhat belatedly) her 200th follower.

Happy Mail And Circling Geese

2011-11-25T00:37:00.000Z

Between the parcel I had to pick up at the sorting office this morning and the envelope through the door that I got when I got home from work, today has been a really nice happy mail day.

In the first parcel was my order from Bagpurseframes on Etsy. I put this order in at the same time as the glue (they kind of go together) but as this was winging its way from China, it took a little longer (was still pretty good timing though!) Look at all the goodies:

I did think about taking these all out of their wee bags, but then I couldn't face trying to reunite them all again, so you'll just have to imagine them more clearly ;o) Anywho, that there is 20 purse frames and 10 flex frames, which should keep me going for a while :o)

I also got this:

I just need to brush up on my Chinese now ;o) Actually, it should be okay, the pieces and percentages of pattern sizes are in the Latin alphabet, and there's plenty of diagrams :o)

For my next bundle of goodness, my Yellow, Grey and Aqua charms arrived, isn't this a pretty selection?

Nope, not a clue what I'm going to use them for yet! I'm thinking some may be getting united with some of those purse frames though...

Anyway, after I'd finished drooling over this lot, I decided I'd get those circling geese done for the Piece Bee With You block this month. I thought I'd try a little experiment with this paper piecing as it wasn't hand drawn, and I had multiple copies printed off. I felt that the previous 2 PP blocks I'd done had rather a lot of waste, as I hadn't really cut the fabric much other than to the nearest square or rectangle size (as advised on a tutorial I read somewhere) I thought I would try combining the 2 types of paper piecing out there in quilt land - the first utilises a solid paper base as a foundation, and the second uses freezer paper cut to the relevant shapes and the fabric trimmed around.

I really like the foundation piecing method, but as I had the multiple copies of the circling geese pattern (found here) I cut one copy up into the relevant pieces and used them as templates to cut the bits out with a 1/2" allowance all round. I knew for a whole block I needed 4 of each piece, so after cutting out the first one for each piece of the pattern, I used it as a template for the remaining 3, which was a pretty quick solution.

This left a satisfyingly small pile of trimmings:

And a pretty nice block:

This is my very first attempt at geese of any sort, so I'm pretty happy with how they turned out :o)