Interpretation ...

I've loved having the opportunity lately of making some custom homewares for the customers in my Etsy shop. My love of colour is well documented here on this blog but it is wonderful to be able to interpret what other people might like with a mere suggestion of an idea. This pink and grey combination is another detour from my usual colour pairings but inspiring to play with.

From the seemingly limitless contents of my fabric stash, I can put together almost all possibilities of palettes, apart from, perhaps, black!

My brain has been nicely taxed too in making things I've never made before and I'm thinking that I might have to make one of these double oven gloves for myself too. They have been much admired by my craft club ladies so perhaps I can give them a lesson and make my own pair (or is it one?).

The perspex template I have been using for my current quilting project was perfect for rounding off the corners and I am now a dab hand at cutting curves with my tiny 28mm rotary cutter.

These Clover wonder clips were another useful bit of kit in finishing off the hand-sewing on the binding too.

This is the first set (one??!!) I made from the leftover scraps from the Spring Quilt I made last month and below is the complete order for the grey and pink collection, which includes placemats and napkins to co-ordinate.

I'm thinking I might make a couple more to add to the stock in my shop - what do you think? Or maybe use these as ideas for custom orders ... I'll have a think while I'm finishing up on my quilt top today.

Ten things ...

• I have been drooling over tiny bowls in a heavenly shop. Alas, they didn't come home with me.

• I had the most amazing massage.

• No2 and I went to the zoo. Seven years. To say I was thrilled that Molly the giraffe approached the new bridge feature is an understatement. But, yes, that is a carrot on the right of the picture. Sadly not proffered by me though.

• No2 now wants a lizard. Possibly a bearded one ...

• My auriclas are jostling with my love of tulips as my favourite flower. The tulips need to be careful - I am fickle.

• I have been busy sewing a wonderful custom order for some kitchen accessories. Who knew double oven gloves and simple running stitches could give me (and hopefully my customer) so much pleasure.

• There are parts of my garden that are swathed in blue - some that I have planted intentionally ...

• ... and some that I have not.

• I have been enjoying other people's gardens. It looked very different from my last visit in September.
• My own garden and new allotment are keeping me busy and this gorgeous sunshine is renewing my energy in leaps and bounds. Have a great weekend - you'll find me outside!

A Bee in my Bonnet...

It is no secret that I have a major fabric addiction and occasionally I get quite obsessed with a particular fabric and while away many hours dreaming up ways to use it. Melody Miller's* Bee Springtime was one such fabric.

I bought half a metre from The Eternal Maker and therefore only had one whole bee in the piece of fabric which I put to use in a mat to sit underneath the glass top of this washstand I have recently renovated and painted for my bedroom. I hand-sewed a simple running stitch hem with perle thread and some lazy daisy stitches over some of the printed details on the fabric.

Along with a roll of wallpaper by Rob Ryan that I spotted in Grand Designs magazine while I was in the hairdressers, my bedroom has a very welcome splash of colour to compliment my super-colourful ripple.

With the rest of the half metre (and part of another bee!) I made a big square cushion to sit on my bed. The coordinating fabrics are from fat quarters from the rest of the Ruby Star Spring line and some plains I had in my stash. It was always going to be a difficult to make something that wouldn't get overpowered by the ripple, but I think this bee holds its own marvellously.

I am camped out in my sewing room crafting to my heart's content this week (and last week too!) as my kitchen is being decorated and so I have been booted out of my usual haunt! It looks like this today and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished new look by the end of the week.

*This little video made me smile so much when I first saw it last year.

20 :: doing a runner...

Not literally, I might add, although it sometimes feels very tempting.

Following on from this post, I have brightened up my kitchen table with a new runner.

It is far too close to the ends of the table at the moment but come the weekend, I will have two extra leaves in to extend it to seat the masses.

The blocks are the Starry Night Blocks over at Fresh Lemons and are my first attempt at paper piecing. Faith's tutorial is fab and I am loving my interpretation of the block.  I used some red and natural fabrics from my stash, some of my precious Spoonflower fabric and some natural linen/cotton mix that I was given by a generous friend.

It is looking a little crinkled up because it has been folded up for a couple of days now~~I'm sure it will flatten out!  I used Insul-Brite heat resistant batting plus a layer of regular batting as I want to be able to put all my hot dishes straight from the oven onto it without worrying about scorching the table.

10 :: Revealed...

This is what I was up to on Thursday! Making some Christmas decorations from Scandinavian Stitches.

They are very addictive and perfect for making use of offcuts and scraps of fabric.  I also love the excuse to rifle through my button tin, so it's win-win project for me.

8 :: doodling...

A photo heavy post today as I don't want to give too much away.  My humungous reel of black thread is having an outing on the sewing machine.

As I doodle on scraps of fabric.

Outline appliquéd letters.

Or make sketchy words on linen.

5 :: playing with fabric...

A progress post today. I didn't make a mad decision to make a whole load of Christmas presents this year as I knew from experience that it just stresses me out.  There are just a couple of things instead. This is what is on the wall at the moment awaiting completion:

The front of a potholder, bottom left and one block of another potholder, top left. Inspired by this pin.

The blocks on the right are for a festive table runner for my Christmas table. Now I have my final numbers (20!) I know how long I've got to make it. It all depended on whether I needed one or two additional leaves in my table, you see.

Today I have woken up full of No2's cold (yeah, I'll blame him!) and a 6 chapter attachment from my copy-editor (eeeek!) to go through. Who knew that a document with 'track changes' looked so scary? What to do? Carry on sewing or hunker down and cringe at my punctuation?

Adventures in bag-making...

I made a bag!  What I'd like to think of as a proper bag, from a proper pattern.

I spotted the fabric way back at M is for Make but I think it is out of stock now. The grey fabric is a great weight, slightly heavier than quilting cotton.

This was my little adjustment I made that I gave a glimpse of here and it has worked out just fine. I don't get along with bags that are supposed to just perch on my shoulder. I have the wrong kind of shoulders.  It doesn't matter though because you can get little metal things and webbing to make things all better.

It holds everything I need it to hold and very nicely too.

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I am going to do my November Scavenger Hunt post tomorrow and then I have decided that I need to get back in to my blog and am going to attempt a blogging Advent Calendar again.

Stitches...

There have been all sorts of different stitches around these parts lately.  Some beautifully soft malabrigo ones on my dpn's--I can feel a knitting phase coming on ...

Remember this? Well, it has been coming along s-l-o-w-l-y, inch by inch, stripe by stripe. Another 14 or 15 inches to go to cover my bed. It is a monster of a blanket and incredibly cosy. I can vouch for this for I am enjoying snuggling under it as I crochet the evenings away.  I hadn't touched it throughout the whole summer and paid for it dearly as quite a few of the colours I am using are now discontinued and it has been a job in itself tracking down odd balls here and there.  There are some pretty impressive stats to go with this blanket which I will finalise on its completion. Miles of yarn, miles!

There are a couple of sewing projects on the go too, which have required some accurate top-stitching.  I find that if I look at the needle as my guide, my stitching seems to go all over the place and so now I have discovered my own trick to fairly neat top-stitching. Not exactly rocket science, but all part of the process of learning!

There's been a new venture in bag-making, with a slight modification of my own due to my preference of a long handle to go over my body rather than a shorter one which invariably falls off my shoulder.

And then there's the stitching that needs to be unpicked and re-done. Sigh.  I'm trying to catch up with the FWQAL and not doing too badly considering how far behind I had fallen.

Emmeline…

I’m not just peeling potatoes here, you know.



I’m peeling potatoes wearing my new apron.  So I’m a little behind in the apron fashion stakes, but I got there in the end and I’m so glad I did.  It’s my version of Emmeline and I love it!  I knew I’d love it ever since I saw it way back here, it just took a while to come to the top of my list.  I made a couple of minor changes.  Firstly, I don’t really have any yard pieces in my fabric stash and so I couldn’t really justify spending £30 or so on fabric for this project, so I used four half yard pieces by adding the contrast to the bottom of the skirt to match the bodice.  I bought these Amy Butler half yards last year in a sale.  Being reversible I have got two aprons in one!





I think this is the first time I have actually made something to wear from a pattern since I was at school!  Over the years I have gained more and more confidence with my sewing from making things for the home and now quilting, and so I found the pattern really well written and straightforward.  I checked out the Flickr group discussion for any  tips or errata, and went with making the top bodice band double width and folded rather than seamed all the way round, and made the opening at the bodice side rather than the bottom of the skirt.  Nancy also suggested making the bodice a little longer as we’re both quite tall.

So here I am, posing in my kitchen ready to start my vegetable preparation marathon for family lunch!



Today’s sewing has been of much different proportions…




My arms are aching from just lifting this amount of fabric about…

Practice makes imperfect…

Driftwood warned me it would become addictive, this free-motion lark, and she is right.

 

 

My mind is buzzing with all the things I can make now with the addition of some sketchy words incorporated in them.  After a bit of time spent playing around with stitch length and speed, I am loving the way these words appear in their imperfect, sketchy way on my fabric.  Sometimes, they turn out just about right the first time and sometimes I have to go over them again to cover up any mistakes, but I think this adds to the charm of them.  It’s like doodling with my machine. 

 

 

At the beginning of the year, I left Mouse a comment on her post about words and wishes asking her if she’d mind if I did the same, to which she said to go right ahead.  So I took her advice and quite literally sewed them into my life.

 

 

I’ve hung my mobile above my sewing machine, where it is twirling gently (hence the slightly blurry photos!) and hopefully releasing these things into my space.