Bag lady

 

A short post today as it's late and I am running behind again, but I just needed to let you into my latest exciting bit of stitching. I took my self along a week ago to a great class at My Bearpaw classes in Edinburgh to have a bash at making a Weekend holdall, or "Weekender" as these seem to have been nicknamed in the crafty world. I am not done yet as you can clearly see, but am so pleased and excited with it so far and just had to share a bit with you now. I spent until 1 am on the previous Friday making myself a giant 1.3 m square piece of "quilt as you go" for the body of the bag and that in itself was a bit of a challenge, but like a dipstick I forgot to take any pictures before it all got cut into bits for the bag. It was pretty darn traumatic cutting it up if truth be told. We do have to suffer for our art though don't we.

Huge thanks have to go to Naomi Crowley of Green Earth Beads and Bags for sharing her vast knowledge and making the class such an enjoyable couple of days. Despite me having a very late night in the middle of her class ( but no hangover!), she managed to make it all seem pretty straightforward and all that thickness in the seems no quite so scary.

I can't remember if I told you that My Bearpaw have moved to new premises, but just in case I forgot do pop by and have a look at the new shop and classes here. Jo has done a great job and I think the classes will be even more popular than ever in the new fab surroundings. I have to say too her classes are a great way to make new friends and as you can see here, some very talented ones at that ( note I had not consumed all the biscuits on this occasion).

 

As I said though, this is just a Work in Progress post . Adding the bottom of the bag is a bit too tricky for late night stitching so it will have to wait till the long weekend . Add to that curtailment of all sewing for nursing duties of the Beloved due to an unfortunate incident involving a shower mat and a bath handle and I reckon it will definitely be next week before I can head off to Paris, as Naomi suggested, with my natty new Weekender. First class of course.

Freebird

Delighted to report I have finished the main piecing of my Freebird quilt.  Its been such a time since I made a large quilt and this has been good therapy. The fabric is a Moda Jelly roll that's been around quite a while by MoMo, but just because its not the latest doesn't mean its not fab. I actually am not sure if you can still buy it sadly but  I love the colour combinations and have kept it sitting in the stash just because it looked pretty. This picture doesn't do the real colours justice. Hopefully once it is quilted  I can get some great shots and you will be able to see the great mix in there of oranges, reds, blues, greens and yellows and yes even the dreaded brown makes a little appearance. The reds and oranges are so much brighter in real life, trust me.

The pattern was a freebie from the Moda Bakeshop which goes with the Mixed Bag fabric range which you can see here. I thought it suited my Jelly roll and I love the use of the negative space. One thing I would say though about the pattern, if your tempted by it is, don't cut all the coloured strips straight away. The instructions said you need 92 units, which is incorrect. I had a whole load left over which was really annoying , but I think I may well make a bright pieced border from them. Not sure yet. Really in two minds, so need to sit and have a play. Its also  biggie so I will be heading off to Beechwood Quilting to quilt the top, which will be an added bonus as I haven't seen Carole and Brain for an age and I think they have been off on adventures so will have much news.   

You won't believe by the way how hard it was to get this picture in between torrential rain!

Soggy Sunday

Some of you lovely readers south of the Border have been dusting off the barbeques I understand . I have heard nothing else on the radio this weekend. Nothing like rubbing it in you know, because , meanwhile some of us have been stuck in this ¬

and look what effect its all had on the local wildlidfe.....

 ....teeheehee... have a great weekend everyone

Thinking outside the fabric box

A few months back I signed up for another round of the Modern She Made swap, in hindsight a bit of a mistake as I already knew I was a bit too busy to sew, but I thought it would kick me back into gear. Well as you saw it didn't and now I am a bit behind and need to play catch up so that I don't miss my posting deadline. The theme of this round is "Hexagons". This can be interpreted in any shape or form as long as what you make for your partner somehow contains a hexagon! The obvious way to go is with a bit of EPP and any one that has read my blogs before has seen that I have had some fun with those in the past, but there is no need to be that obvious . It could be hexagons in the fabric, embroidery, anything.

So late last night, in a bout of insomnia, I had a brain wave. My partner had suggested she might  like some fabric boxes and I therefore wondered if I could make a set of hexagon shaped baskets for her?  

I set about experimenting today and it turned out to not be too tricky but it does need a bit of honing.  Given time constraints I don't think will now be the way for me to go for the swap, but its definitely one to come back to as a work in progress. I will write up the pattern, once I have made a couple of changes, and then get Emily to road test it and if it all goes well will report back.
in the meantime today's efforts will come in handy as a little caddie in a bathroom . Now, new plan for the swap please.....?

Easter work in progress

I promised in last week's blog that I would let you know what became of some of the wonderful fabric purchased in Helsinki. I can't show a completed article as I only managed to get a few hours in today as all the kids turned up yesterday and we spent a great day in the garden, egg hunt and all, but progress has definitely been made.

 

I thought the big bold black, white and turquoise canvas would be perfect for a beach sized bag. So this is it so far. I have gone ovesized too as I though it would suit the oversized print too.

The Kona cotton lining is in carrot, which I really love as I have a thing  about orange for holidays these day. It will go with a fab pair of orange patent gladiator sandals that I virtually live in when the sun comes out too.

Need to go and get a magnetic  closure and a giant orange bottom for the tab and add a load of top stitching to it I think ....roll on next weekend. 

I'm back

To say it's been a while since you heard from me last would be somewhat of an understatement I think. I haven't blogged since September so after more than 5 months I thought I would just let the outside world know that Emily's Mum is alive and kicking and perhaps even kicking a bit more than before if truth be told.

It's not been the best of times in Quilty Doings land this winter with one thing or another. My little old machine is sitting neglected in the corner wondering what is has done wrong. Too much life and too many airport lounges have taken their toll on me, in both body and soul. I have completely lost the route to my sewing room and I swear a family of squirrels has taken up residence in my stash (OK, I exaggerate - no squirrels). I have been distracted but I need to recover some semblance of sanity so hence forth I shall "blog-on" regardless and share with you my little plans and events as and when they happen, whether good, bad or ugly but I will warn you, it could be quite a bumpy ride.

As I write  I am currently aboard the 15.35pm flight back to Edinburgh from the sunny and very busy Smoke, after a visit to see my poor old Pater. He and his troubles have been the main cause of my lack of web presence these past months. It's been tough and will continue that way. I have though, now finally realised there is little that we can do sometimes to change the future, so, with a heavy heart, I have left him and my Mum sitting holding hands in his Care Home room. Together but both in their own little worlds. He has a big birthday next month, nearly the biggest you can get, so let's hope that it will be a little mini celebration of sorts and another little milestone reached.

 

Even though I haven't been stitching, thoughts and plans have been hatching in the back of my brain all these months and small purchases have been stacking up in the den. The simplest and weirdly most exciting of these was a find in Devizes this actual weekend.  I was walking through the covered market there when a lady with a very mixed bag of a stall caught my eye. I spotted piles of boxes of children's hankies and I immediately had to set about buying up her whole stock at the bargain basement cost of £1.50 a box. Ages ago I saw a quilt made from vintage hankies which I fell in love with. It was not one of those boringly obvious ones you see all over the place, but a really cool and interesting one and I have been on the hunt for reasonably prices children's hankies ever since. The quilt had reminded me of the my Auntie Rita (such a 50's name). She gave me a box of these bright little squares every year for my birthday when I was little and even though she is long gone, I can't see one of those colourful pieces of cotton without thinking of her. I have them all ready now after this find, but hey, guess what? I can't find the blimen' quilt link anywhere, nor remember what it exactly looked like, or what made it so particularly brilliant. Best I get creative.

Anyway, after said hankie purchases we started to walk away when 'OMG' as they say in some daft tv show or other? There in front of me was a giant pile of plastic takeaway tubs packed to the gunnels with every kind of mother of pearl and vintage style of shirt button. I have been struggling to find a fresh supply of these and I  refuse to the pay the extortionate prices charged in all my local haberdashers which has led to a case of what can only be called "button angst". Just imagine my glee at this second find in one day! I really am a button fiend, as any of you who follow me regularly on Flickr will know.  I love a bit of a button detail when it comes to my bags and small makes and if it's not a big red button it just has to be a good old fashioned shirt button. But happy readers, the tale gets even better. Not only were these quite fabby little buttons, but these delicious fat boxes of loveliness where only ten of our best English pounds a piece!  An absolute bargain given the hundreds in each box, so despite already having a backpack with me that any burly paratrooper would struggle to carry, two said boxes of these buttons were quickly purchased and are currently the most precious pieces of cargo aboard this British Airways flight.

So anyway dear webby friends, it's back to the office tomorrow, but first of all let me share this little preview with you for next week's post. With the arrival of the Easter weekend next Friday I will get let out to play from the day job and come hell or high water I will be at my sewing machine using some of these stunning fabrics, which I found in Helsinki last month.  

Aren't they  amazing? 

 

I could have bought acres more but there is only so much excess baggage costs that the Beloved will pay. Two pieces may turn into holiday clothes I think, but the rest? Well you will just have to come back to see.

Thanks for not forgetting about me and I hope you've all been keeping safe and snug with your own loved ones. See you next week .. . 

Sew Sew Modern swap

Today I have spent the day working on my piece for round 3 of this fun swap. We have had lots of notice for this make, but I struggled a bit coming up with a plan for my partner, but now I am well under way and on target for posting before 13th September. I am trying to not let on to0 much to my partner though on the flickr feed, but am going to leave a bit more in the way of hints in this blog post, just incase she is passing by, as I thought that might be fun. Her choice of item was a bit more specific than normal so I think she could figure it out if she really wanted to.

Anyway I started with a Annela Hoey charm pack and made up some HST's .

 

Next I added a little bit of hand stitching

and then a bit more detail somewhere else...

this little bird is copied from the fabric design as you can see.

So we will have to see if my partner likes the final result. Have you figured it out yet?