Scraptop Carrier Finished

Last night I finished my Scraptop Carrier (see previous post). I have really enjoyed making it but I had a few problems along the way.

I had real trouble making the handles. The instructions tell you to join all of the strips together in a continuous loop using diagonal seams. For some reason it took me three attempts and lots of swearing to get it right, much to Other Half's amusement. I am not sure what happened as Joan's instructions are very clear and well illustrated in the book. On reflection it is probably not a good idea to attempt detailed sewing when you are tired and have been taking strong painkillers!!

Overall I am very pleased with the way it has turned out. Below you can see the transformation from an untidy pile of scraps to fully finished bag. Thanks go to my Other Half who has patiently documented my progress with his camera.

 

At this point after struggling to make the handles I decided that I didn't like the colour. It is difficult to tell from this photo but the blue of the handles was much too bright for the rest of the bag. I wanted something to blend in with the patchwork panel. I then, I am ashamed to say, broke my vow to only use fabric from my stash. After much searching I was forced to admit that I didn't have anything suitable for the handles. Courtesy of my Other Half I dashed to a local fabric shop and bought a small piece of suitable fabric and I tried again! This time the handles came together quickly and easily (no swearing!).

I felt that this looked much better so I stitched on the handles and the side seams, squared the corners...

Attached the lining and button loop....

Pushed the lining into the bag, top-stitched close to the upper edge, added a button and ...

 Finally - one finished bag!!

I now have to decide what to make next. Possibly a table runner. We have a large pine table in the bay window of our living room and I have been meaning to make some sort of covering for it for quite a while. Another possibility is to tackle some smaller projects such as English Paper Piecing or making some much needed needlework accessories.

I will contemplate my stash and let you know what I decide.

I'm Back!!!

It has been a really long time since I posted on this blog. I am not sure how to explain my absence, except to say that life just got in the way. Between my work, home life and some of my health issues I just lost my urge to update this blog.

I am in a much happier place now. Although I still have the same health issues I feel that I am dealing better with them and the creative urge has started to grow again. So from now on I resolve to post at least once a week. Let's hope that it works out that way!

I recently bought some new storage units for our spare bedroom to replace some old ones which were falling apart. Sorting through my fabric and beads gave me an idea. I have resolved to start making things using my stash, rather than buying new materials. I have already started making something.

At the end of last year I was inspired by Joan Ford's Scrap Therapy website and her book Scrap Therapy Plus One. I bought it last December with some Birthday money and found it very interesting. In it she encourages you to look through your scrap bags and make some hard decisions about your fabric stash. I have been quilting for over 20 years so I had three plastic bags of scraps stored away.

Last Christmas I started sorting through my fabric, cutting it all into a range of two inch, three and a half inch and five inch squares. Sorting through my scraps was an enjoyable experience. Over the last few years I have made 11 large quilts including christening, anniversary and leaving gifts for friends and relatives. Many of the fabric scraps hold happy memories and are associated with people I care about. Making them into a patchwork seemed like a wonderful way to use them up. I had originally intended to make a double bed sized quilt, but for a whole host of reasons that did not happen.

Three weeks ago I decided to look at the book again and unearth my plastic storage box full of my carefully stacked squares. I have always loved the Scraptop Carrier which is pictured hanging on a chest of drawers on the right side of the front cover picture.

So I decided to have a go at making that, as it would take me less time than a full sized quilt. So, that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks.

Progress has been a bit slow as pain in my lower back and leg mean that I find it difficult to sit at my sewing machine for too long. Also, trying to sew after a long, hot day at work has resulted in a lot of ripping out!! But I am getting there, slowly. OH has kindly been documenting my progress with his camera. In my next post I hope to show you what I have done so far.

So that is it for now. I really will post again as soon as I can!

Hello, remember me?

It is with utmost shame that I note my last post was in August. This has been for a variety of reasons. My health has not been too good. I seem to have spent a lot of time hanging around in hospitals and having quantities of blood taken. Work has been difficult. So busy that at times I have had to put in extra time in the evenings and weekends. Also my Mother has not been well. She spent some time in hospital in November but happily is now well on the road to recovery. To be honest blogging has been far from my thoughts for months.

However, things are improving. Work is not so hectic and I am feeling better, so with OH's encouragement, I am posting again.

The beginning of December saw a significant landmark for me - my 50th Birthday! I find it very hard sometimes reconciling the image that I see in the mirror every morning with the how I feel inside. Granted that when I am having an arthritis flair up I can feel about 90 when I get out of bed, but most of the time I still feel as though I am in my 20s. It is a bit disconcerting sometimes when I catch a glimpse of my reflection in a shop window and I wonder who that strange grey haired woman is. Sometimes I even think I have seen my Mother!

I started my Birthday celebrations with a meal at a local restaurant with OH and a group of close friends. We had a lovely evening. The next day we went off to Bath for the weekend. It was a joint Birthday celebration as OH's Birthday is 3 days before mine. The weather was bitterly cold but we had a lovely time.

As you can see the hotel room was very grand, with four poster bed and views across bath to the Abbey.

The Christmas market was being held that weekend and it gave me the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping.

I couldn't go to Bath and not visit The Makery. Luckily there is a pub next door, much to OH's relief.

 

 

And of course we couldn't go to Bath without actually visiting the baths themselves. 

 

 

I bought some lovely fabric from The Makery and Country Threads. But more about that in my future posts.

We finished our time in Bath with a visit to the American Museum, where we were befriended by a curious robin.

 

We returned home tired but very happy. A lovely way to mark my half a century!

If you are wondering where the beading and creative stuff has gone, I have not been idle. More of that in my next post. So goodbye for now. It feels great to be back and a happy New Year to everyone.

Time Off (Part Two)

In my last post I promised to tell you more of our adventures over the past few weeks.

One evening OH and myself went to explore Knowlton Church and Earthworks. This is situated near Verwood, a short drive from our home in Bournemouth. It is a ruined medieval church built within a Neolithic henge. People have been using this site for worship for over 2500 years.

 

It was a beautiful, warm summer evening and I stood on top of the henge and watched the swallows darting about and the butterflies feasting on the wildflowers that grow all around it. It is a magical place with a unique atmosphere. They still hold regular church services here, weather permitting and the sense of continuity and connection with past generations is very strong. A magical place!

Our next adventure was a long weekend in Bath. We both love Bath and when we lived in Exeter we used to visit often for the day. We decided to go for a longer stay as there is so much to do there. As this was to be our only holiday this year we splashed out and picked a good quality hotel. It is very difficult to find cheap accommodation in Bath. Apparently hotels there are more expensive than central London. I found the Ayrlington online and I was impressed by the glowing reviews. To my relief the hotel more than lived up to its reviews. Our room was large, beautifully furnished and spotlessly clean. I would highly recommend it. Also, if you like cats this is the place for you. The owner has three, two of which roam freely around the building lapping up attention from the guests.

It is a short level walk from the Arlington over Pultney Bridge to the centre of Bath

We went to the Herschell Museum and I thought it was one of the most interesting museums I have ever visited. The small Georgian house contains the telescope Willam Herschell used to discover Uranus in 1782 and two of Saturn's moons. He was also the first person to discover the existence of infra red radiation. As a gifted musician he composed 24 symphonies during his lifetime. His sister Caroline was his assistant and made important astronomical discoveries of her own including eight comets and eleven nebulae. She was honoured by the the Royal Astronomical Society. Remarkable achievements at a time when women were universally considered to be of inferior intellect to men and rarely received a good education, by our modern standards!

 

A statue of William Herschell and his sister Caroline in the Museum garden

Everywhere you go in Bath you see can see evidence of its elegant Regency past -

I also had time to visit the Fashion Museum and of course a bead shop (Bijoux Beads), a yarn shop (Wool) and a quilting shop (Country Threads).

 The final part of our adventures will feature in my next post.

Time Off (Part One)

Yet again I have to apologise for the delay in posting but I have had a few well earned weeks off from work. The past year has been difficult, as last September my job changed dramatically with very little warning. I suddenly found myself with twice the workload in an unfamiliar area. The past 12 months has been a very steep learning curve. Just before I went on leave I had my annual appraisal meeting with my line manager. This allowed me to reflect on things. I wouldn't have been able to get through the last 12 months without the support of my colleagues, friends and of course OH!

I haven't been idle during my time off. The first few days was spent at home catching up with a few things and trying to relax. One of my goals was to finish a quilt. I made the quilt top several years ago. It was based on a pattern by Kaffe Fassett - Mossy Radiation from 'Quilt Road'.

The 'Mossy Radiation' quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett
 

We needed a summer weight quilt for our bed, so I raided my modest fabric stash. The triangles are strip-pieced so it was a good opportunity to use up all of my scraps. I decided to use blues, greens and pinks. I spent a happy two weeks sewing the centre of my quilt and then I suddenly lost confidence in what I was trying achieve. Also, at 80 inches square it is the biggest quilt I have ever made. I had decided to machine quilt it to make it more robust and the thought of trying to maipulate such a huge quilt on my machine daunted me. Disheartened, I folded up the unfinished top and put it away.

Three weeks ago, while sorting through some things in our spare room I came across the quilt top. I laid it out on the floor in our living room and had a really hard look at it. Coming to it afresh I realised that it was actually quite attractive. I just needed to add the final two borders and then quilt it.

I took a deep breath and set up my sewing machine. Two weeks later I am very proud of the result.

We have been sleeping under it for the past few nights and I am very pleased with it. Basting it on a small dining table was a challenge. I also found that quilting it on my sewing machine was not as difficult as I had envisaged. I took my time and did it a section at a time, starting at the centre. I used a blended batting - 80% cotton and 20% polyester by 'Warm and Natural'.  I normally use 100% cotton wadding, but as this is going to be a 'working' quilt rather than just decorative, I chose the blended version so that I could wash it more easily and the lines of quilting could be up to 6 inches apart.

This is my ninth quilt (I have given four away to friends and family) and my favourite so far. I am already planning my next quilt but this time I will be making a smaller lap quilt!

More about my adventures over the last two weeks in my next post.

Art Deco

In my previous post I promised to tell you more about an Art Deco inspired watch band that I have been working on. I like lots of different design styles such as Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival, but I keep being drawn back to Art Deco. I love the clean lines and beautiful shapes. I have several sketch books full of Deco design ideas, I even have a Pinterest board devoted to it.

I recently had the idea of designing an Art Deco inspired watch band. For a number of years I have bought watch faces and created my own beaded watch bands. I have really small wrists and hands so I find it very difficult to buy a dainty watches that fit me. I used to have to resort to chunky leather straps. Then one day I decided to have a go at making my own. My first design was a very basic ladder stitch pattern but I loved wearing it. It was comfortable and attractive.

This time I chose a square silver watch face. I then created a series of peyote stitch squares with open centres. I used my two favourite colours - blue and green. I then linked the squares together with green fire-polished crystal beads and finished the whole thing with a magnetic sterling silver clasp.

These images were taken by my OH, who used them as part of a project for a photography course. The photo above is a basic shot of the watch on a neutral background.

He took this shot of the watch lying on my sketchbook to emphasise the fact that it had been designed and handmade by me. I try to keep sketches and notes for all of my designs so that I can replicate them or re-use certain elements. Plus, it is a nice record of how my work has developed over the last 8 years.

In this photo was taken with the watch lying on a mirror. He deliberately left space around the image. The brief was to come up with a layout which could be printed in a magazine, and so space needed to be left so that text could be inserted.

I think that they are really good photos, but of course I am biased!

I now have an idea for a necklace rolling around in my head. More about that in the near future.

Hello, remember me?

Sorry, I don't know where the time has gone since I last posted! I haven't been idle. I have been doing some knitting, sewing and beading.

I have been struggling a bit with my dressmaking endeavours. Nothing seemed to be going right. So I decided to take a break from making clothes and make a bag instead.

I bought a floral bag from a well known high street chain about 5 weeks ago (I am not naming names for obvious reasons). After 2 weeks the bag started to fall apart. The print faded dramatically, the base of the bag developed a hole in the outer fabric and one of the straps started to shred. Admittedly I didn't pay a huge amount for it, but I was bitterly disappointed. I decided that I could make a much nicer and more robust bag myself, for a fraction of the cost of the high street one.

A couple of months ago, during a trip to Fabric Land, I had bought a bag pattern on impulse -

The Lisette Foreign Exchange Bag pattern seemed to give me everything that I need. It had a small outer pocket, an inner zip pocket and a divided slip pocket for my phone, pens etc. I decided to sew View D.

I had a piece of Amy Butler fabric, perfect for the bag. I paired it with some blue cotton drill and some blue and white polka dot fabric for the lining.

I spent a few evenings happily sewing my bag. 10 or so years ago I used to make and sometimes sell bags and I had forgotten how much fun they are to create. It went together with only a few small hitches. I loved the pattern and would definitely sew it again. It was fairly easy to make. However, the instructions left a little to be desired in a few places, so I don't think this is a bag for an absolute beginner, but perfectly fine for someone with a few projects under their belt..

I am really pleased with the result.

As you can see my version is not exactly like the one on the pattern envelope. Here is what I did -

• my fabric is quilt weight so I added fusible fleece to the outer fabric and medium weight fusible interfacing to the lining
• I added a central zip top pocket to give me much more organisation within the bag
• I added a piece of plastic canvas to the base for added stability
• for more security I added a magnetic snap fastener to the top edge
• the original pattern tells you to leave a gap in the side of the lining, then slip the bag inside the lining, right sides together, stitch the top edge and then pull the bag through the gap in the lining. As I had added an extra pocket and extra layers of interfacing this was not going to work. So I made some binding from the Amy Butler fabric, dropped the lining into the bag and bound the top edge.

I am particularly pleased with the front pocket. It is the perfect size for holding my travel card and swipe card for entering buildings at work. Plus it gave me the opportunity to showcase a beautiful 1950s vintage glass button from my stash.

I have been using the bag for a few days and I have to say it works really well as a work bag with plenty of room for my pens, phone, MP3 player, purse etc. There is also enough room to carry a notebook or file, if I have to go to a meeting.

I used the instructions from Lisa Lam's wonderful book 'The Bag Making Bible' to create the extra internal pocket.

Another recent purchase was a Kindle. I have always loved books and really enjoy handling them as beautiful, satisfying objects. I never really saw the appeal of e-readers.

 

However, after talking to a couple of friends who own Kindles I started to rethink my attitude. They both told me that they read so much more than they did before buying their Kindle. It is much lighter and easier to carry around than a paperback or hardback book.

So, I decided to buy one. I have to say that I love it! I am now able to read waiting for the bus, waiting for appointments and during my lunch break at work. I would highly recommend them.

I have been doing some beading too. However my beading endeavours have been hampered by my having contracted a rather nasty virus. This left me shivering, coughing and sneezing, on the sofa, covered in a quilt for a few days. My head feels as though I have cotton wool stuffed inside it and it takes a great effeort to concentrate on anything. However I am trying to carry on with a design that I am developing for an Art Deco inspired watch strap. More about this and my knitting endeavours very soon.