2014 August (second half)

 

Posting Pin Cushions

When I posted about the pin cushion I made for Jackie, to put sewing machine needles in, I got a couple of requests to make them.

Sorry to Katy and Kathy: I had planned to get these done earlier, but they have been stitched

And packaged

and went to the post office yesterday.

Exhausting Embroidery

I was asked, by a fellow blogger, if I could embroider some initials onto some fabric which would then be made into bags for bridesmaids at her son's wedding.

Of course, I'd love to - so she sent me the fabric and the font ...

Although I usually tinker with the computer generated font, this one as too detailed for the machine even to have a go!

I can sort of trace over an image to create a design from scratch, so I had a go with the C (above) and it looked reasonable on the screen

And it stitched OK, but this took about half an hours concentrated work for a 0.75" high design that still isn't as detailed as the original!

Fiona is going to find me another font to try!!!

I then consoled myself by creating a totally unnecessary design that luckily stitched out fine!

And I just thought I'd share the padded trinket boxes made by the Chertsey Museum Ladies (full pic are here )

They also brought back their finished jewellery pouches

And Kaye brought a Mariner's Compass - her first, isn't it stunning!

Silkscreen Scissors

I recently ordered this book

. . . And had a go a silkscreen printing.  The newspaper attempt was not very impressive

 But using card worked a bit better, although I can see I need more practise

 

Heck of a Hexie

I started an oversize hexi in June 2012 after being first inspired by Janine, and then being lent her books.

I never really thought about how big it should get, but it was getting quite hard to add each new layer so it has sat, abandoned, in a drawer for the last 18 months. Jackie gave me a good talking to: just finish it!

So I have quilted it

And machined on a bright rainbow striped binding

And it's now another one in the to-be-finished-in-the-cooler-weather pile

Bunting and Bundles

Is there anything better than a day spent pottering in the sewing room?

I've made bunting for the new great nephew and niece, and their bigger sister

And I've cut bundles of Hexies using Jackie's 2" die which is currently holidaying here from Ireland.

Do these two colours look the same? This isn't the first time that  I think two orders of Kona fabric have resulted in a slightly different shade :-(

Two cuts of Kona Steel:

Two cuts of Kona Cornflower

Future Fun With Fabric (Mug caddy)

I have made another sample for a planned Chertsey Museum Fun With Fabric class.

When I googled this to look for some instructions most of the replies lead me back to a Simplicity pattern

Theirs uses bias binding, but mine has a lining instead.  Which is better?  No idea as I haven't seen one of theirs in the flesh!

But if you fancy making one, my first draft instructions are here

Creative Christmas

How's this for advanced planning!!!  I'm teaching a class in December on making a reversible Christmas stocking - and not only have I made the samples, but I've written the instructions too!

So the stocking looks like this

Or you can turn it inside out to look like this

The instructions are here 

And if your spacial awareness is OK you'll make this which can be made into either version

However, if you're having a bad day, or have rubbish spatial awareness skills, you could end up with this which will never work

Or this which isn't reversible - sigh!

Still I did get there in the end!

Workday Wednesday

There are a few more days until I go back to the 'day job', but the embroidery machine has been busy today with customers' orders:
Initialled PE kit for a lad starting a new school

School logo for a mum who doesn't rate the quality of the uniform suppliers

a set of tissue pouches for a friend's daughter's wedding in a few weeks: for the mothers and grandmothers and the bridesmaids as well as the bride

And I'm plodding through a mountain of fleece zippies and polo shirts for the local pre-school

Last week we were on holiday - being spoilt at a lovely resort in Lanzarote - blue skies and sunshine with a cooling breeze every day. I managed to tack a few rainbow hexies on the plane

But on holiday i mostly read and sunbathed .

Consequences Quilt

I'm a member of the Richmond and Kew quilters group: we meet once a month. We are starting a Round Robin challenge on the lines of the game Consequences- we start a quilt then send it on its way to another member (with fabric, a sheet to pin the blocks to, and an outline of our plan) and in the meantime we receive the same from another member. We won't see ours again for nearly a year until it has gone to all the others in the group

Lisa brought me a FQ pack of bright fabrics earlier this year, with an extra yard of the orange, so I decided to use these fabrics

I cut a whole load of 2" squares

And stitched them together

My rough thought is for a strip quilt of all different blocks - people can choose their own favourite block and add a row of them, I'll probably assemble them with orange sashing from the extra yard

I just hope it's not too daunting having to make blocks for other people!

Fonts on Friday

A few days ago I messaged Fiona with the plans for the medieval font she wants embroidered. She was happy with the design, but then I opened the saved design to see this:

Aghhhhhhh

My $]**@& computer lost the font (!!)

Medieval font has vanished, but Fiona is happy with Olde English instead

While I was waiting for her reply I tacked the centre line on each piece of fabric, plus another tacking line to show where the writing was to start (1/2" left and 1" down from centre) - I didn't want to risk any fabric marker on the silk!

The sample stitched out ok

Wedding Woes

So I've had two machine embroidery projects for weddings this week: Gothic initials onto silk for Fiona, and tissue pouches for Kate

Last week I confessed to all sorts of problems fitting a stocking lining into a stocking, and this week I am back in the dunce's corner:  two sets of Gothic initials are in the wrong place on the fabric, and Kate and Jimmy get married on 13th September!

As I'm clearly rubbish at doing this at the moment so instead I've been helping re-roof our shed today, and now I'm off to babysit six week old twins and their just-two-year-old sister, it's GOT to be easier than the sewing I'm trying to do!