Other People's Crafts (and One of Mine and a Question)

I've been really impressed with what some of my friends have been creating!

The lovely Tara from Crafty Church made these free motion raw edge applique blocks at a course in Dorking, at Gillian Gladrags

Lots of the Crafty Church ladies had a go at screen printing last week

And Jackie is making this fab quilt:- I LOVE the way the colours pop against the grey, I think I need to find my grey fabric!

And as for me, I *really* hope I've got this quilt right - after Ely's error I'm starting to doubt myself! A friend a school has a new grandson - I wrote the name down and got her to check it, and I've kept the paper safe to check against!

Inspired by Helen's quilting of her Christmas Cherry (over at Archie the Wonder Dog) I decided to quilt this in a sort of orange segment design

Maybe easier to see on the back?

 I'm really pleased with it - thanks for the idea Helen x

And finally - I went to my drawer of rainbow charm squares as I fancied starting something new . . . and  I found this message that I left for myself a while ago.  I'm guessing it's cutting info for a quilt top - anyone got ANY idea what I'm supposed to do next?

More Goodies

I have managed to look at all the goodies in the donated boxes: hope you are ready for a few photos!

LOTS of white buttons - some beautiful mother-of-pearl type

And sufficient to nearly refill my white button jar, so I can look for another craft using them.  Also two more wooden darning mushrooms - I love these, so tactile, but no idea what to do with them (other than darning of course!!!)

A wide range of big needles - these first three have two holes - any idea why?

and about a million *tiny* needles - seriously tiny!  this one on the left came from the box, the one on the right is the smallest eye of all the ones I have in my sewing box

A zoomed in picture:

Incredibly tiny, I can't see to thread it even with my glasses on, and I really don't think that thread would go through that eye!

There were also some crochet hooks: I guess she had better eyesight than I have!

The box now holds the wooden cotton reels and the thimbles

I have long needed something to put my own crochet hooks into, so I've made one and the donated ones can live here with mine until the next Crafty Church session.  I adapted my Mug Caddy instructions, and am really pleased with it - not bad for a 20 minute make!

Silk Purse? Or Sow's Ear?

You know the feeling- someone contacts you and the gist of the message is "you like sewing, I'll bring you some stuff".  Sometimes there is a lot of rubbish, or even all rubbish, but occasionally ...

The wooden box intrigued me - I love it

And inside one of the cardboard boxes was this gorgeous set

Other goodies included this bullet shaped and sized thing

But after a little wiggle it came apart to show this ...

And I've got two more boxes to sort as well!

This is definitely looking like a silk purse sort of goodie box!

Back to School

Sadly the week's holiday is drawing to an end and I'm back to alarm clocks and 40 hours weeks at schools from tomorrow!

I've finished the embroidery, and I've trimmed and actually quilted the Sweet 16 quilt

I've machine washed (40 degree wash) my Blue Glue Batik and I'm loving the vividness of the colours

Once it dries I'll join the ends and see how it feels as an infinity scarf

Finally I've sorted half a dozen London themed fabrics

A member of a quilting group on Facebook was asking for some i-spy fabrics for a quilt for her children. When she sent me her address I realised she lived in the same small town as the lovely Kathy from Running With Rocket - what a small world - I've now introduced them to each other!

Sweat Shop and Sweet 16

I've been embroidering uniform for a local transport company.  Each item takes 7 minutes to embroider.  There is no point in going off and doing anything around the house as I'll need to be back soon; there is no point in starting anything new, as I'll get distracted and forget to set up the next item . . . so . . .

I dug out all my sweet 16 blocks (some of them shown here)

and started assembling them in strips.  Using my Quicker Than Quilt As You Go method I've got it started yesterday

And have them all assembled today

The embroidery?  Two big Ikea bags filled, another 14 items then I'm done!

'Ello Ely

Ely now has a quilt with his name on - thank goodness!

I've also had a bit of a play with the remainder of the blue Elmer's glue, sort of "batik meets zentangles".  The glue takes a while to dry ...

And then I started to paint it, I'm rather liking this, I think it will make a decent infinity scarf

More Making and a Muck Up

A few other bits from the weekend: we had a go at thermofax screen printing

And a go at cheat Batik (using blue Elmer's school glue and watered acrylic paints). This is the result after machine washing, the bolder colours are definitely better

After Jackie left I made Lisa a document pouch

Using some very precious New York fabric

And then I got a text from a friend. She had already asked me to make an I-Spy quilt for a new great nephew that was due, and he has now arrived and his name is Ely. I did check with her as the two boys I know with that name spell it Eli. No, definitely Ely.
I embroidered the name and machine stitched the binding to the front. I then spent a lovely hour in Lisa's room, sitting comfortably and cosily hand sewing the binding on while listening to an audio book . . .

(Panoramic photo of Lisa's cosy room)

Then I went to take a photo of the finished quilt

Grrrrrrrrrr.
Anyone know a baby called Eli who would like an I-Spy quilt?
I'm now making a quilt for Ely!!!! Luckily I had pre cut squares of all but two of the fabrics!

Posted with Blogsy

More Making

Jackie and I managed lots more "what can we try next?" making today


We made a 'Tiny Box Zippy' each, although they aren't tiny - certainly big enough to be useful!

We finished frame pouches that we started yesterday

And we made triangular coin purses - these *are* small enough to be called 'tiny', and pulling a zip-pull off the zip teeth and then putting it back on was a bit scary!

Now Jackie has gone :-( abandoned me.  We've only got to wait until Easter when we'll meet up again - anybody got any ideas as to what we should make next?



Some bloggers seem to be missing off sections of instructions and / or measurements, so for my own sanity:

• the strip added in photo 14 of the triangular coin purse measures 7 x 1.5 inches, and have the zip slightly open when you sew the last seam closed.  we use fusible fleece on the outer fabric

• My framed pouch frames came from U-handbag, £3.75 a pair.  They measured appx 10 x 3" (actually 15" long) so the bag had to be cut 15.5 wide x  required depth (we used one piece of fabric not two, and cut to 15.5 x 15.5")  The zip needed to be >16"  We used fusible fleece on the outer fabric, and fusible interfacing inside the frame channels.  We box cut a 2" square (2" to the seam) and tried to remember to leave a turning hole in one lining side seam

Busy Busy

I finished school for ten days at 4pm on Thursday, and have managed to pack plenty in

Jackie landed at 9pm so I collected her and we've hardly stopped talking (or sewing) since!  

We've made triple zip pouches 

We've made vinyl pouches

We've hosted Kids' Crafty Church for ten children

We've had a go at batik and thermofax printing ... And we've still got fabric and zips to use and pouches to make!

Hope you are having a good weekend!