The one where I didn't have to be sociable

I got home from work to an empty house - shovelled in some food and then off to the sewing room!!!

 

If you're my friend on Facebook you might have seen these blocks that the Richmond & Kew ladies made on Monday night

 

There were some fabric strips kept over so several of us took some home to make more - and I finished four tonight - these will all be made into project Linus quilts

 

I also did a bit of work on a tutorial for a two zip pouch like this one, but that'll be a post for another day.

In the meantime I'm counting down the days until school breaks up (just six more days) and celebrating Jackie having today finished the chemo part of her treatment, and her grandchild not choosing to arrive just yet!!!!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

The One where I only managed 15 minutes of sewing

After 44 hours of work last week (two school and two teaching gigs) I was then out at a family do all Saturday, and mostly tidying up and putting away today . . . but a girl has to do some sewing in the week!

I picked up some Chinese indigo dyed fabric from a speaker at Richmond & Kew quilters last month (Jennifer Hughes) and had a recent delivery of zips from the Zipit lady so I had a play, and 15 minutes later had this finished

I expect my thumb will eventually be clean!

The weather at the family party was alternating tropical rain and brilliant sunshine- thank goodness for gazebos!

Some family pics: (specially for Jackie)

Niki and Lulu

Nina and Niki

Anthony with a poorly Sammy

Everyone

 Lisa

The One where I make a Vinyl Windowed Zippy Pouch with no raw edges

I've made lots of vinyl windowed zippy pouches, but get slightly annoyed that they either have raw edges or need to have binding added to hide the raw edges.

One night I woke at about 3am with a 'cunning plan' and I'm delighted to report that it actual works!

Instructions and photos follow, but I have assumed that you can already make a zippy pouch with a vinyl window.

Cut 4 rectangles the right size for the required pouch, and cut two scrap (but contrasting) smaller rectangles bigger than the required window to make the 'frame'.

Stitch the 'frame' scrap to the front of an outer piece and cut out the centre (Dont make the window too big, and I think next time I would make the outer window slightly smaller than the inner one)

snip into the curves

Turn the 'frame' through to the back and press (on both)

Stitch an outside (framed) piece and an inside (solid) piece to one side of a zip (RST,)  And repeat with the other two pieces (I used yellow for my solid lining piece so (hopefully) you can see what's happening

Outside pieces on the front of the zip and inside pieces on the back of the zip

Move your zip pull so it's about 1/4 closed, 3/4 open.  MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS NOW (we shan't discuss why I think this is so important)

Cut off the excess bits of zip

Now ... get your vinyl and place it between the two window sections (with the wrong sides together) and top stitch through all three units

Now comes a bit of flaffing about: pin the two outer pieces together RST, and pin the two inner pieces RST with a 4" gap at the bottom.

Stitch around the pinned areas, making sure you are only sewing through 2 layers and the other layers are out of the way

If you struggle to get access at the zip ends it might be worth stopping and flipping the unit over to see if that's easier

Turn through the opening in the lining, and stitch the lining closed

Ta Daaaaa!!!!!!

Fully lined windowed zippy pouch

The One About Crafty Church (June)

As always we had a lovely afternoon at Crafty Church this afternoon


I got a partially finished EPP hexie top basted

I held a bit of a jumble sale as there has been so much donation stuff recently, and I'm running out of storage space . . . lots has found a new home

And I was given this fab panel by Tara!

Tara brought this for show and tell -its tiny, and really beautiful

And she's knitting with wire . . .

Having finished crocheting with wire!

 Lesley has finished this Noah's Ark which started in a donation box

Janet has finished this gorgeous boy

and is working on a girlfriend:

The One About An Artist In Residence

While we were in Norway, on the island of Halsnøy, we visited a museum very close to the cottage.  I love that an island with a population of less than 3000 has a museum (and a fire station and two schools!)

Every year they have an Artist in Residence, and this year was Lois Walpole and she has been weaving with scrap ropes. Not only was there some fab exhibits, but I'm teaching very similar bowls on Wednesday next week so it as great to see hers, and to buy a copy of her book.  I'm really sorry I wasn't able to meet her

Sorry lots of photos to follow!

The bowls

She also made two huge wall hangings - this one in the 'dining room'

 

 

And this one in the 'sitting room'

 

And the book