Month: January 2017

A little crafting

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello from a very cold Yorkshire, I am currently sat watching the tiniest snowflakes in the world drift down and hoping it is not going to get any worse as we are off to see my brother and sister-in- law this afternoon.

I have had a lovely if very busy week back at work, new groups to teach and lots of preparation and marking to do so including teaching all day Saturday so nothing of note has been done this week. I did have a lovely time in my craft room last weekend though, trying out a new pouch tutorial.

I like the ones I have done previously but the zips do get a bit squashed when you sew them together and Pinterest helpfully provided me with a few more ideas that use zipper tabs to get over that problem.

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I also had some difficulty boxing the corners of pouches after they had been sewn together and this tutorial eliminates that by getting you to cut out the corners as you cut the bag and lining pieces. The tutorial can be found at Jedi Craft Girl’s blog here – isn’t that a great blog name?

I used plain zips this time, have just bought a huge bundle of mixed colours at a bargain price from this Ebay supplier Zipperstore. The fabric on the front is from some charm square packs I bought at Harrogate and it is lined with some white fabric with a rose print on. I may just keep this one for me as I like the fact that it stands up on its own, very useful for storage.

The other make was a couple of pin cushions, I have made lots recently  and will keep on doing so to use up scraps.

I made one version of this one last year for me based on a tutorial from Vanessa from V and Co here. She uses another piece of fabric as a foundation piece but I just sewed the strips together.

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This is a great way of using up scraps and looks so cute!

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Looking forward to next weekend when I have the whole weekend in the craft room again!

Take care, keep warm and thanks as always for visiting.

 

Sofa,snow,stitching blogs….perfect weekend ahead!

stitchesoftime4 Comments

Good morning everyone, I got up at stupid o clock this morning, (for a weekend), as I had a bed delivered and was contemplating going back to bed but have decided to have an indulgent morning with lots of cups of tea and snuggling in my PJs and dressing gown on the sofa catching up with favourite blogs.

We have had snow again this week, not as much as was forecast but our little world is all white again, it looks so pretty on the hills. I am still feeling a bit rough with the end of the chest infection so will not be going out and playing in it but enjoy the views and the pictures people post. Thought that those of you who don’t get much snow would like this one taken by a local photographer yesterday.

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One of the best things about snow is that we often get beautiful blue skies and sun after it so it is all sparkly and lovely.This is one of the hills behind my house.

I am so lucky to live here, all of the seasons are so beautiful.This panorama picture was taken a few months ago, my house is just left of the middle on the second row of terraces that were built for the mill on the right. You can see just how close I am to the beautiful hills where I go walking and the reservoir on the far right.

marsden-panorama

I have made a few things this week, mainly experimenting again with zips. Turns out that I do have a zipper foot, the one that I found that I thought I would use just for now is a different type of zipper foot as I discovered when I went to order one. For anyone else who may be interested this is a narrow zipper foot which works perfectly well.

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I made this pouch using the same tutorial from Emkie Designs, the additional fabric is from one of my charm packs, am getting to the end of my linen leftovers from medieval clothes making so will have to order some more soon.

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I am getting much better at inserting zips now, am very pleased with how neatly this turned out.

This one is made from the Homemakery tutorial again, I used a longer zip this time at 30 cm and some of my lovely French vintage inspired haberdashery fabric.This will be for the stall at Yarndale again, the basket I made in this fabric sold last year so thought I would make a few more things with it.

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This little cutie I made just before we went away with some Liberty fabric.

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It was a bit difficult to square off the corners as it was so small so they are a bit wonky, which is good as it can stay with me rather than being for sale 🙂

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I am using it to store my spare rotary cutter blades.

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Apart from that the free time this week has been mainly spent on the sofa watching the excellent Blindspot TV series on catch up and making hexagons for my first ever bed sized quilt.

This is a very long term project that I blogged about last year but one that is great for travelling or when I have no hand sewing or embroidery to do. I now have quite a good stack of them, I estimate that I will need about 60 for the quilt and they will be sashed with plain fabric.I love the pretty Moda Printemps fabric.

Plans for the weekend are a couple more pouches, have found some other tutorials that I am going to try to eliminate the bunching of zips at each end and to try and get my corners straighter so will report back on success or otherwise later on.

Thanks for visiting, hope that you have a good week ahead, stay warm if you are snow bound!

January thoughts

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello and hope you are all having a good start to your crafting year. I have been thinking a lot about goals for this year, not resolutions but things that I want to get done and so thought that putting together a list on the blog would give me a point of reference.

I like the idea of looking back at what you have done and looking forward to the future, January being named after the Roman god, Janus, the god of doors because this month is the door to the year. The Roman god Janus represents all beginnings and possesses the ability to see all things past and future which I think is a lovely idea and why he is represented with two faces.

So what did I achieve in 2016? This was very much a year of new things for me, coming really from a couple of courses that I went on at Simply Solids where I learnt to make baskets and had my first experience with zips with my pouch. I also used some of my ideas from Pinterest for pincushions and the little houses and made a sewing machine cover.

Looking at my photos for last year it doesn’t seem as if I did a lot but there also extra things that I did like the gold braid on Ellen’s dress, finishing the tabard for Jamie, a ring pillow and the Christmas ornaments that were also completed. The fact that I changed job roles in the summer has also meant a lot less time for crafting since June though hopefully that has calmed down now.

So plans for 2017. First of all to tackle some of the pesky WIPs. Like most people I am a bit of a flibbertigibbet when it comes to crafting, I see a new thing that I want to do and then go off and do it and don’t finish other things.I have also been guilty of abandoning difficult things which is not good practice!

These all need finishing.The first one needs a frame but is done otherwise, the quilt block is part of the challenge that Helen, Sharon and I did the year before last. I have 6 blocks but need a few more. The cute car hexagons were supposed to be a present for a baby who is now two! The vintage crochet hexis are going to be a bee quilt cushion and the last set of hexis are a long term project which is good for travelling, I have made some more of these in Spain.

Then the new stuff. I would like to go back and make some more of the Splendid Sampler blocks, particularly these stitched ones.

I would also like to make some of the items that I have saved pictures of on the blog.They range from things from books such as the circular tile quilt and the triple hexagon tea mug  to more pincushions, pouches, baskets, mug rugs and bags from blogs, some of Lori Holt Bloom Sew Along and a Dresden block using vintage linen from a magazine.

I would like to do more of Jenny of Elefantz’s lovely embroidery, the hexagon and roses one above is one I have been meaning to do for the craft room but think it would make a great zip pouch as well.

I also need to find a use for these gifted hexagons from my friend Helen, zippered pouches maybe? Probably more likely than a whole quilt given my productivity!

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Finally there is more cross stitch, something I haven’t done for a long time but am feeling the urge for in preparation for next year’s Christmas ornaments.

A little snowy scene

Well that lot should keep me going for a while, meantime there is some crochet and lace zips calling me upstairs so I had better go and see what they want!

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Pussycat,pussycat I love you …

stitchesoftime3 Comments

You may remember a few months back when I started making house pincushions Jake suggested they would look good with a cat in the window and I was wondering how to do that when a comment from VirtuoSewAdventures suggested embroidery.

I have done a bit of embroidery but not much freehand so was very pleased with the way my cat turned out, I just drew the outline and filled it in with long and short stitch.Also got to use up a  piece of vintage trim for the roses round the door.

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I finished it just in time to give it to Ellie for Christmas. I do love making these little houses and plan to make many more, have so many ideas for fabric combinations.

What are you working on at the moment?Leave me a comment and let me know.

Thanks for visiting and have a good week ahead.

Mainly Sky

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello and a Happy New Year to you all. I have had a lovely time with Ellie and Jake and then my Mum in Spain and hope that your festive season has been good as well.

I love looking at the sky, I love the way it changes and provides us with the most beautiful colours, one of the things that I love most about Spain is the wonderful sunsets every night, pink and orange as the sun goes down over the mountains.

Here is a gorgeous sunset behind the palm trees from one of our trips out.

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We went to Clumber Park on Boxing Day as Ellie was working, she and I had been for the morning service on Christmas Day which was lovely but this was Jake’s first visit to Clumber.

We went to see the Kitchen Garden which is part of her responsibility as well as the Chapel and I took lots of pictures of the sky above and through the beautiful greenhouse.

 

These pots are also her responsibility, at some point she has to sort and catalogue them all!

 

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We then went on the fairy trail, just as the sun was setting, there were lots of different parts of the woodland decorated with clues for children to find treasure and it looked beautiful in the winter light.

I also took this picture with the Chapel in the background which I really like.

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I did try to get ‘seven swans a swimming’ but alas they were too quick for me but here are a few on the lake anyway.

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It is very dull here today but the mists over the moors look beautiful, good job I am not planning to go out but instead to spend quality time in the craft room before I am back to work on Monday.

Take care and thanks for visiting.