I'm back and I"ve been busy!

Well it's been a while since I've posted (I know I'm such a bad blogger) but it's been crazy busy at work and I've been a busy bee in General! I've been on holiday to Devon (where I'm fairly certain the country's population of VW camper vans are!). On a sad note I've also been to Southampton to visit my gran who isn't very well. She had a few stokes and is now very ill. I was hoping to show her some pictures of my sewing but she was asleep the whole time we were there.

So onto what I've been doing! I started making the bag from 'make'and just have the button holes left to put on the straps so I can use the bag. It was nice to make the bag but it's a little smaller than I'd like. Can't fit much in there!

The next thing I made was actually another project from 'make' and it was the jewellery roll. I made this for a friend's birthday and just dug some fabric out of my stash to make it. I think she liked it but I'm always a worrier when I give people gifts that I've made. I did rather like it though and may get around to making myself one at some point. I was so proud of myself because this is the first time I've sewn a zip into anything!

And then the olympics started. I was persuaded by my sister to go see a football match at St James' park in Newcastle and we saw the New Zealand and USA woman's quarter final. It was the first football game I've been to but it was actually good fun and the crowd were all in a good mood. Not what I imagine from a normal football match!

After the Olympics and hours spent glued to the TV and computer when not at work it was the turn of the paralympics. I'd spotted some Christmas fabric in a sale (the Blitzen by basic grey charm pack infact) and had bougt that. I'd also been rather taken by a table mat I'd seen somewhere and so decided to make that. Back to my dreaded nemesis of hexagons! I had no idea where I saw the pattern or what size hexagon to make so I just cut my charms into 4 and made my hexagons from there (They turned out to be 1 inch hexagon). A few days after I started I saw a review of a book called hex-a-go-go and lo and behold there was the pattern I'd seen! I bought the book and luckily for me I've made the right size hexagons. I say 'made' because all I've done so far it cut out hundreds of hexagon shaped bits of paper, and basted about half of them so far. Will it be done by this xmas? Only time will tell!

Carrying on with my hexagon obsession I decided to make a case for my new phone - an iPhone5! This case was made out of small scraps of fabric I had left over from the 2nd quilt I ever made and they are 1/2 inch hexagons. How tiny! I lined the case with a microfible cloth which was a bit of a faff to sew. It's a little shorter than I wanted but the phone fits in so long as it's not in another cover.

So with that we move onto this week. We are getting people in to do our windows and doors so my lovely stash of fabric has to move to a new home as I'm no longer allowed to store it in boxes on the dining room table. We bought a Beno cd holder from Ikea to store it all in our spare room/office. The family had joked would it hold all my fabric and I've given them evil glares. I don't have that much you know...

Well as you can see from these pictures above and below I actually do have rather a lot of fabric. Oops. I see a lot of fabric from my stash having to be used in quilts in the future. It's all just too pretty to cut though. You may also be able to tell that I spent the time to organise it by colour with all the xmas ones together, the batiks together, the novelty prints together.... Me obsessive? never...

  

Looking at it I also feel like some colours are missing. I hardly have any blender type fabrics. most of them are bold and bright prints.

  

And look at the extra space that has no fabric in it. That means I'm allowed to buy more right?

Hopefully I'll post another update soon. I'm currently trying to persuade myself that I don't REALLY need to but the oh deer jelly roll that's on sale at Simply solids...it sure is pretty though

   

Productive week!

Well my week off work was rather productive as far as sewing goes! Pity that the weather was awful so i didn't get a change to go out for a wander in Northumberland somewhere and go geocaching but I did manage to get all this sewing done - a lot for me!

The first thing I work on was this cute bag that came with Patch! by Cath Kidston that I got at Christmas. Making it revealed to me that I have NO patience whatsoever for paper piecing things. i hated having to cut out fabric with scissors and then loads of paper templates then having to baste it all and then sew it together. What a faff! I much prefer using my Dresden ruler I have which cuts half these steps out and means I can rotary cut it all. Another leader from our Guide unit also had the book and made her bag about the same time as me on her new cheap sewing machine. We both had hours of fun making the puff for the middle. She managed to make her's too small and I made mine too big and as you can see had to pop an extra bit of fabric in the middle because the fabric supplied only had the print on 1 side. Oh well...

I also made myself chuckle as I sewed all the seams inside and I blindly followed the book which said to do a zig zag stitch on the seam to make it stronger. just as I turned the bag the right way around I realised not only do I have a hemming foot with my sewing machine (doh!) but it also has a pre set stitch for it! (double doh!). I'll have to remember that for my next project which is the bag fro the Make! book that I was given for my birthday by a friend.

My bag

Project number 2 was the starry quilt (yes, the one I started earlier this year that is a birthday pressie for someone who's birthday was in feb). I FINALLY got all the stars made and spent a good hour with my twin sister working out the best layout so we didn't have groups of colours or collections of the same type of star together. I guess a lot could be said for planning and not being spontaneous but where's the fun in that! My sister is  huge fan of the grey/pink/yellow star that's in the middle column 2nd down. She's requested a whole quilt of it (not demanding at all!). I on the other hand am a fan of the purple and green one in the top left corner and the green and grey one in the bottom centre. I love the idea of making a quilt with a grey background and using bright colours to really add some 'wow' to it.

As much as I love this quilt and will be proud of it when I've finished I still would have preferred it on a black background but the recipient wanted it on a creamy one. I think black would of looked fab. This quilt is all pinned now and just needs to be quilted which leads me to project number 3...

Starry Quilt - top all pieced!

Project 3 - learn to fmq on my new(ish...) sewing machine so i can quilt this quilt with stars - it seems only right for it. I sat myself down one afternoon with a couple of large quilt sandwiches and just sat playing with the tension and everything to try and get it right. It would appear that changing the stitch length to 0 has a huge impact and once I managed to get the tension right for a straight line (I have to loosen the bobbin tension every time I put a new bobbin in because my sewing machine hates me lol) I was whizzing around and actually getting rather good results fro my first attempt. The tension was perfect even around corners although my stitch length was a tad dodgy in places - all in all i think I could get the hang of it easily because it just seemed like such a natural thing to do. I bought a couple of star templates and some air vanishing pens to mark the quilt so hopefully if i get a chance this weekend I may get the quilt done. I'm so excited!

As for my other project of the week - Herman - he worked OK but not brilliantly. I blame it on the instructions I was given being in American (I have no idea what a cup is when baking - obv in real life it's what holds my tea). This time around I used a recipe that had English measurements and he looks a lot happier. I'm due to cook him this weekend so we'll see how he goes!

hopefully next time I write I'll have a quilt that just needs binding (or is finished!)

Herman the house guest

On Friday last week I gained a new friend who wanted to go home with me. His name? Herman. And he's not a real person - he's a German friendship cake yeasty mix that's doing the rounds.
Luckily for me he's not that demanding and as he was already rather old when I got him I've only had to stir him so far and don't need to feed him until tomorrow when I also have to split him up! In theory I give 2 portions of him to friends, keep 1 for myself and eat the other. I think my dad and I are going to have big arguments about what we add to him but I may struggle to give him away so we may make a few cakes!

The best news this week though is that I have a week off work so I'm intending on relaxing and finishing that star quilt I started for my friend (yes, I am a bad person who hasn't finished it yet)

I have managed to do some sewing today and I made a bag that came with a book I got. In making this bag I have discovered that I have no patience for paper templates and basting things then hand seeing. Yawn. What a faff. I like rotary cutting and making a nice fast quilt.

Birthday

It's been a rather odd month - especially these past few weeks. We heard on Easter Sunday that my dad's mum had a stroke and was in hospital down south. Dad spent the week worrying before receiving a phone call from his brother and deciding to drive all the way to the hospital (about 5 hours drive!) to see her. On the Tuesday my dad found out he was diabetic (My sister and I are refusing to move all the sugary goodness from the house. How mean are we?) and then on the Wed I found out that my other gran who lives nearby is having problems with her blood pressure and was onto her 3rd trip to the doctor/nurse in a week on Friday to get a heart monitor. I'm fairly certain my family are falling to bits.

Despite all this we've also managed to squash in 2 Ranger meetings this week (my big Aqua Guides - the 14-26yr olds) where we had a wii and movie night and then yesterday went geocaching in a local country park. We had the full age range of 15-22 there and despite what some people say about there being such differences in age range and life experience they really do all get on so well and encourage each other. At one point we discovered we were following other geocachers around and we started running and missing caches out to leave message for each other. So much fun. Unfortunately it's me who now has to sit here and log the lot on the website.

In other news, it's my birthday today and my sister very kindly decided to buy me some fabric as a pressie! It's a rather random selection because after her sitting next to me and looking through fabric on-line we very quickly discovered that although we are identical twins we have completely opposite ideas about what is pretty fabric.

In the end I sent her away with a website and told her to add stuff she liked (or thought I would like) to the shopping basket then i was called through to whittle it down to an acceptable price. lol. I picked a selection of fabrics - some in colours that I don't have many of in my stash (look no purple or light pink!) and some fabrics that I just loved. Who shouldn't have fabric with owls?!?!? I do love the expressions on the faces of the foxes on the walk in the woods fabric.

The pretty birthday fabric!

Of course that's not the only fabric I've gained... I wish people would stop pointing out sales to me. I finally gave in and bought myself a selection of fabric from the innocent crush range which I fell in love with when I saw This quilt. I'm not totally certain what I'll do with it. I want to do a quilt with the pattern I originally saw it used in but can't use the same colours.

Innocent Crush

The other fabric I bought purely based on the fact I liked the colours (as usual). Again, I have no project in mind for it but I love it all the same. it's from the Camelot Range by Jason Yenter. The colours are just so bright and vibrant and I even discovered I already had some of his fabric from my post xmas buying spree! Now I just need to think of a way to use it.

Camelot fabric

I have promised myself I won't start any new projects though until I get this star quilt finished for my friend. I'm ashamed to say very little has been done on it since last time I posted pictures. I think I need a week off work to get it done.

Busy!

No. I've not been busy sewing (although today I have). It's been manic at work and we've had loads of people off sick so I seem to be living there at the minute. Unfortunately being there that much and starting at 4am most days means I get home and just want to go to bed and not sew because I'm so tired.
Today my sister woke me from my sleep to help her make a costume for our book themed guide meeting next week. She going as the cat in a hat (my suggestion) so bought some felt, found a tutorial and expected me to make it magically turn into a hat! I left her to do the cutting and measuring and I just did the sewing and between us we ended up with a snazzy looking hat.
My sewing machine wasn't too happy with all that felt under the needle but then I remembered it had a built in duel feed so I got that started and off I went again with the sewing machine much happier with life. Yay.
Hopefully I can get some quilt sewing done soon now that things have calmed down a bit more at work.

It was on a starry night...

I've just returned from a weekend away with my Guides in the middle of Northumberland with no phone signal or Internet or anything and it was fun!
We did activities based on traditional guiding, we did some archery with the village archery club (and I won the line contest although I didn't count according to the guides. Lol) and we had a campfire outside.
I think one of the things that amazed my guides the most all weekend though was when they went outside on the first night to look for cardboard rabbits and bats which we'd scattered around and stuck reflective 'eyes' on and my sister told then to look up. The girls are all from in a city and we've never really taken them anywhere that it's so dark and remote (at least while there's been clear skies) so they were all amazed at the number of stars up there, and the shooting stars they could see, and being able to see the milky way (even if faintly). I suspect if we'd still been up there this week we would have been able to see the northern lights and that would blow their minds! Every night some of them took their hot chocolates and just went outside to look at the stars in wonder.
I guess we often forget to take pleasure in the simple things like seeing the stars (or for me the peace and quiet and being cut off from everything, well once the girls finally went to sleep anyway).


But on the topic of different stars I've made some progress with the bright starry quilt for my friend. I'm about half way there with the big blocks but still have a few small ones to get started on.

My favourite blocks are the pink and purple and the green and grey. My sister is very drawn to the blue and blue block.

Cup of tea anyone?

I've managed to achieve something already in 2012. A finished quilt! Granted its actually a tiny coaster (or mug rug to Americans) but its made and quilted none the same so counts as a quilt in my world.
It was actually an experiment. I just got a Dresden ruler and I'm rather keen on making a full Dresden plate quilt so this was a good trial of using that and it was also a chance to test out the new sewing machine at appliqué! I think the tiny blanket stitch I used looks rather fab and much better then when I made cushions for my grandparents on my old sewing machine. Being able to limit the speed and keep the needle down really helps.

In use

yes, my sewing area is that dark!

I've also finally received all the fabric I need for my friends quilt so I can finally start making it. Just need to pluck up the courage to cut into the nice fabric. Oh dear.

Don't worry - I actually have rather a lot more of the cream since it's the background colour

Let's see how far I get in the next few days.

What have I become?

I promised a friend a quilt for her birthday and it's just dawned on me that I actually have become everything I thought I'd never be with regards to quilting. I always thought those people with vast quantities of pretty fabric at home and several sewing machines were crazy. I've become one of them!!!

Even more worryingly even though I have a slightly large stash of fabric now I'm struggling to find fabric for her quilt (well, she would want bright and plain ish when I seem to have mostly purple, aqua and pink patterns) I'll have to buy more fabric. Oops.

Ive also, although not totally my fault, become one of those people with several sewing machines. How??
I have my old singer one that belonged to my gran then mum, a brother embroidery machine that kinda appeared when my other gran upgraded her stuff and just randomly sent it with my dad for me from the opposite end of the country, and I have my new sewing machine that I bought just after Xmas and am still trying to work out (in -all fairness I got it because the singer has lost most the fashion disks and accessories that came with it so all I can do is sew in straight lines and zig zags).

Oh well. I'd probably best make like the quilter and sewing addict I've become and make something!!!

The friendship braid quilt is getting there!

Finally, after rather a long time I've managed to get all the braids for my friendship braid quilt sewn.
There is a problem though. Half way through sewing them I switched to my new machine and I've managed to sew the majority of them with a bigger seem allowance then they should have. It's hit the point it's easier to unpick the 2 old ones and re-sew them then the new ones.
The morale of this story? Always check what you're doing. *sigh*

Here's a picture of half of it anyway

An Update - and a resolution

Well It's been a while since I last posted on here.
Since then I've finished my sister's quilt

Finished my Queen's Guide award

Bought a kindle and made a funky cover for it

 ... and made my gran a scrappy quilt for Christmas this year which used leftovers from my 1st quilt!

I've just saved enough money up to buy a new sewing machine so hopefully I can have a go at free motion quilting or at least now it has duel feed and posher stitches than the last one at least make some funky quilts!

Plan for the year...
Make the quilt I promised my friend. She wants it starry and colourful
Finish the friendship braid quilt I started last year
Make a Dresden plate quilt of some sort
Make a sampler quilt using funky fabric (yes, I'm a newbie who didn't start with the traditional making a sampler quilt thing lol)
and finally make the sparking gems quilt from the jelly roll book because it just looks fab.

I think I'll be a busy bee this year if I get all that done and manage to fit in going to work and running a Guide and Ranger unit too!