Progress, fabric and a dilemma

Another week and another lot of pictures. I'm very impressed at just how much I am fitting in around work at the minute. I've got my sewing mojo back. I have an urge to make a really pretty quilt of some sort and I suspect this is because of all the fabulous quilts popping up in blog land this week due to a blog quilt festival.

Progress

What isn't pictured here is the Sorbetto top I made (again another practise one) but I've ordered some fabric to make a proper one. It was so easy and took me under an hour to make! my justification is that I'm between sizes. I think I'll go with the larger one though due to my large chest.

Next up is the paper piecing sew along I was on about. Here are my first 3 blocks! Can you tell what they are? Can you tell what the smaller one is? It's actually a tea cup and another practise on that will probably turn into a mug rug. the contrast is greater in real life when my phone hasn't decided to put the flash on.

I like paper piecing it's a great way to get cool looking blocks but I had nothing but trouble with the cupcake and the lemonade. The lemonade is actually back to front.I cut my charm square for the lemonade the wrong way because I forgot to turn it upside down so I had to do the whole thing with the printed side of the paper upside down which made sewing fun! the cupcake was all good apart from I just couldn't seem to work out what angle to sew that top strip of icing. What a nightmare that was. Hopefully week 2 will go well.

Then we get to the wedding quilt I'm making. I'm got about 30 squares made today (not all pictured) by being sneaky and using the quilting tactic of chain piecing and not pinning everything which is what my friend was doing last time she helped. Hopefully I'll get a few more done this week then it's back to cutting strips of fabric. I need about 70 of these things!

Fabric

Yes, you remember I said I went on a fabric buying spree to cheer myself up? Here is the result. Lots of pretty fabric! This 1st lot is from ebay. Just a selection of novelty prints. It includes some funky owls, some dinosaurs and start wars fabric?!?! This is the only package my sister has seen arrive in the house and as far as she is concerned I won it. Sneaky me!

Fabric number 2 I bought from Fabric rehab which had a lovely selection of pretty fabric. It was a struggle to not buy more. I have some nice blenders (continuing my collecting of grey fabric!), some very mini hedgehogs and owls and some pretty purple and orange owls. oh and some penguins. obviously! There was a charm back of Summersville spring too but that's already been chopped up for the paper piecing.

Dilemma

In the best way I have a dilemma  It's just me being stupid in fact. I've had thoughts for a while (well years infact) of studying to become an occupational therapist (yes I can hear you all asking what one of them is. Google it because it's a hard one to explain properly. Essentially it's someone who works with people who have health problems or are old to enable them to carry on living a normal life. Make sense? No? Google.)

I have a thing at my local university on Thursday called 'So you want to be an occupational therapist' It's a day to find out about the course and the job and meet current students. And it's only open to mature students. i resent being called a mature student at 28 but I guess compared to the 18 year old I am. How sad. I don't feel like a mature student. Anyway my dilemma is what to wear. Normally to a uni open day when I was younger I'd turn up in jeans and a nice top but I feel like as this is a professional course and it's for mature students I should look smarter? What to wear isn't helped by our weather at the minute either. Parts of my local city were flooded yesterday and roads had to be closed.

I guess we'll all find out next week what I do. Although any suggestions are welcome.

Oh and due to the bad weather There is still no good picture of the starry quilt. It's a bank holiday in the UK next weekend so I'm not holding out much hope for sun any time soon.

Till next time!

1st May! Where has the year gone?

How is it May already? Where has the year gone? Will summer ever arrive?

I'm joining up with the small blog meet that Lily's quilts hosts because I'd love to think someone is actually reading my blog and I'm not talking to myself (which I'm fairly certain I am at the minute). hopefully with a few followers I'll remember to post more often on here although I've been good recently.

April has been a productive month for me, I finally finished quilting my friend's star quilt and I finished the tiny cathedral windows blocks I'd been working on. I made a bag out of a kit I bought from hobbycraft (you can never have too many bags!) And in the middle of all of that I managed to have 2 birthdays and a wedding anniversary happen!

I've yet to bind the star quilt, hopefully this weekend I can get that done. I'm also thinking of making a pincushion that's a cathedral window. I've found a blog with instructions so we'll see how that goes. Probably rather ambitious for the 1 day I have off. The joys of working in retail eh?

I've started work on a quilt for a friend's wedding and I have help from someone to make it although before last Sunday she'd never used a sewing machine before so we are having fun with me teaching her to sew.

Inspired by the Great British sewing bee I've started making a dress. Well, actually, I've traced and cut out a pattern to make a fake dress to get a practice run. I daren't make the real thing because I'm currently trying to do the Insanity workouts and hope to shift quite a few inches so I'll look good when I wear my dress I'll make :)

Oh, and yet again I gained some fabric... The tube map on and the apron one were a birthday present from my sister and the others were all acquisitions in the hobbycraft fabric sale. Amy Butler fabric at half price is too good to pass up and I'll find something to do with the rest.

Oh I've also spent most of this week being attacked by spiders. I've pulled one live one out my hair (dunno how that got in there at work), had one drop infront of my face when eating breakfast at work and had one fun at me in our house. I'm beginning to feel there is a spider conspiracy against me. I thought they were meant to go outside when the weather got warmer not appear near me?

Oh well. Hopefully I'll be posting next time with either a finished pincushion or a quilt that's finally been bound!

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Alex attempts a dress part 1...

Well I'm back and I've started my dress making attempt. The pattern I'm using is Simplicity pattern 2444 which I got free with a magazine.
All of the goodies I'd ordered for my dress making have arrived over the past few days and I've gathered all my supplies together. I bought an invisible zip foot for my sewing machine (before noticing the pattern doesn't call for an invisible zip - just a normal one. Oh well...) and some fabric and a zip. Everything else I had hanging around all ready. (excuse the Christmas table cloth that apparently never made it off our dining room table!)

My goodies - the great British Sewing Bee book, some calico for my first attempt at a dress, some tracing paper so i don't ruin my pattern, and my pattern I got free.

I decided to lay out my pattern on the floor of our lounge and to trace over the pieces I needed so that I could use the pattern again (not that I plan to get any bigger with doing this insanity workout) just in case I made any mistakes. Of course I had to gain some cans to weigh it all down. For future reference this tracing paper was awful to see through. I think next time I must find something much thinner.

all laid out to be traced

I also quickly discovered that my ability to trace objects and draw in a straight line is almost non existent so I'll have to work on that. Tracing all the bit i needed took 2.5 sheets of tracing paper. I suspect with a bit of fiddling I could of used less, although this is just the very basic version of the dress with no fancy collar or sleeves or belt.

1st few pieces all traced

Luckily although i can't draw in a straight line I can cut in one so I managed to save the templates with my wonderful cutting skills. I'm pleased I remembered to write all the pattern numbers on and the names when I added the markings of I suspect I'd be baffled next time.

All cut out and ready to pin to fabric

That's me done for the day. Unlike in the Great British Sewing bee I'm not about to make a dress in a crazy amount of time (although I suspect I could have this done in a day if I really put my mind to it).

Next time around pinning and cutting my fabric then I finally get to sew! yay!

Back again and inspired by great British sewing bee

Well yet again I'm back. I'm awful at this blogging thing. I suspect this is because I only have 1 follower and so I doubt that anyone actually reads these! Although who knows. Maybe if I posted more I would get more followers?

Well onto a catch up of what I've been doing.

Remember those hexagons I was hoping to turn into a tablemat for Christmas? Here they are all finished.

Yay! I do like them and I think they work well with the linen.

That starry quilt I was making for my friend? That's been free motion quilted too. I finally plucked up the courage to do it and managed to do the whole thing in a day. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but for a 1st attempt it's OK  It looks really good from afar. The quilt just needs binding now and I've cheated and bought some binding to do that.

Since my last post I've also gained more fabric (oops) including some very funky tube map fabric that I got for my birthday, rather a lot of Amy butler fabric that was on sale in hobby craft for £6 a meter (silly to pass up that chance) and some home dec fabric from ikea to make a bag. I would to to make Amy butler's weekend bag but I suspect that's a little beyond my skill level so I'm going to limit myself to something from the bag making bible instead.

I've also for some reason agreed to make a quilt for my friends wedding which is in October. Plenty of time right? The theme for the wedding is a vintage tea party and so I've had to buy a lot of fabric to match this theme. I had nothing in my funky stash that would work. It's a basic quilt with lots of squares for people to sign and we ate hoping to transfer some photos on too. I've put my friend who is one of the bridesmaids in charge of gaining photos. It's all a secret from the bride and groom so I'm having to be very careful what I say on Facebook.

my newly gained fabric. lots of flowers

I'm not alone in making this quilt though. I have help! The friend who is a bridesmaid is helping me make it. She's never used a sewing machine before which is just a tiny problem so last weekend I spent a Sunday afternoon letting her loose sewing straight lines and we got a few blocks made. She loved her time using the sewing machine and is really looking forward to our next sewing get together in a few weeks.

7 of 66...

And then we get to the great British sewing bee TV show. For those who don't know what it is... If you've ever seen great British bake off its the same thing but sewing. Lol. Basically a group of very talented people complete challenges to make items every week with people being knocked out every week until the finale. I have no idea how they are making those things in that time. I mean seriously I takes me months to make anything. Never mind making an evening dress of a tailored jacket in 8 hours from start to finish! Utter madness.
I was given the book for my birthday last week and I also magically at the same time managed to gain a dress pattern from as magazine. It's a sign I tell you! I've always quite liked slightly vintage dresses (not so much the flowers. Kath kidston flowers make me cry so you can imagine how I'm feeling about that wedding quilt) and with my recent (and hopefully continuing weight loss) I've decided now is the time to try and make a dress! You never know. Summer may appear yet. I'm also aware that making a dress may be a stupid and expensive thing to so when I'm still loosing weight and planning on starting the insanity workout DVDs so I've opted to just have a trial run and see how it goes since its the first item of clothing I will ever of made and will be only the 2nd zip I've put in (everyone has to start somewhere right).
The fabric has been ordered, the invisible zippers and zipper foot for my sewing machine have been ordered, the book will give me hints, and the pattern gives me basic instructions. How wrong can it go? I'm hoping to blog the lot so you (dear reader who has done very well to get this far) can see. If I can make a dress anyone can.

The pattern. Can I do it?

Coincidently the woman who won the sewing bee had never made a quilt before. At least I've done that even if I've never worn anything I've made! lol. Hopefully next time I post I'll have started making that dress. Or have more of the quilt made... I'm rather excited about the dress option tbh...