A more productive half term than I had thought.

I had hoped to get more done than I did but all in all not too bad. I made a new drawstring bag for PE lessons. The fabric is so cute. Love the little ladybirds.

  A nice box corner pouch for my mother. You can make one too using Noodlehead's tutorial. Mother wants it to store her pliers in. No, I didn't really think this was strange. She makes jewellery, so that explains it. 

And a pencil case for daughter 1. I took the liberty of using some left over water proof fabric from her swim bag. After all pen do leak sometimes. 

Dress making hasn't progressed as well as I had hoped. That is what my table looks like right at this moment. some math homework, toys, a trivet and some cat food. The cat food is on there because the children were trying to lure the cat away from baby birds. Of course they didn't then return it to the kitchen. That would be helpful. 

I have managed to overlock the dress pieces and the lining pieces. Probably not the Great British Sewing Bee way but I like to cheat. It works for me, so there. Sorry getting that out of my system. 

Bring on Monday when the hordes return to school and I can get some serious sewing done.  

Dressmaking

It's half term. The weather has been so miserable that I had to take the children to an indoor play area. I hate those places with a passion. They dare to charge an arm and a leg and I have to pay £1.20 to supervise my own children. Staying in for another day was not an option though. Swimming pool was not that appealing. Partly because I took them there earlier in the week and one adult trying to supervise one non-swimmer and one overconfident semi swimmer is not great. So indoor play area it was.  

To calm myself after the delights of noisy indoor play I decided to make a new dress for daughter 1. Simplictiy 4721. I have made it in several sizes (I like to trace the pattern for the right size required rather than cut it out. Makes it last a little longer) and know it's an easy pattern with great results.

 Daughter chose this lovely fabric by Timeless Treasures called Amelia a while ago when it was in the sale.

 I bought 1.8 metres, as directed by the envelope, but I have loads left over. I think I needed about 1.5 meters. Is it any wonder that my scraps pile never seems to shrink?

 Lining is also cut. Weather permitting I can get it sewn by the end of tomorrow. As is if it's good weather I can send children into garden and not worry about entertaining them. ;-)

I am linking to Freshly pieced WIP wednesday.

Not much sewing this week.

 There hasn't been much sewing this week. There has been baking. I can highly recommend this cinnamon pound cake.

 I guess husband did get the hint and bought me these cute fat quarters from celtic fusion fabrics. I suspect that the daughters helped him to choose. They got me some tape measures that look like snails too. Forgot to photograph them.

 I have decided to put my dress making fears to one side and actually make something for myself. Yes, I do make clothes for the daughters but they have great figures. Mainly because they have no shape yet. There are no hips or waists or breasts to worry about. Making dresses for them is easy. I on the other hand have all of the afore mentioned in abundance. Maybe I will let you see what I look like in my new skirt. Depends how flattering it is.

 Did I mention it was my birthday. Well it was. I bought this cute bag kit with some birthday money.

 How lovely are these little bunnies? They had a bag made up in the shop and it's not too cute because it's brown. I could do with a small bag for school run. Now all I have to do is make sure daughter 2 doesn't steal it.

 The shop had a scarp bucket. You know how it is I couldn't resist a rummage. I thought these two went well together but the green also goes well with the owls. There was more of the green but Friend A wanted some as well. Friend E wanted the third piece. Actually E did very well out of the scarp bucket she found an almost fat quarter of Denyse Schmidt fabric for 50p. Jammy

 I found this cute red riding hood fabric as well.

 Now there was that thing about not buying any fabric in 2013. I know, I know. But I am working on getting rid of scraps. Scrappy trip quilt has helped with that and so will this disappearing nine patch. So I am sticking to my one out, one in policy; sort of   ;-)

Hope you have better weather than we do. It's blowing a gale outside and I am about to light the fire in May. Have a good long weekend.

Sea green

 I call this one the sea green quilt. I have a problem though. It is 1.35m (53") wide. Suspect that it is too narrow. After all my duvet is 1.5m wide.

 Now I can make it wider by adding a border but what kind of a border?

I am toying with the idea of four patch type of thing using white and leftovers from the main fabric but I am worried that will be too busy or maybe pinwheels. I don't have enough of any of the fabrics for a border in just one colour.

Any ideas?

Goth quilt finished

 What can I say? I LOVE this quilt. I love that all the coloured fabrics are made from off cuts. Some of the little pieces of fabric are older than I am.

 Yes, I did buy the black background fabric and the border and the backing new but I still think this is a great bit of recycling.

The chief quilt holder upper didn't want to stand outside for much longer.  I used Quilter's dream green green wadding. I am very pleased with how looks and feels. I have used polyester wadding before and found it disappointing, this is very similar to my usual 80/20 mix.

Measurements: 64" by 76''
Pattern: Lynnebobsquarepants.  Using my accuquilt 2.5" HST cutter and 2.5" square cutter

I am linking to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Have a good weekend

Scrappy trip quilt top finished.

 I have found a layout I  liked. The yellows were the problem. First I thought I should put them all together but this was too overpowering.

 I settled on distributing them around the quilt. I am happy with the design I settled on. Not sure if daughter 1. I will find out when she comes home from school.

This is a bona fide scrap quilt. No new fabrics were bought and all fabrics are left overs from dress making or other quilts. Personally I really like it. I liked the process of making it as well. I may have to make another.

Conspiring against me

My Schipperke has decided it is not time for me to finish this quilt. Not a lot I can say to that.

Swim bag 2 finished or should that be PE?

 Well here it is with white cord. There may be a little whiff of halloween about the fabric.

It is already in use. Dirty PE kit was brought home yesterday and loaded into the new bag. New clean bag with dirty stuff went back to school this morning. I did try to wash the dirty kit but "the weather isn't good enough to have it dry before tomorrow". I do have a drier but I wasn't going to argue.

In other news; The scrappy trip quilt has all 48 blocks but I can't find a layout I like. I need a floor that is clean and big enough to use. Part of me is tempted to go to my parents' house. They have a huge table that I steal for basting quilts. I am sure it would be big enough for trying to figure out the layout. Technically my living room floor is big enough but the small black dog is far too helpful. I don't fancy chasing after her to get my quilt squares back.

The goth quilt has been quilted. I hope to finish it over the weekend.

I had better do some ironing. It was lovely weather this weekend so I did lots of washing and line drying. Unfortunately I have lots to iron now.

WIP Wednesday - Swim bag 2

 As I explained earlier Daughter 2 now NEEDS a swim bag. She does not have swimming lessons right now.

 So four rectangles were cut. 50cm by 40cm.

 

 This is how far I have gotten. The grey cord I had in mind for the bag was rejected. It needs to be white. Bag can wait  because Daughter 2 wants to make Paverlova. (I know it's Pavlova but she pronounces it with an er in the middle)

Meringue is waiting for the whipped cream and berries. Shame that husband doesn't like it. More for us. 

Other WIPs:

Goth Quilt finish quilting and bind.

Scrappy trips sew together the last 6 blocks 

Blue green quilt still needs basting and quilting. 

I am hoping to do some scrappy trip blocks after daughters are in bed. Tomorrow I am going to a cosmetics party (think tuppa ware but then different), so probably won't get a chance then. 

Linking to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday. 

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons can commence again. The eldest daughter has a new swim bag. I should maybe not have given her free choice of the fabric cupboard. Daughter 1 chose a rather nice Cath Kidston fabric I was saving. Not sure for what I was saving it but I was. It was a remnant according to the Cath Kidston shop. I don't call 1.4m by 1.7m a remnant but seeing as they were selling it for £5/metre I didn't argue.
I added a waterproof lining, reused the cords of the old bag and hey presto.

 I think some photos of the making process might have been helpful. But don't fear she also needs a new PE bag (Hello Kitty is so "Infants") and daughter 2 needs a swim bag and a PE bag because obviously there can be no bias.

The eyelets presented a small problem. Above is exhibit A. I blame the pictorial instructions on the back. I believe Pym could have done a better job. 

As you can see the eyelets were inserted successfully in the end.

More drawstring bags soon.

Goth quilt - update

 No Friday Finish today. I deiced to use some child free time to baste the Goth Quilt. I even started quilting.

So far I am pleased with the Quilter's dream green wadding. It seems to handle well and not too much fluff. It's warm here today, so I have given up quilting for now. At 20C being under a quilt can leave you feeling quite flushed.

Runner up

I entered a competition to win a Pfaff embroidery machine. Not sure why really. I don't do that much embroidery. I guess I entered because my mother has always wanted one and if I had won it would have been a great present.
As it turns out I got a runners up prize. Bondaweb! Not bad I think. It certainly made my day :-)

You have been warned another picture of Scrappy trips.

I did warn you. It has not been the most interesting blog lately (or possibly ever; unless you like fabric and sewing). Here is soft colours scrappy trip again. I want to make seven more blocks.

I had hoped to have the top finished by Friday but I think realistically that is not going to happen. I have a school assembly to attend and I need to make a new bag for swimming lessons. Who would have thought that the £2 bag from Clarks would break? Well me actually. I might still have a Friday finish we will see if I can find some eyelet for the bag at my local haberdashery shop.