My Type of Bag...

I bought the Sidekick Tote pattern from Anna-Noodlehead as soon as it was available last year, and it has sat, niggling me for ages, moving from one month's To Do List to the next; but in my 2013 stash-busting frame of mind, this was the week to do it!

Having ordered my metalware, from here, upon cutting up my Melody Miller and Echino last weekend, I decided I wanted to extend the strap, and so hatched a plan that required a further rectangle ring purchase, hence the waiting.

This was the first time I have made bias binding, and the first time I have actually sewn curves with it.  It wasn't so hard.  I was being a bit of a smarty-pants with lining up the spots, but it worked out fine.  My stitching down is not perfect, and the stitches from attaching the back peak out in a couple of places, but I can live with that.  I am rather chuffed with this detailing.

Instead of using velcro to fasten the pocket, I used a sew-in magnetic snap, and this was an easy substitution.  There was a little lady-handling required to stop the magnets from sticking firm to the needle plate of my sewing machine, but no drama.

The other amendment to the pattern was the addition of the second ring-end to the strap.  This gave me an extra 5", as I like to wear my bags across-body, especially when I am wearing my slidey-shouldered coat in winter.  I don't think it looks too odd; the extra ring, not the coat.

I pieced and topstitched the whole bag with Aurifil 40wt thread, firstly because it was the right colour, a deep turquoise, and secondly because I really couldn't be bothered to keep changing the thread between piecing and topstitching.  I also changed up the order that I pieced it; I used my walking foot for most of the construction, and did eveything I could before swapping out for my zipper foot.  Again, sheer laziness.

I did try to use my walking foot for the zip too, but failed after about 1", so my trusty zipper foot was reinstated.

I popped a bit of woven interfacing on the back of my lining where the patch pocket was stitched, just to give this area more strength.  And I think that is all I did that deviated from the printed word.

Mine is the smaller version of the tote, and is plenty big enough for my wallet, phone, keys, sunglasses (I know!!) and even a small umbrella.

I will definitely make another one, in the larger size next time; the pattern is brilliantly clear, and after all the cutting and fleece-fusing, it comes together really quickly.

My tote had it's fist trip out today to Chichester, there may have been Valentine's fabric shopping, I will show you that, and the gift I made for my true love tomorrow xxx

The Missing Link

The hardware I needed to complete my Sidekick Tote arrived today...

...along with 3 beautiful charm packs of Alison Glass's Lucky Penny, my surprise prize from Pink Castle, I won at the end of January.  The colours are far brighter than my snap shows, and I am already pondering what to make.

Lucky Penny?  Lucky me!

Well I have finished work now for an extended half term, yippee, and I have already started making the most of it.  I've just got to sew up the turning gap, and the aforementioned bag will be finished! 

It is not perfect, I tried new techniques and made some changes to the pattern, bold, I know!  I can't wait to get some decent pictures to show you, and start using it xxx

Frankenstitchy

This morning we kitted out the girls for their forthcoming Rainbows investiture and then took a family trip round Sainsburys, (you can imagine my joy at that).  This afternoon, therefore, was clear for some stitchy business.

I was all geared up to make a longtime-listed Sidekick Tote; but not as geared up in the hardware department as I had hoped to be; so I cut all my pieces and fused my interfacing and then put everything aside.

My #xplusalong quilt was practically screaming for attention!

So I sashed the xplus panel, taking the quilt top to a now 60" square, made the binding and pieced the backing.  I have been consciously trying to just use stash fabrics, so I had to spend a bit of time trying to work out how to use the yardage offcuts and some Kona Ash and Coal, and love the simplicity of what I came up with.

I then had the unbridled joy of trying to frankenstein a large enough piece of wadding.  It did it, eventually.  So please, let us remember that in quilting, it is definitely what's on the outside that counts!

In the last hour I have basted it and feel rather pleased with myself.  Hopefully this time tomorrow I will be stitching down the binding.

Scrappy Swap... Sorted...

When Kat announced a few weeks back that she was going to be running a low-stress scrappy swap, who was I to resist?

Now I love mama-ing the Mouthy Stitches swap, despite the swearing which may appear to the contrary, (stop sniggering Susan & Cindy), but it sure is lovely to let someone-else take the strain.

When I received my (lovely) partner's details, I was easily able to pull a bundle of scraps which I hope are to her liking, OK it may be a bit more than an FQs-worth, (but who's measuring?), and then decided I would make a pouch of some description.

Emily's timely tutorial over at the Village Haberdashery sprung to mind.  I drafted the pattern under her guidance, made a couple of panels from scraps to the required size and got this little beauty made up yesterday...

I would love to keep it, I really would, so I will generously let my partner have 30 minutes to make a gushing comment over in the flickr group, and if she doesn't, I'll swap it out for something I'll be glad to see the back of!  Fair enough?

Emily's tutorial is brilliant by the way - I love the shape and size of the pouch, and will definitely make more for my family at Christmas.  I am now even planning on using my lovely bigger-balled frame, which I took to Retreat but didn't use as the pattern there was for a slightly different size frame.  Thank you Emily, you're a star xxx

Your Name Here!

After going large, with my spur of the moment quilt making session for Siblings Together on Saturday, I thought I better cross something off my To Do List pronto, as it's a very looooooooooooong one for April.

So yesterday, having spent a couple of evenings trying and failing at embroidering the name of my Name Tag swap partner for FQ Retreat, I finally cracked it, (if a 7 year old can read it without a problem, then I'm happy).

All well and good, but I can't show you the name anyway until it has been received later in the month!

I binned off the idea with all the black; I was thinking 'Pearly Kings & Queens' but it just looked miserable, so I went with what makes me happy... Melody Miller!

I was going to say 'here's what my partner will be sporting on June 2nd/3rd', but then I thought that was a bit presumptuous, as it may well get accidentally left at home in the excitement!

Well I love how it turned out, but I won't be wearing it, so I really hope my partner does too! 

I went with the lanyard rather than a badge, (because I have a tendency to over-think things, a lot!), and I didn't want my partner's top to be dragged to her knees under the weight of it, (oops, sorry John, not you then!); and I love lanyards, they remind me of cool back-stage passes (and work, hmmm).

OK, I'll shush now, can you tell I'm a bit nervous!?

Keyring to his heart...

I did make a teeny gift for my Valentine as promised.

Dear husband will be picking up his new (to us) car today, following a bit a motoring disaster last Friday, (totally under the bonnet, nothing dramatic); so to 'celebrate' this mixed blessing, he hinted that some sort of keyring would be in order.

He didn't have to ask twice...

A little piece of Melody Miller typewriter and even some embroidery, simple, but true xxx

Seeing Squares...

I am pleased to report that I have pieced and squared up all my Across the Sea quilt top blocks.

I now need to lay them out into some kind of pleasing pattern; it may be a challenge, as I am hoping not to just go completely random, but we'll see.

I also finished my first mug rug for the Goodie swap.  I am not going to post it in full here or on flickr as I may as well have put a big old sign on it saying who it is for and I don't want to spoil the surprise!  Here's a peek to keep my partner on her twinkle-toes!

It is 8.5" square, so she can put a whole cake on it if she wants, and I suspect she will!

I also invested in some easy-thread needles to finish it off, as suggested by Pings way back when I finished my mum's quilt and had to thread-in a billion lose ends.  Bloody brilliant, thank you!!!

Finally I need to tell someone that I have just seen the most wonderful fabric almost ever!!  I don't get that feeling too often, although the Ruby Star Spring was 'up there'.  Did you see aforementioned Ping's quilt top - wow!

This was complete and utter love at first sight this morning.  Across The Pond by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Cloud 9; just look...

Source: hawthornethreads.com via Hadley on Pinterest

Source: hawthornethreads.com via Hadley on Pinterest

Source: hawthornethreads.com via Hadley on Pinterest

Source: hawthornethreads.com via Hadley on Pinterest

The heron is our village's 'symbol', there's one that comes to the pond at the end of our road each year, so I am thinking it would be kind of special to make something from this.  The line is already available from Hawthorne Threads, but I will have to settle for just looking at it online just now, sob sob sniff!

Last chance saloon...

Firstly heart-felt thanks for all the lovely responses to the completed Happy Scrappy quilt - I don't think I will be able to better it for a long while!

OK, to business.  I will post this on flickr too, to cover all the bases, but Brit Swap Partner this is your last chance to scream 'Halt' before I get chopping into these!

The Melody Miller is for the backing (or if you don't fancy the front much, you can always turn it over!!).  I may add in or take away some of the prints depending on how they look in the mosaic, but I think it is 99% sorted.

The colours in the photo are slightly out, as it was taken during the 5 minutes of sunshine we had this afternoon, it makes the conservatory glow nicely, and your complexion look healthy, but not so good for true colour definition!  But you get the gist.  Now to think of a name...