More of the same, and a little tute!

Firstly, I was so bugged by the fail that was my first attempt at the FPPFTT Circle of Geese, I sat down last night and made another.

This time I scaled it at 50%, for a 6" finished block.  The pieces weren't too tiny, and my fabric was pretty much cut with perfect 1/2" seam/sewing allowances, so I was never in jeopardy of having gaps like before.

Love it!

So pleased I got this out of my system, I hate having niggles!

As anticipated, I was off work with a poorly girl today; spent most of it cleaning the house whilst she slept before and after a trip to the doctors and pharmacy.  Now she's tanked up on anti-biotics, so we all might get a good night's sleep and feel better tomorrow.

As you asked/hinted so nicely, I will show you how I am getting my latest pictures of smaller items to look a little swankier.  Although you could use Kerry's wonderful Photoshop tute, I am always up for a simpler option...

Place your objet d'art on a white background.  I use the lid of an IKEA storage box, and place it in the brightest place you have; note that if it is really bright you will get shadows, but I think that still looks good...

Take your shots...

Load into the photo package on your computer.  Now I use a MacBook Pro, and hence iPhoto; I have no experience of any other software, so substitute this as best as you can if you are of the PC persuasion.

iPhoto has a few cropping edge borders and blurring, I pick the one that white-outs the edges into a circle or oval; don't panic if it cuts into your object a little, you can remove it later...

Now you will be able to see how non-white your white bits are!

Here's where it can all go so right, (the ones you've seen), or so wrong!.  Adjust the exposure of the picture until you can no longer see the edges...

Sometimes it will come out too over-exposed, but most of the time, if it was all pretty bright to start with, it will look cool!

Then crop to size and remove your edge whitening if it has affected the subject...

Nothing complicated, but it can look way more accomplished than it really is; and now I've gone and blown that illusion, doh!

If you want to go into the realms of light boxes and all that shenanigans, Kat had a cool way of making one.  So I think I have covered enough methods of snazzing up your photos to keep you going, have fun.

Oh, and if you Pin this, I won't sue you!  I will be flattered and take it in the spirit of what Pinterest is meant for, goddamit!

Vital Statistics...

Do you check your blog stats, maybe your traffic sources and search results?

I know some of you do too, you've mentioned it in the past.

I like to look and see if I am going to top the previous month's total views, (a bit OCD, I know...) and also where 'strangers' have popped in from.

On Tuesday, when I posted the Fugly giveaway result, I noticed a crazy record number of hits; now I knew there weren't that many people waiting to hear if they'd won.

So donning my Sherlock hat...

Gratuitous picture for Annabella!

... I discovered that the Brit Bee Constellation reveal was in overdrive, all down to a pin.  Now, I don't know who Michael Wurm is, but he has a lot of Pinterest followers (almost 565,000, can you imagine?!), maybe you are one of them... is he famous?

I feel rather chuffed to be on his Quilts board and the 'likes' and 'repins' are a bit of a morale boost too.  Pinterest I heart you,  I needed a 'pick me up' and you delivered.

As far as searches go, there seems to be a constant stream heading to the sock owl tutorial from waaaaaaaaaay back, but pretty much every month someone googles 'guns in car trunk' and ends up here, and they're probably rather disappointed!  I know that is my fault, because of this post a year ago, but why are people googling it!?  And obviously I am over the moon about the hit coming from a 'brown fabric' search this week!

Anyway, nuff 'bout me, did you know Singer have been making sewing machines for over 160 years?  Have you seen this special edition beauty...

What fun! xxx

Searching...

... for inspiration to get going on my Felt-fuelled making, has become a hobby in itself these past few days.

I know a lot of you have noticed me pinning like there is no tomorrow!  There are so many fantastic and talented people with brilliant ideas to check out, I am at risk of never having time to make anything ever again!

Last night only yielded these 2 little birds...

For simple things, they seemed to take an eternity, but that was probably just my procrastination.

So I have decided that tonight I will sketch out and decide on one, maybe two designs (see, I'm doing it again already!), and then just get on with it - if the recipients are only getting one each, then realistically it doesn't matter if they are all the same right?

I am also going to use the production line method, as favoured by Judith too, and started to put this into practice on some zippy pouches today. 

These are for the girls, my Mum and Sister, and maybe another for me...

They are all cut, pressed and prep'ed, ready to sew now, so I am feeling a little better about the 'must makes'; the others could, as dear hubby pointed out, have a box of Ferrero Rocher and be done!

Game On. Part 2...

In today's instalment, Pings presents 3 more hopefuls in the Japanese Scrap Bag Challenge.

So if you would like to check out the next challengees (?), you will find oh-so-brave Ella (throw a wrench in the works), Mad Scouser Beth (no blog), and Alli (B. Yazoo).

Exciting stuff!

In Half-Term news, I utilised my free child labour to arrange and re-arrange the layout of the man-quilt, and this evening I have pieced the top!  I am awaiting some Kona Coal to mix with a charm pack for the backing, then I can crack on.  Oh I wish I could show you - but not you, dear husband!

I have been getting on with joining some hexies, losing 1.75lbs and I am planning on making the decision on a Christmas project, so I'm off to Pinterest, to make a Christmas board.

Source: howtonestforless.com via Hadley on Pinterest

Heinous poly-cotton be gone!

Practice makes...

... well I am not going to say 'perfect', but I wanted to practice making some smaller hexies, just because I thought they would be a super-quick and sweet skill to have in my 'virtual bag', (to go with my 'actual hexie' bag no less!).

So, with my trusty scrap box raided over the weekend, I made this...

... which I then turned into this today...

I found a brilliant tutorial (and remembered to Pin it) on binding non-right-angled corners, but this would have been just too small for a first attempt, and I was way too nervous about spoiling it, so I went square.

I suppose it could be a 'coaster' for want of a title and use; it measures 5" square, the edges of the individual hexagons are a 1/2" and I think it is rather cute.

I also used my machine on the slow setting and it was wonderful!  At first, my gung-ho nature swore I would never stitch at anything slower than maximum warp speed, but I was so wrong.

I've decided that this little hexster is going to go off to a new home in the morning, as a little surprise for someone ;)

Inspector Gadget!

Well the new phones needed new homes, so I obliged!

After one failed attempt that resulted in something only capable of holding a teeny tiny phone that I do not own (doh!), I whipped up this pair of beauties for dear hubby and I.

The 'pattern', aka random chopping and stitching, could do with a little tweeking, but they will keep the screens protected, and look pretty cool, so they will do for the short-term.

I need to start pinning all the fabulous tutorials I come across, because every time I need one, and know for sure I've seen one, I have no idea where that was.  So instead, I end up floundering about and wasting fabric, and that is just not on!