Strike a pose...

Wednesday is my non-working day, so no Strike action for me, but the school was closed, so I have had (mostly-unwelcome) company!

I cleared out their wardrobes of tiny and worn out clothing, getting them to try on all sorts and snipping off buttons in the process; I moved piles of birthday pressies into manageable boxes and took down their cards to make way for the Christmas ones that will no doubt start arriving from tomorrow; and then we spent an unpleasant hour in Tesco - I love my children, but...

So far I have not stitched a thing, but I have major plans for this evening; last night I finally, FINALLY worked out what I could, should and will be making...

I love how this prototype turned out; the obvious choice was staring me in the face all along!

Confidence is a preference...

... for the habitual voyeur of what is know as...  Parklife!

I'm sorry, this song has been in my head since I started on this little purse this evening.  The fabric is part of Sanderson's re-issue and re-interpretation of their 1950's fabrics, called, surprise surprise 'Park Life'.

Please excuse in advance the night-time photography, it was these or a picture of the latest Beaver badge which I sewed on earlier (no smut, thank you!).

It turned out a little 'puffier' than I had hoped, and the bulk at the zipper ends could have been reduced if I wasn't too scared to cut through the wrong bits, but as it will just be a little extra for my Mum at Christmas, I can live with it.

Archie, did you see the little dog?

I've Felt Better...

Last night I successfully made two more baubles for teachers...

...but this evening I have had a few fails when trying to sew felt with my machine - I think perhaps, well no perhaps about it really, that small circles just aren't going to turn out nicely, which is a shame.

I had more 'sophisticated' aspirations, but I think I am destined to dwell in the truly 'handmade' zone this Christmas.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.

In happier news, I have just made part of my Brit Bee Secret Santa gift - and it's a corker; I wish I could show you, but the rules say 'not yet'...  I am resisting the temptation to keep it, I really am, but the great thing is, I still could, and you'd never know!

Baubles!

Last night I made a pair of baubles!

These will be for one of the twins' teachers, in theory one from each of them, so I now need to make another pair for their other teacher, but I think they'll do the trick.

And because I am just so greedy, I ended up with a brooch for myself, as I was rather loathed to pass on something that I really liked to someone who would just put it on the pile with all the other nik-naks from their class, ready, most likely, for 're-gifting'!

So here are my felty-makes so far...

I had a eureka moment earlier and have a plan for later involving some eyelets purchased for a long-forgotten venture. 

Now where did I put that hammer?!

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!

Felt Up on Friday!

Well this is as far as I got last night...

So I am going to love you and leave you quickly this evening, and try to make a bit of progress towards my Christmas makes. 

I am still going to make a few zippy purses for my nearest and dearest, but I am veering towards felt decorations and the like for the school gifts.  Lazy I know, but time is not on my side.

We spent 3.15pm until gone 5pm at the school Christmas Fair today, it was good fun but rather expensive with 3, but all the money made goes towards the school swimming pool, so we all benefit.  I also spent 60p on a secret gift for our Christmas present (I gave them £2, and they came back with change), so I am obviously very excited, and they have trusted me to put it somewhere safe!

Well we only have another pair of twins' 5th birthday party to go to this weekend, so I hope to get some quality sewing time, but you know how those best-laid plans usually end up!  Hope you are planning a good one x

Perfect Match...

Now if you had the most wonderful fabric to play with, and knew a brilliant pattern that would be perfect, what else would you do but just get on with it!?

So after all my duties yesterday, I started measuring and cutting and arranging whilst all the time grinning, until I ended up with this...

Just in case you haven't kept up... this is made of my beautiful Walk In The Woods scraps received from Aneela, and follows Ayumi's wristlet tutorial... a winning combo if ever there was one!

To say I am damn happy with the result is an understatement!  Even my zip turned out OK first time - I followed Ayumi's instructions and didn't add tabs to the ends as I have been doing, and it has worked out great, I can definitely cope with slopey corners.

So I hope that was worth the wait... now I'm off to make some felt decorations... maybe.

PS. Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today xxx

Just 'cos I felt like it!

Well a lot of frantic pinning to get me in the mood for Christmas, lead me to believe that Felt was definitely the way to go!

So a quick trip to Dizzy Izzy on etsy and today these beauties arrived on the doormat...

I won't apologise for the sunshine glare - it's the first time the mist and fog has cleared since Saturday!

Today I have also spent a couple of hours 'cutting and sticking' at school, doing a big shop at Tesco, joining rows of hexies at ballet and then some really lovely making!

I have only just finished, so no late night pics; you'll just have to hold your horses and wait until tomorrow... hope you'll think it's worth it xxx

Oh and if you are now twiddling your thumbs - head over to Pings' place, she's got one of those giveaways, and I'm only telling you, because I have to!!

The Wise Man wore Joel Dewberry, darling!

I have almost 'perfected' Wise Man 1's outfit; just need to sew down the pointy shoulders and make a cardboard crown, then he will be ready to strut his stuff!

I bought yards of the Joel Dewberry - Lace print potentially for the Man Quilt backing, but then changed my mind, so this fabric was begging to be used...

No puckering gold thread in sight!

I reckon it's regal enough, and dear son is happy to wear it, so that's a bonus!

I also spent this afternoon at school with the same young man, making clay tiles to decorate one of the outside walls - no prizes for guessing what we did...

Now I like a Tardis, and I like LEGO, but which one is better ...

Having caught up with my emails and blog reading, I am now going to pull out my Emily Peacock 'Kiss' cross-stitch and get cozy in front of the TV, perfect end to a busy day xxx

Pretty things all in a row...

Like my buddy Helen, I got a parcel of complete and utter loveliness today!

I am such an Aneela Hoey 'fan', you may have noticed, she has!  Aneela was the inspiration for my Happy Scrappy quilt, I have my Sherbet Pips Confetti quilt, and she designed the Around the Corner 'Man Quilt' pattern; my hexie sewing bag is predominantly Pips, I am working on a Pips hexie cushion during all those ballet lessons and I have a stash of Little Apples waiting to ripen.  So you could easily guess that A Walk in The Woods is just a tad eagerly waited, oh, and pre-ordered already!

But looky look at these apparent scraps (although I beg to differ!)...

I was sooooooooooooooooo over the moon to find these waiting for me when I got home from work today; stacking them into piles of the different prints was so therapeutic after 5 hours of database interrogation.

Aneela is such a lovely, funny, generous and super talented designer and maker, and a Brit!  This line might just be my favourite so far, Little Red is the cutest.  (Did I miss anything out Aneela?!).  I am so chuffed, even the pain of the Nativity cannot wipe the smile off my face.

Wise Man update:

I hate gold thread even more than I imagined I would - so it has been banished, having been unpicked again and again!  The 'slinky look' from the first fitting this morning has been rectified this evening with the addition of a full length pleat down the back; gold ribbon and a nasty button have blinged it up a bit, and hopefully I will be able to entice the wise one to try it on again tomorrow for a photo or two!

Oh and before I go, Noodlehead-Anna is having a 2 day sale, offering $2 off all her patterns, including the 241 tote, so for less than £4, you could get that, or, as I did, the Go Anywhere Bag pattern.  Woo hoo!

Going for Gold!

I hate 'gold' gold! 

Sorry if it is your precious metal of choice - I am more of a platinum girl myself, though white gold and silver are fine by me too.   Don't get me wrong, if anyone has any bullion lying around, I will happily take it off your hands, but when it comes to stitchery-business, it makes me cringe!

I have "Wise Man 1" to dress for the school Nativity, and this went to the top of the Christmas-makes list last night.  So, I have had to put my prejudice to one side...

Eugh!

This evening I have made a rather basic "outfit" - I daren't say 'dress', but you know where I am coming from.

I need the young man to try it on tomorrow so I can see if I have got the side splits long enough, otherwise his 'striding towards the stable' may look more like an inappropriate 'secretary shuffle'.  So I wound my bobbin, but didn't get my teeth into the gold embellishment (dammit) just in case I have a lot of seam ripping to do!

I know I could have gone to Tesco and bought a shiny outfit for a tenner, but you know me and 'the easy route', I keep missing the turning xxx

Done!

I can hang up my Birthday hat for another year - all done, and kiddies asleep!

Today's party was good fun, I may have gone on the bouncy castle, but there are definitely no action shots...

Cake with the bunting!

I will now spend the evening making a list of all the things I need to make before Christmas - I sold all the travel trays I made for my mum's friends, so the teaching assistants will be back on the list, mixed feelings on that one.  The sales equate to a third of my FMF fund, so I don't think I can begrudge the TAs too much.

Hope you are all having a good weekend too xxx

Excuses excuses!

I am spiralling towards the end of the family birthday celebrations for this year, and am currently 'mid-bunting'! 

I have printed and cut some tiny bunting flags for the birthday cake tomorrow, and it is taking ages to hand-tie them.  I would have used the sewing machine but I need to just slouch in front of the TV.

I didn't sit down between going to school this morning and pick up time, somehow managing to turn a quick clean of the house into a mammoth task, and to all but me, it doesn't look any bloody different!

So my best intentions of a double FMQ Friday went by the wayside as checking nibbles and dunking marshmallows in melted chocolate for the party took priority after tea, sorry.

Just to keep you 'on side' here's a picture of the gang this morning, all ready for Children In Need Day at school.  The girls had to make do with an extra bow on their shop-bought Pudsey ears, but I made dear son's, (uncontrollable-shedding-yellow fur and all!) and attached them to his hat, which he didn't take off all day...

Oh I cannot wait for this time tomorrow - I can then start to think about Christmas :)

A journey through space and time...

7 years on, and this squidgy little bundle...

...has turned into this wonderful young man...

Happy Birthday to our little Timelord!

xxx

Tardis - part 2. Birthday Season Finale!

I was so happy when I finished this, I immediately sent a picture message to my husband and Dad, and for the first time ever showed a picture to one of my mummy-friends at the school gate - so I think you can tell I was just a little bit pleased with the result!

OK, so here are some sunny pics of dear son's new Sonic Screwdriver case...

I based it on the numerous zippy pouch tutorials that I have pinned, picking and choosing the best bits to make a 9"x12" finished case. 

I stitched in the ditch (well almost) along some of the seams around the Tardis to attach some thin cotton batting, giving it all a bit more 'body'.

The back fabric is the same Kona Windsor as the Tardis, with some grey pinstripe quilting, backed again with batting.

Geek alert  The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) is dear son's favourite and wears a pinstripe suit - when I quilted the man quilt, his first comment was 'oh it looks like the 10th Doctor's suit', so what else could I do!?

I only had a 7" zipper, so I extended the end tabs to match the size of case I wanted, and it all adds to the 'bigger on the inside' illusion!  The lining is Kona Orange. 

I added the tag on the side, because where else will he keep the key to the Tardis?

Fez's are cool, but will no longer be needed for storage!

The Birthday Boy will get this and too much more in the morning xxx

Tardis - part 1

I did it!!

Kids packed off to bed before 7pm, and Tardis-making time for me!

I found a great picture here and used this as my 'pattern'.  I had grand ideas of paper-piecing it, but I got all confused at the first seam, so just cut the fabric to size and made it up as I went along.

I printed onto some white Klona, and I think dear son is going to be pretty impressed!

Apologies for the dreadful photos - I will take more tomorrow for part 2, the finished item - no leeway here, it's his birthday on Thursday!

I was originally planning a 'crayon-roll' type affair, however the number, size and multitude of removable sonic screwdriver bits and pieces was making this a little tricky to plan out, so I am going for a huge zippy-pouch, about 9" x 12", and hoping it'll be bigger on the inside ;)

Further apologies to all non-geeks, this probably made no sense whatsoever xxx

Punked!

Last night hubby and I went to Brighton to see The Damned.

They are dear husband's favourites, so it was only right I went along too.  I wouldn't have missed the 'crowd watching' for the world!

For those who are unaware of this band, despite their 35 year career (and counting), it doesn't take a mathematical genius to work out that those teenage punk fans of 35 years ago are now all pushing 50!

I was only 6 when these guys started up, and hubby wasn't much older, and I'd say we have grown old gracefully; but some of last night's audience were still clinging desperately to their teens, whilst the remainder looked like they were at a Phil Mitchell convention!

It was fun for all the wrong reasons, I am shattered now and still have a tardis to design!

But before I go, here are some pics of the lovely surprises I received in the mail today - a couple of Amy Butler bag patterns from **nicke

Look Denyse Schmidt paper!!

I think I am going to have to seriously psych myself up to making those; and then out of the blue, a Runner's Up prize from Anna at The Eternal Maker for Pings Scrap Bag Challenge, some Fat Eights of lovely Kokka and Echino - happy?  Oh yeah!

I will try to clear my backlog of emails and blog reading later, but apologies if I don't, I may need an early night, after my cocoa!