Just keep swimming...

Trying to keep my mind occupied yesterday, I came to the conclusion, that as much as I was lusting after one of Kat's beautiful frame purses, especially the ones made of HR goldfish in bags, I really should use my own frame, my own goldfish, and save my pennies for next weekend, (more on that later in the week).

So I did.

I fussy cut a precious little Swimmy, pulled my current favourite denim yarn dyed linen and the white frame I got at Eternal Maker last weekend.

An hour or so later I had drafted a pattern, after a fashion, because the frame is only 2" x 4", and came up with this little beauty...

I did the little fishy outline and quilting in Aurifil 12wt, and put in the spotty lining from an M is for Make scrap pack.

I love this little purse.  It makes me smile.  And that, as they say, is what it is all about.

Getting even more prepared...

With less than 5 weeks until FQ Retreat, I am trying to get all prepared.  FQR, the end of the school year, and my long break from work all clash, and things are only going to get more hectic from here on in.  Next week we have two sports days, my birthday, Village Day along with two lots of swimming, Cubs and Rainbows, and then it doesn't really slow down.

So I am already suffering from a delightful cold that dear son has brought home from school, and I will probably flake out completely tomorrow.  But for now, I have just cut all my class fabric; I am using Architextures for all my classes, curved EPP, Portholes and Cathedral Windows, so I am aiming for three matching cushions at some point after the weekend.

If anyone is after 'calico/muslin', I got a meter of Moda 90" wide from Eclectic Maker and I had enough for the cathedral windows, and 4 porthole blocks.  It's an off white, more cream than pure white and is a lot softer than Kona solids. 

Also in preparation I have made a purse for Krista; we talked about a private swap yonks ago, but life intervened, but seeing as she is coming all the way from Canada to see me, it would have been extreamly rude not to.

So Liberty-linen frame purse it a tick off the list...

I used Emily's brilliant tutorial from over at The Village Haberdashery again; I love the size this comes out.

So that's me for now; if this cold kicks in, I doubt I'll blast through my To Do list tomorrow as I was planning, but either way, I am going to settle with a cup of tea at some point and listen to Rhonda's latest podcast. 

Bank Holiday Fortune...

Good and bad fortune in the shape of my latest make. 

Those wee Liberty/Heather Ross hexies that kept me occupied on my journey to Susan's and back were carefully planned to make a Lisa Lam Fortune Cookie purse; the pattern is included in the latest copy of Mollie Makes.  I bought a couple of the frames ages ago, and so now was the time.

Only it wasn't, well almost.  I made up the pouch yesterday, it looked perfect; I was thrilled. 

I glued in the first side, bit of a squeeze, but the second side was never going to work.  I tried, twice.  The pouch was just too small for the frame; I don't even think if I had scrimped on the seam allowances that it would have worked.  Bugger.

But determined not to let that get the better of me, I pulled a regular frame and it was the perfect size.  So once again good fortune has made this pouch my own...

I am going to use this one for the reels of thread and bigger wotnots that don't fit in my Patchwork Please! embroidery case; sorry all you ladies who feel that I should be handing that one over - it ain't going to happen!!!

And because it was a sunny Bank Holiday, we headed out to the Steyning Country Fair.  There were lots of animals...

... lots of general fun and lovely grub...

... then home for more garden time.  My afternoon incorporated a lot of this...

... looking at blue skies and having my nails painted with water and paintbrushes, possibly not as relaxing as it sounds.

Tomorrow is forecast for rain again, I have shopping, ironing and cleaning, all that boring indoor stuff to do that I have been ignoring in return for a great long weekend, so I mustn't grumble. xxx

Back on track...

After the diversionary sewing of the last couple of days, I had to get back to the plan today, because there was that small matter of a Mother's Day present becoming due.

Back in the mists of time, I started cutting fabric for a purse, and then for some reason or other didn't follow through; so today I re-sized the lining using my copy of Emily's stonky pattern which you can find here, and pulled some natural Essex Linen and the last pieces of my Just Dandy fabric, the rest of my FQ resides happily with Mrs S in Australia!

I backed the outer panels with fusible fleece and quilted straight lines in orange 28wt Aurifil; which although the flower strips were different widths, I managed to line up the stitching, how cool is that!?

So that's a tick in the box, and will be gifted tomorrow when we have lunch with my folks.

Oh and here's a couple of pics of the finished cushion which I will also hand over tomorrow...

Now time to get back to some quilts!

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

Quick Birthday Gift

Don't you hate it when you discover the birthday of someone you have become good friends with is tomorrow?!

That happened to me last week, so thank goodness for frame purses.

I was able to get this made in an hour; and it went down a treat at the school gate.

I know I am sometimes a crap forgetful friend, but other times at least I can make it look like I am not ;)

Little things...

...that make you smile...

Just about big enough for a chapstick and pound coin...what more do you need?
xxx

Open Wide!

After the mishap with my first attempt at a gift for Cindy-Live A Colorful Life, with the oh-so-impossible to fill purse, I swiftly tried again and came up with this...

Cindy is a fellow orange lover, so I eeked out the lining from my final scraps of Kei dots, and paired it with the Michael Miller apple print.

It's only a diddy change purse, but this one can actually hold more than one coin!

Success!

A little bit stitchy...

I have managed a little bit of embroidery over the last week or so, but those Olympics are just as addictive!

I took advantage of some park time to embroider a bunch of Aneela's flowers...

I even successfully tried out some new stitches...

Not sure what I am going to make with this yet, but I will be taking heed of the lessons learned from my next effort...

I had a cunning plan over the weekend to make a little change purse out of some Summersville with a cute little orange house, but was scuppered at the final hurdle, when the only thing I could easily slip in would be a credit card, a folded note, maybe one coin or a wafer thin mint...

There may be a little bit of disassembling going on - but I bet the glue has set like... glue!

It was destined as a gift, but I have since whipped up something else, which I will show you once it has arrived.

One bit of embroidery that has reached its new owner was the little hoop that I made as part of my In The Frame Purse Swap parcel...

Can you see why I couldn't show you before!?

The whole parcel arrived safely and has gone down well with my lovely friend Deb.

So have you managed to stitch and cheer on your team?
 xxx

Mad Hadder's Tea Bag!

When I was putting together my Mum's birthday Grace Kelly Bag last night, the thought of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party kept popping into my head.

Not sure if it was just the teacup fabric, the pale Alice-blue outer, or the glue, but if the hat fits...

The photos are making the blue look a little psychedelic, it really isn't.

The spots are Clarke & Clarke home deco weight, so I skipped the interfacing and just used fusible fleece; it could possibly do with a little more structure, but as it is, I think it makes a lovely summer-weight handbag.  (All together now... "A haaaandbag?")

I will deliver it next weekend, and in the meantime I need to start ticking off the oodles of projects that need to be finished in the next couple of weeks, including a couple of annoying-for-you 'top secret' ones.

***There's still time to enter the giveaway to win my blogiversary Walk In The Woods frame purse and a copy of Fat Quarterly's Shape Workshop For Quilters***

Give it away, give it away, give it away, give it away now...

***The Giveaway is now closed***

Guess what folks, I have been blogging for two whole years!  733 posts, over 93,500 page views and 11,000 comments - I can't quite believe it!

Some days it feels like I have been doing this for 20 years, other times those first few faltering steps seem like yesterday.

I have made such a bunch of terrific friends through these here ramblings, I wouldn't be without any of you.

I have been inspired to make, and have made to blog.  Even when my Inbox has been exploding with comments and I've had dozens of posts to catch up reading, I have blogged... everyday!

I guess that means I deserve a prize?  OK you do, for putting up with me, coming back time and again; sticking by me when I have the hump, and humouring me when I am getting too big for my boots.  Thank you one and all!

So what can I give you for your trouble?  A big internet hug and a great big fuzzy thank you?

Hows about the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters book, I won a copy at Retreat but had already bought it, so I saved it especially for the occasion, its really good...

...and what about a cute little frame purse; Walk In The Woods, Essex linen, gridded interfacing technique and a little bit of swearing...

...and since you are all so nice, in the main, I will probably pop in a few other bits and bobs.

Is that enough to keep you interested?  I hope so, 'cause that's what you could be getting!

I know there are loads of giveaways running right now, so if you don't want this little offering I won't be offended!

But if you want in, no humongous hoops to jump through, two chances, two comments...

1. Leave a comment telling me, for fun, which craft really should be an Olympic sport and;
2. Be a follower (new or established, all welcome) and leave a second, separate comment telling me so.

If Blogger duplicates your comments, I will delete the erroneous ones, to be fair.  I will read all your replies, but for this one I won't be replying to individual comments.

Please don't be a 'no reply' blogger, leave your email address in your comment if you are - if I have no way of contacting you, you won't win.

International entrants more than welcome and I will close the comments, and draw a winner with the assistance of Mr RNG, next Monday (23rd July) at about 8pm BST.

I think that's everything.  Good luck and thank you xxx

60 minutes of sanity...

I have managed a whole hour of stitching and gluing so far this week.

Last week, I cut and interfaced all the pieces for a U-Handbag Grace Kelly purse; that's purse in the American sense of the word, as this is a proper big-girl's handbag size affair.

On Tuesday a parcel of frames arrived and in the briefest moment of relative calm and me time yesterday afternoon, I managed to finish it, all bar the glue picking from the frame.

The fact that whilst the glue on the second side was 'curing', I had another call to collect a poorly child plus siblings from school, an hour early, did not make me smile.

This is all mine, FMF, Momo Scissors and some bright pink lining; I will make another for my Mum's birthday, I had to be the guinea-pig, that was only fair right? 

Following Lisa's pattern, I can honestly say there is nothing I would do differently, it worked just as it should have done, even with interruptions, brain half-distracted by a husband unexpectedly in hospital overnight, (all OK now), and a thunder storm flashing outside.

I haven't had the chance to test it yet; I'm guessing a family-size pack of Maltesers will be OK.

And just because I am feeling the Lisa Lam love right now, I got this with my latest TopCashback Amazon voucher...

Bags of fun xxx

Trial and Error...

Yesterday the sun shone, unlike today, and I managed to create the ironing pile from my worst nightmares, resulting from 4 loads of washing and making the most of the glorious line-time; but I also had time to try out frame purse number two as a practice for the In The Frame Swap.

Now I started off thinking I would just use some rubbishy old fabric, and hope for the best, but then figured it could be a waste of a perfectly good frame, so I got all brave and cut into my FMF!

I followed the best bits from numerous online tutes, making my pattern, using the turn through the lining method for super neat hinge corners and then it all started to go a bit wrong.

I boxed the corners thinking I was making a nice deep boxy shape - but no, I had created the opposite, and this was the shallowest of purses I could have created; hey ho, not a show stopper.  Then I did my usual machine stitch closure of the lining - but as the bottom of the purse was not exactly buried deep inside, it shows way too much, and thirdly, unless I had wanted gathers galore and an inch gap below each hinge, it was not going to fit the frame.

Bugger!

However, having amassed a selection of frames in my eagerness the other week, I found that it actually fitted another one almost perfectly!

The glueing and sticking went fine, although I possibly could have done with a bit more glue as the frame was too snug in the end to fit any piping in.

I tried to squeeze the frame a little tighter with pliers, which has left it a little wobbly, but it is all holding together, and looks damn pretty, even though it won't hold a lot. 

It is most definitely just a posing pouch...

So lessons learnt...
I will be using an amended version of Katy's Retreat method - keeping the raw edges on the outside, and then coating them in glue and wedging into the frame for a bit more grip - this means no seam allowance having to be spot on for a perfect fit either;
I will just turn the hinge corners in when I top stitch the lining to the outer, for a nice neat finish;
I will research 'bottom shapes' a bit further, and read instructions fully (for once!), and,
I will remember this is meant to be fun - swearing is not big and clever, and does not change things, ever!

Sunday again...

This week has gone way too quickly, half term has been a washout and I'll be back to work tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to that at all.

So onto the cheerier things that have been going on round here this weekend...

Mail...

My delivery from U-Handbag arrived quick as a flash, even arriving before Lisa offered 15% off until tomorrow, (so be quick); I think I am all set to receive my partner details from Nicky and her trusty sidekick Helen.

Today I pulled the fabrics for my next challenge in the Stitch Tease Bee; this time I am making 'curves' for Annabella, and as before, it's all top secret, but I'll give you a sneaky peak when I have this one stitched up.

And finally, especially for those feeling that there is a London-sized gap in their lives after last weekend, the kids made these for the Reception class's Little London that will be displayed at school next week...

Happy days xxx

I've been framed...

She made me do it!

Nicky was so quick to set up a frame purse swap after our foray at Retreat, there was no way I was going to miss out!

I think sign ups may have closed already - there's a desperate select group of 30 swappers all eager to get busy with the glue.

Last night I put together my 'likes' mosaic...

Follow the link here to see the full details on flickr.

I may also have spent a little time and money at U-handbag to boost my supplies, although that may have been a dream - I'll see what the postman comes up with tomorrow!