Pins and needles

There’s been a bit of sewing going on around here.  Nothing terribly creative or exciting, but a couple of projects I’d planned and thinking I needed to clear the decks a bit , I decided to get on with them.

The first is the quilt/wallhanging/headboard I’d started a couple of month ago for Edward’s bedroom. 

I’d given myself a good talking to and made myself finish it before going on to begin something else.  It didn’t take long – I didn’t quilt it very much and the longest process was getting it straightened up.  I used my usual method of binding it, with a scrappy strip here and there to add some colour.

It’s still laid out on the rug in his room awaiting the next step: fixing it to the wall.  That will probably get done about ten minutes before we next put the bed up!

For my next trick, I unpacked the “row by row” project I’d bought at the Woolen Needle in Iowa.  It’s a metre or so wide and consists of a log cabin square and an applique scene, quilted and bound.  We liked the soft colours and the small package of fabric was a good souvenir of that lovely day.

I fitted the patchwork foot to my sewing machine and began the log cabin square, feeling happy that the fabrics worked so well together and the end result looked great.

Next, I set to and began the picture panel, which is when I hit a snag.  Uh oh. The pale fabric (the sky) was cut to 5” as it should be, but the ground fabric was cut to the same size – when it ought to have been 6”.  I hummed and haahhed about this, for surely, an inch wouldn’t make that much difference, would it?  Well, of course, it does look better if the horizon isn’t dead centre across the panel but it also occurred to me that the end result would also be an inch too narrow.  The applique scene wouldn’t fit with the log cabin square and that square could not be cut down in size at all.

I emailed The Woolen Needle and had an almost instant reply.  I emailed them my address and they said they’ll send me a replacement piece.

But, you know, a couple of days ago, I couldn’t wait any longer and thought I’d take a look in my stash and see if I had a piece of suitable fabric.  I don’t have many pieces that wide as I tend to buy quilting cotton in fat quarters, so I didn’t hold out much hope.  But fortunately, in my Christmas box, I found a piece of bottle green cotton with a tiny print.  I prefer the original choice of a neat check, but hey ho.  I cut out the applique shapes from the wool felt and bondawebbed them to the background.

Stitching around each of them is slow going but it’s satisfying and it’s looking good so far.  Next time I’m out, I need to look for a suitable backing fabric and some for binding it too, or else it might find its way into that “needs finishing” heap in the corner of the studio

Yesterday, feeling I was starting a cold, I decided to take it easy and play with my sewing machine.  I made one of these using up a few scraps of fabric from my stash.  I’d read that one of my craft-judge colleagues had come across one in a show recently and as I made it, I pondered on the points I’d look for.  It’s a clever design and the process is well explained but there are a couple of processes I didn’t manage quite as well as I’d have liked.  Perhaps I’ll need to make a second, perfect on, but for now, this one is good enough.

The Third Law

You know, the one which states that every triumph has an equal number of disasters?  In this case, it was an equal number plus a few more.  But it’s done!  I’ve finished the bag!

So, where were we?  I think I was about to begin to sew the side panels in place.  It’s quite a clever design in that these side panels have pleats which hold the pocket sides together.  I folded and pressed and took it carefully and all appeared to be well.

Of course, one side is always easier than the other and where one seems to fit nicely and sit under the sewing machine foot without difficulty, the other side  doesn’t want to lay quite so flat.  Anyway, I got both sides stitched in place and took a deep breath.

Now it was time to sew the seam which joins the sides to the bottom, and though the straight parts were fairly ok, that curved piece was the trickiest part of the whole thing – so far.  In the end, I tacked it and stitched it by hand before doing what I could on the machine, hoping that my dreadful stitching would be hidden by the next challenging stage.

Those edges now needed to be bound, and though the pink binding was cut to fit, it soon became the next most trickiest bit of the whole project.  It should have been topstitched by machine but I copped out of that bit and simply blindstitched it in place.  Any wonky bits were pressed into submission with a good whack of steam.

There remained just one last step – sewing the long closing zip in place and however hard I tried, I just couldn’t envisage how it was done.  I waited until today, Saturday afternoon, to tackle that bit.

It was a (comparative!) breeze!  Well, I did have to rip out a couple of small areas but compared with other parts, sewing four long, straight seams was easy peasy. 

I finished off the zip “handle” with the tabs as instructed, and was nearly finished. 

I just needed to make the small dish with the magnetic clips which fits in the front.  That’s when I discovered that the pattern for that is on an additional Craftsy download!  Another seven pages!

But half an hour later I’d got that in place without too much bother.

Tra laaa!

Would I make it again?  Hmmm.  Maybe.  But I’m not in a hurry to do that!  Is it a beginner project?  Well, I don’t think so.  I think the curved seam in particular needs confidence to sew, and wrangling a fairly large, three dimensional object under the sewing machine takes some doing, too.  I was using all the clever capabilities of my machine, moving the needle left and right to squeeze the quarter inch seam through.  I engaged the dual feed to make sure the zips didn’t slip and move in between all those layers of fabric and yes, in places, it struggled to get through it all: Attaching the pink binding, at one point I was sewing a quarter inch seam through at least eight fabric layers and a couple of bits of interfacing too! Would I pay $50 for someone to steer me through it in a class?  If I were a beginner, you know, it’d probably be worth it, just to make sure I didn’t throw it across the room.

Anyway, for now, I’m just going to carry it everywhere with me, to unzip it and look inside from time to time and bask in the glory of a finished project.

I am not allowing a WI Craft Judge anywhere near it though

Progress

After I finished writing the last post, I had an email from Mary, who told me she’d seen a class to make this bag on offer in LA, cost $50.  Well, I don’t need much persuasion to save money, so immediately set to and began to cut out those pieces! 

I went carefully, ticking off each one as I went and marking the pieces with an identifier and an arrow as recommended.  I knew I’d need to set off well before lunchtime for an afternoon meeting at Denman College, so rather than begin the sewing I thought I’d just get all the pieces together, including the zips.  4 short and one very long one.

I could find only three.  (I’m sure I bought four, but who knows where the other one went?)

I bought another four zips on my way to my meeting and was thankful for the little sewing shop in Cirencester and the fact there were no traffic wardens around whilst I parked on a double yellow line to run and out as quickly as I could!

Another meeting this morning, so it was after lunch that I switched on my machine and began page 15 of the instructions.  I won’t say it’s difficult sewing but I guess it’s not that easy to explain which piece goes where.

I was very thankful for my zipper foot and being able to engage the dual feed on my machine!

As I thought, once the first one was done, it was fairly simple to continue in the same way.

Though it takes time to identify each piece and work out where it goes, place it accurately, stitch, press and topstitch.

But that bit is done!  Four zip pockets complete.  I’m now on page 22 of the instructions and about to install the magnetic snap for the Optional Fabric Dish.

I was about to leave it there, but thought I might as well continue and get that little magnetic bit in place.  Then I turned over   scrolled down a little further and decided to sew the pockets in place too.

Needless to say, I didn’t get one of those seams quite right, so had to undo it using my trusty seam ripper.  But one thing about that wonderful tool is that it leaves quite a few straggly little bits of thread behind, so I was glad of my new mini ripper (why do I hum a tune when I say that?) which has an “innovative thread remover” on the end.  (Though actually, I expect I could have done exactly the same thing with a pencil eraser)

Anyway, tomorrow, I’m ready to begin page 26.

Progress.

Not easily intimidated

but.

A couple of months ago, I came across this nifty pattern on Craftsy.  Like many, I’m a sucker for a good bag pattern and this one seemed to be super-useful for not only carrying a sewing (art?) kit but for holding it all together in use too.

I watched the video demonstration here and thought that it was something I wanted to make, so I bought the pattern and noted the ingredients.

I wasn’t in a particular hurry but took the opportunity to buy a cheap bundle of fat quarters in JoAnns when we were in the USA, plus all the zips, interfacing and so on.  In the meantime, Mary had got the pattern as well and together we discussed the clever design. Mary asked if I’d noticed how detailed the instructions are, but bearing in mind that Craftsy mark it as a beginner project, it shouldn’t be too tricky, should it?

With a day at home and having completed my responsibilities this morning, I thought I’d make a start.  It’s a while since I downloaded the pattern though and the perfectionist in me wanted to make sure I cut the right piece from the right colour.  For, although this was going to be a mish mash of colours, I did want some control!

I went to the sewing patterns folder on my pc and opened it up. I thought I’d better print it out before I began, so I could tick off the various stages.

Oooer.  Now I understood why Mary had referred to the detailed instructions. 

82 pages!

Of course, I wasn’t going to print all that out.  I skimmed through to see what I needed and printed out the cutting list, hoping to identify which bit I needed to cut from each colour.  I still wasn’t sure though, so watched another video (or four) with a step by step guide to what goes where (and how it’s constructed)

My free afternoon was disappearing fast!

Now totally at a loss as to where to start, I considered just cutting the pieces and winging it!  I could hear my Mum’s voice though – no, don’t spoil it.  Do it properly.

But here we are, almost 4.30pm and I haven’t so much as made a snip in any fabric let alone threaded my machine.  I was about to make a start when I spotted an update and pattern errata on the website so watched the updated YouTube video which has some further refinements – not that I’ve really got to grips with the original version yet.

Whilst I commend the designer for her detailed and carefully thought out pattern instructions, I’m beginning to wonder where “enough” might be.  Of course, those 82 pages contain a lot more than the straightforward step by step instructions; in fact, there’s a pattern for another small accessory in there as well as a good deal of commentary.  But all in all, I’m overwhelmed by the whole thing.  Perhaps there’s a cause for the simple, basic pattern to be outlined, so that those of us who would just like to dive in and make it can do exactly that.  Having done that, we might have enough of an understanding that we could then consider refinements and a better way of doing things.

So there we are, an afternoon being busy doing nothing.

I need a lie down.

Children of the Autumn

Here we are in September already and I know that I’m not alone in looking fondly at those soft cashmere sweaters, the cosy slippers and wondering how soon I can reasonably think of putting the warmer duvets on our bed.  It’s not that I don’t like the warm Summer weather, just that I prefer the cooler days and a chance to snuggle in on darker evenings.  As my German friend Karin observes, “born in September and October, we are children of the Autumn”.

She’s right.

I like the cool starts to the morning, the more so if the sun gets up and brightens the day, as it did in Cheltenham on Saturday.  Not long now before those gardens will be covered in marquees and bookshops; I must set a reminder to sort out our tickets for the Literature Festival when booking opens tomorrow.

I’ve been putting one or two summer things to bed over the last couple of days.  First, my road trip journal from our Mid West adventure, which was especially hard to finish because I lingered a little too long and allowed our Irish jaunt to overlay the memories.  A good job I’d taken notes in my little book, then!

I actually created a keepsake from our Irish jolly too, but for now, I’ll keep it under wraps as it’s a little “different”.  I took my inspiration from the Waterford Charter and have had fun speaking stern words to our printer as I fed fabric to it.  I’ll share a few pics in due course, I expect

Whilst travelling through Iowa, we dropped into the Woollen Needle and unable, it seems, to leave such a shop without making a purchase of some kind, I fell for one of the cute felt cushion/ornament.  The darker skies brought out the urge to embroider and so armed with a box of odd bits of thread and a needle, I set to work.

But as I began, I looked at my stitches in horror.  What?  Have I lost the ability to create neat, even stitches?  Of course, stitching on heavy, woollen felt it isn’t easy to keep everything looking crisp and neat, but even so…

Almost finished, it’s not at all perfect.  It looks likely to give trainee craft judges plenty to get their teeth into when the next course begins!

It also provides me with the first theme of my annual September project because, oh yes, it’s that time of the year again.  I don’t think that it’s really something new, strictly speaking, but I learned that it’s worth sticking with something, even if it isn’t quite perfect, otherwise nothing would get done, would it?