Gadget Girl

I believe passionately in making technology work for me.  I enjoy making use of anything which will make my life easier and more fun.  I am always especially delighted to find something which will enable me to do something I couldn’t do before or had never even thought of doing.  As a result, one of my favourite classes to teach is one I call “Gadget Girl”.

Oh, the other reason is, that instead of packing my car with all of this

 

instead, I can just take this

I take great pleasure in revealing the contents of this small 8” x 6” bag and removing nine of the ten wonderful technological marvels that bring me a great deal of pleasure (and allow me to share it with you, too!)  The tenth item – my ipad – doesn’t quite squeeze down that small and will have to travel independently.

I’ve spent the day getting it all together, printing handouts and getting the paperwork together ready to spend a fun day with the Gadget Girls of Lechlade WI tomorrow, snow permitting!  We’ve cancelled once because of the weather and I think they are as determined as I am not to be beaten once again.  By the end of the day, they’ll not only have lots of ideas of way to make use of all of this kit, but may well discover they own much of it already and might even carry it around in their pocket without realising.

Oh, and just in case, I have a bag with the chargers and the cables ;-)

with one week to go

a Valentine’s Day themed project seemed in order.  I had promised to dream up a simple idea for the NFWI website and with time a little on the short side, I looked for a tried and tested pattern for a little card to tuck in a pocket, lunchbox or amongst meeting papers.  I knew I had that pattern somewhere, but finding it was another matter.  This was something I made pre-computer days and since I can’t google my filing cabinet of craft worksheets and class handouts, it wasn’t going to be easy to find.  Did I have time to go through all of those?

I do, however, have a box of templates from all kinds of projects I’ve done and it wasn’t too difficult to find the one I was looking for.  All I’d need to do was to trace round it, scan it into my computer and create a pdf.  No problem.  I might even create some cutting files for those with Silhouettes and Cricuts too!

See what happened?  I thought that perhaps I’d better try it out to check that it all folded neatly together and actually worked as it was supposed to.  It’s a good job I did, because it didn’t.  The central square was no longer symmetrical because, I guess, the template had been traced round so many times that it wasn’t quite precise any longer.

So, I fiddled around with the pattern, using my Silhouette to cut it out and sometimes, not choosing a large enough piece of scrap card to fit the shape.  I can tell you, joy was not abundant in my studio yesterday morning.  The frustration of not being able to create something simple but perfect gets to me every time!

Eventually, I decided that the best thing to do was to redraw the pattern from scratch; to stop trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear and find some squared paper and a ruler and go back to basics.

So very nearly there.  Still, if this is going out into the wide world, it had better be as perfect as I can get it, and this isn’t.  See that pointy bit at the bottom of the heart?

A few minor adjustments and it was done.  Didn’t seem much for a day’s work really, but this is how it is.  It’s a good job I don’t charge an hourly rate, isn’t it?!

If you’d like to download a copy of the pdf pattern it’s here.  Leave me a comment if you’d like the cutting files and I’ll share them with you, too.

Have fun!

What next?

Well, with my pocket journal all ready for our trip, it was time to clear the decks.  Lesley, you mean to say you didn’t recognise those characters in my last post as “Ni Hao”…or Hello in Chinese?  Like you, we have a few Japanese words but couldn’t recognise them written in Kanji symbols, sadly.  But whilst working on my journal, I established quite an efficient workflow getting characters in Chinese, Japanese, Korean –whatever –from website to Silhouette and can reveal

Seoul – in Korean, of course

and Beijing, in Chinese.  Well, I hope that’s what they say!

Will we need to recognise these names? I very much doubt it.  But it’s interesting to find these things and of course, the symbols make great decorative features for a journal page.

So, the papercraft put away, it was time to get out the next project.  I’d agreed to make a sample to inspire people to have a go themselves and as I thought about how to tackle the project, I made a decision to keep it simple and far from perfect, so that, hopefully, those looking at it would think “Oh, it’d have been better if…” and think of ways to improve it.

I got out the fabric.  Two coordinating teacup prints in a heavy cotton and four zips which I bought yesterday, ready to get going.

I cut four pieces (two from each colour), 20cm x 35cm and set to work.

First job was to sew a zip in between each pair of pieces.  I checked that the teacups were all the right way up and the tag of the zip was at the top on both.

I joined the other ends of each pair of pieces with another zip, so two rectangles of each colour were joined at both ends with zips.

I turned them inside out and stitched the two sides of each, so each pair of fabric rectangles was closed on all four sides.

How was I going to turn them right way out again?!

Easy!  Undo a zip and turn it right side out again through there.

Tada!  two tubes of fabric with a zip at each end.  All teacups the right way up and all zip tags are at the top (phew!)  Have you worked out what I’m doing yet?

I measured carefully to find the middle and pinned all fabric layers together, with a piece of ribbon there.  I drew my sewing line in washable pen because it was really important to get that straight.

By joining the two double ended pockets together, I created a “book” of four separate pockets with zip fastenings closing each one securely.  Perfect to put loose cash in and large enough for cheques, small receipt books and so on.  Everything a treasurer might require at a meeting, in fact.

If each zip was labelled with the contents of that pocket, then taking cash at a meeting would be easy and keeping the raffle money from the sales takings very simple too.

And at the end of the meeting, she can roll it all up and put it safely into the bottom of her handbag to take home.

I’ve detailed the steps to make this “treasurer’s purse” because one of the challenges for the centenary of the NFWI is for members to create an heirloom for tomorrow.  Whilst I’m not suggesting that this funny little purse is anything near being of heirloom status, it might be a starting point for someone who is stuck for an idea.  Think of it made in a beautiful fabric, with embroidered tags and some individualisation to the design.  Maybe add a handmade cord tie and a more lavish fastening?  I’m thinking that any “heirloom for tomorrow” needs to be practical and work for today’s treasurer, who is likely to be a busy woman with no time to waste!

And for my next trick?  Who knows?!

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Well, far from lazy, actually, but that song just prompts me to put the L word in there!

So, humming The Small Faces, I’m pottering about the studio this afternoon, enjoying the post OFSTED glow and offering the occasional 2p as my Hero navigates the nether regions of Windows 8.

 

I’m actually working on my pocket journal, which reminded me that I haven’t shared my nifty method of transferring complex shapes from Silhouette cutting mat to page, by means of a strip of washi tape.  It’s not really rocket science.  I simply remove the cut pieces from the mat with a short piece of tape (or two, if it’s larger)

I turn over the tape and apply a small amount of adhesive to the reverse side of the cut shape, before turning it over, sticking it down to the page and carefully peeling away the washi tape.

See?  I said it wasn’t really rocket science!  But I’m not sure I could have got those tricky Chinese characters down any other way.

The journal’s coming along nicely and I’m happy with it.

I especially like this last folder, for our souvenirs from Hiroshima.

I made good use of the print from the paper collection I chose, handily named “Konnichiwa”.

Oh, I got a new toy to play with too.  Lucky girl!

Lighter, brighter

Working in one of my favourite places today, I must have been distracted when I arrived, because it was only as I left that I noticed the blackboard standing by the door.  I’d spent the morning in a pleasant and very useful meeting with colleagues whose company I enjoy and met some interesting people over a sandwich lunch.  Time well spent.

Stepping outside to return to my car then, I read the list of flowers to spot in the grounds, noticed the sun shining and decided to take “the scenic” route back to the car park.

How could I have overlooked these little beauties earlier?  Such a welcome sight after so many dreary winter days and even though there’s still plenty of time for more of that, the days are getting noticeably brighter and longer.

The small drift of crocus under the gnarled old tree lit up this area of the gardens and the pale, light colours shone through the wet grass.

Most exuberant of all were the little aconites, which always remind me of the dear old lady who owned the flat I shared with occupational therapist Lin, when I first started work.  I’ve tried several times to get them growing in our garden, without success, each time inspired by the sight of them like this.

What a great idea to place the blackboard by the door this morning and what a joyful way to start a new month, don’t you think?