Bits and Bobs

I've been off school for a week now, but haven't managed half the sewing I had hoped for!

There have been relatives to collect from one place and take to another, walls to unpaint and then paint (his job, not mine), the shed to de-clutter and tidy, and coursework to be done

Inspired by Pinterest!

 but I have managed to intersperse *some* sewing!

I have finished the Dotty Tumblers

And made some bunting for a friend from her girls' old school uniform

I've done some customer embroidery

And I've made some more Sweet Sixteen blocks: some for me and some for Jackie

I've also made a start on a woven quilt using fruit and veg fabrics I bought, and used half of, at least 4 years ago.  I'm doing pretty much the same thing again, but annoyingly I've run out of black so I cant make the missing blocks

Oh dear - I might have to go fabric shopping!

Griping about Google & some Crafty Stuff

A few years ago I changed my blog address from Slikstitches.blogspot.com to Slikstitches.com.  I did it on a whim, and if I could turn back time I would not have done it!

At first my blog vanished for a while, then last year I had problems paying my renewal fee ( I blogged about it here).  I eventually discovered I had to log into wallet.google, and update my credit card information, so when I got this year's renewal email I checked on the above post and checked my credit card details and sat back smugly,

BUT - this time that wasn't the right place to update the card info - it seems they sometime look somewhere else!  It's taken me a month, but I've finally sussed it - I have to log on here using an email address I never use - I don't even know how I can use it! (B@SS.COM), using a password that I haven't used for years (SS) and change a different saved credit card option. [Billings/Domain Registration / Access Billing Ac]

So now I have it saved here ready for getting hopelessly lost next year!

But because no blog post in compete without a photo or two . . .

Jackie's My Small World is looking awesome

I embroidered a blanket for my Great Aunt, and mum has delivered it

Lesley at Crafty Church embroidered this for her sister

And my God Daughter created and machine stitched this for a friend

Oh, and Lisa received her Christmas Quilt

That'll be FOUR layers now on her bed - a bit like the princess and the pea!

Crafty Church Fun

Oh my gosh, what a fab afternoon! It was Crafty Church and we had such fun!!!!

I had some Lino blocks and some foam shapes and some fabric and some paints - it was like potato printing as a kid

 

 

 

 

Lynne then wrapped some loose threads around the roller and used that to print, and got some fab results

 

 

What a shame the afternoon had to end!

 

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A Meeting, and Modern and Me

Richmond and Kew Quilters' July meeting was last night, and the lovely lovely Jo Avery from Bearpaw and Bearpaw was our speaker.  She did a fab talk on Modern quilts, and mentioned that some of the defining characteristics are colours (rainbow fabrics for example) simplifying methods for quick results, and using fabric in an unusual way, for example using selvedge edges.

Well I certainly can tick the first two boxes, and she reminded me of my selvedge edge project.  May I am a Modern Quiter!  Two ladies also donated some more selvedge edges, and today I dragged the UFO out from the depths of a box, and have part stitch and part pinned the next round:

It's going to be a heavy one, but I love how its looking!

A couple of copies of 50 Fat Quarter Makes happened to slip into my bag last night - kindly signed by Jo.  Happy Birthday Jackie!

Jo and I have been blog buddies for at least 4 years (I found my first mention of you, Jo, April 2011!) and it was fab to actually meet her - her work is awesome, and I can see a lot of her influence in my quilts!

One of the quilts she brought to show was this dotty scrappy trip:

She made it a few years ago, and that was when I started collecting dotty fabrics.  When I finally cut into some last week I chose a more muted collection, but I had the fabrics to choose from thanks to Jo!

I have done some more work on my dotty tumblers, and they are now ready to have the binding stitched down . . . that will be in the cooler weather!

I was inspired to try an inner border after seeing Plum's Heart It finish

Solo Saturday

With one daughter still in Australia, the other at her boyfriend's all weekend, and husband working all day, I was all on my own today.
(Quietly shout yippee!!!)
I cut a whole load of tumbler blocks with my trusty Sizzix

And started to sew them together

I did some more uninform embroidery for Chertsey museum

I embroidered a fleece for a friend

And, inspired by Di's recent posts, I had a go at a circular zippy pouch

Is it really wrong to have such a great time when they are all out? I wonder if he'll be working again tomorrow???

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Pouches for Pennies

Seriously - this pouch cost me 86 pence in materials!

I bought a pack of two tea-towels from Poundland and I'm only using one, so 50p or 75 US cents for that, I buy my plastic zips from Zipit on Etsy; they cost about 35p each (maybe 50 cents) and I used an old sheet for lining, so my cost is less that £1 or $2.

I folded the tea-towel in half, and laid it on a folded piece of sheet the same size.

I trimmed the hems off the tea-towel, cutting the lining to the same size

I unfolded the fabrics, and cut 2" off one short end (I'm sure there is a way to do it without this cut, but its too hot to get my head around it)

I stitched the short lining piece, right side to the back of the zip, aligning the edges, (see the pic) **Change to the zip foot!**

 

I then stitch the long lining piece the same way to the other half of the zip

I repeated with the right sides of the outer fabric to the front of the zip (making sure the lining pieces are out of the way)

I now have something looking like this

I start to sew the outer pieces together.  Make sure the other sections are out of the way, and for now just leave the zip area, and stitch the sections shown here for the outer part

For the lining you need to leave an opening so we can turn it right sides out later

Now square it all up and sew over the zip end openings.  Sew through both the lining and the outer fabric and the zip (remember this should be a plastic zip!!!)

BEFORE you sew over the zip edges make sure it DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS - unzip so the zipper pull is inside the bag.  I predict there will be rude words, the gnashing of teeth and a bit of unsewing if you don't

 (No, we do not need to go into any discussion as to how I know this)

The opposite side can be stitched over without any unpicking advance planning.  I added a fold of ribbon as it gives a tab to pull against when closing the zip

Trim off the corners and the excess zip, using old scissors, then turn the whole lot through the side opening and sort out corners and edges and the stitch the turning gap closed.

And the result? (all for the price of a bar of chocolate!)

And

And

And

Excuse me while I go and look for some more tea-towels!

Printable PDF version here