2019 Wk 17 - old stuff and new stuff

A lovely memory came up on a friend's FB page: her now 8 year old still sleeping under a quilt I made when she was a baby . . .

Followed by a new post to FB . . . of a *very* old quilt!  I don't even remember making the quilt but I recognised it straight away as I made myself a similar one (which later became the family camp quilt / poncho).  I has to ask Elaine when her son was born so we could date it - 1992!!!!

 Thankfully my patchwork skills have improved a bit since then!!!

The Stitch ladies were busy a few weeks ago

And husband has been busy in the bathroom!

A leaky shower 

drove him to remove the old bath / shower cabinet

replace it temporarily with a spare shower cubicle from the shed (everyone keeps stuff like that in shed don't they?)

and then start planning the new room (no we don't have a second bathroom!).  So now the spare shower has gone, and the new floor has gone down, and hopefully the new shower will be in place before I smell too much!

Hand sewing has seen this all pieced, and put away until I love it again

The advantage of the bath unit being banished is that we got a skip - and cleared all sorts of other junk out too.  The patio may not be perfect but anyone who has seen it will agree this is much better that usual!

And the garden is looking positively gorgeous!

2019 Wk 17 Windowed Pouch

Jackie and I made some windowed pouches when she was last here but I found the instructions strange and felt sure there was an easier method, with much less binding.

So I made one differently!

(The previous version)

I plan to make more, so the instructions are here for me, but feel free if you fancy a go!

I cut a piece of vinyl for the window - mine happened to be 16.5" wide by about 6" deep.  (Don't go for much narrower or it will be difficult to machine later on)  I cut a length of binding 2.5" by 17.5" (width plus 1 inch).

I folded the binding in half along its length, and folded in 1/2" in each side to get rid of the raw edges at the two short ends, and then (using a teflon / non stick foot) stitched the raw edge to one long end of the vinyl

I got a zip that was longer than my 16.5", and cut both ends off in a V shape, then separated the zip into two long halves (I'm only using one half for this).

I folded the binding over to the back of the vinyl (*just* showing through the vinyl)  and put one half of the zip behind the binding, with the teeth and about 2mm of zipper tape showing.  The zip ends stick out equally at both ends

I top stitched through the folded binding and the zip tape.  I actually did three lines to make sure I had caught everything.

I folded the zipped vinyl in half (WRONG sides together) so the two short edges aligned.

I replaced the zipper pull.  It's a bit fiddly, but there are YouTubes and other bloggers who explain it well

I cut another 2 lengths of binding: 2.5" x  about 7".   On one piece I folded one end in to lose the raw edge, and then wonder-clipped the binding to the vinyl, covering the sides of vinyl from the top of the horizontal trim to below the end of the vinyl.  The other piece of trim got folded and pressed it in half along its length and opened it up.  I then folded the edges in to the middle, folded in half, pressed, and top stitched to make a strap.

I stitched the binding piece to the vinyl, then tucked the strap piece inside the top opening.  I folded the trim over to cover the edges of the vinyl and machine stitched it down as far as I could.

The top was far too bulky to machine stitch so I hand stitched it closed and also hand stitched the top closed to keep the strap in place

And breathe!

Next I checked the amount of vinyl remaining visible (ie the width of the pouch).  Mine was exactly 16 inches

So I cut lining and outer fabrics width plus 1/2 inches (16.5") wide and sewed them both into tubes (right side together, 1/4" seam allowance).  Another time I would line one piece with fusible fleece first

I then upended the zipped vinyl top and clipped the lining and outer fabrics in place to the raw edge of the vinyl, right sides to the vinyl, raw edges all meeting the edge of the vinyl.  The side binding just folds flat against the vinyl.

I stitched this seam with about 1/2 inch seam allowance, then flipped both fabrics down and pinned them to each other through the vinyl (with added wadding sandwiched between them).  At this size this just fits over the free arm of my machine - any smaller and it would have been fiddly

I top stitched at the top of the fabric, and then carried on quilting in a spiral.

I then needed to create a base.  I remember from school that C=2πR, but actually it's much quicker to use this link and input your own circumference.  So my radius came to 2.55" (and I should have added 1/2" for seam allowance - doh!)

No pic, but I folded a sheet of paper in 4 and marked just-over-2.5-inches from the folded corner in several places and joined the dots with paper scissors!

I used this template to cut outer and inner fabrics and wadding, and quilted them in a spiral shape

I clipped the circle to the inside-out pouch and, having marked the 1/4s on the pouch and the circle, I wonder-clipped the circle evenly to the pouch the whole way round.  I stitched this, then zigzagged it twice.  That's no longer a raw edge in my book so no binding needed.

Finally the whole thing gets turned right side out again

and is finished

ready to fill with goodies!  By using just one half of a zip it wants to stay open with a more-or-less circular opening, and by having half a zip remaining you just kind of have to make another one!!!

2019 Wk 16 Easter Sewing

Not as much sewing as I'd hoped as we've been catching up with friends and family too, but I have managed some sewing.

The Australian Starred Hexies are about halfway to a flimsy

I made some personalised Sleep Out Patches for the friends that slept out with me

And made some play shopping baskets for another friend whose church runs the Treehouse cafe during the week

We had Crafty Church on Saturday - lots of ladies in Crochet Corner

Including Rushi who learned how to crochet

And I actually finished a quilt - it's appliqued to a fleece blanket and echo quilted by hand

2019 Wk 15 - Playdate with Sharon

 Saturday playdate with this lovely lady!

We put the world to rights (of course!) had plenty of coffee, rethreaded the overlocker, cut a quilt for her and speed-dated one for me!

What a way to spend a Saturday!

Sharon has great ambitions for her **SECOND** ever quilt (this was the first)  She has pieced a rainbow jelly roll as the front (like this but this is from Pinterest as I forgot to get a pic of hers) but then wanted to make a fractured heart for the back.  The pattern was for 2" or 5" squares but we went for 2.5" squares.  We had to lay it out in 2 halves

but then used a bit of photo trickery to sort of join them - isn't it going to be awesome!!!!  I think I want to make one too!!!

For my project we layed out the EPP plus blocks on her spare bed, and I now just need 15 squares to fill in the gaps and then I'm ready to put them away and ignore them for a while start sewing them together

I have been sewing these starred hexies together, but they don't look any different

And I am all caught up on my Temperature Project.  A warm blip is shown by a map of the state of Texas and TX

And the other half - I'm loving the texture of it!

This was the walk to church this morning - isn't the cherry blossom beautiful!!!

And we (the sleepout) was in the local papers!!!!

2019 Wk 14 Chertsey Friday

For a change I wasn't teaching at Chertsey on Friday - I was one of the students instead!

Marion who does these lovely landscape weavingings lead the class instread

She warped the frames for us and we learned pigtail knots, ane which way to weave depending on right or left handedness and how to meet and greet one colour to another horizontally, and how to wrap a length of wool to make it easy to weave.  Thank you Marion!  We didn't get far on the day but I'm looking forward to seeing them next month for show and tell

 

 

 

 

And speaking of show and tell, here are some finished or nearly finished wall hangings from last month

 

After that, I went on to sleep out!!  Taking part in a fundraising event for Windsor Homeless Project

My bloggy friends have been really generous in sponsoring me - thank you all VERY VERY much xxxxx