2021 Week 25

Magic, Munchkins and Gingers!

My old Boss has been training to be a Methodist minister and his ordination was held last weekend.  Stupid Covid prevented us attending in person but I was able to watch it live on YouTube

I wanted to send him a gift and at the same time my current boss / vicar had asked me to make a magic bag.  If you haven't seen one it might help to know it's a story telling bag

I started by cutting ten rectangles 9x10" (actually one green/outer needs to be 9x12")

I then added to the yellow rectangles - vicar boss got a party vibe design and newly ordained boss got a cup that runneth over, and I added  a small zipped pocket to one starry piece each

There are possibly a few million ways to sew these rectangles together, and only a few are directional, but I think I sewed and un-sewed every single combination, but I got there in the end!

(for reference: 

start with the stars, with pocket to the right, 

then add onto the right side: yellow (4th) (top to the left if applicable, the top continues to alternate),

then black (3rd) 

then blue (2nd) 

then green (1st) 

then reverse the order so green (wide piece), blue, black, yellow and stars

If you know Psalm 23 you can follow the story

So when all the shapes are stitched together, join the two green to each other to complete the loop. 

Arrange on the desk so it reads zipped star tipped anti clockwise, star, image topped anti clockwise, black and blue on the top, and (from l to r) yellow, black, blue, wide green, green on the back)

Phew.  The wide piece of green now gets folded and folded so it can be stitched down to hold ALL the sides together with no raw edges

Because I stitched it wrong soooo many times I would suggest pinning or tacking this together to check the story works but if it does you can tell the story of 

Being laid down in green pasture (then turn inside out)

Being lead to quiet waters (ditto)

Walk through the valley of death

Having a table prepared for me

And dwelling in the house of the Lord

And a zip pocket with gold lining incase it's needed!

I hope he likes it!!!!

I was sent a pic of a munchkin on a Patchwork I-spy quilt . . . my favourite kind of photo!

And this neighbour's munchkin looked so cool with his golf set I had to make a Ginger

I've been doing some "public announcement" ones too - for National Smear week 

National Chess week

And Water Safety month

And finally a few t-shirts for some friends who run a local mental health group

2019 Wk 28 - EPP Sewing Machine (and bird seed cakes!)

 Since I last blogged I have pieced this!

I was 'on duty' with M-i-L on Friday: hairdresser's appointment, visit to the Town Hall and a few other places on our list so I brought a new hand sewing project with me.  Clearly having the rainbow hexie flowers to finish piecing (just half a dozen flowers left) and the Plus Blocks (to *start* piecing) isn't enough EPP to have on the go at one time . . . , and Sharon gave me this FP so it would have been rude not to!  The colours, while muted, are brighter that I can photograph them.  No idea why!

Having done a couple of FPs in the last months, I wasn't feeling the love, so I decided to cut all the pieces out and EPP it instead.

On Saturday I had a break from the sewing machine as we had a family party: 20 or so of us at S-i-L's.  Three munchkins (well two plus Niki!) thoroughly enjoyed testing a paper-plate-weaving project me for

I then carried on with the EPP on Sunday.  There was a problem converting from FP to EPP: each thickness of fabric (as it wraps from front to back) adds maybe a mm to the width of the card template, so when a piece with lots of fabric pieces tries to match up with a piece with hardly any pieces the first is longer than the second.  Mostly the pieces can be eased / persuaded / bullied into fitting, but there was one place where it just couldn't - so I unpicked and trimmed 1cm off one template and it all fitted brilliantly!  I had already adapted a few pieces as they would have been two small.  I re-drew one and merged another two and abandoned another but I'm rather pleased with how it turned out

The lines here are shadows: I'm not yet sure how to quilt it.  Maybe just running stitch in muted pearle in the sewing machine and white for the background or maybe a mix of machine stitch and hand stitching?  Any suggestions?

Monday saw us spending much of the day back with this game old bird!

This is my gorgeous M-i-L who still lives alone without much help at 91.  The appointments of Friday, and the family party on Saturday took it out of her so she had a day in bed on Sunday.  However it also turned out that she hadn't eaten, had hardly drunk anything, had developed a hernia, had been sick . . . but hadn't wanted to bother anyone.  We finally got the Dr out to her who was very concerned about the hernia & sickness combination and packed her off to hospital.  They operated this morning and we are waiting to hear what they found.

My other making has involved bird seed.  Along with the plate weaving and a few other crafts, I am teaching bird seed cakes in a few weeks time.  Pinterest has loads of recipes but sadly they do not seem to work as well as the posters suggest!

Here are my samples: I used lots of different bonding agents: gelatin (to bloggers instructions 1:100), jelly (orange flavoured!), suet, gelatin (to my instructions - 1:10), flour and water, egg whites - and hope that (a) one of them sets enough to work and (b) I can remember what I did on that one as I didn't think to write anything down!!!

Finally - just looking at this puts me into a very happy place!  It's a quilt that Jackie is currently finishing and I just love the calm colours and the beautiful blocks!  Well done Jackie!