2017 Wk 3 - mostly pyrography

As well as my 'day job' I am also Clerk to the Parish Council and this week that has taken up much of my spare time, so no proper sewing this week.
I played with the pyrography kit- I've bought letters in addition to the shapes: they have a great result

I tried the rings on the bunting as the flags tend to twist a bit otherwise

I'm not sure I like the beads with the flags, but with just the rings the flags bunch up together. I'll work on it!
I did do some fabric related work . . . Some fun keyrings to identify stuff around the house

And I received a fab pair of fingerless gloves - thanks Jackie xxx

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Key ring class

This was today's class at Chertsey Museum - making key rings! I got the clamps from Amazon (search ribbon clamp) and we stitched pretty ribbons onto black webbing, then clamped the ends in a loop. These can now be worn on the wrist so you don't drop your keys

 

And some show & tell from last month

 

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Fifteen Minutes of Fun

I don't feel as if I've done *much* sewing, but I have been managing Fifteen Minutes of Fun quite regularly, and I've realised all those fifteens add up!

This embroidery and appliqué takes about seven minutes to stitch,

And while one is stitching I can be adding zip and lining to another to make a zippy pouch for a note pad and pencil

 

And a whole load of fifteen minutes later I have a box of these for the ladies at my church group

 

Whilst I had the zip foot on the machine I also used some Lino printed fabric to make this sample for a Chertsey museum class.

 And when I had the normal foot back on I made some other class samples

I also spent a bit of time on La Pass: my first cog is as complete as I can manage at the moment: I've run out of the purple! I've sent some to Jackie as she may have some spare she can 'lend' me, otherwise this will be one of the overlapped cogs!

And talking (writing) of Jackie - I have some serious furniture envy . . . look what she just got!

For me, the word furniture reminds me my mum is coming to stay tomorrow night - and this is the current state of the bed!

Ooops!

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While I was Quilting

Yes, I actually did some quilting! Every few weeks I meet with ladies from a couple of local churches, and we chat and sew. For a few sessions we have been joining triangles and making squares, now we are joining squares to make strips.
So far there are five strips added to a fleece blanket. Some of the sewing is less, um, *sturdy* than ideal, so I have decided to quilt this one for added stability.

I'm using a variegated thread, and quilting free range lines at roughly 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 into each strip. 

It looks red and green here, but there is yellow and blue there too

While I was quilting, I had the embroidery machine going too: lots of button key rings for the craft sale at the Richmond & Kew quilt show later this year.

  

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A finish, an Ooops, and an off!

The Finish:
This pinwheel quilt was almost finished before I went to Oz - just needed the binding to be hand stitched.    Yay - now finished!  This will go to my friend Sue who had breast cancer 15 years ago.  She fund raises at school each year for the local Breast Centre Unit, the Parapet, in Windsor, and calls the fund raising Pink Day - so I thought this would be suitable for her raffle!

The Ooops:
I tried to finish the Christmas tree Jackie sent me last year . .  I had sewn on the decorations, and stuffed it

but didn't consider that the 'branches' would then scrunch together, and all decorations near the middle would vanish into what the family kindly described as tree-bum-cheeks

Drat!  I now need to unpick and move 3/4 of the decorations - that might be a job for next Christmas!

And the Off
I did get all the Fat Quarter bags wrapped up ready for posting

And had great fun taking apart blingy key rings (left), and turning them into crafty key rings (right) - I wish I'd bought some more, does anyone know where they sell them in the UK?