Journeys with Jackie (2)

Hurray for adjusting the clocks - we got an extra hour of sewing time on Sundays!

We used it very wisely - working on our bags!  Maybe I should have called this post Plenty of Pockets - these bags have 12 pockets each!

Three outside on the front, and three inside on the front, plus one slip pocket between the inner and outer section . . .

 And three more outside on the back, plus two zipped pockets inside back

Additionally, a bit of fussy cutting made us two clock purses

We also went back to the Richmond & Kew quilt show and did a stint on the admissions next (and may have spent a bit of money)

But like all good things eventually it had to come to an end, and Jackie has flown home.  Miss you Jackie xxx

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Journeys with Jackie

Jackie has been over for the weekend, and while we've managed some fabric related stuff there has been a lots of travelling too!

First let me show you the great scissors pouch she made me, and these gorgeous knitted fingerless gloves.

She also brought me some more EPP templates for La Pass, and acrylic templates for cutting the fabric: thank you Jackie

On Friday we drove to Portsmouth (to collect mum) and then on to Eternal Maker - a fabulous fabric shop in Chichester. There was SO much lovely stuff, I struggled to make choices! Mum got herself a coffee while Jackie and I tried to make decisions!
In the end I bought this gorgeous grey-on-grey and these rainbow solids

And we got some pretty zips, then came home to play. Eternal Maker had instructions on their blog on how to use the zips, but it appears you need to *follow* the instructions - we go one successful boxy pouch, but it's partner declined to be photographed!

Unfortunately I'm a bit of a no-raw-edges snob, and this ended up with raw edges, so I'm done with these pretty zips

On Saturday we were going to Teddington to volunteer at a stall at the Richmond and Kew Quilt Exhibition. Teddington is near Twickenham, but also near Twickenham is the home of the 2015 Rugby World Cup - and on Saturday New Zealand was playing South  Africa in the first semi final, so we decided train was a safer choice than car.

The exhibition was great, and the quilts looked great in the fab setting. 

After we'd done our shift  we went on a few more stops to Kingston to visit Fabricland. I know at least one person (hello, A) who checks fabrics there with a lighter to make sure she really is buying 100% cotton but I just bought some home dec weight fabric for bags and done interfacing: no lighter necessary!

As we had the bag fabric, it made sense to make a bag. This one from Love P & Q looked fairly simple,

but it posed a few problems - maybe our fabric was too thick, or maybe we are!!!

We finally decided to adapt the pattern, and today we made a variation from our knowledge rather than the instructions!  I'll show you the result tomorrow!

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Not Quite Nothing

I haven't had much time (or maybe inclination) to sit and sew something significant, which explains why I haven't blogged for a while, but I've snatched a few fifteen minutes here and there . . . and thought you might like to see

After the lovely Just Jude sent me goodies from a recent giveaway, I've had the fabric and fabric pens sat on my workbench just looking at me: and yesterday I did a bit of colouring in!

Wonderfully therapeutic , thank you again Jude!

On my trip to Gibraltar I did some more work on La Pass - slow but steady - and still fun! 

Now the girls are in their 20s  I thought I'd finished with fancy dress costumes - but ComicCon beckons, and Niki is going as Sarah Walker from Chuck, in her Weinerlicious outfit (no it means nothing to me either!) so I havnet finished making costumes!

Here is the original, thanks to Google Images

And here is my version

As an aside, Katy at Littlest Thistle recently asked an interesting question - why do we create?   There were some comments, and some off shoot blog posts (Hi Sarah) but then I saw this on Facebook, and I thought it summed it up quite well!  Read the left side first, then read again but right the way across both faces! 

I dont know about making a living, or changing the world, but I certainly create becuae I "have to"

Fabulous Friends

Quilters are such lovely people! I'm sure you'll agree, but I want to give you two examples from just this week.

I met up with Plum (from PlumQuilts) at the Richmond and Kew quilters meeting on Monday evening, and she's not only helping me check in some quilts at our exhibition in 10 days time, she also brought me a whole load of Love Quilting magazines, and some selvedge edges

The second piece of excitement came in the post: Kathy (who blogs at RunningWithRocket) had a giveaway on her blog - a tissue holder for anyone who wanted one.  I chose aeroplane fabric (she has a plane in her back yard!) and it arrived today, but that just turned out to be a small part of the package!!!

It came wrapped in a paper pattern piece (what a great idea) and with chocolate washi tape!, all in a really pretty lacy plastic bag (not quite wrapped like this as I was too impatient to photograph first so I had to try and reassemble for pictures later!)

With TWO really useful zippy vinyl pouches

And what I first took to be a vintage sewing pattern. . .

. . . I know some people collect these, but they don't excite me very much, however it was much more exciting and useful than that . . . It's a note book!

Thank you Kathy and Plum - it's great to have you as my friends xxx

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Barbados Bag Two

Driving home from work this afternoon I was thinking about my Barbados Bag.  It worked really well over the suitcase handle

And will be great filled with drink, sunnies, book and towel for a walk to the beach, but may be a bit big for shopping or travelling

It so happens I just *may* be travelling tomorrow too - on a girly trip to Gibraltar, which was really why I was thinking about the suitability of my big bag . . . so I planned a new, smaller, version, and no one was home when I got in - so I made it!

Same fabric

Same inner pockets, same zip pocket and my usual purse clip and secret slip pocket,

And almost the same outer pockets - but can you see the blue zip at the bottom of this pic?

It closes to make an outer pocket . . . or unzips to open so the bag will stand on my case

So I'm ready for some autumn sun this weekend, as well as ready for my January holiday (did I mention I'm going to Barbados?)

Mojo Monday

I had a few hours of 'me time' this afternoon, and I have a hundred and one (at least) projects I could (should?) be working on, but none of them really appealed.

I sat at the work bench and thunked, and my mojo came just when I needed it

I cut up a piece of cream loose weave fabric, into 1.5 inch squares, and pulled a few threads from each side.  I then gathered up a whole load of cream coloured treasures from the sewing room, and started sewing them onto the squares:

Buttons

Ribbons and lace

Motifs, Suffolk puffs, and beads

 

 And tapes with words on them

And they currently look like this. 

I'm hoping I can find a frame for them.  I'm calling them inchies, although they are 50% bigger than inchies!

Chertsey Catchup

After my panic creating at the end of last week, my hot water bottle cosy wasn't needed as the evening class was cancelled.  However the afternoon ladies have decided to host their own class when I'm away in January - and they want to make hot water bottle cosies, so they have the lesson all planned for them.

This month the afternoon ladies were making Pinch purses.  I didn't get any photos of the ones they started to make (and will hopefully finish at home) but I can show you my sample.

They pinch open thanks to the donated (thank you Brian) and disassembled metal tape measure.  I used instructions from various websites and bloggers (thank you Kathy) and the resulting instruction sheet can be down loaded here

I don't know about museums near to you, but Chertsey Museum works closely with local schools and provides artifacts for schools to use in history lessons.  Schools can hire a box of stuff (my school has used the WW2 boxes) or can provide a member of staff with artifacts for a particular period.  One of the periods used to be Tudor, which was fine, but the curriculum changed a few years ago, and out went the Tudors and in came the Vikings!

There wasn't *a lot* of Viking history in Chertsey (although they do have a 10th century viking sword found locally) and certainly not anything robust enough to be taken on school trips, but the museum has done what it can to be able to help schools deliver lessons on this subject, and one of the things it has bought is a replica Viking shield

This long ramble leads to "Benta, could you just . . . make a bag for our shield to be carried around in?"

I found a website where I could translate "viking shield" to Viking runes, and with its help embroidered this on one side of a padded bag

And this on the other

For the lining?  I couldn't resist using some of my precious favourite Michael Miller viking fabric

Perfect!

Hug a Hottie!

It's starting to get chilly in the evenings, and soon people will be needing hot water bottles at night. (Well, those who aren't menopausal will!)

So tomorrow evening I'm teaching a class at Chertsey museum making a hot water bottle cover, or for those who are menopausal, an iPad/tablet cover!

The trouble with teaching these things is that I get to the night before and realise I've never actually made of of them, so I'd better have a go!

So - the result

And the method:

Draw around the hottie / tablet, and add an inch all round.

Cut out this pattern piece, and cut out ONE piece of fabric (I used fleece, with its stretch top to bottom). This is the back piece

Draw a line on the pattern piece about 3 inches down from the 'shoulders' (or a tablet's top) and another a further 3 inches down.  

 You can, of course, use boring scissors but I'm loving my new paper scissors!

 I have shaded the two sections, but they don't need to be, you just need to understand that you are cutting one piece which is the top section and the middle / shared (ie shown orange) and another which is the bottom section and the middle / shared section (shown blue).

Fold the pattern piece to allow you to cut the fabric pieces without cutting the pattern.  You can decorate the pieces, or quilt a prettier piece onto them, or leave them as they are.

Hem the bottom of the top piece - if you have used fleece just a single fold is sufficient.

Layer the pieces: bottom piece, right side up,. Then the hemmed top piece, right side down, then the bottom piece, right side down.

Stitch ALL the way round, about 1cm seam allowance.

Clip the curves:

convex curves need wedges snipped out,

acute angles need to be snipped in,

and obtuse angles need to be trimmed

Then turn the whole lot inside out, shove your hottie inside, and hug yourself warm!

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