Author: Kay

I make stuff

Hello Crochet World!

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

I don’t know what I like best; the beautifully modelled dress, the rocking chair or the crochet drawer handles! Plus I never knew there was International Diploma in Crochet

Eleonora from Coastal Crochet's avatarCoastal Crochet

Well I’ve finally done it!

After many months of consideration and ‘shall I, shan’t I thoughts’, today I posted off my enrolment form for the International Diploma in Crochet from Crochet Design http://www.crochet.co.uk/

I have crocheted on and off for many years and it’s not just crochet- I have a love for all things crafty! But crochet is what I want to focus on and I have a desire to take it to the next level.

I love crochet! I love how it looks, I love its versatility and more than anything I love to actually do crochet!
A craft I can take anywhere with me and the joy of gradually seeing each stitch transform the yarn in my hands into something beautiful.
I can follow patterns and one of my proudest crochet creations was a dress for my daughter on her First Holy Communion celebration last year . A wonderful pattern from…

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Out With The Old, In With The New

by Kay, posted in Finished Projects

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At last I have finished my new purse. For American readers a purse is something to keep money and cards in which is placed in your hand/shoulder/messenger/bag in the UK. The male equivalent is a wallet

It was made following a very clear tutorial by Ayumi of Pink Penguin which I have made  before following a similar look to the one she has demonstrated. However it is showing it’s age now and I wanted a different look. I wasn’t sure what I wanted until I bought a scrap bag of fabric at Peppermint Stitches and in it were two fabrics that went well with each other; a piece of dark grey linen and a few scraps of fabric by Anna Maria Horner from the Loulouthi collection from a few years ago. It is still available here

Hand quilting on the top

The lining and internal pocket fabrics were also in the scrap bag and are all fabrics that I wouldn’t normally chose but they all went together so well for this project.

The zip was quite difficult to put in – because it was so narrow, not because of the instructions. I have avoided zips in the past but it’s not too bad if you have good instructions. I saw another pattern for a similar purse but the zip ends were on show when you opened it! It looked great on the outside but terrible on the inside, so it is always worth doing a bit of research for a project to find the best one

I enjoyed doing the simple embroidery outlining parts of the fabric design, but the bottom part was closely machine quilted to give it a bit of rigidity. All in all a good project that cost very little. I have had a lot of compliments for the old purse – will the new one get as many?

 

A Flock of Geese

by Kay, posted in Quilt-a-Longs, RSC15

I am so far behind on the RSC15 because I started so late, that I thought I would have a marathon cutting session last night. I am following Angela’s pattern and making sawtooth stars with different middles so a large number of flying geese were needed.

When I came to sew this morning I was a red square short. I was sure I have cut four but it was late so maybe I miscounted. I cut another only to find this when I started to chain piece the second round!

so that's where it went

So that’s where it went! I have never done that before – sewed things to myself – but not this!

This morning was very productive, even with a bit a babysitting and a trip to a bootsale. It was a wet and windy last night which put a lot of stall holders off so there were hardly any.  My other half got a demi-john for £3.00 but only after I snorted in derision laughed when the stall holder said £5.00! The girls got an animal book and a lovely glass paperweight. With only two patchy rows there was little choice so I got nothing.

I had bought a pair of scissors in Fabric8 (only £2.00!) yesterday which came in handy today as they are so large and I had many geese to separate. Only a couple of snips and they were done.

Big scissors

Now for the inner blocks. January is medium blues; whirling geese and card trick. Let’s hope the weather brightens up as it is a bit dark for taking photos indoors without a flash (and I can’t find my tripod to do a long exposure)

 

The Global Quilting Project

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

I have been a part of The Global Quilting Project for the last eight months. It has been a long process as it was more than the usual block swap where everyone exchanges a known block. For this we had to design our own.

I won’t go through all the steps as the teaching programme belongs to Kim Andrews who organised the whole massive project, what I can say is; that it stretched the capabilities of all involved. Many dropped by the wayside when they realised that it wasn’t a basic block swap. Others dropped out due to family problems, lack of time or lack of confidence in their designs. The ladies in my group – The Balkan Puzzle Group – have been very supportive but we dropped from twelve to eight members. I wish they hadn’t chosen the most difficult (for me anyway) design to make ha ha. I shouldn’t have given them a choice of four

This is basically wedges but cut into a curved design and hand appliqued. I need to pick which colour Suffolk Puff looks best and attach them. Next remove the basting stitches and parcel them up for posting and waited with for the others to arrive from around the World!

End date to make a quilt from the blocks is December – so watch this space

Now I am off to see what everyone else at http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/ is up to for Slow Sunday Stitching

RSC15 Indigo

by Kay, posted in WIPs

These are the first blocks I have made for the RSC15 as I only came across this challenge recently. Indigo was the colour chosen for August but any other dark colour would do for those without the necessary scraps. I decided that I wasn’t going to use plain white I would use polka dot instead.

The Road to California came first, completed with polka dot

Road to California

I only had a little of this fabric and was contemplating buying more when I realised the whole point of the scrap challenge was to use up scraps not to make a scrappy quilt! There is a difference! Some buy fat eights to get the scrappy look but that isn’t the point here as that would only make more scraps. So I had a re-think and raided my scrap bag and baskets to find any low volume patterned/white fabric plus some plain old white after all. I love the indigo fabric which was a mere $7AU a metre from the stash builder basket in Spotlight, Brisbane.

The next block, the Bullseye block did have some sizing issues but all was sorted in the end (it comes up as 6 inches square not 6.5). This time a mix of plain white and I think it’s  Sarah Fielke’s On The Pond but it’s out of print now

Bullseye block

Last of all, and I think my favourite, is Mr Roosevelt’s Bowtie. A block I had never heard of before and for this I used the greatest variety of scraps, five fabrics in all.

Mr Roosevelt's Bowtie Block

Now I think I may have to ‘reverse sew’ the first block as I prefer the mix of background fabrics in the others. I will wait until I have made more blocks first though to see how they work together.

I have made quite a stack of ready cut squares to make the flying geese for the other colours so I hope to catch up soon

Great Minds Think Alike

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things, WIPs

Well maybe great is a bit of an exaggeration. My other half asked to borrow a tape measure as I was sitting in my sewing room and as he went downstairs  I said “while you are down there can you measure the Ikea shelf unit”. He paused and replied “you are never going to believe this,,” But I guessed straightaway that he was going to measure it for his office.

It would fit in both office and sewing room, but he just wanted to get it out of the kitchen where it was in the way; I wanted it to sort out my out of control WIPs. They are being shunted around my desks as I cut and sew fabric for the RSC15 and the #fw1930sqal so as I had a particular use for them I got them!

So this is before and after

no shelf They were unpainted but as I wanted to use them straightaway I had to do something to cover up scuff marks where they had been in storage. A root around in my little plan chest turned up some scrap-booking paper.

I don’t actually do scrap-booking, I bought the paper because it was in a sale  and I thought it would make nice wrapping paper. I was a bit to enthusiastic with the craft glue and it went a bit wobbly – the paper not the shelf unit

shelfFortunately, as it dried, the paper flattened and now it looks much better.

The drawers are now filled (already) with WIPS or rather the small WIPs as there are others to big to fit in, but it’s a start to organise my tiny sewing room so I actually have enough room to sew

On the left; RSC15 and a partially finished purse
Two projects for Quilting From Little Things; Star and Fanfare
So tidy!

I even inspired me to sort out my Grandmother’s Flower Garden too. I am now thinking of getting another one as I like small projects on the go to take a out with me or when  I sit downstairs to watch TV. It’s all part of the Slow Sunday Stitching too.

Lenin, however, does not seem to be impressed

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The Farmer’s Wife 1930s QAL

by Kay, posted in Farmer's Wife 1930s QAL
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fwqal1930s-49-Katherine

I couldn’t resist jumping in and making this block [49] Katherine as it is the nearest to my own name and looking at it I was sure I could simplify the cutting and sewing which I did. Stitch and flip with rectangles and squares instead of tiny triangles, HSTs and awkward shapes.

It also means no need to print out the templates – saving paper and ink! I wonder how many more can be simplified. It will be interesting to see how many of the guest bloggers over at verykerryberry will do so.

Kerry  said that she will paper piece most of the blocks and has already made some. They can be seen in her review for ‘The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt’ by Laurie Aaron Hird which you can find here. They are beautiful and I have to say that my piecing is not as accurate as Kerry’s, but then the original makers of these blocks would not have all the gadgets we have today so mine will definitely look more ‘homemade’ then other people’s will!

 

Making not Buying

by Kay, posted in WIPs

DSCF4513I felt guilty about posting so much about fabric purchases that I  thought it was time to post about something I am actually making. It is a new patchwork wristlet following a tutorial by Ayumi Takahashi from Pink Penguin. My old one is a little the worse for wear now and even the washing machine can’t restore it’s looks but it has served me well .

The new one is made from pieces of fabric from a scrap bag  bought at Peppermint Stitches. I have machined straight lines close together at the bottom but decided to do a little hand- stitching around some of the motifs at the top. simple stuff, just chain, stem, running and seed stitches. The pockets and lining are cut and stitched, the handle made and the zip ready to go. Now all that needs to happen is for my Pfaff to finally come back from repair or I get a new quarter inch foot for my Britannia Instyle 16, as it is bent out of true boo hoo.

I am not having much luck with gadgets at the moment as both the washing machine and hoover decided to go on strike too, but they are both working now. If only my sewing machines were