Crafty Happenings - Week 5

 

Look at that - a blue sky and no rain - we've had a couple of days like that this week, it makes me feel so much better :)

 

 

Well, given these Crafty updates are all I'm posting at the moment I'm ridiculously late with last week's but I have an excuse - it was P's birthday, My Boy was home from Uni with his Girlfriend for a visit and My Girl moved out into a flat for the first time.  Frankly, it's been manic and, despite having a few days off I am totally knackered!

 

I didn't manage much of a crafty nature but everything counts right?

 

Finished Object:

 

No not this, this is donkey's years old

 

 My Girl and her Flatmate need a draught excluder for their front door - yes, I appreciate this is a doorstop but I had found the pattern I'd previously used for this so I just made it longer ...

 

 

Done - and using a curtain remnant I bought only a few weeks ago and the remains of a bag of toy stuffing I've had knocking about for years - I'm calling this £2.00 - bargain!

 

 

 Fabric:

Some fat eighths - they always come in useful - I might have a bit of a thing about polka dots ...

Both of these fabrics were 50% off in the sale  - I have a plan.
Oh, more dots, fancy that.

And these ... with dots, again.

I had the print at the front already - my brother gave me an early Christmas voucher for Britex
when we were in San Francisco at the end of last year.
It was always destined to be napkins for our dining table - I just needed the right backing fabric -
who knew it would have polka dots?
 

And this is the table runner I started last April -
I realised the 'perfect' backing fabric wasn't out there and I actually want to
get it finished and use it so I bought the solid and I'm looking forward to getting it done.
Oh no dots, shame :)
 

I know I haven't finished my quilt but this layer cake was
seriously discounted in the sale and I have a pattern I want to make already planned and in my
'to do' queue.
I absolutely will not start it until my other quilt is finished :)

 

 

Supplies:

No I don't need any more wool but it was ridiculously cheap and
it matches the sofa in our Board Room, in fact you can hardly see it,
I'm inadvertently camouflaging the stuff I bring into the house!

 

I picked this up in the charity shop - I love the patterns and you
trace them onto grided sewing paper. 
I have very strong memories of my mother making patterns this way when I was very small
 - from scratch mind you, she's very talented.
Even the illustrations on this book blend in with the sofa!



 

 

Jacq

x

 

 

 



What should you take to Sewing Club?

The correct answer is 'a planned project' not 'everything but the kitchen sink', which was pretty much my approach! 

A while back I very excitedly replied to Rachel (House of Pinheiro) because she'd posted about the possibility of having a local sewing group. Fortunately for me the suggestion was to meet in Rochester and that's not far from where I live at all - result!

There's been some planning over a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and finally last Sunday we got together for the first time to actually sew.

Going around the table, clockwise from the left: Polly, Emmie, Rachel and Cris. Polly's mum, Julie is also a member of our group but unfortunately was double booked last weekend, although she did keep us updated with photos of dessert!

 

Honestly, I didn't know what to take with me. You get used to having all your stuff around you at home - I tried to plan but, in the end, kept throwing stuff in my various holdalls 'just in case'. I thought bags would be a good idea, something simple to complete, so took the pattern (and the 2 larger sizes I've tweaked a bit) that I downloaded here. I've made it lots of times before, although I don't tend to make it reversible, and I like a zipped pocket and a closure of some sort. But it is totally brilliant for adding your own touches too.

 

 

I didn't get that much done! 

 

I thought I'd do loads in 4 hours - I had 4 bags cut out that I took with me - totally unrealistic.

 

 There's definitely a knack to sewing in a group and it's totally different to sitting at home on your own - I might not have been terribly productive (I'm about finished on 1 bag and half way through a second)but it was really inspiring. 

 

Emmie forgot her sewing machine power cable - despite the fact that she and I had managed to fill the back of my car with stuff and nearly gave ourselves a hernia trying to get it all to the venue! On the plus side she had pdf patterns to put together and cut out so she got loads and loads of prep done. 

 

Rachel's experienced at group sewing and she didn't get much done either (so I felt a bit better!) but she was absolutely right, it was a really good day for swapping ideas and thinking creatively, I'm really looking forward to future meet ups.

Polly had the right idea - she took one project, that she'd done all the prep for beforehand, literally everything cut, bagged up and ready to go. Isn't it super? It's a quilt top she's secretly working on for her little boy. She got all of this done in the 4 hours we were together.

 

And Cris was recovering chairs, with no pattern as such - she made great progress too despite literally having to make it up as she went along :)

 

I think I might need something like this - before I do myself a mischief trying to cart my machine around but my heart yearns for something more like this ...

.... which is far less practical of course but it is covered in dots! I've been reading reviews (and frightening myself with horror stories about the damage you can do to your machine if you transport it!). 

 

If anybody has any recommendations I'd be glad to hear them :)

 

Jacq

x