Almost enough time in the day

Sometimes it's nice when external forces mean that you just can't do some of the things on the list.  I always have so many things in my head that 'need' doing and I never get as much done as I feel I should.  It's something that I constantly beat myself up over.

Last weekend, I just couldn't do some things.  It snowed. Lots. Almost 2ft of snow over a couple of days. So not much could be done in the garden. No biking or running. And the only sewing I could do was those projects that I had the supplies for as there was no point even trying to drive anywhere.

So, one project I hadn't even looked at was the bunting I promised to make for the dining room.  I let Mal pick out the fabric ages ago and just never got around to starting. I quite like making bunting as its a relatively quick (half a day all in) and it looks so smart when it's done.

Even though there was deep snow (for North Wales/Cheshire border, that is deep) there was still an opportunity for some gardening.  I had to clear the snow from the polytunnel anyway so while I was out there I planted five of the early potato tubers.  I was going to experiment by planting some tubers outside and some in the tunnel to see what the difference in growth was - but with the snow around, I don't think I'll be planting the outside ones for a week or two. They'll just have to continue chitting on the window ledge!

The experiment continued with the planting of carrot and turnip seeds in the tunnel - it's a bit early for outside planting but I'm hoping the extra protection will give an early crop.  And as well as them , tomato, chili, sweet pepper, broccoli and sprouts seedlings all went into seed trays to be kicked off on the window ledge.

As well as all that, there was a bit of progress on the Battenburg quilt - I've made over half the blocks now, and the strips for the border are all sewn together.  And I've even sewn some of the binding on the Christmas table mats. I really should crack on with them and get them finished and out of the way.

So all in all, it's been a highly productive weekend!

Trying to be a bit more organised...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Done a very small bit of research and decided I need to organise my Blog reading a bit better (rather than random links saved in various places, inc pinterest), so followed Knotted Cottons advice and gone with BlogLovin....

Just need to grow the list now, and workout how to embed it in this blog, but in the meantime.... back to the sewing machine!

So little willpower

I really should have been cracking on with getting some more blocks done for the Battenburg Quilt, but I got distracted again.  Last weekend the post arrived with a Moda Jelly Roll of Eat your Fruit and Veg batik fabric.... The plan for this was to do a strip quilt (best tutorial for this here), so I thought, that'll be quick and easy lets give it a go!

So the first thing to do was mess up the fabrics....

Hopefully this will randomise the order of the strips.

Then it was time to join all the strips on the shortest side, so that you get one continuous very long strip...

Once you've got that, you then fold in half and join on the long side (so it's then half the length, but double the width).

This first join took ages.... And my top thread kept breaking, and the tension was a bit off.






So I decided to clean out my machine (I haven't done it since I got it - I know I'm a bad person).  The large quantity of lint under the needle plate might have something to do with why it was struggling...






Eventually I did the first join, and then the subsequent ones were a lot quicker, until it got to the point where it looked like this!  I just need to work out what to do with it now - I think I might add a black border and binding, should look quite striking with the brightly coloured batiks.  I was planning on giving it away but I am tempted to keep it for me!

 

Could resist no longer

I've been really strict with myself over the last few months about finishing projects before starting the next one, even though there's fabric already in the house and plans in my head!

But today I was doing a bit of research on disappearing 9 patch patterns and came across a disappearing 4 patch quilt that just looked fantastic (linky). I was planning on using the Dan Bennett Cosmos fat quarter pack to make a trellis style patchwork, but I was so inspired that I completely dropped that idea for the 4 patch. In fact I was so inspired that I once I got home from work I had to drop all the evenings plans (well, it was only running) to start cutting and sewing just so I could complete some blocks.

In the end I managed to complete 4 blocks - and I absolutely adore them... Can't wait to get cracking on the rest, although I did work out that I could make 48 blocks from all the fabric that I've got so it could be a larger quilt than I envisaged, unless some blocks end up on the back....

365

I decided the general blog was getting to full with Photo A Day posts, so I've moved them all to a new blog:

http://almostproject365.blogspot.co.uk/

Quite an easy process - exported complete blog, deleted the non Project365 posts from the XML file, imported the XML file to a new blog.

Job done!

Two hours and we're done

So with the Alfa off on a trek to the Servicing man there was no opportunity for biking tonight, and the epic on call weekend meant that I didn't get everything done that I'd planned.

I did manage to get the fabric cut for my latest quick project though - a bucket hat for my Cousin's one year old from this tutorial.  I'd bought some Riley Blake fabric from Emma's Fabric Studio that was so cute, but then I had a panic that the stripy fabric wouldn't work for the hat.

The project had to be finished this week as I'm seeing them all at the weekend, so tonight was the only opportunity (Thursday is swim night). In the end it only took a couple of hours to put the hat together and it wasn't too complicated.  The sewing of the band to the crown was a bit fiddly - a curved bit to a straight bit always tests me, but I think it turned out OK.  The fabric was just standard weight cotton and I put some heavy weight interfacing on one set of fabric, but I think if I did it again I'd put a lighter weight interfacing on both sets.

All in all, I think not bad for a first attempt.... Unfortunately I don't have a cute one year old handy to model it, so the banister will have to do....

Quilt #2

Back in November I ordered two fat quarter packs of Tanya Whelan's Delilah range from Cotton Patch, with 6 FQ's in a pack that gave me three metres of fabric.  Then when I was in Abakhan I picked up some bargain bin pink swirly fabric that matched with the Delilah range.

I've seen so many fantastic patchwork quilt top patterns, but I wanted to keep this one quick and simple as it was the first time I was doing a quilt of this size (and only the second time I made a quilt!) so I stuck with a really easy block work pattern of rows of 6' by 9' blocks (idea from this snuggly quilt).  I tried to keep the organisation of the blocks a random as possible without creating big areas of one fabric pattern.

Using the big blocks was great as it took so little time to do all the cutting (unlike all those half square triangles for the Bleakley baby quilt!) and in no time at all the quilt top was all sewn together.  There was a lull in proceedings then whilst I finished the baby quilt and Mum's Christmas table-mats, and then last month I  started pinning it all together to start the quilting.

I'm still practising quilting in straight lines, so decided just to sew in one direction across the quilt - I'm really rubbish at quilting in the ditch (the seam where the block rows are sewn together) so I though this would be an ideal time to practise! Towards the end of the quilting I did start to get better at keeping the quilting in the ditch.... sort of.  I really liked the effect of the lines sewn 1/4 inch apart on the cushion that matches the quilt but it would take forever to do that on a quilt this size and I thought it would make the quilt far to stiff. So I decided to do a line 1 inch either side of the seam, and halfway across the block (so 3 inch from the seam).  I also did a line 1/4 inch either side of this halfway seam.  The pattern turned out well - not too much stitching (time taken good!) but enough for interest.

There was enough of the pink swirly fabric to make the binding, and I'd picked up a couple of purple themed fabrics from Abakhan to do the quilt back.

I wasn't that impressed with my hand embroidery so I thought I'd try fabric pen approach for my label, that seems to be what everyone suggests on the Internet.  I ironed the fabric to freezer paper, and then used a permanent fabric pen - I'm quite pleased with the results.

A good time was had by all....

What an absolutely packed weekend! We had our re-scheduled Edinburgh weekend after both getting evil flu at the end of January, so headed off to visit the Chisholm family on Friday afternoon.

Saturday's plan was to walk from their place along the Water of Leith to the Gallery of Modern Art to see the Peploe exhibition, the girls making their way by bicycle.  Little did we realise how far it really was, with a fair amount of discussion and the checking of iPhones to work out the way!  In the end it was probably about 3 - 3.5mi, and the girls did really well even if they had to be bribed with sweets and chocolate in the end.  I've never walked along that section of the Water of Leith and it was interesting to see all the different architecture of the city from that viewpoint, a bonus that we had blue skies and no rain.

Check out the hedges on these allotments!

The Peploe exhibition was really interesting  I knew nothing about the Scottish Colourists so it was an eye opener.  The development of Peploe's styles of painting and experimentation were highlighted well in the exhibition and even managed to keep the interest of the girls.  My favourites were his still life studies of tulips - I love the colours used, and the sharp lines.

We were all knackered after the walk and the wandering around the Gallery, so we cheated and got a taxi back - even managed to get the girls bikes in as well (fortunately they're only little!).  Then some quality flumping with tea and chocolate brownies.  I don't know how it happened but my confession about a hankering for fishfingers turned into a "let's have fishfingers for tea", so we did.  With sweet potato mash and peas, followed by apple and raspberry strudel. It was super yummy!

Sunday was a lazy start - apart from A going for a run, and we had pancakes with streaky bacon and maple syrup.  Then off to the beach at Yellowcraig for some sandcastle building, kite flying and frizbee action. Another top weather day, really didn't feel like Edinburgh in February - although a little more wind would have helped with the kite.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Well we were lucky yesterday.  I'd committed to going riding with some of the MBNW lot around Llyn Brenig and Alwen as a way to ease ourselves back into the mountain biking.  Given the weather forecast for the day I'd expected us to get soaked so was fully prepared with waterproofs, mudguards and a complete change of clothes for the finish.  However the weather God shined on us - literally! I think we must have been in the only bit of North Wales that didn't rain.  Didn't stop the trail being muddy though - the link section to the north between the two lakes, doesn't ever dry out.

Sunday was a different story - I was hoping we'd get something done in the garden, but the rain started again.  I didn't let that get me down though - off to the polytunnel to get wet by washing down the inside of the plastic, getting rid of the dead bugs and as much greenery (mold) as possible.  We did quite a good job, but it was difficult to get to the bits where the sides roll up so I think we'll have to try that again from the outside.

Upcycle experiment

I scavenged a pair of trousers that Mal was chucking out and decided to experiment with them - trying to create a tote bag. 

First I cut the legs off just below the crotch, then unpicked the inside seam and laid them flat.  I pinned the waist band, marked out and cut a vaguely square shape -

The base width ended up being about 23', with the height about 16' so I cut out two rectangles from the lining fabric of this size. In the end this was a bit big, especially around the waist band and I had to put pin-tucks in so I might try just using the outer bag as a template the next time.

On the outer I sewed around the sides and a long the bottom, then on the bottom corners to create a base I matched the side and bottom seam and the sewed across the corner (about 4'). I did the same when making the liner.

From the legs I cut 4' strips and joined them to make the bag straps - I did a diagonal join as I think it looks neater.

I think it looks quite good, and it's huge! I can fit loads of books in and with the two wide straps it shouldn't kill my shoulder too much.  As it's from a pair of trousers there are loads of pockets as well.