Free Tutorial - Mini Book - and a discount!

I promised a tutorial, and here it is.  Although I have used a 12" square of scrapbooking paper for this, you can use any size square of paper or (stiffened) fabric that you choose.  The book will finish at 1/4 of the size you start with so I've never used a square smaller than 6" as I think that it would be too fiddly to be able to use!

You will produce a book with three little pockets for tags, extra photos or ephemera.

Recipe: a square of paper, additional paper or card scraps, scissors, glue stick and double sided tape (or a sewing machine).  Optional: circle punch, small hole punch, threads or ribbons

First of all put the paper right side down onto the table and fold the square in half. Whenever you fold, please try and do it as accurately as possible, and as flat as possible - you will get the best result by taking care at this point!





Next fold the sides into the middle so that you have the paper in quarters length-ways.








Now rotate the paper a quarter-turn and make the same three folds again, so that you end up with a piece of paper folded into 16 squares.








You get to play with scissors now.  You need to make three parallel cuts, each of them three squares long.  Start with a cut on a middle fold.  When you've cut it three squares long, STOP!  Now turn the paper half a turn, and cut three squares up on each of the quarter folds.  Look at the photo if you didn't understand that instruction!,

Now start folding the squares concertina style.  Just take one end and keep going until you get to the other end.  You will end with a little stacked square.

The trickiest part now is to work out where your pockets are going to be.  If you pinch the two squares at either end together you can see that they make the front and back covers.  The middle twelve squares will make three pockets, and you need to have your paper in the right way for the pockets to be used - I go for the two facing up, one facing 'out' (opposite the spine of the book).

 I then hold the papers together and use the circle punch to cut out a finger dip at the appropriate point to remind me what I'm doing in the next stages.

The next stage is to glue all the pages together, wrong sides together, to make lovely strong pages.  If you are patient you can leave the book under a weight overnight.  If you are impatient you can carry on with care.  If you are really in a hurry you can sew around the pages and join pages and make pockets all in one!

Now using your finger dips as a guide, use two strips of double sided tape to make the pockets. 

If you'd like, you can ink the edges of your book using a pen or ink pad, so that the white edges don't glare

Your 'basic book' is now complete! Well done!

Time now to add a spine (optional - it's as much for decoration as for strength).  For this size book you will need to cut a piece of paper 1" x 3" and fold it in half.  Use a glue stick (or stitch it) into place around the spine of the book.  Again, leaving it under a weight to dry might be a good idea.

If you are making tags for the pockets, cut some more scraps (mine are approx 1 1/2" x 2 1/2") and make sure that they fit into the appropriate spaces.  If you are going to add ribbons so that the tags can be pulled out easily, then punch a hole (mine is 1/16") and thread and knot your chosen ribbon through.

Now you can really go to town! Perhaps a little patch or two of paper as mats for small photos, a thin layer of gesso (or watered down acrylic paint) where you want to write, drawn or stamped frames or decorations, photos, appropriate quotes....... this is where it really becomes your book.  It's your book, your contents, your style!

So, are you prepared to share your books?  If you make one, why not leave a comment with a link to your blog or photo area (you could perhaps start a flikr album if you don't have a blog, and share the link with us?).  I'd love to see what theme you choose and how your little book turns out!

Now that you've finished your own book, perhaps you'd like to buy another?  No affiliation, but 'The Works' have a couple of quilt books for bargain prices, some other sewing books (I got a Joel Dewberry one) - and they often have scrapbook papers too.  Ilike 15% off (until 2nd August) then press here and use the code that you are given  when you check out.  I bought three books and including P&P the total was under £12 - not bad if you compare it to the price of magazines!

Happy Crafting!

Ex Libris?

Not really 'ex', as I seem to be creating my own miniature library of books, using different techniques and materials.

It started with my C&G book, then moved onto this stitched book (and look, now I've finished the pages around the edges, so it's ready to send off).

 Then I used some recycled papers - magazines, vintage cookery book pages, toilet roll, packing paper. All with a bit of cutting, some gesso for where I want my writing to go, and either stitching or glue to hold them, depending on the design.

 Then came two more 'book from a single sheet' books - one for each of my DD's.  I'd love to show a photo but despite a request that they should be available to demonstrate how a book could look to my gal pals, they seem to have disappeared into the deepest, darkest recesses in the house (or maybe not, just under something that I haven't moved, or neatly filed on a bookshelf and forgotten?  Who can tell - all I know is that none of us seem to know where they might be now). (Bitter?  Moi? !!)

Then this little book, more hastily put together as a demonstration piece (and sewn rather than glued, as that was going to be quicker for me).

It uses a single sheet of 12" x 12" paper,

with a little extra paper or card for the three tags where you can hide extra text or photos.  The finished size of the book is 3" square.

Next time I make one I'll try to remember to take photos for a quick tutorial.  They don't have to take long to make, and can be embellished / decorated / filled with whatever you fancy.  I like white gesso and gold stamped frames and decorations, but the possibilities are endless.

I had lots of fun with some of my girl friends creating last night - and you can see the book that Avril made here.  Cute book, and cute photos of it too!

Who Knew?

Who knew that when mentioning my osteopath in the last post I'd be on the phone to the practice within minutes, squeaking with pain as my lower back had completely gone into hideous spasm, with pains shooting down both legs to boot?


Very ouchy indeed, and it's only now, after 5 sessions with the osteo (and more booked!) that I've been able to set my foot onto the sewing machine pedal for a few minutes.  So much for my idea of starting to quilt my log cabins!

On the other hand once the worst was over and I was able to sit up without wincing, I have been able to more or less finish a little book that I've been making for a friend's birthday.  As it happens, I've still missed the deadline (she celebrates today!) but at least the present won't be as late as I feared it might be!

It's been fun to play with variegated thread, to print out a few 'friends' related texts, and add a few scraps of cloth.

Not quite finished yet, but when I'm happy that the pages are busy enough (I want to give her plenty to look at!) I'll stitch round the edges of the double pages to conceal all the stitching, perhaps with another layer to stiffen them.

I'm just pleased that I had a little handwork ready to go 

 so that I didn't have to sit and twiddle my thumbs when I couldn't concentrate on anything much!  In fact, I should be setting myself up with another little project so that I've got easy access to something should I need it again.  Perhaps another little colour catcher project, as I do find them quite easy to stitch through, and I do like how they look.

Another small quilt

I 'angelika-ed ' all the scraps from my log cabin wall hanging (backed, basted, not yet quilted) to ,ake this little cot quilt.  I really wish that I'd run a strip of white between the six blocks and the outer blue border pieces, but it's all finished now, so too late to worry about it! 

When I am making these little quilts with the scraps I'm dealing much more with trying to use the bits that I've got left / cut than I am thinking about the design, and perhaps I should be trying to do both.  Still, at approx 24" x 36" it's enough to keep a baby cosy (or clean - I always used small quilts under my DD's when they were babies - it either kept clean floors clean if my girl was a bit grubby or dribbly, or kept my girls away from floors that I thought were too dirty to want them rolling around on!).  Mind you, when the girls were older they were also taught that the quilt could be their space - whenever I went to my cranial osteopath (and that's at least once every three weeks, sometimes more frequently) she was charmed that from a very early age the girls knew to stay on the quilt.  They could read, play, snack, whatever they liked - so long as they stayed on the quilt.  Hard for DD1 who has a roaming instinct and an interest in everything, but acceptable as a working rule for all of us!

Enough of the reminiscing.  Time to actually start quilting that log cabin, perhaps!

More cake!

That's it!  The last birthday cake that I shall make until March 2013!  DD2 was pleased with her honey pot cake on Thursday, and for once I managed to exceed her expectations.  She says that she guessed that her real birthday cake would be a honey pot design, but she thought that it would be a picture on an ordinary cake.......  Always nice to make small (or not so small, she's now seven, crikey!) children happy.

Now a bit more voucher counting for school, a little papercrafting (I've become slightly book making obsessed and want to finish the two that I've been making today for the girls, using spare photos from a couple of years ago), and then I'll be back to sewing again.

Hope that you are having a fun crafty time too!

Cake Engineering

 

I am thinking that it's not really cake engineering, but icing engineering.  I also think that I will never be a Brunel in the engineering world ;-( 

The cake was a basic rectangle with one cut (and a lot of icing to cover it!), but the bridge was more of a challenge, and was nearly as over-sized as the tree, which you can just spot toppling out of the photo!  I bought the characters for DD2's birthday party cake, and could have used Playmobil trees and a bridge, but decided to try and make my own.  As a Winnie the Pooh cake I thought that it hit the mark.

DD2 (who was temporarily known as Tigger) seemed pleased with it, and pleased with the shot glasses of condensed milk (Pooh's favourite snack, for those who have forgotten childhood adventures with the AA Milne character) that we passed around during the party tea.  Hard to believe that my littlest one will be seven this week!

I'm sure that it won't be a surprise that I don't have any sewing to show again, although I have started hand sewing another little book - this time made from used colour catchers, and it will have some wadding to stiffen it slightly once the hand stitching is finished. 

Happy crafting, everyone!

Not so much sewing!

No sewing to show this week (the wall hanging that I worked on last week still isn't finished, as I've been recovering from half term / getting ready for DD2' birthday party) but I did use some of my sitting down time to actually finish my current C&G module.

This photo is the last bit of an exercise where I'd taken a small section of a photo (in this case where the roof and two walls of a slate hut met), make a paper study of it, then cut up the paper study and do a little something extra with it.  I cut along the lines of the architecture, then added 'fastening strips' between the sections.  Fun to make, but I don't know how I can easily store it without either taking up lots of space or squashing folds into the fasteners.  Oh well, it can have a couple of days of glory on my work table before being consigned to the flattened reality of shelf-living!

Book and bits and bobs

 Inspired by this post by Tina Rose, I doubled up some ordinary Vilene and made a little book as the final piece for my current C&G module.  The module has had two aspects - texture and landscape.  I decided that my little display book should be quite simple, but take a journey from bright / shiny / smooth (the front cover under the rippled silver is a smooth silver foil sheet)

 to dark / matt / rough.  I used heat textured food packaging (and hot glued on dragees), frayed cotton, printing (my own stamps, supposed to be gulls and limpets), decorated papers and applied threads, stencilling (my take on an Andy Goldsworthy rain shadow) before finishing with seaweed and an urchin made from old school tights and some heat textured postal packaging.  I'm quite chuffed with it as a representation of some of the things that I'd been playing with in my sketchbook.

 There has been a little bit of sewing - mostly sample blocks.  This is homemade bias binding which actually gave a much lighter and more modern look to the heart shape than I was expecting.  Perhaps the bias was narrower than I thought that I could make!

 Here is a paper study from a photo of a flower bed. Again using home decorated paper, and this time using different weights of paper curls as well as a 'push up' tree.

Finally the little 'rain shadow' men in my garden.  I didn't manage to make one of myself, but thought that it would be fun to make paper doll ones instead.  If you are interested and want to know what I'm referring to, do an image search on 'Andy Goldsworthy rain shadow' and you'll understand. Completely temporary art, recorded only with a camera - and something that makes me smile whenever I think of it.

Whether you are sewing, crafting or just storing up ideas, I hope that you are having fun this week.

More real sewing

Clearly there is something else going on here.  How can I be this productive?  Two more finishes in a week!  Perhaps it's all displacement activity, as I had hoped to perhaps finish my current C&G module before school broke up for half-term on Friday - and now that I've looked again at what I still need to do, I can't see how that will happen, or, indeed, why I ever thought it might be possible!
So, the three fusible blocks from Bunny Hill's block of the month (2011), plus three tiny blocks rejected from another 2011 project which I 'upsized' by adding deep borders, put together with some scrappy sashing, and another Project Linus quilt is created.

And I decided to 'Angelika' (can I turn this into a new verb?) the remaining bits and bobs that were mostly pre-cut (from when I thought that I was going to make more progress on the BOM than I actually did) to produce this little scrap quilt (approx 24" x 36").  I decided just to whizz it up, paying no heed to the fact that the large printed block wasn't quite as large and the other five pieced blocks, and without worrying about where cuts came in the random-ish square that were sewn into strips for the border and some of the blocks.  It was fun, it was fast, and it got another set of small pieces made into a quilt - what a result!  The batting was also pieced from many smaller offcuts, a very scrappy quilt!

In addition to this I had fun playing with making fun foam stamps for backgrounds for ATCs with some of my gal pals.  I'll try and remember a photo or two of them next post, as there were some great ideas - and great execution too, making mine look quite mundane!

Onwards and upwards!  Back to paper collaging and a little hand sewing again for the moment.
Happy crafting everyone!

Two little quilts

Hurrah!  At last, a quilt! 

This is called 'My Girl'.

This has been made over some months as a quilt group challenge - two strips made in different styles each month, then put together (in my case with some of the left-over jelly roll strips that I'd mostly made the rest of the strips from) to make a small quilt.  Only something like 32" x 42", but I hope it will be enough to make someone smile. 

I have to be honest, I wasn't pleased with the way that the creamier backgrounds didn't really work the brighter white backgrounds.  One of those quilts that in some ways it's better just to finish and move on from, and not to worry about it all overmuch!

This tiny quilt (18" x 22") is less 'lasagne quilt' and more like 'round the pantry hash'!  It has used all the odd blocks and the last couple of jelly roll bits that I had left, and took a little juggling to get it large enough.  Very satisfying to use the scraps from one quilt to make another.   I think that the technique of doing so should be called 'doing an Angelika' as she is the one (on my on-line quilting group, BQL) who I most associate with this idea.  Thank you, Angelika!

Both quilts will stay with me until our group quilt show (you want details?  OK, it's the 5th - 7th October from 10am to 5pm at the Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington.  TW11 9NN - don't worry, I'll mention it again nearer the time, but feel free to put it in your diary now!) and then they will be passed on to Project Linus.

I've also decided that some of the other unfinished projects I've got should be given enough time to get them to the finish line too.  Lovely DH has promised to take the DDs away for a couple of nights at half-term, so I have big plans for my twisted log cabin then, and hope to work on one or two of the other projects (mostly using random blocks left over from other projects or made as trials) which will probably also end up as Project Linus quilts.

I hope that your crafting is going well.  I'm off to do half an hour on my C&G (texture this module, which is fun, although I'm missing colour as it has to be completed in mono-chrome).

Some real quilting going on!

.....but as I haven't started sewing the binding down, I'm showing you this bag instead!

If you want to make a simple shopping bag I can heartily recommend the Morsbag pattern (and the whole project - if you do make a bag for yourself, why not make another couple to give away? You don't have to accost total strangers {unless you'd like to, of course, I'm not telling you how to live your life!} but can just give them to friends, colleagues or acquaintances!).

I made this bag for a friend, and despite not having made one for a while, it only took just over 30 minutes from taking the fabric out and the rotary cutter from the cupboard.  Not bad!


My other sewing - yes, REAL quilting, as in making a (small) quilt - was clearly in response to being given the block markers by Benta.  Clearly just what I needed to prompt me to gather the pieced strips that I've made over the last few months for my quilting group's 'sew a row' challenge and choose an order for them that wouldn't get lost between laying them out on the bed and sewing them into a quilt top.  So, quilt top completed, it was time to get it basted and quilted - which I managed today (in part as I haven't had my 'little angels' at home - they both had a play date after school, which has given me oodles more time!).

Off to start the binding whilst I wait for them to come home.

Happy crafting!

Lucky me!

Exactly what you need, when feeling a bit ropey, is a beautifully wrapped parcel (yes, that's wrapped with fabric, which always has to be a winner!) from a quilty friend.

Even better if when you open it, it's a whole host of homemade goodies, beautifully made, and all requiring almost instant use!

I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a Benta 'Pay It Forward' gift - so shortly I'll be asking for volunteers who would like to receive something from me at some point in the next six months or so to send me their names...... but first, I'll explain what you can see in my (not very expert) photo.  First of all a beautifully made drawstring bag, then a host of scissors labels (much better than my family remembering which scissors are for which type of material), then some block labelling pins (a whole alphabet - wow!), and then some extra labelling pins (for me, DH and both DDs), as well as the fabric and ribbon used to wrap them all.

One might hope that this would stir me into action, but sadly........ ;-(  Not much sewing action at the moment, although I am almost up-to-date with my TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) sample pages, so perhaps I'll be able to post a photo of that next week.

Despite not doing much sewing, I was still seduced into buying a bit more fabric at the weekend.  Well, with a group of fabrics on sale called 'Tantalising Turquioses' (from Doughty's on line store) it would almost seem rude not to sign up for a few metres!  It's one colour that I can never have too much of, and I even treated myself to a purple or two to go with it.

Happy Easter!

 So I could show you the Easter decorations that the girls and their friends have made this week (or the little bottles of perfume, likewise), or the cards made at school and 'kept secret' until today, or the little display of chocolate eggs that each girl had at her place at the breakfast table this morning, or even report that we went to the cinema to see 'Hop!', or that even as I write this the girls are searching for eggs in their Aunty and Uncle's garden, or that our hens don't lay anything foil wrapped, even on Easter Sunday. 

I could, but I don't have photos of those events that are better than the photos that I have posted!  These are just three of the 210 giant eggs that have been 'hidden' in London over the last month or so, and which are now all gathered in a wondrous mass at Covent Garden.

If you have time and are any where close, then do head over to admire them. 

We invested £2.50 in a catalogue / spotter's guide (actually, I lie, we invested £5 in two and prevented any squabbling about who was ticking which egg off - thank heavens I had two pens with me!) and spent a very happy time examining eggs, considering whether we liked them or not,  discussing how the decoration had been applied, talking about how we would decorate one, given the chance...... in between eating ice-cream, watching buskers, listening to a string quintet, examining items for sale - and all the other things that make a trip to Covent Garden fun for small people.

So, happy egg hunting / chocolate eating / Easter celebrating for those of you so inclined - and if you want to see us in our early celebration, look in the reflection on 'No. 8' above - you might just make out me wielding the camera, DD1 studying the guide and DD2 giving me a cheeky grin.  Situation normal, then!

Happy Easter, one and all!

A rose would smell (nearly) as sweet.....

......but wouldn't come in a cute handbag sized 'roll on' perfume bottle! 

These items are the result of a crafty night in with three of my girl friends - a small bottle of perfume each (bottles courtesy of eBay - what would I do without it?) and a brooch.

 I recently saw an easy recipe for perfume, and this quantity is about right for the 6ml bottles that I bought: 12ish drops of essential oils (choose your favourites or create an exciting new blend) and a teaspoon of vodka (or in my case water - who knew that ME would have so many odd side effects? intolerance of alcohol is just another one of mine). 

 Next we made a simple 'friendly plastic' brooch.  I love felt and hand sewing in concept, although I still don't like the 'squeaky' feel of felt!  I don't use it often enough to stop me from using it when I think that it's the best material for the job, though.  The brooches were quite easy to make.  Friendly plastic cut to length, heated (we used a heat gun, I'm told that you can use hot water), and then a wooden block pressed into it.  When it had cooled slightly we peeled it off the block, punched holes into the corners and sewed it onto a double mount of felt.  Difficult to show the lovely metallic turquoise colour on a photo.....

My other sewing (on the machine this time) was this pair of bags.  Very simple and fast to make, they are ideal for 'changing kits' - you know, baby wipes, bags, nappies or pants - but also jolly useful for keeping other bits and bobs together neatly.  I do like the button and 'hair bobble' closure too - more chance to stuff a bag and keep it closed than when I use Velcro!

Hope that you are enjoying your crafting this week too.

Look at this!

Do you remember me showing this on my blog last year?  I've given you a nice big photo so that you can appreciate the detail.  Then I'm going to tell you that in real life it is an ATC, so just 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and you can be even more impressed!

So why am I showing you this again?  Because on Monday night we had a talk from a Certified Quilt Judge, and it turned out to be none other than the sender of this card, Tracey Pereira!  What an interesting quilter and quilt judge.  Even without the benefit of her projector (which decided not to play nicely about half way through her talk, unfortunately) she kept us entertained.  Lovely to see some of her quilts in real life, too.

She made this card by quilting first, then colouring the feathers with Inktense pencils.  I've heard (if it's on line, can you see a conversation rather then hear it?) a number of people talking about them, but have previously pulled up a listing for them, sucked my teeth at the price, and left it.  This week, not only have I seen what else Tracey has done with them, but I'm also looking at colour as part of my C&G course - which has made me look at the colouring media that I already have..... so this time, looked for the cheapest source I could find and treated myself, just in time for Mothering Sunday!  What a nice present to myself!

Of course, in the same post came some textured threads in various different colours that I'd bought myself (second hand?  does that count?) and I've also ordered some Mylar templates and a couple of quilting stencils (quite cheap, and free P&P so that can hardly count either, can it?).  It's a bumper Mothering Sunday for me, and the rest of the family don't even know that yet!

Time to go and play!  Hope you are able to enjoy some playtime too.

Snap Bag Tutorial

I did promise this last week, didn't I?  So now I'm making good on my promise.

Start with two fabric rectangles, one outside fabric, one lining fabric - mine are about 7" x 14". Your finished bag will be roughly 6 1/2" square from these measurements.

Think about any directional prints that you use - no one likes to see an upside down bird on a bag!

Put the fabrics right sides together, and sew around them using a 1/4" seam, and leaving a gap of about 4" at the bottom IN THE CENTRE (yes, that is important, and remember to check which way the bottom is,  no birds with headaches, please!).

This is to show you the gap - and you can see that when I'm about to turn something 'right way out' I like to reinforce the stitching near the hole with a brief forward and backward run.

Now snip the corners off, turn the fabrics right side out, and iron (or at least finger press)  all around the edges including the gap area where you can turn the seam allowance under ready for later.

Fold the fabrics in half, and run a line of sewing down that line.  You should have two equal sections, both with small openings near the bottom of that stitched line.

Now cut some metal measuring tape to size.  You need to cut each of them to the same size, and be aiming for 1/4" to 1/2" smaller than the width of each section.  To be honest, I started cutting them 1/4" shorter, but finished cutting them a scant 1/2" smaller as otherwise it was making later steps more difficult!

 I cut my tape with (very) sharp kitchen scissors.  If you find that someone 'helps' you by pushing the lock off the tape that you have stuck out from your metal measuring tape, so that the end disappears into the tape cover, don't worry.  There is usually just one screw to undo in order to expose the rest of the tape and the spring.......go on, guess how I know!

Now cover the ends of the tape with duck tape - this will help protect the fabric from those sharp corners of the metal tape.  You can choose whether to aim for a 'tight' end, or whether to make a 'tag' at the end of 1/8" which is just tape sticking to tape - then you can sew through this to anchor the tape into the bag in a later stage if you wish to.  I prefer not to do this, as the glue on the tape I was using made the needle a bit too gunky for comfort.

Whichever you choose, you will want your smoothest side to be on the plain side of the tape, the least smooth side on the numbers (concave) side to get the best finish later on.

Time to poke the tape into the two 'pockets' now.  They are shown in the right position above, but you need to make sure that the numbers (concave) side is facing the lining side for the snap to work properly.  When you've manipulated them into the right place, run a line of stitching along under them to hold them in place.  I like to make this fairly right, without being so close that I sew through the metal tape......

Finally you can fold your fabric into it's finished shape and sew all around it.  I haven't got a photo that show it well, but you need to make sure that the outside seams from the top to the bottom of the tape 'pockets' that you have just sewn are really strong.  Although I thought that Zig-zag was quite nice, straight stitch would work just as well.

As you sew around the square you will sew over the two openings at the bottom - just make sure that you seam allowances are folded in properly when you are sewing them.

Ta-da!  You have a finished snap bag!

I hope that you enjoy anything that you make.  I think that smaller would be successful, but if you were making an opening that was bigger than this you might want to use a double thickness of tape to make a stronger 'snap'.  Just make sure that you get the pieces facing the same way so that they work properly still.

Of course, if you are Gill, you are the lucky winner of this example, so you don't even have to raid your tool box to get a snap bag, I'll be sending this one to you!

I hope that the rest of you enjoy the tutorial.  Happy snapping!

Leap Day Give-a-way - it's a snap!

 This week I've made several 'snap' bags - prompted by trying to use a metal retractable ruler that had a kink in it, and remembering that I'd seen a tip suggesting that one could recycle the unkinked part of the tape make 'snap' bags.  Much cheaper than buying snap frames, but the stitching will have to hold the end of the ruler in place so user reviews would be welcome......  so, I've decided to use our extra day this year to offer one of my extra bags to anyone who says that they would like one.  Just to give you an idea the bags are about 7" square..... Just leave me a comment and I'll pull a number out of a hat before I post again next week (perhaps with a tutorial so that you could make your own - they are quite simple!).  If you would like to have a shot at a runner-up prize of a partly used reel of variegated blue Cotty thread then let me know that.  I haven't got on with it with my machine, and don't think that I'll get through it using it for handwork!

I made several in the Clothkits fabric (lovely and bright!) as birthday presents before turning to slightly more muted colours and die-cut 'waste' - destined for the craft table for my quilt group's show later in the year.

The only only other sewing I've managed is this block - machine applique using materials pulled out of the rubbish bin - cardboard, drinks packs, orange nets, colour catchers, waterproof nylon.

It's supposed to be a flower (based on a tile work one that I have a photo of) but every time I glimpse it I think that it's something to do with a mouse or a castle......  I may re-visit it!

I hope that you are enjoying your extra day this year - and if you aren't planning to use it for anything in particular, perhaps you could let me have it (or just a few extra hours?) so that I can fit in a bit more time for sewing!

Happy Leap Day!

TAST Week 8 - or more small sewing!

 Not the best photo, but I've been taking part in TAST 2012 (Take a Stitch Tuesday).  I've managed all eight weeks so far, although I have to say that I'm not producing particularly imaginative or complex samples!  I am, however, trying stitches that I've never tried before, and recording the odd one or two that I have tried before.  This is my first page of  I hope will become a sample book by the end of the year.

 This was the only other sewing of the week.  A card for the postcard swap that I'm part of, with a theme of flowers.

My DH has been MUCH more productive, though - welcome to Library Wall!  We had a couple of  tall shallow book cases here before, but he moved shelves around and added an extension onto the front of the lower shelves to accommodate our larger tomes, and now we have this.  Didn't he do well?

Completed in the nick of time - our new sofas arrive in just a few days!

Right, back to the sketchbook as I carry on looking at hexagon patterns.....

A rose by any other name......

Isn't this a pretty block?  I followed the link to SummerFete for a tutorial to make this rose star block ( I found it through  SewKalico's blog (and look, aren't her roses lovely?)

It reminded me of the Islamic tile patterns that I've been looking at over the last couple of weeks, so I decided to make just one and applique it to a background - not going the whole hog and signing up to a quilt full of them, lovely though I'm sure it would look!


Meanwhile, my bloggy friend Benta found that a photo of one of my other blocks for my C&G course had been published in Popular Patchwork, quite unbeknownst to me!  I haven't secured a copy of the magazine yet (my helpful local newsagent has ordered it for me though, so I'll only have to wait until tomorrow), but you can see the evidence on Benta's blog here.

I'm also just about keeping up with the basics on TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) - but I forgot to take a photo!  Next time I'll try and remember (and I'll have added the Chevron stitch for week 6 by then too, I hope - another stitch that is new to me.

Nearly half-term, which means nearly half way through the school year.  I have no idea how time flies past so quickly!  Happy holidays, one and all!