Stash Building…not Stash Busting!

Posted on 25 May, 2014 by patchworkfairy

No pictures of stuffed tights on the line this week 🙁 …… this is because it hasn’t stopped raining long enough!! I can’t wait for the warmth to return so I can get my wool washed, and also now I have a HUGE pile of fabric to wash! Why? Well I have been stash building instead of busting!!

I have been given someone else’s stash!! Yes really – it’s amazing and I was sooo excited when I saw what was in the bags as it’s really lovely pretty cottons. Some of it is small off-cuts but some is unused, folded, still-with-a sheen! It’s fantastic and I am very fortunate to have been offered it, the only drawback is the smell … it has obviously been kept in a smoker’s house and really reeks. I can’t even keep it in the kitchen I had to put it in the garage! The fabric doesn’t look dirty in any way, if it did I probably wouldn’t have accepted it. Now I know why people put ‘made in a smoke-free house’ on their selling sites!

: about a third of it being washed!

I am having to unfold and wash every piece and then I suppose it will need ironing too (boo, nasty word).

One wash was not even enough to remove the smell but as I use non-bio unfragranced soap powder I thought I would go and buy some biological stuff with added essential oils and see if that worked. It did! It now smells sweet and fresh. I decided to put in on the line even though it’s going to rain as the rain and fresh air should help even more !

It’s been interesting unfolding the cut pieces though as it’s a peek into that other unknown woman’s sewing life as I try and guess what the circular shape cut out of some ditsy floral could have been! There are navy blue ‘school skirt’ fabric remnants and what looks like an airtex pocket shape too, I wonder if she made school uniforms for her kids?

on the line in some SUN (didn’t last long!

It makes me think about what someone would make of my stash if they suddenly were to acquire it!!

Well I am sure I will have plenty of new makes to write about once I have it all washed and .. ironed… (shudder!)

Off to link up with the lovely Handmade Monday Crafters as usual and enjoy some reading with my glass of wine 🙂

Fabric Shops and Coffee Stops!

Posted on 13 April, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Well as I mentioned last weekend, I had a trip to Blackpool recently as DH likes to go to the annual Amateur Radio Show in much the same way as I like to go to fabric shops and events like Wonderwool and Yarnfest! Now that our children have all left home we have a hobby room each – mine is full of fabric and yarn etc and his is full of radios, components and model railway parts! Last time we went to the Blackpool show I was very disappointed with the ‘craft centre’ I had found on the internet – basically it had lots of empty units and most were closed! This year however my internet research showed that things had improved! Having dropped DH off at the radio show I excitedly drove to the March Mill Craft Village in Thornton. It’s still not as good as it could be but it’s sooo much better than it was, as it now as a lovely coffee shop called ‘Tiffin’ which sells good coffee and homemade cakes, 🙂 and a wonderful fabric shop called ‘Grace and Favour’.

Grace and Favour Fabric Shop

Having forced myself not to run straight into buying fabric I settled down to scrumptious millionaires shortbread and an Americano in the warm coffee shop and contemplated the peaceful hour or two I would have before DH ‘phoned to arrange his pick up! I was not disappointed – I didn’t even get in the door for about 10 mins as there were baskets of fabric packs outside to browse through. I entered the shop with two of these already chosen!

Linen colour fabric with vintage rose pattern by Clarke and Clarke

Vintage Roses Fabric by Clarke and Clarke

Cotton Lawn Fabric

It’s a lovely bright shop, not very big, but well laid out so you can enjoy a good browse working your way round the well stocked walls and then perusing the craft shelves in the centre. I was in their well over an hour – browsing, choosing, re-choosing and chatting to the friendly assistant Jess, who is also a sewing tutor at their sewing school ‘The Sewing Sanctuary’ in the same craft centre where they hold social crafting and run courses! Wish I lived nearer!

I was very pleased to get these fabrics – only £1.50 a fat quarter!

red and pinky-red floral fabric in fat quarters

Far Quarters in lovely Cotton

I also got some trimmings for various projects – this is for my upcycling projects using the vintage linens I have acquired – I think it will make a beautiful addition to the dresses and tops I am designing! I am going to make these out of a mix of vintage and contemporary fabrics and trims and it’s very exciting gathering the various bits and bobs and starting the designs!

Lace Flower Trim

By a happy serendipity I got the ‘I’m ready to be picked up’ call just as I was paying for my items – so off I went to collect him and see who had spent the most!

And so to link with Handmade Monday!

Bye for now, Ali xxx

I enjoy reading your comments – the name and site box are recording your text even though you cannot see it until you upload your comment!

Tidy not Tangled: Hillarys Blinds Competiton

Posted on 30 March, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Happy Mothers’ Day for this weekend! I am late linking up to Handmade Monday as I was enjoying myself too much on Sunday to do the link up!

Do untidy baskets and bags of yarn get you down as much as they do me? I have been so fed up of having to sort out and untangle my balls of yarn everytime I start to crochet I have been trying to design a storage method which would allow me to have several colours on the go at once but keep them all separate, tidy, NOT TANGLED! Soooo much time spent untangling instead of creating does not make for a stress free enjoyable hobby!

So when I read about the Hillary’s Blinds Country Crafts Competition for bloggers to design something using some of their fabric I had an idea! The fabric I chose (from a choice of 4) was Calluna Amethyst, a beautiful upholstery weight fabric with a cream background with splodges of amethyst, emerald, gold and ruby, very pretty and so much my type of colours! The free sample was 39×39 inches and the design was up to the blogger! Exciting!

In my craft room I have a purple open weave plastic basket for keeping fabric bits in. If I put my yarn in this I could feed the ends of each ball through a hole and tie them to the side to keep each one tidy! Only one disadvantage – not very pretty for the living room – but this is where the Hillary’s fabric came in! A pretty cover for a yarn storage basket!

So how do you make it?

First you need to measure the height and circumference of your basket or box, or whatever you are covering and cut a rectangle accordingly – ie the size in height and length plus a couple of inches for hemming and seaming.

Now turn down one of the long edges half an inch and iron it flat, then turn this down again half an inch and pin in place. Sew this to make a neat hemmed top edge. You can see in the picture I have aligned my 1/4 inch foot with the left side of the hem instead of the usual right side, this is to ensure I capture the turned under fabric as I sew!

Now fold your rectangle right sides together and check if the piece needs trimming to neaten it up and if so do this now before sewing up the side seams.

Now you have a circular tube of fabric which you put your basket into – this bit is quite fiddly but keep going till you have the cover round the basket up to the top row of holes. If you find the fabric is too small just unpick the side seam and add in a contrasting panel – no-one will know it wasn’t part of your original design!

Now you make some ties to keep the cover in place! Take your cover off again. I used some grosgrain ribbon from my stash but bias binding would be good, or you could make some ties from the remaining fabric. Anyway, cut 4 lengths of your ties, each 12 inches long. Fold each in half and pin to the top edge of the cover with the folded end about half an inch down and the two ends pointing straight upwards. The four should be equally space round the top.

Start by putting the first one over the side seam and then place the others accordingly. Sew over each a couple of times to secure in place. At this point you can also hem the bottom edge or you could simply fold it under the basket and pin it in place or glue it in place – depends how quickly you want your basket to use!

Now you can replace your cover and secure the ties to the top row of holes.

So far so good! I decided to make a loose cover for the top of my basket, so if you do too you, go ahead! Put your chosen fabric right sides together and draw on it a circle the same size as the circumference of the basket. Cut this out and then cut out one of fusible interfacing or ordinary interlining as well. Either iron on the interfacing or pin the interlining to one of the wrong sides of your circles.

You should now have the fabric still right sides together but one has interfacing on the back making a third top circle. Sew the round the circumference of the three circles using a 1/4 inch machine foot aligned to the right hand edge of the top circle. Leave a gap of 4 inches for turning to the right side. Snip into the seam allowance round the circle being careful not to cut the stitch line.

Turn right sides out and turn under the fabric in the gap and pin it so the the circle is now complete.

You can now just hand sew the gap together and have the top as it is or you could quilt it. You can get quite a nice effect even with an ordinary machine foot. Although I have a walking foot and a free motion foot I have finished my top cover off with the normal foot to show you how it can be done. Put the needle into the centre of your top circle and start to sew forward and round, guiding the fabric with both hands so that it turns as you sew to make concentric circles, spreading out from the middle to the very edge where you take in the pinned gap area and so close it up.

All that remains now is to choose your yarn balls and put them into your basket with the end of each going through a different hole in the side and tied to the top. Do not tie up the colour you are working with, just poke this through a hole and up to your work area. Every time you need to change colour just tie up the one you are working with and untie one of the others! You now have a pretty and very practical basket and no more tangled yarn!!

Ripple Blanket and Duvet Cover

Posted on 19 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Not much to show this week except for my ripple blanket progress and the start of a duvet cover for our bed! Must start DD’s cushion covers soon though as it’s her birthday next weekend!

I have found that as long as I don’t switch back and forth from acrylic to wool I can manage the acrylic ok as I get used to the feel and rhythm of working. This also has the added advantage of keeping down my WIP pile! It’s quite a wide blanket so each row takes quite a while and every now and then I get carried away and forget to make the increases on the ‘hill tops’ and decreases in the ‘valleys’ and so have to undo a few trebles! Once you’ve got going past row 3 it’s a really easy and relaxing project as there is no need to refer to the pattern (from Attic 24) – each row is the same. It is a good seasonal make too as it keeps me warm whilst I’m working on it – in summer this might be too uncomfortable.

ripple blanket in Stylecraft Premium Acrylic yarn

Ripple Blanket Week 3

My daytime project this week is a duvet cover for our bed. I decided I wanted to finally use up my 200 x 2 inch squares of Liberty Tana Lawn which I bought online last year and was dismayed at the thought of sewing together such small fine fabric pieces. Luckily I came across a good method of working with such small squares in the Very Berry blog but it is actually Elizabeth Hartman’s method found on her Oh Fransson blog I have bought quite a bit of liberty fabric from Ali at Very Berry and all her tutorials are very helpful. Basically I ironed each square onto Vilene first, making a large patchwork square and then sewed the rows together in the normal way, ie right sides together. This way it gives the fine Tana lawn some body and stops it getting chewed up in the machine plate at the start of sewing!

I now have the middle of the duvet completed and am now sewing a surrounding border of triangle -within- a -square using my tri-recs templates. This is a bit fiddly and I am making up my own pattern so will take a while!

patchwork quilt top using Liberty Tana Lawn

Quilt top of 2″ Tana Lawn pieces sewn into 7 inch blocks

So that’s my work this week! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else been up! Linking up with Handmade Monday!

Beanies, Blankets , Cross Stitch and Cushions!

Posted on 12 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Well this was going to be the dreaded ‘week of the tax return’ ! But, when I registered online to start it, I discovered they have to send a code through the post before you can fill it in – and it took all week to arrive! Good job I didn’t leave it till the last week in January to begin the process or it would have been an expensive mistake!! However I wasn’t bored at all because as well as progressing with my Attic 24 style ripple blanket I started another beanie using the lovely Adriafil Knitcol wool.

Second week of Ripple Blanket!

Also, I went to the Abakhan sales and bought fabric to make cushions for my daughter’s new house! I have 2 weeks till her birthday so should manage to get those done in time! I am using some very nice bird patterned fabric for the front, with a plain linen look for the back.

Bird patterned fabric for daughter’s cushions

One interesting thing I found whilst doing my crochet is that real wool is much easier on the hands than acrylic, even though it is premium Stylecraft. The Adriafil Knitcol just slips through my fingers and hook with ease, but the acrylic seems to have a little resistance, and so takes more effort to work with. It’s a shame my ripple blanket is in the acrylic as it’s going to take quite a while to finish. I think I will be looking for any 100% wool bargains I can find in the future though, even if it means waiting a while as the difference it makes as to how much crochet I can do and how tiring it becomes is quite remarkable. I wonder if this is a common difference between wool and acrylic or more down to my arthritis and fibro problems?

Here is my completed Beanie which is going in my Folksy shop. My other one sold in London quite quickly.

beanie in varigated pink, yellow and orange wool

Beanie with wavy edging

I also couldn’t resist buying some more Aida and embroidery hoops from Abakhan. I find cross stitch and crochet such relaxing evening crafts whilst watching TV after doing my sewing in the day time. So tonight it’s Dancing on Ice and a bit of cross stitch and crochet and a mooch round the Handmade Harbour! What are you doing?

Scandi Table Runner

Posted on 27 October, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Well the hour went back today which is the ‘good’ way for me as it means I get up earlier without even trying! Consequently I managed to watch both Create and Craft Quilting programmes live! I love the Sunday morning shows but I can never take advantage of the offers on screen as it’s usually Monday when I watch, which is, of course, a good thing for my bank balance! However it’s still good to watch the demonstrations and learn techniques! This morning I loved the rectangular scandi table runner and circular scandi table centre. Both patterns were for sale but the patterns aren’t difficult and I decided to have a go by looking at the pictures on the website!

red and white cotton xmas type scandi fabric

mmm love new fabric!

Luckily I had some new scandi fabric from Abakhan which I have been trying to decide what to make with. I love having new fabrics and dreaming of all the potential designs I could make and I seem to spend far too long at this stage instead of getting on with actually creating! This is lovely fabric too – quite thick and easy to use in patchwork as it sort of stays still while you piece it – unlike my favourite Liberty Tana Lawn which is beautiful but flimsy.

But today wahoo – I made a decision! Here is my attempt at a Scandi table runner for Xmas! It’s not finished – the binding is only sewn at the front edge at the moment.

Table Runner in Red, Cream and Green Scandi Fabrics

Xmas Table Runner

So one more thing nearly ready for the xmas fair! I seem to have settled into a nice evening crochet habit recently, but tonight it’s over to Handmade Monday instead, for my evening stroll round all the lovely blogs over there! Oh and thank you to everyone for the comments last week to help me in my quest for orderly yarn keeping! I am still working on it!

The Glastonbury Effect!

Posted on 21 July, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Well sorry I missed last week’s Handmade Monday but I was away with my DH having a much needed break! We have been in the Forest of Dean for a couple of days and then spent 5 days in a cottage in Glastonbury! Plenty of scope for coffee and cake adventures!

I love Glastonbury and used to come here 3 or 4 times a year with friends, but because of health issues I haven’t been for 3 years now, which is why my lovely husband suggested it as a holiday for us! Glastonbury always had a recharging/de-stressing effect on me when I came here touching me spiritually, deepening my sense of oneness with the earth and my ability to tune into the magical/otherworldly realms. Since becoming ill and having to take pain meds I have felt a loss of connection to my spiritual side and even an inability to enjoy meditation as I used to do, so I was very much looking forward to experiencing a rekindling of these lost attributes by being once again in Glastonbury.

We had a view of the Tor from our bedroom window! Sadly I can’t walk up it any more but maybe one day I will manage it again.

Glastonbury Tor

Well I enjoyed my time away, I feel rested and more relaxed, but I didn’t experience the ‘Glastonbury Effect’ – not any of the ‘connections’ I used to feel at the sacred sites such as the Goddess Temple and Chalice Well. I drank the well water and walked through the healing pool, I enjoyed the sensation, but it seems that nothing can get through the blanking effect of taking heavy drugs long term, no tingling excitement or special awakening occurred. I did read some very interesting books though which the hosts left in the living room and from these I remembered some of what I used to do naturally. So now I will be working on reawakening my chakras, trying to reconnect with my higher self and deepening my connection to natural world around me to see if I can regain some of my sense of goddess spirituality.

The cottage was wonderful though, comfy bed, interesting garden with a raised patio in the garden overlooking the Abbey grounds. We had some nice cider and wine sitting up there! Not much intake for me though – another consequence from taking the drugs 🙁

I took my sewing bag with me, expecting to have plenty of time to do some knitting, crochet and hand sewing to make things like the hexagon patterns for quilts, but didn’t actually do any! Amazingly, it was too hot to sew or knit or crochet!!! Everytime I sat down in the garden recliner or on the sofa to read or craft I fell asleep! They had amazing garden rolling recliners which are the best thing I have found for back/neck support in a comfy reclining position. They were so good I ordered one online which my son picked up and had waiting for me when we got back last night!! The holiday ones, Tuscany Recliners, were from Greenfingers online store but they have sold out so I got a Malibu rolling recliner from Argos which is very similar. If you have any back, neck, knee or hip problems and can’t get comfy outside I really recommend trying one of these! http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/ROLLING+RECLINER+.htm

Floral binding and Rainbow Wool!

I did also manage to feed my fabric addiction in a beautiful little craft shop in Lydney, and a wonderful emporium called Sew Vintage in Wells. Here is the ready made quilt binding I bought and some lovely wool I just couldn’t resist.

So now I have even more of a stash and haven’t made any progress at all with making things!! Oh well, par for the course for fabric fanatics!

Now I’m back home I have decided to make some summer resolutions!

make time for daily meditation and mindfulness
work on my craft projects whilst listening to some beautiful music
keep my craft room workspace tidy but have some pretty things in there to uplift my soul whilst working
keep up to date reading craft blogs and writing my own

That shouldn’t be difficult, should it?!! Think I’ll start by popping over to read the other blogs at handmade harbour!!

Wedding Bunting!!

Posted on 16 June, 2013 by patchworkfairy

So last week DD and I went shopping for fabric to make the bunting for her wedding. As anyone who reads this blog will know, I luurrvvve fabric shopping! 🙂 We spent a happy hour in Calico Laine in Neston which is only a few minutes away, but totally forgot the time and then had to rush off to pick up her eldest from school! Luckily we managed to find some lovely fabrics to match the lilac and white colour scheme before dashing off!

I made the bunting template really easily by folding a piece of A4 paper down into a quarter so that when opened out again it has folds making a cross.

draw lines from the middle side to the opposite top corner.

draw from bottom corner to point where first two lines intersect on the fold.

result is a bunting template cut out from A4 paper

Next I folded my fabric with the right sides together and pinned two templates to the wrong side and drew round them before moving them along.

lay template out and draw round it then move to side

Cut out the fabric about a inch from the drawn line.

You can now easily sew in a straight line and no worry about leaving perfect 1/4 inch seams as these are trimmed later! Don’t forget to leave half the top line undone to enable you to turn the fabric to the right side at the end.

sew along the pencil line

trim away the seams to leave about quarter of an inch

Now after turning the flags right sides out, fold inwards the edges of the hole you left and pin some ribbon or bias binding along the top to hold all the flags together and close up where the hole was. I also tried top sewing one of the flags to see if I like the look, not sure really.

top sewing on flag

flags with ribbon pinned on

Obviously I will have many more of these for the final wedding bunting and will sew on the top ribbon properly when I have decided whether or not to top sew every flag!

Just a few more to make now! First though I am off over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to!

Additional Note!

Finished Bunting after the Wedding!

Wedding Bunting on the Top Table

Patchwork Quilting Course

Posted on 9 June, 2013 by patchworkfairy

So this was the second week at my patchwork quilting course and I thoroughly enjoyed it again. This course has not been what I expected at all – so far we haven’t used a sewing machine at the course – only at home! We have learnt to cut out and hand sew pieces of fabric which are sewn together to make up 12″ ‘blocks’. Each block is made up differently using varying techniques. Out of the 6 blocks needed, so far I have two blocks finished and two half finished.

One of the nice things about learning techniques by hand sewing is that it is very relaxing and quite therapeutic to have to sit and sew, away from normal life . It’s also easy to listen to the tutor whilst sewing by hand. I now have several squares, hexagons, diamonds and hearts made up, some of which are to be used as applique on top of background fabric. I have taken some pictures as I sewed at home for putting together a tutorial on some of the techniques I have learnt. I will be uploading these in the next few weeks but for now here is a peak at what I have been doing.

two hexagonal pieces of fabric, one is kight ourple the other is yellow with a purple butterfly

Starting to sew hexagons together

As the weather has been so warm and sunny I have been sitting in the shade at the bottom of the garden sewing up all my fabric pieces! – Bliss! Here is the hexagon doily first row after the centre completed

6 pale purple hexagons of fabric sewn around a middle yellow one. The yellow one has a purple butterfly on it.

Hexagon Doily – one more round to sew yet!

We have ‘homework’ each week which has meant a lot of sewing. Before the next lesson I have to buy some more fabric to use as the backing. Oh the hardship! A trip to buy more fabric :). But more about all that and the rest of the course in a future post, now I am off on my weekly trip round the crafty blogs over at Handmade Monday!

Sewing Caddy and Visit to London

Posted on 19 May, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Well this week has been a catching up and making useful things time as I have been on a little trip which took most of my energy! I went to London overnight with my daughter and two grandchildren to see my son-in-law -to -be getting an award from work as he has been ‘down there’ on a training course for 8 weeks. Here we are on our sightseeing day!

Granny and Max outside Buckingham Palace

Although I had a lovely time the only energy I had left for sewing was enough to make a very small thing – a caddy to hang from under my sewing machine to keep my scissors and seam ripper always to hand!. I had been promising myself a sewing caddy for ages as they don’t take very long to make really. I used a fat quarter which had cats and kittens neatly depicted in little squares just the right size for pockets!

After heming the cat fabric I sewed it on to a plain calico background and then sewed straight lines to make separate pockets. On the top I sewed some little loops of bias binding for my tweezers etc and to the right I made a little pocket, stuffed it with left over fabric strips and used it as a pin cushion!

Sewing Machine with new Sewing Caddy

So that was my week, what about everyone else over at Handmade Monday? Why not take a peek at what they have been up to!!

xxAlixx