Saturday 24 March 2012

Off the road... or off roading...?



What do you do with a few spare jeans and idle hands?

Thats right hack and make... a bag?! Yes a bag,
and using a really gorgeous pillow case as a lining it looks really lovely now, infact I am so incredibly pleased with it, that it will be going shopping with me from now on.
A very very deep bag, that is strong, as jeans are, may not be waterproof, but thats not an issue.

Why should I follow the protocols of 'normal' hacking and remaking? the legs will be used to make a quilt of the frayed variety. This left the tops of the jeans, one doesn't wear shorts anymore as my legs aren't as beautiful as they once were, old mother time has caught up with me on that one.

That was the project of the 'funday' tomorrow is Sunday and this will see me making rectangles for the quilt. It's going to be very heavy, so fingers crossed it will be alright?...

If any of you fellow bloggers have any experience of making a denim or jeans quilt then please would you get in touch with advice please?
thanks in advance

Encaustic what?

Today at my Mixed Craft class we did another week of 'encaustic art' - art that involves wax that is pigmented and an iron - for want of a better description.
You place the wax block onto the iron once it has reached the correct temp; then wipe the iron across the medium you're 'painting' onto....

Me having as much artistic ability as a dog does opening a can, was not looking forward to it at all. I did it two weeks ago and found that I really really didn't get on at all with it. My art looked like a Jackson Pollock - more like swapping the P with a B! It was hideous really hideous... so this week I was expecting just the same....

Well actually I was pleasantly surprised, I actually made a scene, although me being me, couldn't just leave it as it was, I had to attempt to touch up and be perfect... that's when it started to turn into the blob, take a deep breath and relax.... leave the painting alone...That as it turned out wasn't an option either, we then 'transferred' the painting onto fabric. 

I knew we were doing that so had taken some with me, I selected a neutral linen, but, didn't counter for the texture of the linen, in hindsight a smooth cotton blend would have worked much better, for a 'flat' picture, however, mine turned out looking like an oil painting and I have to be honest I was actually very impressed with myself, tutor was equally as impressed with the fact that I was able to paint the little birds with the nose of the iron without turning them into blobs or pterodactyl's ( spell checker's a great tool)

Will I take it up as the next best thing? NO but I tried and it was not quite as bad as having a filling done, so next time, I won't go along with the not so certain attitude I went with today... 
Today's note for the day -
Try anything once, you might just enjoy it x

Friday 23 March 2012

Computer Genius - definitely not me then

Computer Genius

Follow the link to the facebook page or profile of this gentleman who is (I have to say it) a genius when it comes to the computer world... His fingers can flicker over the keyboard quicker than 'grease lightening'...

Though I have never seen grease lightening, let alone see it flicker across a key board!...

anyway... I had best get on with cutting up jeans... I've a frayed quilt coming on... hot sweats kicked in already! Am I the only quilter that creates winter thick quilts as summer is coming into season?... maybe not, but then thats me and I am not likely to change in these late years am I?

Thursday 22 March 2012

a fabulous and very talented quilter has painstakingly made this!

One day... I may, ahhh I can dream can't I?

Where did Today go too?

Wow a flurry of here there and every where!

I can't tell you what I have done really that took up sew many hours in the day leaving me unable to produce anything but a pink themed BubbaGemz necklace and nothing else... oh apart from the envelope that I wrap the necklace in...

I was in such a caffuffle that I didn't even take any photographs like I normally in order to keep an eye on what's trending and what's not so hot!

I have a lovely thick linen upholstery material that has woollen embroidery embedded into it, a fantastic fabric that is just screaming for me to do something with it... I just don't know what! ? Another cushion is most definately going to be one of the items, however, surely there is something else that can come of such a gorgeous piece of fabric?

If you know or can think of anything that would look good... maybe a throw for a super king size bed... or a bed runner? oooo I like that! yes a cushion to start and a bed runner for us... Thanks girls :-)

"Confronting the "unknown" makes it "known" - therefore reducing the fear"

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Lib ME!!!!!


Ah, with a stash of fabric and a baby boy stuck to your hip, look what you can do???!!!

Baby Girl was out today with her child-minder, our boy isn't quite ready to be separated from mummy for any length of time... He's like a blood hound when it comes to sniffing me out, not that I stink! But I do smell of Baby Heroin... Breast Milk!!!!! ooooo yes, my son is sew finely tuned to the scent of my milk that I can be in the study quiet as a mouse and he will appear at my feet, then pawing at my bra straps!!!

Any way I digress..... These two came to me in a wave of inspiration... I absolutely love the butterfly material in the middle of the top block, I mean really really love it... My life was sew well flat, before I bought it :-)

Then the four block lime and lilac... this was born of four pre cut squares I had bought off Ebay. An expensive way to quilt, and patchwork, but, if like me you've a chronic back injury its the only way to get cut up material en masse.

Both are liberated blocks, none were made following a pattern or a real design, not one had an end design in mind either, in fact, when I had got to the 'ended' state on the lilac/lime block - I realised that something was definitely missing... hence the green butterflies at each corner... they cover up the lack of fabric at each end....

All in all and despite a raging cold that is threatening to turn my nasal passages into the Suez Canal, I did a blinking good job of getting them done and finished to a point that they can be used in a - dare I say it - quilt!

Monday 19 March 2012

I feel sew liberated!

As you can guess from the title, I am liberated - not in the free from jail type though.
June sent me an email, that email contained the instructions for the libRR, which aren't that difficult to read and understand... that is for the normal quilter, they hadn't counted on having me as the read-ee.

Read, and read again then read some more, still not sinking in....

Leave it for a few days then go back to it... nope still not going in at all, asking several dull questions and still not understanding...

Tonight or infact this morning with a grotty baby on my hip and snot coming from god knows where, I re-read the instrucitons and .... as if an epiphany, it clicks...

So give me half a minute to sort out my spare scraps and I will get creating my block to start the liberated RR quilt x 

Saturday 17 March 2012

Just in case you didn't know what a cushion was for???!!!!

I made this a few days ago, but sciatica and some other sleeping illness both attacked so nothing was done today bar sleep....

What a waste of a potentially productive sewing day ...

Never mind, at least I managed to get this onto the blog and have successfully managed to enter a competition.. what wasn't so successful was following the invite to the liberated quilters Round Robin!...

Do not ask what I did, I am too ashamed to make it public, such is the depth of my stupidity at the moment... its the meds you know!

Thursday 15 March 2012

A day in the life of a creative mind: Huge Bag...

A day in the life of a creative mind: Huge Bag...: Gorgeous post bag, brilliant for a cutting board bag too!!! If like me you have loads to carry to a sewing class or club, this bag will be...

Huge Bag...

Gorgeous post bag, brilliant for a cutting board bag too!!!

If like me you have loads to carry to a sewing class or club, this bag will be a god send!

Thanks for making it a public pattern, xxx
photo albums to view x

A long day, well strictly speaking I didn't go to bed last night so, erm its been a long two days! and this one is nearly over, too,

Sleep is needed in order that I can drive my partner to the charity shop he works in - in the morning, By work we mean volunteers!


Wednesday 14 March 2012




As you can see another day of productivity...

Well actually I didn't do much, or it felt as though I didn't.

The dress has turned out really nicely, and whilst its too big for bug, I have estimated that it should do a 5 year old, as per the charity instructions, no zips or buttons, or fasteners of any kind. Being creative with elastic isn't that easy when you are very very tired having been up until the early hours of the morning with a poorly young boy :-(

I haven't considered using red with blue until I accidentally placed the red material over the pillowcase and saw that, yes indeed it will work brilliantly!

Another pillow case was bought today too, though, and please don't strike me down with a bolt of lightening, I really like it and think that bug will look gorgeous in it. Sew I plan to make a dress for her, and then once she has grown out of it - not too long at the rate she is growing, I will send it to the charity for another little girl in a far flung area where pretty dresses are in short supply x

Thanks for reading, and please, if you have any crafty experience or sewing ability, get to work and make just one dress... x

Tuesday 13 March 2012

http://ducklingpond.blogspot.com/2010/10/owl-pattern.html

Thank you to the lovely blogger who has created this gorgeous blog, I have now got the owl template and am going to apply it to one of the pillowcase dresses as a nice little hand appliqued pocket, I will post the finished dress up, and maybe if I can pluck up enough courage, will post up the process of making and completing the dress... potentially with model - AKA my daughter x
ANOTHER CUSHION DONE.....!

Yup as the title suggest I did do another cushion, well not strictly another one, I finished the brown square blocked one.

My characteristic 'sit' has been appliqued onto it, I used a fine voile in shimmering pink, well actually I would go so far as to say that it is pearlised pink, looks really lovely. My initial idea was to use bright red, but when I placed it against the browns it didn't quite sit right for my eyes. The other half thought is was ok, to me the colour in the 'roses' didn't match with the red at all, where as the pink shimmer does pull some of the floral colours out of the fabric.

I have kind of cheated on the back and have used the envelope method, rather than buttons or a zip. The zip I have put in the large Union Jack pillowcushion is a jacket one, it can be zipped up or down from either end, and the zip can come totally apart from each other which makes getting the filling out very easy.




and there it is....

what do you think? will it pass muster?
Our house guest has suggested that the prices I am thinking of asking for each one is way way short of the mark, if you were to see this or infact any of the cushions I have put together, what would you expect to pay for them?

thanks for your help ladies, x

Monday 12 March 2012






What a Busy lady I am?!

Today has been a flurry of stitching, measuring and cutting up of materials, to make some very pretty cushion covers - even if I do say so myself.... :-)

The union jack cushion is more the size of a pillow, but I have made it to be used on a sofa, for those moments when you lay down and just need a pillow, a cushion just will not do! I had thought about this one for a while, and finally decided on which ribbons to use when I was actually making it.

The little brown pillow with hand appliqued flower petals, I have actually been making for weeks, but, as I had no use for it, I didn't know just what to finish it with, and it lost momentum, - until today that is! I have decided to use it in my baby girls room as a cot cushion, perfect for her, my others will all want one thats for certain.

The crochet and rose cushion I made a while ago, however, it is sooo lovely I couldn't just leave it hidden!

And finally, the brown square, still in the process of being made, I will finish it tonight, and post photos tomorrow.

Very busy very busy....

Sunday 11 March 2012

My day was supposed to be spent doing the things I need to do in order to get my items in the shop and on sale....

So I erm, well I have to say, with a back that is chronically painful at the thought of lifting a spade, tidied the garden up... Bamboo screen on the trellis to keep the dogs from nibbling the bamboo plants, re-potted two pot bound shrubs, built up a step that had been left half done, planted some funky seed cards in boxes, removed all the weed grass from a box and replanted my decorative grass, did the hanging baskets, .....

How did I manage all that with a screaming back and two screaming tots? - well, screaming back sorted with morphine, screaming tots - quick breast feed and bed for our baby, playing with our house guest for the toddler... :-)

Me happy because the garden is now looking semi decent, babies happy because they got loads of outside play and got the sleep they needed, back mostly very unhappy...., 

But I have really only managed one thing that I needed to do, the Reds BubbaGem (as shown in the photo), fingers crossed the lucky recipient will want to give me a positive feedback for it.

And now as everyone is in bed asleep and my back is really giving me a hard time, I am trying very hard to get a cushion done, I've had the idea in my head for a while, I need to implement it now.... fingers crossed the picture will be up by morning... oh it is morning ;-)


Friday 9 March 2012

One of a bunch of very talented block-ers

I have a few friends who are so very talented and are participating in a 'block-swap', what a fantastic and comunitie-orientated idea!

Each lady creates a block depending on their style and colour way, they then send each block bar one to the rest of the group members.... The other group members are all in the meantime beavering away making their blocks to pass on to their friends...

Me being me has offered to be part of this, however.... I can't find where the blinking thing has gone... again family brain cell being used by another member,

Tonight I can't make and create blocks as I have found a shop that stocks local hand crafted items, I went in with the idea of putting some of my makes in there and they have said, come along, a redirection to our facebook page (I don't know if they have visited yet) and fingers crossed they should see what I can do...

The liberty quilters have a blog spot too, so I will be routing through a few more for inspiration, and ideas - plagiarism is not an option

Thursday 8 March 2012

Liberty Removed

My mind has been running amok with ideas for liberation quilting or blocks, these I am thinking can be used in so many ways:-
Obviously there are the quilt sections, then there are the pillow case dresses... why not? a bit of this then a bit of that should give them all the more individuality and soo much more colour, too many things to write down, then my tired eyes wander about the 'study' and land on 'The Art of Quilting', a many part series which cost a reasonable price for the first one, and therein costs about £4 per issue (1 a week). I have to subscribe as I can't get out and about very well. 


Now as much as I like the look of the quilt and think that it will eventually look lovely, it has the harsh conservatism of normal quilting sets and sharp squares, triangles etc to stick to. Infact the first 'block', is the age old four patch block, which is designed to teach us followers to make extremely straight, ridged and perfectly matching seams....


Do I miss the point? perfectly matching? what happened to the history of quilts? each one made from items of clothing no longer worn and the quilt then given as a wedding present? Can't imagine a pair of 'britches' have a perfectly straight grain to allow for a perfect seam?....


I guess its me, I am tired, its been a long day of feeding (breast feeding a 10 month old with a cold - again, oh for a full nights sleep), I will ponder the conundrum through the night and get back to you,


its good night from me, and good morning from him.... (British will understand this humour)


x

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Where do sellers who want to sell and not pay for an auction site sell?

http://folksy.com/items/3079534-Hand-Knitting-Stitch-Markers

Answer - Folksy, its a lovely looking site, its fresh and very very easy on the eyes, easy to navigate through and so typically made for handy people...

Handy people are the ones who use our hands for things other than, typing out listings etc.

Hand made not made at home, a totally different meaning all together!

Some of my things are home made, but.. they wouldn't be for sale for that simple reason alone :-)

Oh did I ever tell you I hadn't ever made myself a pin cushion? Well I did today! lol For the first time in my life I made a me item, its a little brown faux mole skin and fillet crochet triangle puff of a pin cushion, I did try to sew a pair of hexagons to the rectangles to make them into a cuboid type thing. How on earth did I think that was going to work, and why on earth did I chose the hardest possible method to create a 3 dimensional puff??? Blonde? oh yes! Baby brain...? most definatly.. morphine playing a huge huge role in the rediculous to sublime things that are popping into and out of my head? heck yes... ah enjoy, read and enjoy....lol

Now, I must create, make a dress for a little miss pretty... she deserves it more than I...

Janey x


Fillet Crochet table cloth, moleskin material & a satin purple blouse.

The idea for this came to me quite some time ago, well actually about two weeks, which in terms of my mind, a long time ago and the fact that I remembered it is fairly phenomenal!

It was originally intended to be the table cloth on the moleskin and that would have been that, however, when our neighbour dropped all her no longer fits her clothes I noticed this blouse that was way too small for me to get into. Being of sound crafting mind, I then cast my line into the crafting deep to see what I could hook up! and this is what I came up with.

I have a number of magazines that I subscribe to, and in one there were the instructions for doing roses, so I did the large central rose on the central floral decoration that was already on the table cloth, and then made four smaller lengths of fabric to make the four corners. The large one in the centre just looked odd so I blinged it up with some little gems, the four lil' ones needed no extra help to look pretty!

This is how I spend my time, when not breast feeding, cleaning, ironing and general mummy duties... would I change anything? not really, just more hours per day!

If you have seen this and have taken some inspiration please message me and I can send you the instructions, however, if you are considering making money from this design, please let the buyer know that the designer is me, not you x thanks x

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Dress a Girl... go on, you know you want to!

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/27886269/4-Remanufactured-Laser-Toner-Cartridges-For-Dell-1320CN-Cyan-Yellow-Magenta-Black/Product.html?_$ja=tsid:11518|cat:27886269|prd:27886269

This will take you to the lovely lady with lovely creations for lovely little girls world wide who all need 'the pretty dress'. Your action is required, use a pillow case, sewing machine and a little imagination and you have a scrummy dress, and a massive smile on a little girls face.

Please please join in and help this really fantastic cause x

OK OK I AM tired.....

At class I attempted to complete the 'Wall hanging' that we are making as a part of the qualifications... all my petals look very deformed, the sewing is well actually very dodgey, the colour scheme... nope I don't like it now! Am I going to change it? NO. Whilst I don't like it, I have made it, and as a result I will keep it, for future reference that is, at some stage I have to get better. The law of averages says so, and if its a law, then it must be right, right?

It doesn't look that bad, really it doesn't, I just am a worse critic than anyone - maybe the kids are slightly more honest and harsh..., so yeah, its OK. It won't make our wall, but I can say I have done it, what about it did I enjoy? the quilting sewing, other than that... erm oh and getting used to the brother sewing machine that is super quiet when compared to the clunky toyota quiltmaster 50 I have... brand new and the automatic needle threader doesn't work! lucky I have glasses for close up stuff.

Try anything once, you never know, you may like it... :-)

Sunday 4 March 2012

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lib-Quilters/

I have just found out that my eclectic quilting style designs actually do have a real name, category and many other people that follow the anarchy of none conformist quilting lines, whoa thats a whole Wikipedia entry! LOL
 Liberated Quilting, a place I love to be, see idea's, create items and basically enjoy colours, textures etc that bounce off each other rather than flow calmly into a quilt or other patchwork item.



The above is a rough and ready cot quilt made by me in only a few hours for our Baby Boy, His bedding was in the wash and was not going to be ready for his afternoon snoozle... Hey presto, left over bits of fabric made use of.
And though you can't see it too well, I did quilt 'Sleep' at the top just in case he wondered what his quilt was for.... 

And in the beginning - The lost blog spot! dur

An ordinary pillow case, unassuming and rather erm old age Laura Ashley, if I do say so myself, a lady Blogger - http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2010/07/pleated-box-pillowcase-dress-tutorial.html
had the very generous idea to give a pillowcase dress making tutorial.. well that got my ball rolling, I followed as best I could to her pattern or advise and mine came out like this.....

The lighting doesn't show it to its best but it truely is stunning, my daughter will look the billy bobbins in anything including a bin bag, but wow, she really did look like a princess in this little piece of designer wear!


So or sew, depending upon your bent, I will now use the new creation to make some more, but not just for my daughter, I have friends who also have daughters that need or will need to have one made for them... then there are the lovely little ladies in far reaches where money really is beyond anyones grasp, they really do need dresses - why shouldn't every little girl have a pretty dress indeed - 

I wonder where that went to?

Dress 1, a very simple design, the ones used by Every girl deserves a dress to dress their beneficiaries - sew cute

Dress 2 - a design that came as a result of seeing luvinthemommyhood's blog - thanks sew very much

This was the pillow case before I did my two hours stint of cut and sew - slightly different to cut and paste but pretty much the same result :-)

Being new to this blogging thing I have already posted one, but it got lost in the ether somewhere, I had linked to the charity that needs the dresses for the little ladies, I'll do it again, sew if you would like to join in the challenge, then please do sew.

I am setting up a crafting circle in our local Comprehensive, however, the ethos was to benefit local charities, good causes and families in crisis - I can't see why we do not make the little girls in need a first attempt at getting our skills together and putting our town on the map?


Go to this Facebook page for more information

Happy sewing all x

Pleated Box Pillowcase Dress Tutorial with Guest - Tiffany from "Simply Modern Mom"

Pleated Box Pillowcase Dress Tutorial with Guest - Tiffany from "Simply Modern Mom"