Stitching , knitting and plans

My silk/cotton blouse found in a charity shop

 This lovely blouse was a lucky find earlier this year in a charity shop. I haven't worn it yet since I need to remake the sleeves. They are double layered and hang badly. My plan is to take the sleeves apart and to turn the inside layer into a cuff for the bottom of what should be a full elbow length sleeve. It shouldn't take long to achieve, but there seem to be rather a lot of other things that need to be finished first....... Gardening and cleaning my car currently head the list.

The back detail

This next item is one of those that I really need to get finished before too long. It is a set of pieces to make a butterfly block. A challenge from one of the groups I belong to - Alsager Creative Stitchers. It was a project that was the theme of their July meeting. Since I couldn't attend, I was given the block to finish at home.

On Saturday I went along to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. Such fun to meet up with friends again. There are some people I only seem to meet at the Festival. It is always a fascinating experience visiting the show, seeing so many amazing quilts, meeting friends, making new friends. So much to see and do. So many ideas beginning to develop.

This was most of my haul. There is some fabric which I cannot show here since it will become part of the NWCQ challenge which I am leading. I'll explain all about that another time since it should be a lot of fun. 

I've only shown one of my bundles of fabric from Empress Mills. I bought two. These are invaluable for my dyeing and printing. They are made up of a beautiful, tight woven cotton which is a joy to sew into. You can see some of the pieces drying on my washing line. My two bundles, when washed occupied all but half of one side. That last bit was used by a gorgeous piece of jersey found on a really interesting stand at the show. I bought the pattern there too. 

The Steam a Seam was free, as was a reel of cotton from Mettler. Being pink, it might not see any use for a while, but is bound to come in useful.The beautiful little zipped bag was won on the Tombola. It was made by Helen Butcher and will be used to house my new collection of quilt clips. You can see them peeping out at the top of the photo. I have one set of red and another of blue. I bought some more of the cotton sheets for my inkjet printer. I ran out recently, just when I really needed some more.....

Apart from some items for printing and dyeing, and thread too, there is a set of "Do it yourself markers" which I am looking forward to playing with. Apparently I should be able to use these to soak up colour, using them like a marker pen. I do like new toys.....

I managed to finish my cardigan, adding the buttons this afternoon. Why did I finish this on a really hot day so that I really don't fancy trying it on? I started this particular cardigan some months ago, abandoning it at one stage when I needed to get on with other projects. It is a pattern by Martin Storey for Jaeger, printed back in 2004. The design is called Lucille.

Ah well. I treated myself to some really nice yarn today whilst I was in the Wool Shop. It is a dangerous place to visit, especially when buying buttons armed with a collection of patterns. This is a soft Acrylic/ Bamboo mix. The pattern is from a Jaeger pattern book which is over ten years old. I've always loved this waistcoat pattern, so it will be nice to start this later.