Better late than never

It has been a really busy few weeks since I last posted here on the block. I have completed two pairs of socks - this orange and browny-purple pair and another pair in shades of grey and white. There are two projects on my needles at present. The first is a knitting kit picked up in a charity shop.

Although it looks blue in this photo, the yarn is actually a rather silky off white with brown flecks. The kit only cost me £1 which is amazing. It is the Winter Jumper kit from Aldi which was available from the stores earlier this year. I must admit that this project has been stalled over the past few days since I found the most delicious silk and merino yarn from the Sheep on Mars  stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. I bought three yarns and just had to start knitting with the first of these once I had completed my grey pair.

I have knitted this same pattern which was free with the XXL sock yarn I bought some years ago. It is a very simple design which is perfect to showcase these patterned yarns. This time I have used a ridged heel instead of using the stocking stitch heel from the pattern.

These are the other two yarns I bought. I really just couldn't walk away and leave one of them......

Also purchased at the show - some gorgeous lining fabrics. I fancy making a new jacket at some stage over the next few months.

My haul of needles and general bits and pieces from the show.

This was my collection from the Cone Exchange which had a stand. The fabric is furnishing weight and will be used for some cushion covers I need to make.

After the Show I went round some charity shops with my sisters. Silk fabric and silk tops along with more buttons and some books to read. The book at the back is about Heath Robinson. I just love his illustrations.

Whilst in Harrogate we were lucky enough to find a Vintage Fair in a rather beautiful Methodist Chapel. This was my haul. The magazine dates from 1952. I couldn't resist the vintage patterns and the cotton fabric inside the vintage paper bag was quite a find too. I think I will frame the bag rather than discard it. The cotton fabric is a rather useful cotton lawn. I don't think it was ever taken out of the bag. Just £4 for the lot. I picked up some leaflets about future events.

These two fabrics - the peony and crane design and the stripe are both jerseys. The floral design seems to be a ponte roma with a lovely sheen whilst the stripe definitely feels like cotton. I found these on a charity stall at one of the textile groups I attend. There is enough to make tops with both these fabrics.

The green jumper I mentioned last time is complete and now sits waiting in my wardrobe.

At the start of this post I mentioned that I have been busy. One of the groups I attend regularly is the Moulton Sewing Group. In December the group will have a stand at the Craft Fair in the village. I have been busy making items for the stand.

There have been mug rugs - shown above; pot holders; heat packs (microwaveable fabric bags holding pearl barley) and also a couple of cushion covers. The cushion covers and mug rugs are now complete and the last of the heat packs need some hand stitching to finish them off. I just have another six of the pot holders to complete and then three table runners that were added to my list last week......... I'd better get going since I only have until the 7th December to complete this lot. I do have other things which I should be sewing for other challenges, Secret Santa and so on. Why does everything need to be completed at around the same time?
Ah well, I am off to grab a cup of tea and then get an hour or two of sewing before the dogs demand their tea and an evening walk.

Me Made Everyday - Week 2 and other projects

Records for Me Made Everyday - week 2

I have continued the Me Made theme for the second week running. You will note that some items do get worn quite a lot and will feature in future weeks records too. I brought my warmer clothing down from the loft today, so some of that will start to feature as the weather gets colder. Some of my cardigans have featured this past week and I have also started to need my woollen hats and fingerless gloves.

Culottes and blouse as worn on Friday.

I am still trying to remember to take photos each day, but find keeping the records in my notebook rather more practical. It is interesting to find out exactly which pattern was used for each item, especially when they were made some time ago. It was a really useful reminder for the blouse shown above since I found it very comfortable to wear and it would be nice to make another from the same pattern at some stage.

I have started knitting a rather attractive jumper to replace one made last year which my elder daughter now has. This one is another test knit from Aidasofie. I have made a number of Yvonne's delightful designs over the past few months. This one will be a light green since this is a colour I do not have a great deal of in my wardrobe. I look forward to getting this one finished so that I can wear it.

Since the weather is getting colder, I bought some lovely needlecord to make another, warmer pair of trousers. Not sure which pattern I will use yet. This brown will look really nice with the green of the jumper I am knitting......

A project which I will need to get on with this week is the t-shirt toile for the "Artful T-shirt" course. I got this cut out on Wednesday at Moulton Sewing Group, taking full advantage of the large tables they have available. My worktable is just not big enough here in my workroom.

The fabric is some jersey which I bought a few months ago for a different project. This will help me check the sizing before starting the course properly. I have started watching the videos which explain the processes required. The main t-shirt will be an interesting project. I think I now have all the fabric I need, but will check again once this trial piece is finished.

The "Sew the perfect fit" course is still ongoing with the next fitting session coming up very soon. It will be interesting to compare notes and see how close this next set of toiles is to a "perfect fit". I haven't got any fabric in line for the final dress, so I will need to start hunting around for something suitable. Hopefully, there will be a suitable weight in my stash. 

Finished projects, "Me Made" items and future plans

The first piece to be finished this week was mum's quilt. I returned it to her on Friday and her first action was to put in on her chair ready to settle down cosily. An old friend returning home.

She found it hard to see exactly where the repairs had been done. Just as I had hoped. It was lovely to see that the quilt was welcomed so enthusiastically.

My cardigan was finished on Saturday. I replaced the orange ribbing strip with this beige shade. It seems to work so much better. I was lucky to find these buttons during the week. They are shell buttons with a printed motif.

The final item to be finished this week was completed only today, Sunday. My blue denim trousers just need a good final pressing before I can wear them. Hot Patterns 1217 Weekender Utility Cargo Pants. These are the third pair I have made.

I have challenged myself to wear a minimum of two "Me Made" items each day as a way of finding out which clothing items I really enjoy wearing. This is based on "Me Made May", an online event which encourages dressmakers to take photographs of them selves wearing clothing which they have made as well as making more projects. One particular collection could see me wearing both my newly completed items. For the moment, Aggie is modelling the clothes for me.

I think the only problem with making this idea public is that I ought to take photographs as a record. Hopefully, I will be able to remember.

The fabric shown here is a two metre length of navy Ponte Roma. During the Moulton Sewing Group meeting on Wednesday, I heard about a shop I had never heard of. Weaverdee is an online site with a base in Middlewich, which is opening as a shop. Travelling to visit mum on Friday, I took a minor detour to see if I could find this shop. It was well worth the visit. The shop sells sewing machines, does repairs and also sells haberdashery and fabric. The ponte roma above came home with me in company with a collection of sewing machine needles. I really enjoyed looking round.

The ponte is destined for one of these tops - shirt 121 from the September edition of Burda Style. I also have the blue floral jersey fabric waiting to be made up into another top. The plan is to get around to making these very soon. Well, as soon as I can get a couple of projects finished. One of these, the MEG block has to be finished by Friday ready for the next meeting. 

September 2018 edition of Burda Style

I have three toiles to complete within the next two weeks. The first is an amended toile for the fitting course whilst the others will be trial runs for the Vogue fitting shells. We have decided to try these as well as working on the pattern supplied with the "Sew the perfect fit" course. The course is really demanding and I find myself learning a lot. It will be interesting to see how these patterns relate to the course.

Repairs and other possible disasters

Mum's quilt before work started

 The past week has seen me planning the repair of a quilt I made for mum a few years ago. Called "Square Dance", it had been much loved and regularly washed and it had seen daily wear since being handed over.

One of the damaged areas

There were a few areas of damage where the fabric was beginning to break down. I must admit that I really hadn't expected the quilt to have shown so much wear so quickly. Since mum was rather upset to see it in this state, I agreed to repair it and then return it. I intend to make another quilt for mum so that this one doesn't get the same amount of wear in the future.

After chatting it through with some friends at the Moulton Sewing Group, I went ahead and drafted a few designs to patch the damaged areas. You can see my original sketches in the photo above and this close up.

The quilt is currently being stitched and I plan to hand it back on Friday. There is still quite a lot of work to be done, with all the footprints needing to be bondawebbed in place and then stitched. The squares have all been attached and quilted in place to add strength to the damaged areas. There will be more photos once the work is all complete.

I have been getting on with some of the mending in my pile, as mentioned last time. It is not an interesting task but I will be glad to see a gap where that particular collection of objects currently sits.

My scrappy cardigan has now been stitched together and is nearing completion. The strips for the button and buttonhole bands have also been knitted and stitched into place. I am really unhappy with these. As you can see the bands are pulling almost as if they are too short. This is the nature of ribbing, unfortunately. Although this is exactly as the original design instructions stipulate in the pattern, I really don't think it works. I shall be unpicking these pieces and knitting them with the ribbing running 90 degrees from the current position. Why is the ribbing in the orange? Well, I don't have enough of either the cream or the white, or even the pale grey. I must admit that I don't think the orange colour works, so will use this opportunity to try a different colour. Ah well, back to the drawing board on this one. Hopefully I can get it finished before the cold weather comes creeping in.

A tidy workroom at long last - sewing too!

 I have spent a couple of days getting my workroom rearranged and tidy. It has been well worth the effort since I now feel comfortable enough to get on with the sewing projects which are waiting for me.

Tailor's dummy and bookshelves beside my cupboard

The first of these you can see on Aggie2, my tailor's dummy. It is yet another toile for the "Sew the perfect fit" course which I am doing with my friend Eilene. This has been quite a learning curve to date, but it is good to learn a new skill and it will help my dressmaking skills. I look forward to feeling confident that any clothes I make will fit properly.

My sewing desk, cluttered as always

Speaking of sewing projects. I have a third pair of these cargo pants cut out and ready to sew. The pale blue light denim should make for a comfortable pair. I just need a bit of time to settle down to getting these started.

I bought some more fabric on Friday to get a couple of projects under way. The floral jersey was bought from the Fent Shop in Macclesfield. The last two and a half metres from the roll. It was a little more than I really needed, but I couldn't leave that extra length. This is intended for another long sleeved polo neck jumper to add to my collection for the autumn/winter. There should be sufficient fabric to make a second top, though I am not entirely sure which design to use.

Floral jersey fabric

Quilting cottons

The half metre lengths of quilting cottons will be used to help me repair a quilt I made for my mother a few years back. This has been loved and washed over the years and is definitely in need of some tender loving care. I'll share some photos another time once I have decided exactly how I am going to tackle this repair. The fabrics were bought from The Quilting Box in Macclesfield.

Walking through a couple of local charity shops I found these scarves. They are now washed and resting with my feltmaking supplies to help me with some nuno felt experiments. I really feel the need to get some felt made before too long. The loose woven piece might be better suited to some of my hand stitched projects, but since it is quietly unravelling itself as I watch, it might be better to felt it into something.

Mending pile

While tidying up my room, I found my pile of mending/alteration projects. These have been ignored for far too long. I have challenged myself to get ten of these pieces finished this week. I have already finished five of the easiest - replacing buttons, minor repairs to seams. The items concerned have already been ironed and are hanging up in my wardrobe ready to wear once more. I need to tackle some of the more demanding items next.

My scrappy cardigan is nearing completion. All the knitting has been finished, I am just stitching the ribbing sections into place. These were knitted separately, which is quite an unusual method. The sewing together may take some time yet since there are also quite a number of ends to sew in too!

Last week my copy of the latest book from the Contemporary Quilt group arrived. It is a record of the quilts which were selected for the "In print" exhibition. I have a quilt in this collection so it was rather a thrill to see my work in print, literally. You can see the previous posts where I blogged about my quilt here and here.

I haven't been able to see the exhibition for myself just yet, but will be able to see the quilts for myself early in 2019 when they are shown at the Quilters Exhibition and Fabric Sale in Nantwich in January. They then travel to Quiltfest in February.

In case you are interested, the remaining venues showing this exhibition are:

October 2nd to 30th, 2018
The Curve Gallery, Carnegie Library, Bangor, Northern Ireland, BT20 4LH

Sunday 20th January 2019
Quilters Exhibition and Fabric Sale, Nantwich Civic Hall, Market Street, Nantwich, CW5 5DG

February 7th to 15th 2019
Quiltfest 2019, Llangollen, Wales

March 26th to April 25th 2019
The Old Chapel Textile Centre,
Newbury, RG19 6HW

Sewing, book pages and knitting

Messing around with images ready to put together as book pages

It has been quite a busy week with quite a lot of sewing done. The first two book pages have been completed for the Pinfold Book Challenge. 

These first two pages were for the "Feathers" themed book. I went back to the Crows for inspiration for this one. "Birds of a feather flock together". The Crow Fair took place recently and so the idea stuck.

I used my own rust dyed fabric on top of a piece of rough calico. The grey pieces are painted bondaweb. The pages have been free machine quilted to add texture. The figures of the birds and the dancers have been free machine embroidered.

I have now started work on the second pair of pages. These are for the "Leaves" themed book. I'll take photos to show next time once the stitching is finished.

Work did start on the third book pages too, but I wasn't happy with them and so a rethink is in progress.

I decided to start work with my collection of 4ply yarns. They are all either Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply or Rowan Soft 4ply. Since the yarns are so similar, they work together very well and it is not possible to see where one make of yarn starts and the other type ends. Sadly, both yarns are now discontinued, so I am picking up extra Debbie Bliss skeins while I still can. I know the collection I have will only go so far since this is going to be a cardigan. I am adapting the old Phildar pattern you can see above. This was for double knitting yarn. I made the original cardigan back in the 1980s and wore it out long ago. The stripes on this new version will be narrower since I don't have a large amount of any of the colours. Chatting to the owner of our local yarn shop, I was able to pick up the last two skeins of cream and have a look at her collection of odd skeins which are also for sale, but not on display. I plan to save some of the cream so that the second cuff will be the same colour as the first. I will sort out the button bands, collar and ribbing for the waistline once I know which colours will be left.

 The brown jumper is still an ongoing project. I am working my way up through the decreases on the raglan at the front. Unfortunately, the colourful 4ply project is far more interesting to work on......

Sitting on my work table are the recently cut out pieces for my second pair of cargo pants. I intend to get on with these later today, but have the "Leaves" pages to finish first.