UFOs and stitching fun.

This is one of my many UFOs. A rather floppy cotton shopping bag. The shape is a useful one, but I hate the way this one falls down. Hence the need for a lining.

This is the lining that I put together for the shopping bag. It in turn has been lined with some heavy duty interfacing.



This is a photo of some of the pockets I have added to the inside of the lining. The flower tag was a lucky find in Hobbycraft some months back. It is designed to replace the tag on a zip. I have merely added it to the end of the tag rather than removing it. This makes it a little longer and more useful to me.

There are two pockets here. The larger one is the same width as the bag itself. There is a small pocket which can just be seen to the left of the large pocket.

The two flaps will soon have poppers to fasten them against the pocket edge to keep this large pocket into the side of the bag. The two buttons are to decorate the flaps.

The last photo shows the lining pinned into the bag.

Some time ago I prepared some new lino blocks for fabric printing. I posted about that here:

http://thestoryofthetravelingpages.blogspot.com/2010/01/flowers.html

The resulting prints are below:

The top one is my favourite. The print was made by doing it all wrong, pressing the fabric into the block inside on pressing the block down on the fabric. I rather like the resulting haziness of the printing.

The next UFO is a small box. All hand-stitched, it is made using Japanese folded patchwork squares. I shall be finishing off the lid with a beaded tag. The hinge has been made using bugle beads.

And last of all, the needle case. It is now full of needles and that tin has been emptied of all except my longest upholstery needles. These are threaded through a scrap piece of aida, so they cannot fall far when the tin drops on the floor once more. Knowing my own clumsiness this will happen again.



The first page of my own set, "The Sea" has been completed by Trillion. You can see a teaser here:

http://thestoryofthetravelingpages.blogspot.com/2010/01/sea.html

I shall post the page here on my Blog once it arrives. I am really looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

Storage solutions, sewing and knitting.

I saw my elder daughter Liz a couple of days ago and was able to hand her the first of the two sweaters she asked me to knit. It was duly worn, admired, and when she left, a few short hours later, she was still wearing it. Now, what more can a loving mum hope for? To knit something for someone and for it to be appreciated............

I'm working steadily on the second sweater. This is the Dickinson Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman from the Fall 2007 edition of Interweave Knits. This is such a nice design to knit, that I find it rather compulsive knitting. Just as well, since I've had to rip it back a few inches or so. I made such a silly error in placing the cables, then compounded it by making a different error when I sarted that section again. It got ripped back around four inches the first time, but only around a couple of rows or so the remaining times. Never mind, the back is now completed, though I have not cast off the stitches. I've placed these on a stitch holder.




Here you see the ever helpful Aggie modelling the back. On the shoulder of my tailor's dummy, you can also see the work completed so far for the front.





I decided to add to my storage containers again this week. I went into "The Works", which is a very cheap stationers/booksellers/artist's supplies shop. I bought a couple of their large paintbrush holders. I bought two some months ago as an experiment - wanting to find some way of keeping my knitting needles neat and tidy. I needed two more to contain my many circular needles. The nice thing about these holders is that they can stand upright when you fold them, useful when doing a series of tension (gauge) swatches.



As you can see, the folders look really neat and tidy on the shelves above my desk. The next thing I must do is sew on some labels. The folders are all fabric covered.

Whilst in "The Works", I also found a really cheap book about Japan. It is beautifully illustrated. Especially useful since I shall be returning to the annual "Arts Week" in school after the Easter break. My topic this year is "Japan". The children will find the photos in this book really helpful.




One other item I have been working on is the Japanese folded hanging which I started some time ago.



The photos show the completed bottom half. This now has a purchased tassel as well as beading and some tiny bells. The red heart came from the miniature rose my husband bought me for Valentines Day.
I am intending the hanging to be hollow, though I might change my mind when it comes closer to completion. This shows the inside.



Recently, I got the next part of the Band Robin in the post. This gorgeous piece now hangs on my board ready for me to start work. Did you see the deilghtful little card sitting on my shelf beside the hanging? The card arrived with the Band Robin. The stitched design is printed on the reverse......



I am looking forward to getting on with this one. For further information about this project, please visit the Stitching Sisters Blog.

Fibre heaven.

Well, its been quite a time over the last week or so. I have been merrily knitting, but sadly have got no further with my little red box.

I have just finished the first of the jumpers - the Placed Cable sweater.

The second one, the aran jumper has had a little bit of a setback - I found when I started sewing it together, that the second sleeve had the cables reversed on the sleeve edging. Ah well, the sleeve has now been ripped back to the start of the shaping. It should not take too long to rebuild.

I went into Aldi the other day and found rather interesting furry yarn. I shall not be knitting the boa scarf pattern that came with the wool. However, those interesting needles got me thinking.

They would make really good bag handles. They are a little short, but it would be such fun to make a bag with knitting needle handles. I did see a rather gorgeous knitted bag some time ago using knitting needles in this way.

The yarn would make a really interesting textural detail on a bag too.....

Yesterday I replaced the cover on my ironing board. I found myself unable to throw out the old ones. (I had put my last cover over the previous one to give it a bit of thickness.)

So, I cut off the damaged fabric, stripped off the foam backing and gave both pieces a good wash. These will probably become the linings to my knitting needle bags.

Going to a local Quilting group, I was delighted to find that a bag of fabric scraps was to be shared out. The plain fabrics above and the Liberty fabrics below were the pieces I chose. Most of these are quite small, but all quite useable.

I shall enjoy putting a scrap Liberty quilt together.

All in all a fibre-enthusiasts idea of heaven. Thank you to the wonderful person (anonymous) who donated the fabric to the group. Please be assured the fabric all went to delighted and eager hands.

Mothers Day.

Here in England it has been Mother's Day today. It has been so nice to see both my daughters together this weekend - a rather rare event these days.





My elder daughter gave me this delightful little cat by Jenny Winstanley. Its eyes seem to follow me in such a friendly way. I am keeping it in my workroom. I'm not sure what Felix and Coco will make of it when they finally see it. My younger daughter gave me a lovely box of chocolates. I shall enjoy indulging myself with those later.






This book was a lucky find in a Charity shop yesterday. The illustrations are gorgeous, full of inspiration. Such a variety of pattern. The following photographs show two pages chosen completely at random.







I do so love richly illustrated books like this. Tiles give such a wealth of repeated patterns. I can see myself using these as the basis for an applique design.






Last time, I showed the start of this little box. It is basically Japanese Folded patchwork, but the "centre" has been added on top instead of inside the main fabric. I've added stitching and buttons to each side and to the top. The top itself is attached to the main body of the box by a hinge made of tubular beads stitched through to create the join.






It was fun to make with very little stitching needed to hold the whole thing together. Not sure what I shall use it for, but it looks pretty on a shelf for now.



I have been continuing with the knitting. Both the sweaters are now close to completion. The aran sweater is just needing the neck to be started. Shown here are the sleeves. I have not followed the pattern with these, preferring to make them match the front and back. (The original design had sleeves with the narrow cable running up the centre of the sleeve surrounded by double moss stitch.)






Liz's jumper is coming along well too. It now has around half of the second sleeve yet to be completed. Then I will only have the cowl neck to complete. The design is the Placed Cable Aran by Cathy Payson from the Fall 2007 edition of Interweave Knits.

A busy half-term.

Its been a busy time this week, with various projects under way.

This will turn eventually into a hanging. Not sure how it will look, but the beaded triangles will be linked together with the beads. I imagine a tassel in there somewhere too.

This next project will become a little box. Again, the techniques are based on Japanese folded patchwork. This time, the little scraps of fabric have been stuck on using Bondaweb. Then I have added buttons and will add beads too.

The fabric I used was originally stripes. I cut these up using a rotary cutter with a shaped blade. This idea came originally from a workshop I went to at the Quilters Guild area day earlier this month. Dilys Fronks taught the technique so that we could make a picture. These scraps were left over.

The Amaryllis on my workroom windowsill have been a joy. Such a riot of colour.

I love the flowers as they fade too. Such amazing shapes.

The last photo was taken as we walked into the carpark this evening after having our tea in a local pub. The sky was beautiful.

All this and knitting too. Its been fun.