Sew complete

I made this carrier on Sunday, but waited until yesterday to take a photo, it's looks better with a plate of food in. 

 Made with 2 tea towels, a long handle attached to 2 opposite corners, on the other 2 corners huge loops are attached, place the plate in the center, pop the loops over the handle and I have a dish carrier. This was lunch for sign language class.  

 It takes a 10" plate, so I can carry large pie, cake ect

 I have finished reading this book, I could not put it down, I love mind games and the author sent Finn everywhere. I thought it was better than Behind Closed Doors. 

 My plastic lids came, and they will work perfectly, I know I have more plastic in my kitchen, but these will replace stretch and seal, a one use plastic. They are all round but they do fit over square and oval dishes.  

It was fun to make my plate carrier, I cut the two tea towels into squares and pinned them together. With the leftover fabric I made the wide handle and the two thinner loops, pinned them in place and double stitched all around the square. I had seen this on Pintrest, and thought it would be useful. Tea towels work well as the linen will protect my cooking.
I now have two single quilt covers from our old kingsize covers, which we replaced when the corners were getting thin, both are pure white, so the leftover fabric I have kept in my stash. I did not require to make pillow cases, we already had the matching set.
I have done some more knitting, I am not enjoying the rib on the neck use 4 double ended needles, it's 12cm long, so it is taking a while, I will show a photo once it is finished.
I was asked if I had a pattern for the bags I make, no pattern, I just cut out square or oblong in the size of the front and back, when using tea towels they decide the maximum size the bag can be, I cut the front and back to size and shape, I measure along the sides and bottom, and cut a strip of material long enough, the width I decide by eye, the bigger the bag the wider the side and bottom strip. I cut the linings the same size and sew. Handles I make as strong as I can, I make each bag a different size, always dependent on the fabric I have. Most of my inspiration comes from Pintrest, where you can get patterns. 
We have the promised bright sunny start to the day, I am out with Will and mummy this morning.
It's a busy few days, as we are away in our camper van on Thursday for  a couple of nights, praying the weather fore caste will be right.

Visitors

The colour is not very good in this photo

Another design off Pintrest, the bag is bigger than I expected. 

This is my colours

Everyone at Portchester Castle

Magnolia tree in the sunshine

After the flowers the seed forming 

Aquilegia, flowers just starting to form. 

It's been a busy few days, we had a lovely Easter long weekend, on Sunday our friends from Spain, Izzy and her daughters Alba and Paula arrived for a few days.
Saturday was a morning at home, in the afternoon, I helped a neighbour cut out a large square cushion cover, we then stitched it together, Marie had not made such a large project before, the fabric had a square design on so we were careful to ensure the lines matched. I hope to be able to do another cushion with Marie next week, she has four to make, the hope is by the last cushion, she will be able to do it herself.
Sunday we traveled to Stanstead airport to collect our guests, of all the London airports it is the longest journey from our house, we were lucky the M25 was kind and we have almost no delays. Sunday evening was home catching up with everyone.
Monday I did some sewing in the morning, in the afternoon we went to Hobby craft and Haskin's garden center, Alba and Paula loved all the craft items.
Tuesday I had to work, but hubby took our friends to Portsmouth and they went up the Spinnaker Tower and did some shopping.
Wednesday we went to the castle, which the girls loved, we then went up Portsdown hill to above the city, another fantastic place to view the whole of the city, The Solent and Isle of Wight. It was cold and breezy, but dry, the girls took some wonderful photo's. It was lovely to look at our local area through eyes of young girls who have never been to England before, simple things like a thatched cottage, which we have walked by many times, became an interesting subject. Yesterday Su also brought baby Will over, so later loads of lovely cuddles.
I worked with Alba, who is 12 and loves sewing, together with me instructing and Alba cutting out and sewing we made the top bag, I did some work on my bag, to show Alba the finish we could achieve, all I now need to do is finish it off, about an hours work.

Tidy patchwork

I am really pleased my patchwork carrier is finished

 I choose the check for the handles, which are threaded in between the fabrics and stitched together at the bottom for extra support of any weight carried. 

 I thought all the fabrics went well together. 

The fox fabric was purchased for my daughters baby room, 

but whilst it was to her taste, it would not go into the nursery theme. 

 Loads of pocket space, 

plus my cutting board slides into big pocket.

 I tried to make pocket sizes big enough to swap items around

 I am pleased with the finished effect. 

I last worked on it here, at this point is a work in progress.

The outer cover I just wrapped around the stitched inner, by folding the edge over and neatly stitching, I covered all the raw edges. I cut two outer's and joined at the bottom, I could not use one long piece as with the inner, the pattern would have been upside down on one side.
I purchased the fabric for the handles, I did have a selection here, but none matched to my liking. I do have to get two big poppers for the top corners, to hold it together. The fox fabric cost £8.99 for a meter, and the check £4.00 for half a meter, in both cases I have fabric left over, the plain inner colours came from my material stash.
The idea came from Pintrest, I copied some of the ideas, but built the design to suit my requirements. It has been fun to make, and now all my patchwork cutting tools and templates are stored together. Now I need to get back to sewing hexagons, to make my sewing machine cover.

We made the decision not to travel to Somerset, the fog is lingering and heavy, so we are staying put, journeys at this time of year are bad enough without the extra hassle of thick fog.
I hope you are with those who you love and looking forward to 2017 and whatever it brings.

This has legs

I found out 3 pairs of old jeans, all different colours

I cut a long panel from each leg, I am using bootleg jeans

 I then fold and pin so there are three layers

no rough ends showing, making them as strong as I can

 Ready for sewing, I love all the different shades

I decided to use red thread to add some colour

 Then a bit of weaving

Here I hit the wall, I am making a basket, the long bits are the side I have 4 strips of pale blue to use for the sides, but they are not long enough, each one should be 84cm, so do I try and sew my shorter ones together flat, will they be to bulky. OR do I look for a seven foot person and steal their jeans for the longer legs. A third option would be to use a different material, but I don't have anything as heavy as this denham.
The other option is to use all 12 lengths woven for a cushion front, BUT I want a basket, so I am thinking about what to do next. So for now I have started another book, another new author for me.

Below are the seams off the jean legs, these are the thick ones which the material is wrapped around like a French seam, I have seen uses for these on Pintrest, I will save these until I have a few more, then I will get creative

So no waste here, I have also kept some of the back pockets, 

I don't have any plans, they are saved just because.

What do you do with your old jeans. 

Finishes and double shopping

It's finished, and I love it

so much I have found another design to stitch

 18 baubles done

I won't do any more, we found another deal on photo Christmas cards and I have purchased 20, just have to sit with Kev and choose the photo's of our grandsons to use, at £8.99 for 20, they are a good price, and easier to post. 

 Adding to my stash, after so much moaning we do not have a local sewing and craft shop, one opened last month. Today Fliss and I popped in to check it out, stunning things, loads to buy, one small upset, they only have Anchor threads, and I have always used DMC, my stash is too huge to swap now. Fliss gave me the bottom fabric, we both think it would be great to over stitch the designs.

 We also went to the Clark's outlet store, looking for winter shoes for work, the brown shoes are perfect for what I require, and a saving of £20 per pair. The black ones fell into my basket, well they are very comfortable. At £39.99 per pair not cheap, but I find Clark's shoes last years, so over a few years they become much more cost effective.

Quick look at my Orchids, 1st photo, shows my new purchase and behind a plant with two new growth shoots, 2nd photo from the down stairs bathroom window sill, it's a sunny spot here, but not always warm, they need light more than warmth. I was give a tip years ago, once the flowers have gone, treat them mean, and they will grow new shoots, it always works for me, I get at least 3 to 4 sets of flowers from each plant.

We have been invited to a firework party tonight, won't be out too long, it's been a busy day, and I am itching to get stitching.
I have also finished adding all my post to my book 2013, I now have to check each page twice, once to tidy it and check spelling and then a final proof read, I hope to be able to send it to the printers by next weekend.
Tomorrow I would like an hour in the garden and then get my sewing machine out and make a few small cushions. I have a couple of secret projects I am working on, can't show them on here, but I hope soon to finish them and post them.
Tomorrow the weather will turn colder, and work towards a normal Autumn level rather than the warm temperatures of recent days, so the plan is more inside days.
After our trip to Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays today, I think I will doing alot of our Christmas shopping on line, it was mad, so full of people, I hate the shopping frenzy of this time of year.

Stitching ahead

Another design from Pintrest

 I am hoping these have a retro look, I will have to make 30 using the colours below

They are quick to sew, unless you are watching the British Bake off

in that case you make a counting error and waste almost an hours stitching.

I will use Fray Check and cut each one out.

 When we were out on Sunday at Hillier Gardens,

I had a mission to take a nice photo to use on this years Christmas cards

I have chosen this one

I am hoping Groupon will have a deal, where I can purchase 30 prints, last year they had them for about £6, much cheaper than using my own printer ink. 

 The aim is to use the photo on the front of the card, add a cut out sewn bauble and a sign 'Merry Christmas', both to hang off the branch, I will have two small green wires and make it look as real as I can. The hope is for each card to cost under 30p.
I am megga early on this project, but whilst I am off work I can get ahead, because as we all know the big day will creep up on us.
On another project, I was looking for childhood photo's  and found this one of Steve (Logans dad) and Fliss (Josh and Sam's mum), taken at Bristol Zoo about 1987, how cute!

Like Logan and Sam, Steve is just a few months older than Fliss. 

This morning I want to work in the garden, the plants I purchased with Sam are still waiting to go in, and with the weekend fore caste of loads of rain, it's a job I need to do today.  Later I will pick Josh and Sam from school and bring them back for tea.
I am also working on a couple of small project's which I am not able to show here, Paula, hoping to get a parcel to you soon.
We are away on two trips this weekend and early next week, The Ride to the Wall event is happening on Saturday, we have booked to go, but with the rain it might be a problem on the bike and every thing is outside. On Sunday we are heading into Wales, hubby's birthday treat, we could not get his birthday weekend so rather than change to location we decided to go later. We are both looking forward to the break.

2nd Finish and a New Start

My second finish this year,

 I had to stitch both birds shown in the photo below, 

neither took long to do, so without the design.

I just looked at the opposite bird and reverse the pattern.

 I changed some of the colours in this design, 

adding the purples and the yellow of the flowers, 

it's bright and very me.

To carry on with my WIP.

 I put my cat back in the frame, but the shades of grey are so close, I need better light to stitch, so I got out Tree of Life which I last stitched in September 2012, but the shades of brown were too close, so I packed that away.

I decided to start something new, I got out Rachel Jarratt,  a beautiful sampler, but looking at the design, some stitches are stitched over 2, so I will have to get the correct fabric before I can stitch it. 

So frustration set in.

 Back to Pintrest, I found a design from Janita 12 designs, each in a box and started it, it is stitched in just one colour, but I hope to add colours as I go along. I thought I would do the three boxes along the top first. I will show the whole design next time. At least I am stitching. The fabric is white not blue.

 My Amaryllis is almost there, just one more flower to open,

 it is stunning in my sitting room.

It's been a mixed weekend, yesterday afternoon was very wet, so I spent loads of time stitching.
This morning I cleaned my house, not my favorite job, but now it's done I am happy.
This afternoon we went to Whiteley it's an out door shopping centre, met Su and David for a coffee and did a bit of shopping, hubby was looking at mobile phones, me nail kits. Later back home Fliss and Josh popped over, Josh is now watching rugby, so we left them watch Ireland V Scotland and we chatted.
I have just done my second set of gel nails, and have navy blue nails, very dark for me, but the gel does not chip, I enjoyed using the LED lamp, it is not hard, just have to be careful and neat.

Almost, almost

Just over one block to go, a bit of shadowing on a few letters and this is finished. Fliss would like it framed in dark wood, so I will have to check out prices. Hope to be finished by the weekend.

 My Amaryllis is getting there, I love the pink, it's very pretty.

 Arty shot

 The pots outside my back door are doing well, the two big pots have flowered all winter, nice to see some colour. Not sure what will open in the smaller pot, I can't remember what I planted.

 Tree is in bud, but still holding off, it's still a bit early.

 I found this on Pintrest

 And this

 I have ordered this design, Rachel Jarrett from Scarlet Letter, Nicola has been stitching it, and the moment I saw it, I was in love, so a quick bit of shopping and it's on it's way to me. Almost every thing Nicola stitches I love, she like me loves big projects, but it will have to wait in my stash box for a while. Next week I am going to finish one more WIP, I think it will be the Felix cat, for my daughter Su.

It's getting cold here, so we are not planning to go out anywhere in the evenings, so plenty of stitching time.
It's all about keeping warm and dry.
On the 9th of Feb it's my blog anniversary, I will have a giveaway or two, I have not decided what or how I will run it, but I have a bit of time to think it over.

Finish to start

I love this yellow fabric, its perfect for this design, 

I just have to add a few more buttons. 

Pure pleasure sorting through my button box, lots of my buttons have been cut off outfits so each set a memory.

 This is my new start, a heart, another pattern from Pintrest, I am loving seeing what every one else is looking at and then finding nice patterns. Yesterday it rained all day, so a day spent stitching was bliss. At one point I had my friend Cat and Fliss my daughter all sat together stitching. Fliss and I are trying to keep to Wednesday night, stitching night.

 My free orchid is doing well, this is the third flower from this plant, 

it is so perfect.

 I have another bud forming on another plant,

 so I should have an orchid in the room for Christmas. 

We enjoyed a weekend at home, I still ache a bit from the gardening, but it looks so good, can't wait for the spring and next summer, so many plants to watch grow.

It is so snug in our warm house, all together, hubby and both cats, watching TV and enjoying time together, if this is our future then, I am looking forward to it.

Family are all well, I have a half day on Friday for Sam's 3rd Birthday, and my brother Martin arrives on Saturday for the weekend. I am enjoying this moment in our life.