Back Away from the Keyboard

I have this terrible compulsion to start swaps. I keep thinking of all the ones I could start which would take lots of time to administrate and be a hassle because inevitably people misbehave. And I keep thinking of all these complicated projects I could start and really commit to. You know - *really* commit to, not like those other projects I got bored of after the first half which are all in the cupboard. Like this one.

This is actually called the "Nearly Insane" quilt and I came across it on Faberdashery's blog where she is english paper piecing one in just red and white. Looks AMAZING. I immediately started combing the internet for the pattern and reading what others had written about it and studying their colour schemes and thinking how I would approach it. Insane. Although Faberdashery did rock my world slightly by using EPP for the whole quilt. She points out EPP isn't just for hexagons and she is quite right but I had never thought of doing a half-square triangle block that way. Another great example of how inspiring sharing via blogs can be.

I have managed to talk myself down from starting anything - swap or project - by dragging this out to get it finished off.

It is from the Romanian Quilt Studio and there is a free version as well. It occurred to me that...this is round...and Jasmine's playmat bag is round...and I need a new outer fabric for the bag since I got my stitch tension wrong and the white showed up on the black fabric. When I started this quilt I wondered what I'd do with the circle once it was done. I think this could be fated.

The reason for my start-itus is possibly that I have been getting to the end of my tether about the 'Japan issue' and have been looking for things I can control and take my mind off it with. However, yesterday Pooch received a draft contract from his new employer so maybe - just maybe - I might actually be going to Japan after all. There have been so many times when I thought it might be coming together though that I refuse to be even slightly excited until I see signatures on dotted lines.

Be a Hexie Queen! And a Giveaway!

My day on the bloghop! Thanks to everyone involved and don't forget to look at the blogs of the others involved today.

I left it rather to the last minute to make something for this - relying on my ever present box of hexagons which I add to when I don;t feel like sewing or knitting anything requiring concentration.

But then at the start of this week I realised inspiration had not struck. What to do?!

I am destashing a lot at the moment and came across some 1/3" hexagons I'd been making for a miniature quilt to enter at this year's Festival of Quilts. Er, yeah, the one I blogged about a few weeks ago with the entry deadline in May. Not one to waste all that work...meet Wonky the mouse.

I am not a big toy maker but when I saw this on Pinterest I thought it might be fun to make.

I thought I'd followed the pattern exactly but he came out very bulgy so I trimmed and resewed and went a bit freestyle...hence his being named Wonky. But what the hell - he looks better from behind than I do most days.

Just as he was finished off I came across this:

(Can you tell I am an utter Pinterest addict?!) I started it on Tuesday and finished last night.

I adapted the pattern a bit to take out the whole extra flower but used the rest. I just need the Altoid tins! Do you know how expensive Altoids are in the UK?

This is going to be perfect for hexagons on the go.

Before I get to the giveaway I have to show off the bag I made a while back.

I used it at the Festival of Quilts and people were saying such lovely things about it! I really do love my hexies.

And so to the giveaway. It's not a competition - everyone wins! I have written a tutorial for a bag to make from left over charm squares. I am using it for my phone charger but it could be good for anything!

You can download the PDF pattern by clicking here.

Now go and visit these lovely people and see what they have made!

Day 4: Friday, August 23

Sew Peace to Peace

  

Quilt Crossing 

      

sarah did it!

  

Jane’s Quilting 

   

Life in the Scrapatch

  

Lixie Makes It

  

Creative Notions 

   

Modern Handcraft 

   

Feathered Nest Studio 

  

Moneik Quilts

The full schedule is here. 

Export vs Import

In general I am a craft exporter. I make and give far more gifts than I receive. However, I recently got my paws on the parcels from two swaps and so am now the proud owner of the following...

This lovely needlebook comes with inner packets and sweet little butterfly pins!

Then I also received my triple zip purse stuffed full of goodies.

This was my partner's first go at english paper piecing and she did an amazing job! She also sent me those two ribbon tied bundles of 2.5" squares - perfect for my own hexagons - and some pre-cut papers. My favourite thing is the lanyard which matches my sharp scissors.

Such a good idea - I can never find scissors when I need them despite owning at least 10 pairs.

I finished my Pop Spots shawl yesterday so immediately set to thinking about my next project to cast on. But then I paused. Should I be starting a new one? Don't I have enough others I should be working on? So that got me to making an inventory of my works in progress...

1. Christmas embroidery for Mater
2. Ten Christmas stockings (Yes, ten. I've got ambition if no sense.) 
3. Sashiko embroidery
4. Circles mini quilt
5. Rainbow zig zag quilt
6. Jasmine's playmat bag
7. EPP hexagon patchwork for this week's hop
8. Mum's Lace Shawl that was supposed to be finished in March

So overall, I really oughtn't to start something else. And since I mentioned the playmat bag...

The handles become a kind of drawstring around the edge. I was going to make it more detailed than this with a house and road too but after 3 hours straight of piecing and sewing I gave up on that and decided to stick with this simpler design. 

All the fabric is from stash, which contributes to my ongoing downsizing, and I used a double layer of batting to make it soft to lie or crawl on. I hope she - or at least her Mum - likes it! And when I do start something new I intend to respond to my sister's request for a 6-9 month cardi for Jasmine for when it gets colder. I am quite sure she will want to follow her Aunt's dress sense and so I envisage a mini one of these. 

I have a ball or two of each colour left which I deliberately kept back from the destash. She'll be a mini-me!

The Cupboard Was Bare

This is a before (left) and after (right) on my yarn stash.

It all went on ebay apart from a few bits and pieces now in the bottom of the cupboard. Thanks to those of you who bought from me - there were lots of bargains! It was quite stressful packing it all up and I am quite sad when I look at how little is left - but less this be a lesson to us all! Aimless stashing is pointless. You never know when you'll need to flee the country or be flooded or something else. It's not a bargain unless you are going to definitely use it. When I think of all the money I spent on what has gone....ugh. Never mind. Lesson learnt.

I did take a break from parcelling things up to go to a lovely Tea Party at Rachel's house. She and Mr K had baked up a storm.

That wasn't even the half of it. The highlight for me was the jam I had with the scones which they had made themselves. Raspberry, and seriously the best jam I have ever had (hope Mater doesn't read this but it's true). Cucumber sandwiches, gossip, scandal and knitting - lovely! I took my Pop Spots along and since then am just one final repeat from finishing the border.

I think the lace is supposed to go around the whole thing but the outer edge is enough for me. Not the most interesting thing to do - knitting on a lace edging - although quite meditative. Getting back to the tea party...Rachel has recently moved into the loveliest flat and made it amazingly chic and comfortable. It was a proper, adult home.

They have proper furniture that they own that was really nice and not flatpack. I admit I haven't read the book or seen the film but I rather suspect I am Lixie Ripley to Rachel's Dicky except she is the talented one. I have to keep remembering it's not sexy to be jealous and decide to simply admire her instead. If Mr K turns out to look like Matt Damon though...wait, that doesn't work. He'd have to look like Gwyneth Paltrow, and that would just be odd for all concerned.

Discussions continue about moving to Japan for Pooch's new job later this year. Still no date but I do know that when we come back (after 12-18 months) I shall be looking to start my own version of a home. I am feeling very done down by the economy. I earn too much for most schemes, too little to get a mortgage without tens of thousands of pounds as a deposit and it will take me years and years more to get to anything like that. I never thought I'd be 35 and still renting with no end in sight. Ah well. No sense in wallowing.

Things could be a lot worse.

Festival of Quilts 2013

Straight to the good stuff - all my photos are here if you want to have a good look by yourself without my commentary. If you want to hear what I thought of it...read on!

My personal best-in-show? I am going to split it. In no particular order we have Out of Africa.

As you can see in this close up...

...this is made up of triangles sewn into hexagons. However they all use just one fabric print - I love that. So clever! I find this very inspiring. Then we have Little Stars.

I am a big fan of paper piecing and this is diamonds, triangles and parallelograms.

Impressive. I'd not considered paralllelllograms before. Then we have a quilt with a funny name which is on Flickr if you want to know it.

I loved the movement in it. This is also very inspiring - could there be a HUGE paper pieced quilt in my near future?! Another one I mean.

As usual I did look forward to the miniature quilts and I thought this shot gave a good idea of just how mini some of these miniatures really are.

On a tiny quilt...

...you get tiny stitches.

Puts my great gallumphing sashiko stitches to shame! Back to the big quilts and this one is made entirely of old ties.

This one was enormous - that wall is about 10ft high.

I am not going to show any more since they are all on Flickr but I did deliberately take fewer photos than last year which gave me more time to focus on the ones I really liked.

Mumsy and I also managed a little shopping although we were remarkably restrained. I now know what it means to have your fingers itching. There were SO many lovely things and I wanted to bring them all home with me but budget and potential moves kept me holding back. The only fabric I bought was for the ten (TEN) xmas stockings I will soon begin. I didn't want to go with the traditional bright red, gold and green so started off with the snowman print, then added a few others, then a few more until I had the final bundle.

So it is still kinds red, green and gold. But not..I mean..you know...better. I also got a knitting kit for a shawl Mater admired which she tells me is to her only xmas present.

We'll see. On the way to and from Birmingham I was at work on my Pop Pots shawl - the edging will begin soon! Knit, knit, knit...

Fabric

It is the Festival of Quilts this week and I will be attending with my Mum once again. I always take lots and lots of lovely photos and then mull over them in the following year. Last year's are here on Flickr and very well mulled.

It will be a strange one for me this year as I'm destashing. The only thing I 'need' and that is christmas fabric for stockings. So I guess I'll be focussing more on the exhibition.

Despite not adding to my stash I had a voucher for the Fat Quarter Shop which I got before I knew about a potential move. I love that shop as even though they are in America they are very understanding when it comes to posting to the UK. This is what I spent it on.

I set myself a little challenge to put together a bundle I could make a complete quilt with in a colour range that I liked but wouldn't usually go for. I think I got it ok although I'm not sure about that green one. It's always so hard to tell on screen.

I haven't felt like doing much crafting this week other than plugging away on the popspots shawl. There are more than 500 stitches per row now so perhaps it makes sense that in contrast I've turned back to some Sashiko.

This is one of the pre-printed squares you can get from EuroJapanLinks and other places. I do prefer the ones with curves and find it aids Mindfulness (deliberate capitalisation there) and reflection. The only thing is what to do with them afterwards! I feel this one might become a bag.

Weekend of Giving and Receiving

My epic stash sort out and second round of book listing has resulted in 70+ lots being listed on ebay. Everything starts at 99p so go and grab yourself something wonderful. This is the stash pre-clearout.

I'll show you what it looks like in 10 days time.

With the way Royal Mail now calculate postage, anything more than 8cm thick costs over £5 to post. So all those 100g single balls were never going to sell plus there were various bits and bobs I thought others might enjoy. That saw me with an IKEA bag full of stash and notions heading to the Romford Group today. I came home without it which is a win for me! Plus the people there got a few goodies each and the rest has gone to EssexGirlKnits's school group. I didn't come away empty handed though. My birthday present from Nickerjac!

So many amazing embroidery transfers and in *excellent* condition despite being more than 70 years old. I still need to go through them all properly this evening but a few jumped out at me.

Book 1 and 2 plus this initial book. Gorgeous! Plus you see a lot of versions of the grown up bonnet lady - but this is the first I've seen of a junior version.

I am soooooo lucky!

I was rather delighted to get these. I found them very comforting. I had been trying to explain how it made me feel to be having such a drastic destash of my stash as well as my books. I can remember buying all of that yarn and the aspirations I had for this skein or that skein. I had expected to use it up gradually over the next decade or two and to add to it as time went on. It was a history of things I had done and places I had been over the last 10+ years. Once it's gone it's as if those memories have gone. I needed to mourn the loss of all those potential items I would have knitted. Pooch did not understand. "You can get more." was his response. And yes, if it was just yarn and not memories too then I could. I guess it's hard for anyone who doesn't knit to get it. And for any sewer reading this, it'll be my fabric stash next. Although that isn't emotive and there isn't as much to go through. Maybe I should have done that first?!

In the Olden Days

When we were little my Sister and I would occasionally ask my Mum questions about "the olden days" - usually taken to mean anything that happened before our birth. Looking through some of the photos in "The Commons" (a Flickr project to make image archives publicly available) I was reminded of this. There are some amazing images! Click on the ones below to get the original which often has a good description attached to it. Or visit The Commons and search for what interests you. You're encouraged to add information to each of them where you can.

Beautiful ambrotype.

Scarborough herring girls.

US Wounded Soldiers

My retirement as I envisage it.

You'd never be stuck for where to keep your knitting with a stovepipe hat.

From Rykjavic. These ladies have more stuff than even me.

There is lots more besides. For instance - who can resist this photo from the New York Public Library Collection:

Divine!

Which Has Been Poked More?

Me or the pin cushions I've made? Now there's a question... ;)

Here are some of the ones I've made. 

I was pondering them while considering what to make for the bloghop I've signed up for in September. I also looked further afield.

1. pin cushion caddy finished, 2. Pin Cushion, 3. Pin cushion, 4. Pear Pin Cushions, 

5. Cathedral Windows Pin Cushion, 6. little waves pin cushion

I do like the look of the pin cushion caddy, top left, for which there is a tutorial here. The pears are also lovely and there is a free pattern here for them and apples courtesy of the Guardian and Molly Makes. I've always wanted to make a fabric apple. 

The reason I suggest it could be Me is because I went to the Physio again this evening and he poked me mightily in a very tender spot on my back and then flipped me over and started prodding my stomach. Now this is not an area I've ever had massaged and it was odd. He was looking for the Psoas muscle (that's a wiki link) which I hadn't heard of before. It is essentially a kind of guy rope between the lower spine and the front of your hips. Always learning, me.