Quilting Retreat - pre-event party!

Did you know that I am escaping onto a quilting retreat this coming weekend?.   I am terribly looking forward to this and can't wait to meet in person many of the bloggy friends I have made over the last year.  James, on the other hand, can't help sniggering when I put the words "Quilt" and "Retreat" into the same sentence.  I'm afraid to say I think he thinks I'm a geek!!

Anyway, I thought I'd join in with the pre-event party (linking up on the Fat Quarterly website) and introduce myself to fellow retreaters :)

I look like this. Kind'a.

( I got James to take a picture of me for this blog, and didn't like any of them, except that cutie in the middle, so the only option was to put them all in...in very small boxes.  Not sure what dropped down my top in that last one)

No idea what I'll be wearing but by a twist of fate I'll be carrying this, one of my early bag makes (the only one that didn't sell is also my favourite!)

I'm 38 and I used to be an IT Director for an insurance company, officially until about a year ago when my maternity leave ended and I gave my notice, in order to be a full-time Mum to my daughter Felix, who will be 2 next month.   I am also lucky enough to get to hang out with James' two children, to whom I will officially become stepmum in July when we get married.

I am making my own wedding dress and as a result have been a bit of a sporadic blogger of late, as dates loom.

I'll be travelling up to London on the train on sturday morning, accompanied by this quilt for Siblings together

(sewn by Terri and I, who will be hand stitching the binding on the train, at this rate!)

plus an enormous wheelie suitcase, plus fellow Brit Bee and fabric mule, Terri (aka Mish Mash Mama) and Liz (new bloggy friend aka Dandelion Daydreams) and am staying at the Radisson Edwardian Vandebilt on Saturday night.

I'm hoping I'll mostly be:

A) Marvelling at the talent/ superb time management skills/ stash/ quilty finishes of everyone else!
B) Talking to new and old friends
C) Attending these classes (in this order):

• Portholes
• Frame purses
• Freezer paper piecing
• Designer challenge

D) Living it up with my fellow Brit Bees (a marvellous bunch)
E) Propping up the bar at any opportunity :)

See you there?

x

Double act!

On Thursday, Terri (aka Mish Mish Mama aka fabulous human being) and I got together to do some sewing.  We'd decided to sew a quilt for the Siblings Together Charity which is rocking the online quilting world at the moment, and a jolly good cause it is too.   Click here to read about it on Lynne's blog, Lily's quilts, if you haven't already.

The vague plan was to sew a quilt in a day - which didn't really happen!  Here's the rough timeline of events:

9.00 Lovely Felix goes to the childminder
9.30 Terri arrives - hot drinks and chat and Internet fabric shopping
9.32  James spots delicious homemade cookies that Terri has brought
10.30 Decide we need a plan, look at available fabrics
10.32 James caves and asks for a cookie
11.00 Settle on using Terri's Pips charm pack as basis for a log cabin quilt, rummage in fabric stashes for coordinates
11.15 Hot drinks, chat, James (working from home!) appears and eats another cookie
11.30 Start cutting and sew a test block (that looks like this), chat

(or was it this one??)

12.00 Terri sewing inner parts of blocks, chain-piecing styley, Ceri slicing strips of fabric for outer logs, chat
13.30 Lunch, chat, James eats a cookie
14.00 Back to it!  Stitch Stitch Stitch - look, we're hard at work, honest!

16.00 Politely request that James goes and retrieves Felix, which he does, in exchange for a cookie - (yes, that's four!)  Fifteen blocks down, 5 to go

17.00 Look, twenty blocks! Terri has to leave for her brood, so we call it a day.

Yep, they need sewing together, quilting and binding, but hopefully we have a plan to achieve that before the Quilting Retreat in two weeks time..

A very satisfying day, in many ways....and we'll have to have another one to get this finished, darn it :)

x

Going to a wedding..

I mentioned wedding invites in my last post and since they've arrived with recipients, I can officially share another Inspiredby Felix project that's been taking up a bit of mental space recently!

As you may know, I was a little hooked after doing a days screen printing with Sue.  Well I got this idea of printing wedding invites onto tea-towels.... so I did a drawing (got to love those Sharpie pens!) with most of the information on (dates and address have been fuzzed to protect the innocent!), and with Sue's help got it transferred to a screen.

We printed 50 tea-towels over two sessions lasting about four hours each.  All the invites (plus spares) were hand screen-printed in the first session, in a two-person routine that became second nature after an hour.  These were spread out over Sue's house in order to dry!

And in the second session, a few days later, we added the colours using hand-cut templates.

I ended up folding these with an information leaflet, wrapped in a printed cardboard loop, packaged in smart white envelopes with sketched labels.  Special thanks go out to my Mum who ironed and folded the vast majority! 

I'm pleased to say the response has been fab, and I even got a fabric reply from my cousin, and a wonderful handmade card from my Aunty....craftiness breeds craftiness!

x

Winter Stitching list round-up

Way back in October I created a winter stitching list and linked up to Sarah over at Fairyface designs - the aim being to tide me through until the warmer climes (ha-de-ha).  I had a little mid-point review in January and now is the time to do a final update on progress.  

The good news first:

1) Bee blocks..The final few have been delivered For the European Bee I have been part of.  I was so late that I'm sure all the lovely ladies in that Bee have been (legitimately) cursing me, so can't inflict my lateness on them any longer and won't be carrying on for a further year.  (lesson to self, do not take on too much!)

2) Brit Bee is still going strong with these blocks being delivered.

I also had my month in March and asked for paper pieced foody blocks...and look what I got!!!!! 

1. Time for Tea?, 2. Needles and Lemons - Eggs!, 3. Brit Bee block, 4. raspberry ripple, 5. Miss March Brit Bee Block, 6. a March Bee Block, 7. Drink up, 8. Pizza!, 9. Brit Bee March Pineapple Block, 10. Foody block from Jo, 11. apple block from Jennie, 12. Brit Bee Block for Ceri

There is also a sooper-dooper mad hatters cake on it's way from Terri (I've had a sneak preview!) and then I need to do a couple of blocks - this is going to be one amazing wall-hanging!!

3) Learning to screen print.  I did this, it was fab, and I'm addicted!  

4) Free-motion a large quilt - I did this with the Bonkers quilt, and my shoulders ached...but, I've had some brilliant tips re making the process a little bit easier on myself (sticky gloves, large table space etc) and would definitely to it again.

5) Approach another shop.  I finally did this a couple of weeks ago.  Feedback was positive so I'm just waiting to see what, if any, stock they'd like.

And the progress that wasn't..

6) The sliced coins quilt has not moved from the pile it was in in January, nor have the blocks for my Bee Europa quilt - I must get to it soon, there's wonderful blocks in there that need showing off

7) The Stained quilt along - I'm so sorry Sarah, this is all still sitting in a reusable Tesco's bag!.  I've seen some amazing Stained quilts, so I will come back to this.

The unplanned...

8) Had a fab time in the Mouthy Stitches swap.  I sent this to IsisJem:

 and got this faberoony pouch from Indianna Dreams!

9) Guest posted at Fairyface designs with a little girls skirt tutorial

10) Mini-quilt made and submitted in the Modern Mini challenge... I didn't win, but had so many lovely comments and people pinning my image, that I felt like I'd won!

11) Made lots of gifts, and more things to sell.

Oh heck, yeah, and decided to get married this summer!  (and here lies my excuse for anything not completed in the above list!!)

A quick summary of the latest on that:

THE DRESS - toile finished, adjustments made and pieces cut from the final fabric.  Facings designed and cut.  Bodice is half stitched together.

THE BRIDESMAIDS - Successful trip to Oxford Street on Saturday resulting in three bridesmaids dresses for the older bridesmaids and three ridunculously high pairs of shoes

(not unlike these - their choice, honest!)

THE INVITES - invites designed, printed and sent by me - watch this space - I hope this one deserves a post of it's very own :)

If you've got to the bottom, thanks so much for reading..shorter post next time, I promise!

x

"Diary of a wedding dress" by a beginner dressmaker - Part 1

Some of you will know that I crazily bravely decided to make my own wedding dress this year. Some of you have also been kindly asking about progress, and, as of yesterday, I had exactly 3 months to get it done so I thought an update was in order!

Don't panic, I don't think I'll be giving any secrets away...James has seen the fabric and the pattern (I felt this was necessary to prevent any nasty shocks as I enter the room!), but he swears that being a bloke means he has no capability to visualise the finished article :)

You may breathe a sigh of relief when I tell you we're not talking about a traditional wedding gown here.  I have an aspiration to get married in a brightly coloured 1950's style big skirted frock.  In pursuit of this aim I found a wonderful designer/dressmaker by the name of Anna who lives locally (you can check out her gorgeous studio here and her blog here).  She has kindly agreed to help me achieve my aim, and, by gum, I'm glad she did.

Anna runs vintage dressmaking classes and has a huge array of patterns to choose from. After an hour of browsing, we settled on a hybrid of the dresses below, teaming the voluminous skirt from the pattern on the left (using 6m of fabric!) with the boat neck bodice from the pattern on the right, but minus the sleeves and the pointy bit at the bottom of the bodice.

Next, I went in search of a fabric that would be in keeping with the style of the dress, but would be wowzers enough for a wedding.  I headed off to London, armed with a fantastic list of shops to visit, thanks to bloggy friends who did a great job of providing me with recommendations.   Soho, Edgeware Road, South Kensington - we did the lot. On the second trip, Mum and I ended up at the fabulous Goldhawk Road, where we purchased THE perfect fabric. 

Despite having looked at lots of wonderful expensive silks, I found myself immediately drawn to this more modest cotton which has a rich print with sumptuous colours and slightly satinised feel to it.

I LOVE IT! 
...and, there's so much potential in the colours (the background is actually a dark jade green, I just couldn't get it to photograph!) for coordinating bridesmaids and flowers etc

Back in the studio, and with much help from Anna over the last few weeks, I have learnt to trace a pattern and adjust it for my measurements.  I have learnt to properly mark and cut out pattern pieces for the toile (practice version, in my case, made from an old king size bedsheet) and to stitch the skirt together.  I have also learnt to gather, tailors-tack and insert darts.  And then, last Friday, I stitched the gathered skirt to the bodice pieces and tried on my toile.

The dress was a good fit, but at first we were both a bit "MEH" about the look.  The skirt didn't appear to be that special, and the bodice looked boxy with a lack of waist definition.

(NB. this next bit is where the professional works magic!)

Anna got a spare voluminous petticoat out (which transformed the skirt) and jumped into action with her pins.  We lifted the waistline an inch and a half (I think I must be high-waisted), dropped the bust darts an inch (there was a hint of comedy Madonna pointy bra going on!)...and no, Helen, this does not mean I'm tucking my boobs into my waistband (I had to giggle at that comment!)

We also took the waist darts in an inch at the front and back...and hey presto, a dress with some serious potential emerges!  I was too pinned up to think to get my camera out so no pictures I'm afraid, but here is the bodice with all the alterations marked on.

(check out my newly acquired gathering skills!)

The next step is to unpick this, make the pencil adjustments, and then use these pieces to cut from the final fabric.....eek!  In the real thing, I am going to need to master facings, linings and a hidden zip plus other techniques I'm sure I don't know about yet - so it's by no means plain sailing!

x

Bloggy backlog...or is that bloggers block?

Sounds painful?!  I think I might be suffering from this!    I'm not talking about reading blogs because although I LOVE reading blogs I seem to be continually behind on catching up with other people's happenings...  nope, this is about my inability to get a blog post out!

I've got so much stuff to talk about....For starters there's the Liebster awards and bloggy "tag" (totally missed the boat on this one), then there's wedding dress progress - I have THE fabric (!) and the invites, handmade by me too.  And then there's a few final blocks that I stitched for Bee Europa, plus a string cushion that I'm just finishing...and I really really need to show you all the wonderful foody blocks I've got from the fabby Brit Bee ladies.....oh, and did I mention that Felix has finally got a few words (so cute), James stepped on a rusty nail (serious ouch moment) , and I've joined the Wonky WI?! 

It dawned on me that my new years resolution was to blog more frequently, but shorter posts...a task that I have so far spectacularly failed on.

It's never too late to start though..so here goes with the first of my shorter, speedier bloggy witterings..

I give you three blocks for three months in Bee Europa.  It's been great but I'm ducking out now, due to my inability to keep up.

Particularly loving this spiders web and learning that you don't need seam allowances on the outer edge of selvedges (I wondered how people using selvedges didn't lose the text in the seam allowance!)  I am now inspired to start saving my selvedges properly (in long lengths and with an inch of print above the selvedge) so I can make something like this for meeeeee :)

Back soon, I promise!

x

A catch up (photo heavy!)

What with all the excitement (trips to Brussels, wedding excitement yah-de-yah) I've not had time to blog about the normal goings on at the sewing machine.  So here's a little update on smaller things I've made as gifts and for selling in the shops.  Hopefully not too boring and same-y!

First up, Some iPad covers - After a false start with my first attempt, I managed to get the sizing right second time around and these actually do fit i-Pads in them! I played around with Velcro and zip fastening options. Feedback from James, whilst generally positive, did suggest double layers of batting next time (he's getting into the groove of this sewing lark!)

Then, a zippy pouch for Mothers day. I made this with the phone tucked into my shoulder catching up with the lady in a cupboard in Shetland, whilst she stitched and then unpicked some piecing - it's amazing neither of us sewed through our fingers! (Message for Mum: multi-tasking doesn't make it any less of a gift!)

Two cushions - I pieced the front of the first one yonks ago, it's taken me ages to getting around to finishing it off!

Some extra little zippy purses

A baby quilt - I tried to make this unisex, but rather than go rainbow, I opted for an alternative colour scheme. I think I was thinking log cabin, but kept changing my mind and ended up with these quarter log cabin blocks...

which I finally laid out in alternate directions, and added a double border and scrappy binding to create a quilt measuring about 30" x 40".  It's for sale in the shop at the moment, and is backed in purple fleece and quilted in a free-style wavy line pattern that is my new favourite "easy to do" quilting design!

(sorry for the appalling picture, forgot to get a proper shot so had to make do with a snap outside the shop!)

And finally, a lovely friend of mine, Zoe, whom I haven't seen for a few months, had a little boy a couple of weeks ago.  His name is Monty and I made this changing mat for him (well, more for his mum actually, although he may appreciate the fleecy lining!).

I followed this pattern but added improv-piecing to the exterior .  The pictures don't show the fabric covered button I need to add before sending it on it's way to it's new owner :).  Welcome to the world, Monty!

x