a bag, more bags and the rhodi

Another week gone by with no blog posts from me. I can't even tell you what I've been doing since the last time I was here - not because it's a secret, but because I have no idea! I do remember sitting outside in the sunshine with a notebook and pen and making great plans but those plans mostly involved things like "tidy out kitchen cupboards", "tidy out all drawers in the bedroom". Have I done any of that - no, of course not! :oD

Since I can't remember what I did last week, let me show you what I made yesterday and today. It's another version of the "For Pleats' Sake" bag from Lisa Lam, found here. (It's free).

This is the inside fabric. Don't you just love it? I do!

I decided to make my own handles this time using the same fabric as the outside of the bag and some round metal rings I had in my stash. I'm very happy with the way they've turned out.

Next on the agenda is more shopping bags. Debbie's shop is running short of them - yay! - and I've got a special request for 2 more from a previous customer from my Etsy shop - yay, again! As you can see from those piles of fabric, I have lots of bags to cut out before I can get on and get them sewn.

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted that my ironing board and cutting table have changed places in my sewing room. This was because I always seemed to be standing in my own light at the cutting table so I've put it right in the middle of the room. It's actually given me more room to work as I can now get to all four sides of the table instead of just the one side.

My last photo is our rhododendron. I don't think it's ever had so many flowers on it. Isn't it fabulous? :o)

zigzag quilt top finished and Tilly & Whisky

Over the weekend, I got the top of the pink zigzag quilt made. First of all I laid the pairs of squares on our bed and made sure I liked the layout. I actually managed not to spend half an hour moving them around! Yay!

I then sewed the rows together and gave them all a good press.

And here they are all sewn together in the finished top.

I now (just) have to pin it onto a pink fleece blanket, quilt it, bind it, label it and then it'll be done.

I didn't get that done today, though. I had some important mending to do. Meet Whisky. Tilly loves Whisky.

In fact, Tilly loves Whisky just a bit too much! She chewed his nose off! Yikes! (Look away now if you're faint-hearted!)

She sat patiently on the stool watching me fix Whisky ...

... for about 5 seconds. Then she thought she'd better look at my noticeboard.

When I looked at the photo above, I realised she was looking at the photo of Molly I took this time last year. It still makes me laugh!

I did get Whisky mended. He now has no nose which reminds me of that old joke.

My dog has no nose.
How does he smell?
Awful! :oD

the "randomness" begins

Today's sewing started with snipping off all the ears of the squares I'd joined up the other day. (Isn't it strange what bloggers take photos of? LOL)

In an effort to give "random" a chance, I sorted my squares into piles of "bolds", "mediums" and "lights".

I then just grabbed a square from two piles and sewed them together.

I then pressed all the seams open. The next stage is laying them out (randomly) on the bed and then moving them around until I'm happy with the "randomness" of it all!

I was really impressed with myself that I realised - before I'd sewn all 144 squares together - that, on each alternate row, I'd need single squares at the ends of the row to make the pattern work. It only meant not sewing 6 pairs together but better to have realised before I sewed them together than after!

a top and a new baby quilt

I have one more top to show from last week's sewing. Again the pattern is my favourite sleeveless top pattern, Simplicity 2599.

Now on to new things. Last Friday, I sat outside in the sunshine and made plans for a new baby quilt. (No baby in mind, I just fancied making a pink quilt!) I'd seen this one on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to make. So I made plans:

This morning, after doing the ironing - just showing off here! LOL - I cut out 72 pink 4½" squares and 72 white 4½" squares. (Thank goodness for my Go! cutter. The 4½" square die was well used this morning!) I drew lines on the diagonals of the pink squares, sewed them together ¼" away on both sides of that line, cut them apart and got these.

I pressed some of them open but I have quite a few more to do.

Next job is to put them together in a random pattern. Who am I kidding? The pattern will start off randomly and then I'll probably spend ages moving them about until it's not random at all! I know I'm not the only one who does "random" that way! :oD

another one!

There was another birthday around these parts yesterday. Mine! 59 and counting!

We had a great day with the girls here most of the day whilst Douglas and Jason went to an exhibition in Glasgow. We had the dogs as well - there are videos but I need to load them on to youtube to be able to show them so I'll leave those for another day.

More importantly, here's what I got for my birthday. There were books:

And fabric:

And handles and buttons and a spatula to replace the one that's been so well-used it's falling to bits:

Pink shoes!:

And a pink cardigan.

There might also have been some money and amazon vouchers. My family know me sooooooo well! :o)

secret things

Here are the secret things I made this week for Joanna's birthday today. First of all, a pouch with her favourite matryoshkas on the outside. I used the free open wide pouch pattern by Anna at Noodlehead.

The inside:

And an orphaned earring made a great zip pull! I think it was one of Joanna's own earrings so very fitting that she should get it back!

And my favourite game this week was making these hairgrips. I saw the idea on Pinterest - here - and sent off for the special kirby grips from a supplier on ebay. I had the cover buttons already so it was just a case of digging them out, covering them with fabric, taking off the wee bit you're meant to sew the button on with and attaching the now flat button to the wee circle on the kirby grip with hot glue. These only use about a 1" square of fabric - I could make millions of these and still have fabric left! LOL

I swear it took me longer to cut the cards and punch holes in them to take the kirby grips than it did to make the hairgrips! Fun times! :o)

Joanna got a few more presents than this but, for some reason, I haven't taken photos of them.

Happy Birthday, Joanna. Being 32 is going to be awesome! :o)

2 more tops

Here's the photo of the other top I was telling you about last time. Joanna gave me this fabric for my Christmas - not bad using it before it's a year old! :oD

And I made this top this morning. I got the fabric in the remnant basket of my local shop - cost me all of £4. Not too shabby!

I also started another top this afternoon but will take photos of that one when I get it finished. I don't think I have nearly enough of these tops yet! LOL

12 pinnies, 2 tops and a funny

It's been another of those weeks where life gets in the way of blogging but I am managing to do some sewing so let me show you what I've made - or at least some of it. (Someone has a birthday this Friday so I can't show you everything I've made because it would spoil the surprise!)

First of all, these are the 12 pinnies I cut out a while ago. I've finished them and they're all pressed and ready to go to Debbie's new shop in Perth tomorrow with Douglas. I meant to take proper photos of each one but forgot and they're now in the car ready for transportation so this will have to do!

Next a sleeveless top in some spotty fabric.

I made it using one of my tried and tested patterns - Simplicity 2599, view D this time - without the frilly bit.

Then I made another one using a piece of batik from my stash.

I made a third one with fabric Joanna gave me for my Christmas but, for some reason, there's no photo of that one so I'll take one soon and show it off too.

I have to tell you a funny story. Mum's been in hospital this week to try and see if her confusion and general being unwell is "just" a chest infection. I went up to visit her this afternoon and I told her she was in the hospital to see if the doctors could find out what was wrong with her.

This is how the conversation went:

Mum: I know what's wrong with me - a chest infection .... oh, and there's something wrong with my stomach.
Me (startled): What's wrong with your stomach?
Mum: It's too flat!.

Have you any idea how hard it was for me not to laugh out loud and say "I wish I had that problem"?

By the way, there's nothing wrong with mum's stomach - other than it being too flat! :oD

finished - the spotty quilt

I decided that the time had come to quilt the spotty quilt I started a wee while ago. I checked back on here and found that it was the 28th of March that I blogged about making the quilt top. I'm not sure that that can really be called "a wee while ago" - more like "quite a wee while ago"!!

Anyway, I got on with it and, by yesterday evening, it was ready for me to hand-sew the binding to the back. I thought it looked really good all folded and waiting to be sewn so I took a photo of it that way. As you do. Or at least you do when you're a blogger! LOL

I asked Joanna to help me take photos of it in all its glory this morning so here it is.

She insisted I took another photo as she hadn't been smiling in the first one. You can see her smiling in this one, can't you??

And here's the perfect fleece which I admit I bought for the back. I didn't want to have to buy a new piece of fleece but none of the fleece blankets I had were big enough. When I saw this spotty fleece, I knew I just had to buy it. It's just so perfect for this quilt!

I love everything about this quilt - the spotty fabrics in the big squares, the navy and white making it all pop, the orange spotty I used for the binding and the spotty fleece on the back. I had thought about doing fancy round quilting - circles or a spiral - but I actually think the diagonal lines set the whole thing off perfectly. I LOVE it! :o)

laptop case

This week's sewing time was spent making Joanna a case for her laptop. The fabric I chose is very appropriate, don't you think? I had 2 fat quarters of it so I knew I'd have enough with leftovers.

The pink edge is the top of a divided pocket on the outside.

Here's the other side - no pocket on this side.

And the inside.

The photo's a bit dark but the lining is the same pink as is on that pocket edge. I didn't have a bright pink zip so I used a lilac one instead - no point in going out to buy a zip when I had one which matched just fine. I was a wee bitty worried about sewing the zip around the corners but I just used lots of pins and snipped the zip tape to make it lie flat.

I wondered what I'd use for handles. I could have made some out of the same fabric but I was digging around in my drawers - tee hee :oD - and found some royal blue polypropylene tape which was a perfect match so I used that. I ran the ends over the top of a candle to melt them to stop any fraying, then I just sewed them on.

I really like that I made this totally out of things I already had and didn't have to go out and buy anything. I also liked that I made up the pattern myself from scratch. Go me! Most important of all, though, is that it fits the laptop perfectly and that Joanna loves it! Yay! :o)