Friday 24 September 2010

Such a labour of love

I began sewing all my strips of material the other day and have now made 9 blocks for the quilt (bit of a rubbish photo, alas but you get the idea).

The beginnings of my first quilt
It is becoming an interesting experiment for me as I wrestle with colour and pattern combinations - I think some blocks are working better than others, and maybe some materials aren't working at all. (The swirling turquoise jobby really isn't doing it for me). It's looking 'OK' but not making me wee myself with excitement. Did I choose the right colours? Is my palette too broad? Are the pattern types too extreme? However, I'm loving the actual sewing, and the fact it is coming together quite quickly makes for high satisfaction levels. Maybe I'll grow to love it more with time.

Monday 20 September 2010

Quilting. Snoresville, right?

Yeah that's what I thought. And part of me still does given that most of the quilts I've seen just look a bit, well, beige, to me. Now, don't get me wrong, I am utterly appreciative of the time, effort & skill involved in creating one; I think they are works of art - and I loved the V&A Quilts exhibition, but come on. Don't they all just look a bit old fashioned? So, having told The Magnificent Mum this she thrust some quilting books in my direction, sat me down in her perfect garden with a cup of tea and a slice of ginger cake and forced me to change my mind. I saw these two designs and nearly cried.

Quilt design

Quilt design
Now this is much more like it. I love the heavily graphical nature of these - restricted colour palette, a bit more kick arse than your average quilt. I suspect the one I'm going to do is going to look quite trad when I've finished with it (it is going to be a gift for a special occasion) but I'm defo going to do one for myself that has some balls.

How to triple your sewing stash...

...in one weekend. Go and stay with my Mum! We had a brilliant time mooching around all the local sewing shops in Norfolk when I went to visit this weekend. I want a long term sewing project as well as all the quicky bits and pieces I do, so I'm going to embark on a quilt. Not only did I end up buying my own body weight in fabric, but also a cutting board, rotary cutter thingy, books, and all sorts of haberdashery things "just in case". That'll be beans on toast for the next month for me then.

Fabric stash
And of course, it is so ridiculously picturesque at The Magnificent Mum's that there are an abundance of chichi chairs in her gorgeous garden to photograph the stash on.

The fabric stash on a nice chair in an even nicer garden
Immediately upon my return to Old Londres I got cracking on the rotary cutter and have managed to saw up (technical term) half the material already. Am going to use the "log cabin" technique as it is fairly quick to bring to life apparently. Exciting stuff.

Saturday 11 September 2010

And the pleats turned into...

...a birthday scarf for The Lovely Step Mum, but then The HusWife got hold of it, decided that it was perfect for him, gave me a bit of a sob story that went along the lines of "You never make me anything and you've been sewing for aaaaages now and if you really loved me you'd let me have it." So his penance for such mischief was to be model for the scarf at least. And then he did unspeakable things with it to ensure that it was indeed, his and his only. Tsk, boys.

A scarf for a lady that The HusWife nicked for himself

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Oh go on then, just one more

Was asked by a friend to make an ipad cover for his wife's 40th birthday - cue lots of searching for the perfect material. I discovered The Silk Society on Berwick Street and bought this beautiful embroidered black silk. Eye wateringly expensive, but so very, very worth it. Teamed with a shocking pink dupion innard and a nice bit of cyan grosgrain and voila. (Apparently) one very happy lady. :-)

A very special birthday ipad cover for a very special @LadyLavish

Monday 6 September 2010

Messing with material again

I've found myself getting a bit caught up in making finished stuff. Which is all good and fine, but I have been feeling a bit weary with the amount of ipad covers I've finished lately. I realised that all was required was a return to how I was at the beginning of the year - clueless and messing about stitching material in random ways. Thus, a few samples later, and there's a spot of pleating madness going on...

Every which way pleating

...and yes, I think it's going to be finished off into a 'thing' - let's see what it turns into :-)

Saturday 4 September 2010

Into the realms of mass production.

Well, sort of. My day job lovelies commissioned me to make 10 ipad covers, for giving to clients etc. So in a mad whirl of cutting and ironing and pinning and sewing I managed to complete them all before we went on our hols. Just didn't have time to post this before we left. I must try and photograph them properly before they all get given away. I think they've come out rather well :-)

ipad covers for Friday