Exciting places to visit

This weekend it's "made in clerkenwell" and I'm hotfooting it down there on Friday. It's billed as a way to meet 90 designer makers across all sorts of types of disciplines, in their studios where they work their magic. Brilliant.



It costs a whopping £2.50 to get in. And that covers access to 2 buildings for all 4 days of the exhibition. Recession-tastic. (Although I suspect my wallet might be somewhat lighter after the visit given the designers that are showing...)

I'm looking forward to going; it has been too long since I took the time out to really look at stuff and meet new people.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Last year I declared to anyone who would listen that I needed to start my own business. Am gaining speed on the big 4-0 you see, and I've found there's no better incentive to get your arse in gear. So, you'll find me working late into the night trying out patterns and throwing fabric around trying to find a way to make a business out of my craft. There's clearly a lot to do! But instead of staring into the abyss and getting the fear really badly, I'm working my way through a very extensive to-do list (oh how we Virgos like a good to-do list). It's such a long list because I've gone into micro detail on each task, so that I can have the pleasure of ticking lots of things off!

One item staring me down has been developing my own website. Given that this is my day job, you'd think I'd be totally on it already. Alas no. But today I finally registered the url and have knocked up a quicky holding page that can be sorted out at a later date once I know what direction I'm going in. It's very basic at the mo - one might say it's a very small bite of the elephant - but do pop by if you fancy it www.josimmons.co.uk

My creative space - going slightly off tangent..

Oh! To-do lists staring me down...piles of fabric all messed up needing attention...the leaning tower of admin threatening to topple over...and what do I do? I think to myself, "You know what, I could sew together some of that left over fabric I've got from my denim quilt, but do it roughly this time and then wash it and see what happens."

This is what happened. Before it went into the washing machine:



And after:



And oh, I think we likey right?



And so, when I need a bit of a break from all the other things clamoring for attention I'm going to set about making a lovely big quilt using up all the random weird shapes of denim I have lying around. And then maybe use a nice bit of diagonal stripey cotton to back it with. Yum yum.



Lovely creative spaces over at Kootoyoo

Congratulations Annie!

So, the lovely Annie got married yesterday to the magnificent Loz and a marvellous time was had by all. We drank champagne and ate lovely food and boogied to brilliantly weddingy music. Annie looked beautiful in her dress and it was good to see her bag in action. Seeing as I'd not handed it over personally when it was finished I didn't quite know what she made of it...but it turns out she loves it and was proud to carry it. Hurrah! It was worth all the nervous heart beats preparing the pattern.

Look who rang!

Brilliant! @spaceboy took the message but failed to get his number. Amateur!

Progressing the man quilt. Finally.

Oh, the projects we take on eh? I'm up to my eyeballs in all sorts of things sewing related (got something up my sleeve for later this year which has a MASSIVE to-do list attached to it...) most of which I haven't been able to mention yet. And then I have my own personal to-do list, gifts and experiments and what have you that have taken a bit of a back seat lately. You might remember the man quilt project from before when I did a test and got the OK from the sewing world (thank you!). I managed a few rows here and there for a while and then just couldn't muster the strength to carry on; and now, yes you've guessed it, it has to be ready in under 3 weeks. Gazooks. Managed to crank out 5, yes 5 rows tonight...better crack on. (Have also had a major wobble about it, not sure it's working blah blah, I hate the material blah blah. The HusWife patiently pointed out that I'm like this with every project and that I'm to to reserve judgement until it's finished. Roger that!)

Waking up early has its benefits

I've been setting the alarm early so I can write every morning before getting the boys up and at 'em and starting the mad rush to get ready for school/work. And so far this week, this is what I've seen out of our lounge window. Lovely.



At this time of morning our estate is so quiet you can hear the birds and there is no-one around. A rare silence. The leaves move about in the gentle wind and the sun dapples about on my face. B-rilliant. The longer I live in London the more important the odd 5 minutes of quiet becomes. I am very fond of my early mornings. Slightly less fond of the bags under my eyes though. Hey ho. You make your choices.