QUILTING IDEAS....WOW!!!!

Well what can i tell you????
this morning has been somewhat of a revalation to be honest...i bought what i thought was a pattern book for quilts and it turned out to be so much more....its given me so many idea's my heads swimming....i now know how to do flying geese,the devils road,and many,many,many others...have decided to make my mother -in -law a lap quilt for her birthday...am almost finished,but have used the shooting star pattern and log cabin squares for edging,and have also donethe dice blocks too,by way of an edging...am thinking of making a couple of these to sell online........could do with a cash injection this year,the car is due for an MOT this year and have got a feeling its going to be expensive.......
Yesterday morning i had a good search around my material stash and couldn't find much of it left,so i got off my butt and went to A small town near us called Eye,it has got a real alladins cave of a material shop,i could spend months in there and still not see the same thing twice.......So i asked for quilting peices and she handed me a whole drawer of material peices all reasonably priced(1.99 per fat quarter....)and then told me to pick as many materials off the rack as i liked to make as many fat quarters up as i liked she had every colour of the rainbow.....i could have spent hundreds of pounds in there but instead i spent a reasonable amount of money in there and took my treasure home to iron it and cut it out ready for making up....
i ironed it yesterday ready for cutting ,so i bit the bullet and cut it and re-ironed it with all the creases in it for stitching.....
This morning i started on my mother-in-laws quilt and it is going well,a bit lip chewing,but getting there,i have got three more log cabin sqaures to do as a linig and then its ready for the backing and the quilting pattern....and then it will be wrapped and mailed directly off to my mother -in-law....but with the arguements my hubs and his mother have been having this should be putting things to rights with a bit of luck!!!I don't have any pictures at the minute but will have by the time its ready to mail....so will post them later...so for now,its bye!!!!!

This is what I couldn't post in the last one!!!!

this is a placemat i made from scraps of patchwork i experimented with first time.....

this is my new sewing machine bargain of the year...gazes sale yard...ILOVE YOU!!!!!

This one has been made for my nana by me....I hope she likes it!!!!

This is my nana's quilt un binded....

This is all of the pictures i couldn't post in the last blog.....I hope this makes sense.....

First Foray Into patchwork...

Evening,

I know its been a while since i posted anything on here but to be honest i have spent the last month or so making christmas presents....things have been as lairy as a lairy thing here...there has been a mass flurry of material,cotton and batting everywhere and anywhere...i even managed to finds loose cottons in my underwear and all over the floor,and the hoover just doesn't pick up every little thread,does it??

Anyway enough of that side line...here goes...

I have spent the last 8 weeks or so collecting material from charity shops and material shops the odd curtain here and there and anything i think might be a little unusual and pretty...and i ended up with a chest of drawers full of scraps and mass meterage of material all over the place.

Well last week it was time to bite the bullet and enter the place that is my stash....

i started cutting strips about 3" wide and about 18" long and went from there...But i had help...My Darling Daughter decided that she wanted to help me in this endeavour bless her,she drew up the designs for me and i had a go at making them...the first one was a hold the breath moment,it wasn't exactly straight,and it was a bit wonky to say the least...but after much shouting and swearing i managed to get the top part sewed together...it looked like this;-and i was more than happy then i realised that i would have to make it 4 large squares across and add a frill along the bottom to make it wide enough....,you see my mum had asked me to make a cover for her sofa for christmas because her old blankie had just disintegrated on her...then it was time to put the backing and the batting on,well that was a trial and a half...the thing was so big it was like trying to wrestle with a jelly,i couldn't just get into a comfortable enough postion to sew...so my hubs came up with a brilliant idea...why not lay it out on the living room floor and then the kids could help feed it into the machine and take the strain of the weight...well that worked fine for the first anchoring row,and then it was a bit downhill from there,but after much nail and lip biting i managed it!!!!I even managed to put a wide homemade bias binding on the edges to neaten it up(i never realised how many sin's bias binding could cover......)and it looked brilliant,the only problem was that i had a heck of a job getting the dog off it,she spent the rest of the evening sulking when she finally moved......

And then i had the bright idea that i would make a lap quilt for my nana for christmas,and there i saqt today sewing strip after strip after strip or material togther and then cutting it up to make it stripey and like a brick wall,and to be honest i really like it,and because its smaller i didn't have to worry about wrestling this one into submission.....and here it is.....sorry my photoshop isn't working but i was well pleased with it,i just hope my nana isn't going to be too critical of it...my nana is a seamstress and makes wedding dresses for a living...but the funny thing is that i never realised that even the most beautiful prize winning quilts aren't always straight and level but i enjoyed the process and will definitley be doing it again.....

SEWING MACHINE MADNESS!!!

Morning everybody!!!

this week has been a bit mental,my kids have all been everywhere and no-where all at the same time!!!but thats for a different time and place..

This week beast has been on overdrive....I have found a technique i like doing and found a simple pattern that i can do without a pattern...its all in my head.......

I had another go at sewing machine smocking...and this time it was die straight and very fine to look at ...i have found that the closer the lines of elastic,the tighter and more shape and support the smocking provides.I had a forray into my local material shop in Diss,and asked vicky how to do this technique but she hadn't got a clue...its funny but i always thought that if you owned a material shop you should at least be able to give advice....but she does have a funny little stock of betty boop material,not my thing....but some of them i like.....her range is brilliant but its a start.

am going to see my sister this afternoon and might just have to stop in eye and have a look at their material shop,must tie a length of thread round my ankle as i might just get lost........

Now back to the matter at hand,this time i wasn't quite so nervous about smocking,i made a little girls dress and then decided to tackle one for grown ups....but i didn't want to make a dress,so i made a top out of a 1meter by 1meter sqaure of fabric,hemmed the top,did the elastic front and back,stitched them together down the sides and the folded out the side hems and locked them down to neaten the edges,,,,hemmed the bottom and made the straps,the straps are 1 meter in length and 2" wide sewn down one side and closed at one side,cut them in half and turned them the right side out,fixed them to the top and got the iron out ready to go......

pressed it very gentlyand tried it on...now,i am a size 16 in the uk and because i had doen it so finely it didn't fit me .....but my daughter was happy to try it on she's a size 14 and it fits her perfectly(mind you she's got boobs to die for!!),so i decided to put it on e-bay for sale and there it sits waiting for a new owner,i have had quite a few looks ,i would like to think that somebody would like this and would buy it...eventually i would like to turn it into a business.....but until i learn everything i shall just spend time on a few items at a time.........so here are the photo's of my latest projects finished......

SMOCKING...A STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN....

It all started a month ago................

I saw a magazine in my local newsagents...with a smocked top dress on the front page.But i hadn't got any money on me to buy it.so i went home and the following morning i went to the shop to get this tantalising magazine,and i was GUTTED!!! the magazine had gone.........

But i had pelnty to be getting on with,so i did what i wanted to do,and what i needed to do for the next month or so,I needed to know the in's and outs of my new sewing machine,make a couple of pairs of 3/4 length trousers for myslef and a couple of jumpers i had on order,but all the time i had this nagging in the back of my brain..i couldn't get this smocking thing out of my head..........

Last friday my sister called offering me three polyester sarongs that she bought ona holiday abroad,just three basic oblongs of silky material 3 meters long and 1 meter wide.It seemed such a shame to bin them,so she mailed them to me.

There was a green one,a red one and a burnt orange and chocolate one.The green one had little violet flowers on it and was quite cute to be honest,But i was a bit worried about upsetting my sister,but if they were going in the charity bin why not turn them into something i wanted to make and wear???

So last night i sat in front of my PC and asked jeeves about sewing machine techniques......Then a young male voice ipied up"myum,you want to try youtube"...and there it was al those techniques,all those titles to try.....i got 3,495 results on my request...but there after sorting the wheat from the chaff was a wonderful lady under the title of aurora's garden....she had two tutorials on machine smocking,her attention to detail was brilliant,exactly what i wanted and needed!!

What a revelation!!!I was raring to go,but i didn't think that my familly would appreciate my sewing machine screaming away at 10pm at night!!!

So this morning after everybody had gotten out of bed,and after countless loads of laundry and a huge lump of beef to be roasted...i bit the bullet and got out my sewing beast......have decided to call my sewing machine "beast" because i never know what its going to do next...sometimes i'm in tears of joy,and sometimes in tears of frustration,when i think the world hates me!!!!

I got the beast up and running and made the cutes little girls swing top/dress,it was all barbie pink and sequined,and i was so pleased how it came out....my DD wants one alot bigger so she can wear one!!!

and then it was time to bite the bullet....i peeled the potatoes,and the parsnips,did the peas,and thurned the beef over in the cooking juices,and made the batter for yorkshire puddings...leaving me with no more excuses...

I set the machine up,put shiring elastic onto the bobbin,set the stitch as big as i would dare go....and started the first row.......

I held my breath on the first two rows,and needed abreak,so with a coffee in hand i stopped got away from the beast,i was shaking from head to toe with excitement and fear all at the same time..then i went back and did a further 6 rows...it started to look like a real smocked garment..and then the elastic ran out from the bobbin half way through the row,I re-wound the bobbin,caught the half row,double stitched the connected row and off i went again,all the time the dinner was thrutching away in the oven smelling great as it cooked gently,i finished the front,and then went onto the back....it was a bit wonky,but it still looked great...i seamed the sides together,hemmed the bottom and made the straps.and then it was time to put the beast to bed so i could finish the dinner.

It has been a total revelation today..i don't know why but ever since i had my car accident at the age of 19,i have this thrist for knowledge that always needs to be topped up all the time..i know my spelling is terrible,but my brain always seems to be on the want.....so i do what i can.

And now i am thinking of making awhole load of these to dress myself in the way i want to look...i know autumn is coming,but at least i know i can do this now,the next thing i want to make myself is a coat,well maybe not a coat,a jacket would be perfect for the moment,have got a nice pea jacket pattern from burda sitting in my picnic basket.....

but today i have had a epithany and would hope it will turn into money for me at some point....i am just glad to have done something this weekend without the tears and anger.

AND YES!!!L DID TAKE SOME PICTURES!!!!

OMG!!!

Evening ladies and gents,boys and girls.....well this week has been a catalogue of disasters to be honest...my knitting machine fell on my foot this morning....my clamps had bent beyond repair...my middle son has been a bit silly this week too....but thats really another story to be told somewhere else....
Well this week has been a bit up and down and i have had my sewing machine out once this week.....My mother -in -law gave me a shed load of vintage sheets with some lovely patterns on them......i decided that i wanted to turn them into little girls sun dresses...and i duly had a play and made two of them......i made one with a shirt type top and one as a tie top...and i even had time to make my own bias binding...it was all going brilliantly...and i felt on top of the world!!!!
Then this week on thuresday my mother in law rang and asked me if i would mind making the girlies some dresses for their up and coming holiday.....i knew i had these two in stock so i asked her how old the girlies were,i was in luck!!!!one of them is 6 months old and the other is 3...i knew the dresses would fit beautifully.....i packed them up after pressing them,popped them into a bag...and away they went....it wasn't until i checked to day i realised that i hadn't taken a picture of my first dress i made with the vintage sheets.....gutted much!!!!!anyway i'm going to make some more today ready to sell....so i will be taking photo's....i managed to acess a very helpful lady on youtube called aurora's garden...she's been the most helpful person i've ever encountered...she's shown me how to smock with a sewing machine...brilliant!!!!!now the worlds my oyster and now i can get on and do the one thing i have always wanted to do and make myself a dress with spaghetti straps for wearing in the sun....I am well pleased,and can't wait to get going on this one....AND I WON'T FORGET TO TAKE FLIPPING PICTURES!!!!

TOYS,TOYS,TOYS.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,boys and girls....here is that latest update on my journey through my sewing machine.

today i had a look through my sewing magazines ...and decided that it was time to have a go at making toy's even if i only ever made one...then at least i could have said that i had a go!!!!I picked a toy pattern out of Quilting Arts Stitch 1....i have to say that i fell in love with miss kitty...she looks very retro and i thought she would has been pretty difficult to make...but i shrugged my shoulders and thought what the heck lets do it!!!!

I copied out all the pattern pieces onto a sheet of greased proof paper,picked out some scrap material...and pinned out the pattern and cut it out ready for stitching...it wasn't until i had done the cutting out that i realised the pattern hadn't got a seam allowance so i "made" a seam allowance...so the kitty ended up a little smaller than the pattern should have been...i was expecting something little and handheld..but no,it was the size of a small cushion!!!But i enjoyed making it.Would you like to see it???? And there she is...she's soft and cuddly and if I'm not careful my DD will be whipping it!!she's already been dropping hints that she'd like one in a goth colour...purple,black,red and leather!!!hmmmm am thinking about that one...it could be fun to do another one with studs and piercings....

I also managed to buy a new copy of sew hip! I was well pleased with it as there's a lovely simple pattern for KNICKERS!!!!! I'm going to have a go at them tomorrow and make my mother -in law some for a laugh!!!She has got the most warped sense of humour i have ever seen or known....so i shall be making them with blue silk...and white pinstriped cotton shirt material.....i think it will put a giggle in my mother in laws tank!!after the last 4 years she's had she needs a good laugh!!!

it was due to my mother -in -law philly,that i shall be making little girlie's dresses out of the sew hip book to sell....she kindly donated 3 double quilt bags and the pillow cases...all made in the 1950's...one is white with the clarice cliff style orange and yellow flowers with a white background,a blue paisley with a white background,and a yellow and green 1970's print...i can't wait to get my hands on them!!!where else am i going to be able to recycle them into clothing mind you i do feel guilty about this......but then again they would have ended up in the ragbank otherwise........but will be posting this weeks about how things went!!!!

have got to go and cut out the pattern and get ready to pin tomorrow morning.............bye!!!

patterns,patterns,PATTERNS!!!!!

Evening everybody.....
Well have finally bitten the bullet and subscribed to a sewing magazine.....its called "sew!" and its printed by the same company that make lets knit!...and i have to say i am impressed!!!
Every month they include features on sowers that have gone it alone and made their own styled items that they sell and use themselves,,this month included a trouser,top and jacket combo...and although they are beautiful i have to say that i am not ready to make their trousers yet.....the jacket i wasn't over struck on but the "a-line" top i have made twice already.....but unfortunately my DD(darling daughter) has whipped off with them both...i made a black one and a purple one and well that was that to be honest.....she wears them both with a belt or with trousers,And whilst i am happy that she likes wearing them i would have liked to wear them myself just once...but never mind ....due to the magazine i managed to find a address where i could buy clothing patterns from Vogue,Burda and simplicity....i bought Three patterns this month,one was a pair of Vogue three quarter trousers,another was for a empire cut long top,with trousers,jacket,dress and shorts,,,and the other was a gorgeous gathered top that anybody of any size could wear and it would look fantastic!!!
i am using a roll of baking paper a month at the minute...i am using the baking paper as a tracing element instead of having to cut out the pattern from the pattern tissue paper as i am a bit clumsy and know i will just shred it!!!!!
At the minute i have got a teddy bear cut out and ready to be stitched he's been tacked and matched and now all I've got to do is stitch him together and stuff him and he'll be ready to sell or give away...but i am a bit worried as He's black and purple...a real goth bear,,,but i can't resist the chance to experience making toy's on my sewing machine.....
My DD has asked me if she can have my old mini sewing machine...i don't have a problem with that except she wants to do all these embellishments and it will only do straight stitch....so i said she could have a go with mine but i would like to own it a month before she gets her hands on it as the last machine i had that i Lent her she broke within 5 minutes and it cost me a fortune to fix...don't get me wrong it wasn't on purpose bless her she's just a bit heavy handed!!!
So i have been to two fantastic material shops in the last 2 weeks,and i would recommend them to anybody just to experience the randomness of a material shop....and the quickening of the pulse at the thought of finding the unusual,,and strange!!!One is the diss fabric shop...in st Nicolas street...its a nice enough little shop but the owner has a particular liking for american betty boop print which does nothing for me ,although she does have a fantastic range in handmade Chinese embroidered silk...albrights in diss is a lovely crafter's store and cover's every craft in large quantities...but i have to say that the ultimate material store would have to be neil's material store in eye,Suffolk,uk. its a real Aladdin's cave and is worth travelling to look at,i could get lost in their forever and never worry about coming out again....it feels like i have always belonged...and have totally fallen for its charms and materials available!!!
I managed to get a fantastic pair of scissors from banham car boot this weekend...they were £2.50 a pair and they are as sharp as a razor...now if i could only stop my middle son from using them to cut paper..........now all i want to do is get stocked up on cottons and bobbins...i always seem to loose or break a bobbin every time i use my sewing machine....but that's because I'm a bit clumsy i trod on the last one and snapped it!!!still never mind its not the end of the world....but i am practising as much as i can to get this right...i would love to turn this into something i could do as a trade but i need practise!!!!!
will post some piccies when i am done so you all can see what i have been up to!!!
bye for now,
helen.

This is where it started

Well my name is helen,i am a mother of three,and a step mother to three and grandmother to two.....but thats another story.

It all started a month ago when hubs and me visited Diss Auction rooms(T>W>Gaze)....and sitting on the shelves up for auction was dozens and dozens of Sewing machines all laying there in a row ready to be bought,loved and treasured by their owners to be.......along with them was dyson hoovers and water coolers and i had my eye on a nice second hand leather sofa which was purple in colour and would have fitted in my living room perfectly.....so i left a reasonable bid on the sofa and a cheeky bid on a sewing machine......and left it til the following day......

By the time lunch time came round i knew the household department had finished its auction so i thought i would give them ring and check to see if i got my sofa...i had completely forgotten about the sewing machine!!!!!

Within 5 minutes of calling and giving them my buyers number they told me i had won the sewing machine but the sofa had gone way over my budget...but i wasn't that bothered,just a little dissapointed..but there will be other days and other auctions...

What baffled me was how i had managed to get a newish sewing machine for the end price of £18.00 plus £1.25 fee's....but i was happy...my hubs had then revealed to me that at one point he was going to buy me a sewing machine for christmas...only because he was a bit fed up with me buying clothes and then either not being able to find anything to fit me(i'm a size16!!) or having to cut 10" off a pair of jeans to fit me because i've only got a 26" inside leg.....so he gave me a budget of £20.00 per month to buy material's for my sewing machine......

So because i didn't know much abouit sewing machines i sat down and calmly read the instruction manual which went vague at the important bit,but nonetheless i read it from cover to cover and decided to get it serviced before i used it...i found a brilliant man in botesdale who did me a full service and pick up and delivery all for the princely sum of £39.00!!!including vat and taxes.......when i got it home i had bought myself some stretch denim effect lycra cotton and thought that i would make myself a pair of 3/4 length trousers.....i bought myself a sewing machine pattern magazine and got to work......my first project was a little girls swing dress,i wanted to make something small to start with...and it was a sheer pleasure to make and enjoyed every single moment of it!!!!

within one day of owning this i caught the sewing bug.......................i bought a length of suit trouser material,some purple cotton,and some patchwork pieces...and started sewing...i made the dog an experimental patchwork blankie for her bed......she liked it anyway...and to be honest i did too...am thinking of making a full size one for us to go on our bed....but thats for the wintertime......

and then this week i did an exercise in recycling...i bought a pair of jeans from a charity stall at the carboot they cost me 25p and have turned them into 5 lovely hand bags...i decorated one with felted flowers,one with gold embroidery,and the others with buttons...all over it like sequins!!!!the project gave me a smile a mile wide...and kept my brain ticking...

i have bought 2 patterns from burda and am really looking forward to making myself some pretty summer tops,and i am definitley making myself a winter coat this year...have seen a gorgeous one sitting in my burda magazine and i adore the cut and colour....so will be definitley be doing that one........but my hubs has now got in the habit of taking me to Eye to the material shop to buy material...its a real aladin's cave and i could spend all day in there and still come out grinning from ear to ear....my middle son bless hi has got a real taste for my sewing...he's asked me to make him a pair of stretch red skinny jeans.....and i am going to make them for the weekend whilst he away at his dads so he'll have them as a nice surprise....

this week i have made 8 costumes for my little'uns play...it took some doing as i only had two days to do but it was fun in a way.....and the more i sew the more i learn!!!Don't get me wrong i am still knitting and crocheting...but am constantly busy and i am happy!!!!!

Here's some piccies of what i havebeen upto in the time i have had me new toy......