MY FIRST JELLY ROLL......YUM!YUM!

Well it all started when i was invited to join the "UK QUILTERS" on a forum on RAVELRY...and well what a Revelation...i thought it was just me that muddled along through life enjoying what i do without worrying what anybody else thought.....

Christmas my quilts were greatly ans thankfully received by members of my family,so i thought i would make one for myself...and then at my nieces 18th birthday party i was asked if i would like to take part in a craft fair at East Anglian Museum of Life,in stowmarket...i was very flattered.but i had no quilts in stock so i knew it was time to make a start......i started buying and storing material...and now my stash is massive,and i know exactly what i am going to do...i have got 5 in stock so far...and am devoting 3 hours per day to it at the moment.....With my hand crank machine called alfie,i am averaging a quilt a week...i know i could go faster with my electric sewing machine but i also know that it runs away with me,and then i go all wonky and get upset with myself...at least with alfie i don't get upset because i can control her.....

So i was asked to have a go at a "jelly roll" quilt and well i hadn't realised that you got so much for your money...i bought a jelly roll by moda and although it cost me £25.00 i can make two quilts out of it..which means i can double or even triple my profits.......

But this was a right revelation!!!all the material is pre-cut...its 44"long and 2.5" wide which for me is the perfect size for quilting,i usually go skinny on my cuts or massive and make a humongous patch...but the jelly roll keeps me in check and i can manage to make something beautiful without making a total hash of things........

I spent a week making patches and sorting out the backing and followed a pattern for the front from a book i managed to pick up cheap...but i had to finagle it around to make me happy...somehow there wasn't enough going on in the pattern to make my brain work......so i added a chequerboard pattern at the top and bottom,its all blues,greens and white....i like it don't get me wrong but green is one of my cursed colours....i don't know why but i just don't seem to get it right when i use lilac or green......then again maybe its just me.

But anyway i digress.....(stay on topic dammit!!!),it took me a week to make the strips,and then it was time to play around with the patches,it was the first time i had ever made a quilt diagonally...i had to start on the top left patch and work across and down......it was nice to have something that made me think....i managed to find a piece of scrap batting that i could use(i had it floating about in the bottom of my sewing box...)and got on and quilted it very gently.....i started in the middle and worked outwards,i decided to stitch it in the ditch...which means you stitch the batting and the backing fabric through the seam's already created by the patch...

the back actually looks really good and then i realised that i had managed to use a darker cotton on the bottom than i had on the top...but it looked alright...and then after i had finished,i laid it onto my sofa and took photo's of it...and then it happened there was this little voice"mum......can i have that one????"tomas my youngest had got it into his head that he could have this one as another bedspread...but like i said to him"what are you going to do with two???" he explained that he wanted to keep one downstairs on the sofa and one on his bed,then he could cuddle up with one in the evening and have one to sleep with on his bed...he's a bit quilt mad at the moment,everyone i make he wants to have so i guess if he likes them then everybody else will!!!

The funny thing is that this week i put a quilt online on my e-bay page to see if anybody else would like them...and well i got a bid on the day before the auction ended and although i didn't make a lot on it i made a profit on the material and batting,i was just pleased that it sold,and pleased how much somebody wanted it...so i mailed it today,its going to italy of all places,and i hope the buyer likes it,and will use it as much as possible.....

the one i am making right now is a bit odd and looks like an optical illusion quilt at the minute,but i am enjoying it very much and can't wait to show you what it looks like when its finished...so here's the last one i made that my little un wants......

please excuse the addition of daisy in my picture..don't know what happened there.....

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.....

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!!!!

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......