Islay finds, makes and bakes...

Missing: one camera

Camera by the feltabulous (yup, that's a word) Lupin on Etsy.

My camera is in the West Country. I am not. This is a Bad Thing. Even though my camera is ageing, sad and has a light balance that has very little to do with the actual light situation, I miss having the chance to snap anything and everything that comes along as I go through my day.

I'm hoping to get the thing returned tomorrow (we abandoned it with friends, thankfully), but the whole exercise has prompted adam and me to start hunting for a replacement. The camera we have is ok-ish, but it's over five years old and even at the best of times is a fairly basic point and shoot.

I still want a compact (I'm a way off being bothered with another SLR after scarcely using any of the functions on the 35mm one I had), and we're currently leaning towards this one, because it's basically the upgraded model of the one we have. We're open to ideas though, anyone got any recommendations?

Destash, restash

 

If you ever visit my etsy store, you'll probably have noticed that alongside the usual vintage goodies there has been an awful lot of fabric and button bundles popping up, and even the odd bit of yarn.

I've realised, as I've ruthlessly tidied my workroom (well, kind of. You can now get in the door without tripping over fabric, anyway), that I have a huge amount of fabric that, much as I love, I'm just not getting round to sewing with. The same goes for the buttons. And the yarn. In an effort to (a) clear some space and (b) give me some pocket money (which, you know, I might spend on more fabric and/or yarn, but let's gloss over that for the moment in case Adam's looking) I'm having a mega destash over the next couple of weeks.

I hope you'll pop by if you're looking for something to start or build your stash - there's going to be lots more listed in the coming weeks!

Test run 1: Success!

Sorry for the appalling photo - we are well into winter light here (i.e. pitch black or insanely bright glaring sunshine).

I'm so pleased to be able to show you the first test runs of products for my new handmade organic line - 100% organic cottons and ecologically sound hemp and bamboo. I'm still waiting on the labels etc, but I just couldn't wait to share these. I am just so pleased with how they've come out, exactly as I pictured them - fun prints, but simple and unfussy, and not too girly girly (and the non-pink stuff isn't too overtly 'blue for a boy'). This little bundle consists of:

1. Organic flannel and hemp/organic cotton fleece snuggly baby blanket (that's the big polka dot one)
2. Two burp cloths, made from three layers of super-absorbant organic cotton flannel (and oh my goodness they're so soft! Definitely using some of that flannel for lighter receiving blankets). I've always found that a thinner burp cloth was much more effective than a thick washable-nappy one, as the bulkier ones always seem too stiff to get in the right spot, missing the crucial bit of sick (which is inevitably not discovered until some hours later)
3. Organic flannel bib - again, the absorbency of the flannel is great for dribbly milky babies, and won't rub on delicate baby skin

I've got lots of other ideas waiting to be turned into reality (grab bags for outings, bath sets. All kinds of stuff), and there are still improvements to be made to the samples above (a little bit of reinforcing around the snap on the bib, for example, so it holds its shape), but I can already see how it's all going to come together in the end.

I'm currently scouring my local vintage sources for the perfect baskets to put these in (I'm planning on having some luxury gift hampers and some products available individually), and I can't wait for the labels, tags and packaging to arrive so I can start making them beautiful and ready to order.

Working out the pricing is the hardest (and still ongoing) part . I don't want people to have to spend a fortune just because it's organic, but at the end of the day, the combination of ethical sourcing and carefully handmade costs a little bit more than popping to a chain store. I'm hoping my lovely customers will understand!

My workroom, naturally, is feeling the brunt of this sudden burst of activity. I'm not even going to show you a wider shot...

Mooooooo

I am just so pleased with my new Moo business cards (and matching stickers. Oh yes). Not only are they super smart, but they're also made from 100% post consumer recycled waste. Unfortunately the stickers aren't, but I couldn't find anywhere that did a suitably eco friendly version.

The backs of the cards are various vintage fabrics (all out of copyright, as far as I can gather from my research. Fingers crossed I'm right!) and the text side is like this:

I especially love the heavy weight recycled cardboard box that they came in, with a little filing tab for keeping any business cards I receive separately (you know, for all that networking I do with a two-year-old in tow....)

I did actually need new cards for my etsy shop, but this was also an experiment to try out a couple of Moo products, as I'm planning to use them for my new handmade organic venture (gosh, have I gone on about that enough without actually showing you anything yet?)

Anyway, I'm really pleased with the weight and quality of the cards, and although they cost a bit more than some other business cards, I know that my eco-conscience is intact!

Well, that's October done and dusted, what about NOVEMBER?

 Super-cool cards from Parsy.

October was a bit of a zany month for us - we were thrown into a totally different style of living, in which I am the main breadwinner and Adam is looking after Teddy, and to be honest it's taken most of the month to adjust to that.

However, we're finally getting there, and we're hoping November will be a bit less alarming. I'm settling into working more or less full time on my etsy shop and new handmade venture, and Adam and Teddy are definitely enjoying spending more time together.

My plans for November look something like:

1. Get sewing on my new handmade business venture, now the supplies are starting to roll in
2. Finally baste the sunshine quilt (this week. I am determined)
3. Keep up my destash (more fabrics listing daily in my etsy store)
4. Start planning the Christmas food making (we generally do edible gifts)
5. Eat my own body weight in mince pies (I am a teeny bit obsessed with them)
6. Make a bit more progress on my bright and cheerful hexagon flowers
7. Get some Christmas related sewing done (more on that in the coming weeks)

What are you hoping to achieve in November?

These pictures...

1. Are all from the past week
2. Didn't justify a post of their own (although some occasionally make their way into other posts...)
3. Make me happy

No matter how chilly it gets, the beach is always popular with one member of the family.

Finally sorting those piles of bottom-of-the-tin buttons.

More beach. That's acceptable, right?

This fabric was once intended for a quilt, but it's now destined for something rather different. More details coming next week.

***

After a brief hiatus (where I was mainly too sick to point a camera at anything for long), These Pictures is back.

These Pictures is a semi regular Sunday feature with a few pics from the week that never quite made it into their own blog post. Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to share your own moments from the week too!

 

Mostly I am working (read: playing) with buttons

You'd think, that with Adam at home full time for the moment, I'd have even more time for blogging, but the reverse appears to be true. The pressure of being the only earner in the household means that I am spending every spare minute loading up my Etsy store rather than creating things for our family (and subsequently blogging about them).

It doesn't help that I appear to have a perma-cold (probably more of a dust allergy from all the vintage goodies I'm unearthing and sorting on a daily basis) and although I'm thus far having a very easy pregnancy, I'm definitely more tired than normal.

But enough of the excuses and the grumbling. I definitely need to spend more time whistling Always look on the bright side of life from The Life of Brian. I'm really lucky to have this chance to focus on my etsy store and spend some time planning the new handmade business venture (yup, it's still looking good), so I henceforth promise not to offer whingy excuses and to get on with it. Most of the time, anyway.

We're trying to get into more of a 9-5 routine, work-wise, so hopefully I'll have some evenings free for some actual making, and then I'll have something to show you.

ps: about four minutes after I took the picture above, I spilt about a pound and a half of buttons all over the floor. Ahem.

A quick quilt

Wow, whole cloth quilts are fast. The back has a little bit of piecing, but the idea with this quilt was for it to be a really simple quilt that let the beautiful Etsuko Furuya bird song fabric shine. I've got a vague plan of fairly dense freehand straight line quilting, but until I can get the stupid car fixed, I can't get to the shop to buy the thread. Ho hum, better start another one while I wait...

(ps, I'm less and less in love with safety pin basting. I think I might baste the sunshine quilt the good old fashioned way, with thread. Safety pins are so slow, I can't believe using needle and thread could actually be any slower).

Quilt making is real work, honest

So I've been playing around a bit with my handmade etsy store. If you visit it occasionally, you may have noticed a new banner and a new name. I felt that it was time the store reflected what I mainly sell there - variations on the theme of bedlinen, with a bit of table linen and other household textiles thrown in for good measure, as well as my handmade quilts and other homewares.

I also want to get back into, you know, making things for it, since it's meant to be my outlet for handmade goodies, as well as just vintage finds. And that's what these stacks of fabrics are for - quilts that I've been planning for a long time, but for one reason or another haven't been made.  My mission is to get cracking on at least one of them, if not more, over the next week or two, and to get them up in my store along with the latest stack of vintage bedlinen and homewares.

The top stack - Little Folks voiles by Anna Maria Horner - have been waiting to be sewn since their arrival back in March (yes, March). The Echino fabric isn't much newer - April - and the Heather Ross fabric is a positive newbie at only three months old. I need to order some solids before I can start on the Heather Ross, but the other two are ready to go.

As with all of my quilts, these will be made with the environment in mind. I know that quilting cotton isn't exactly environmentally friendly, but I try to make it a little bit better by recycling vintage woollen blankets for the batting, dying vintage sheets for solids where possible, and saving every last scrap for making my favourite quilts of all - the fiddly little scrap quilts from leftovers.

If you're wondering why the sudden focus on my Etsy stores after hardly mentioning them for months, it's nothing terribly dramatic - I've been waiting for Adam to have some time off work so he can do Teddy duty while I spend a good couple of days restocking my vintage haberdashery and revamping my handmade store. I hope you'll find the time to take a quick look and let me know if you have any thoughts!

For those of you that like vintage thingummies

I know that most of you visit me here for handmade goodies, but I know that there are a few of you who like my vintage goodies store. It's been a little neglected of late, but I'm in the process of uploading a whole lot of new (old) stuff, including the bits and bobs above.

Happy browsing!

These pictures

1. Are all from the past week
2. Didn't justify a post of their own (although some occasionally make their way into other posts...)
3. Make me happy

More walking means more splashing in puddles. We're all pretty happy about that.

Yeah, so it's from the shop and I try to avoid advertising my stuff here, but hey, I like it.

    

I think we've established I'm in hexagon overdrive at the moment.

***

These pictures is a semi regular Sunday feature with a few pictures from the week that never quite made it into their own blog post. Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to share your own these pictures moments too!

Hello stranger

It's all been a little quiet on the charm quilt front recently, simply due to the fact that accumulating somewhere in the region of 1,500 unique scraps of fabric takes a little while. However, this little package of fun came in the post last week from Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey (and Fat Quarterly), complete with some Flea Market Fancy scraps and that super cool notelet/card thingie - I actually have a few scraps of that Liberty fabric somewhere in my stash.

I think it was all of two hours before they turned into this

Not only did Katy send waaaay more scraps than we agreed (I'm really upset, as you can imagine...) but there was only one duplicate with what I already have in the entire bunch, so I got a whole load of new hexagons for the quilt. I think the count is now up to something like 350.

I think I may actually have to go wild and buy some scrap bags from ebay or etsy, as I really don't want this to be a three year project, and if I buy 1,500 half yards of fabric we may (a) run out of house and (b) be in a debtors prison by Christmas. I have admitted to myself that it is completely cheating to actively buy scraps to make a scrap quilt, but you know what? I couldn't care less.

ps: I wasn't going to buy Fat Quarterly, as I decided that I have enough paper things to read without adding something on my computer to distract me from ever achieving anything again. That was until I saw what Amy did. So yup, I'll be buying that soon (and, ahem, a printer. I really need a printer).

pps: If you're waiting for my last update from Kids' Clothes Week, it's coming, I promise! I don't want to show you more half finished things so I'm (a) finishing them and (b) waiting to put Teddy in them so they look like clothes instead of random bits of fabric on hangers.

Some pretty vintage things

 

I don't normally spend very much time on here talking about finds for my vintage supplies store as I don't want this blog to be an advertising space, but I've had some really good hauls recently, and, you know, I haven't taken any other photos for a couple of days (unless you want to see another picture of that sunshine quilt, but with a couple of dozen more hexagons attached).

 I've been doing lots of stuff though - preparations are in full swing for Kids' Clothes Week, starting Monday (that is, I went to buy fabric), I'm hoping to make some good progress this weekend on the birdcage quilt I started a while back (second picture down in this post), I've done gardening which I'll take pictures of if the weather ever improves (turns out gardening in the rain is quite fun, but taking pictures less so) and I'm bound to give into the urge to post more pictures of a certain yellow tinged hexagon quilt soon.

Hope you're all having a fabulous Saturday!

Some new things and a mini announcement

New and coming soon in my Etsy stores (see below for which items are in which store)

 Clockwise (from top left):

1. 1950s rosebud fabric
2. 1950s sky blue chenille double bedspread
3. 1950s-60s plaid blanket
4. 1950s apple green chenille king size bedspread
5. Blue flannel fabric
6. Red plaid blanket, cut down and French seamed to make a knee blanket
7. Vintage 1930s-50s carved mother of pearl button
8. The apple bedspread again

You'll notice that the above is somewhat, ahem, light on handmade goodies. That's because (hankies at the ready) I've decided not to do an April handmade store update. Not only am I struggling to get enough finished for a sensible sized update, but listing something handmade often results in queries from people before purchasing, and I really don't want to fail to get back to someone in the upheaval of moving house and settling in, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to clear some of my backlog of vintage blankets and other bits and bobs instead.

The blankets are listed in my handmade store, where I also pop anything vintage that doesn't come under the heading of 'supplies' (although I'd be tempted to cut those chenille blankets up and use them for quilt backing, so they could almost count as supplies!), and the fabrics and button (along with many, many, many more buttons) are listed in my supplies store.

A hexagonal affair

I think it took all of about 30 seconds from noticing this piece-along for me to decide that I need to join in. I hate throwing away even the tiniest scraps of fabric - with vintage fabric it's not like I can walk to the shop and buy another half yard, so I like to use every last inch.

And I have only one thing to say about it: all the rumours of the addictive nature of paper piecing are completely true. I chopped into some of my scraps last night and I had to keep going back for more, and cutting out more hexagons (I got mine from some random website, but Melanie from Texas Freckles has produced an easier-to-cut-out version, downloadable from her piece-along blog post). In 90 minutes of TV watching, I'd sewn something in the region of 40 hexagons.

I'm not in any great rush with this project - I haven't even started piecing the hexagons together, as I'm vaguely wondering whether I might like to piece them in a colour-wheel-inspired design (I'm a bit enamoured with rainbows and colour wheels at the moment - I have three quilt-designs-in-progress that incorporate as many colours as possible). I'm worried that all those teeny hexagons (mine are one inch, so not absolutely tiny, but, you know, not big) will just look muddy when they're all together if there's not some theme to the layout, and I really am not an enormous fan of very traditional quilts, so doing a flower garden type design isn't really me. I think I'll probably wait until I've got enough to be able to lay some out and play with the colour arrangement, and take it from there.

While we wait...

 For Teddy to wake from a never ending nap (merrily playing with his books at midnight with no visible signs of tiredness takes its toll on a boy, apparently. I blame the tooth growing), here's a few bits and bobs I thought I'd share...

1. I rather love this blog I've found - she has lovely use of colour on her quilts
2. I really really want my Anna Maria Horner voile to arrive. I only ordered it on Monday, and it's coming from the States (so I can safely assume I've got a week or two to wait), but I want it now!
3. I wonder whether I should make a practice version of the giant hexagon quilt I want to make with the voile, since I don't want to ruin it with a bad job.
4. In the light of point number one, I am desperate to get cracking on a 'proper' charm quilt (i.e. one in which no two pieces are made from the same fabric, rather than one made with 5" charm squares. Read more history here).
5. Teething sucks. I'd hate to be a baby
6. All this sitting around waiting for Teddy to wake has resulted in the discovery of not one, but two, half decent UK based suppliers of eco-friendly art and craft supplies for kids. Nothing to quite match up to this US supplier, but here and here are options for us poor deprived UKers who don't want to pay huge shipping and huge carbon footprints (thus slightly defeating the point of ordering eco supplies...) Incidentally, the second of those links is where I'm hoping to buy a play kitchen for Teddy from for his second birthday.
7. I know that picture at the top of the post isn't new, but, frankly, I think you might worry about me if you knew I took a picture of my child almost every single time he naps, and I'm hoping that you won't think that I do so if I show you an old picture.
8. I think I may have missed the boat on planting some of my seeds, but I'm giving it a shot anyway - we're going to spend an awful lot of our moving day in two weeks trundling seed trays across town to the new house!
9. I haven't baked any bread/bagels/muffins/biscuits since just after I recovered from my horrible flu thing. I really need to get back into it
10. A list looks much nicer if it's ten things, even if you don't actually have ten things to say

ps: a sneak peak at the first of the bits and bobs for the April handmade stuff shop update coming tomorrow.

pps: If you're observant, you may have noticed that this post is published in the evening. Just because I wrote it while Teddy was napping this morning, doesn't mean that he didn't wake just in time to stop me hitting the 'post' button...

I made this

And it's listed in my etsy handmade store right now! 

Spring fling - upcycled vintage cottons quilt, large twin/regular double size

 Upcycled vintage fabrics lavender bags for your wardrobe (or anywhere you fancy, really)

 Upcycled vintage monogrammed damask linen tablecloth with appliqued red trim

Enjoy!

ps: I haven't listed the last couple of fabric bags, but they're coming imminently, I promise.

New and coming this week

All of this (and much more - I had a bit of a mega photo session today) is going to be listed in my supplies and handmade stores over the coming week or so.

I am having one my very infrequent fabric clear outs, so there's lots of random lengths and patterns (I am in love with the flip flop fabric above, but I've been hanging on to it for literally years without finding the perfect use for it, so it's time to say bye bye). I am also fascinated by the haberdasher's box, in the bottom right frame - I found it at a sale, and it's still got the original contents, complete with receipt, from a London haberdasher. A really fabulous little bit if history that I've been poring over for most of the day (when I was meant to be sorting out fabric. Displacement activity, anyone?)

A little bit in love

With this

 
The fabric is largely vintage, but with a few new fabrics mixed in to make the whole thing just a bit more punchy. One of the philosophies behind my work (I get to do this and call it work. How fab is that?) is to use as much vintage fabric as possible, but not to be shy about throwing in the odd new piece. Okay, so it's not as completely ecologically sound as using entirely repurposed fabrics (apart from a love of vintage textiles, one of the main reasons for my repurposing/upcycling obsession is to keep just a little bit from going into landfill), but it does mean that I'm going to create something that's (hopefully) just that bit more beautiful and interesting. Much better, in my mind, to add a little bit of new fabric into the mix than make something boring that no one wants to use, and that therefore gets ignored in favour of something new and prettier anyway.

 The quilt is going to form part of my next shop update, in a week or two (date to come soon, I promise, but I'm working on a couple of other bits too). I'm a bit heartbroken at the prospect of being parted from it, but it was always going to be to sell. I'm extra-specially proud of this quilt because it's the first time I've done quilt binding the good old fashioned way, hand finishing the back so all the stitching is invisible. Have to say, it turned out astonishingly well, all the corners are square and everything! I'm still deflating my head.

Now I just have to decide whether to wash this and pucker it (the way I like my quilts), or just give it a gentle, loving soak. Any thoughts?

Not gone, but sometimes forgotten

Sometimes feel I neglect to mention my supplies store on Etsy, you know. I get so excited with my crafty things that I completely forget that other crafters may actually be interested in some supplies of their own.

I tend to scavenge most of the fabric before it makes it into my supplies store, but very occasionally I manage to part with something. I just had to keep a few scraps of this all to myself.

Mainly, though, the shop is made up of buttons, lace scraps and ribbons. Things tend to come and go as they are begged, borrowed or stolen by me for a project or by my sister to add to her latest vintage treasure.

Anyway, since this little shop gives me most of my income (you mean quilting doesn't make me £200 profit a time? Well that sucks), I feel I should give it a little recognition every now and again. I'll go ahead and neglect to mention it for another few months now.

New year, new look

I've revamped the packaging for my supplies store, and I'm really pleased with the results! I was really struggling to marry my ideals of packaging my goods in a gorgeous and secure way and environmentally friendly packaging.

  The end result, after a bit of research, is recycled paper pillow boxes and recycled tissue paper from the scarily efficient Tiny Box Company (delivered the day after ordering, well packaged, no complaints here!). The tissue paper matches my business cards beautifully, and the boxes mean I can finally sleep easy that my beautiful buttons will arrive intact at their destinations.

The ribbon, I'm afraid, is not organic/recycled, but it is my one indulgence, and I always snap up vintage ribbon when I find it in my store colours (some of the pink in the above jumble is 1930s and cost me £1 for a 10m roll. Impressive, no?).

You know when you're just not happy with something?

I always make sure that the quality of whatever I make to sell is up to scratch (and if there's any flaws, I'll always point this out), but sometimes even if something is made well, it still just isn't right. Whether the design or original idea is a bit off, or the wrong materials selected, when I make something that isn't right it just niggles away at me until I finally give in and redo it.

I recently finished a tablecloth that niggled me like that. Amazing vintage damask linen, complete with perfect monogram, and I wanted to modernise it without losing the elegance of the thing. Suffice to say, having spent hours painstakingly sewing ribbon onto it, I spent most of last Friday painstakingly removing the ribbon, washing the cloth and preparing it to start again on Saturday.

 Instead of satin ribbon, which just felt wrong for this hardwearing but elegant tablecloth (satin ribbon, for all its charms, sometimes just looks a bit insubstantial), I decided to trim the tablecloth in lovely quality red and white 100% cotton quilting fabric. After much loitering in thefabulous crafting store near my house, I picked out a really pretty red and white flowery fabric, by Moda (I think. I'd have to actually go and find the fabric in order to confirm that and I daren't leave Teddy, who is attempting to practise his engineering skills on our home phone).

 The fabric is going together in a patchworkey-type-style, and will trim around the tablecloth. I'm hoping to come across some damask napkins so I can put a trim down them too, but no joy yet in the local charity shops.

 

Quiltgate

You know, I don't know how some of the amazing quilters on Etsy contain themselves. I pretty much leap around the room with pride when I finish a quilt (at a rate of about one a year). I am so thrilled with the one above I actually showed it to the postman this morning (it was in my hand for photographing, honest! And he's a very friendly postman).

Not that I can hope to match some of the amazing quilters on, but I am really pleased with this quilt, made largely from upcycled fabrics. I've never made one to sell before, and I'm really pleased with it overall. It came out just right, with the extra width that I wanted (to tuck down the sides of little beds to keep the little people in them nice and warm). 

 It's also got pretty good eco-credentials - the cream sheeting used behind the vintage upcycled pink linen doilies and as a backing fabric is upcycled too, and the wadding in the middle of the quilt is made from a bamboo and cotton mix (bamboo uses far less water, fertiliser etc to grow than cotton, but its shorter fabric life is much extended by mixing it with the cotton, giving the best of all worlds). I have to confess to buying the pink (100% cotton) fabrics new - I tried and tried to find an appropriate vintage fabric, but I do feel that it's better to add in a bit of new and make something useable and gorgeous than to be obsessive about using secondhand products and perhaps end up with a product that is never going to be used because it just isn't as nice as it could be.

 

I've been creating...

 I've been working on this waaaay too much recently, and it will probably never make me back the time I've spent on it, but I'm so in love with my latest upcycled project (planning on a store update next week toIslay Makes).

I found some really pretty unused vintage pink linen placemats and coasters in a bunch of stuff salvaged from my mother's attic, and they immediately shouted 'little girl's room' at me. So I have spent half the week in toddler quilt heaven (all the fun of the quilt. But small!)

 I've been desperately searching for the perfect vintage fabric to go with it, but no dice, so I finally invested in some gorgeous cotton from the fantabulous crafting shop down the road.

 (There's this floral, and a polka dot that for some reason I didn't take a photo of. I'd tell you the brand, but they're all the way in the next room and I am settled in front of the TV for the night).

The whole thing is coming along rather nicely, and I'm really looking forward to nipping back to The Eternal Maker (aforementioned fantabulous crafty shop) to get some eco friendly (well, eco friendlier than polyester) bamboo/cotton mix batting to go in it and figure out what to put on the underside. I'm torn between some gorgeous soft flannel, patterned cotton or some vintage linen. Any ideas?

I'm so pleased with this I'm not sure I'm going to manage to part with it...

 Christmas bunting for the new upcycled store, opening on Monday, all made with vintage fabric. I'm so excited about opening the new store, although I wish I'd had time to make even more things...