Islay finds, makes and bakes...

Nothing like a sensible start

 

The logical start to our wedding quilts (we're planning on having a handful in our wedding colours to use as picnic blankets/hay bale hiders, as we're having a hog roast, not a sit down meal) would, of course, be a simple quilt, perhaps some large half square triangles, or even just 6" patchwork squares. At a push, perhaps a disappearing nine patch. Something simple, fast and repeatable.

But since when did I do anything the easy way? I spotted Rachel's postage stamp quilt along the other day and just couldn't resist joining in. And since I have yards and yards (and yards) of fabric in our wedding colours, why not make this postage stamp quilt the first wedding quilt? I should point out, this is not a quilt of large, easy pieces (the clue's in the name), although strip piecing will make it a little bit faster.

That means, of course, cutting a whole load of fabric into 2.5" strips for strip piecing, as my  planned colour scheme doesn't, unfortunately, come in a Jo and Adam''s Wedding Colours jelly roll. That's about a third of my prints/colours up there, although I'm fairly sure I haven't actually cut enough strips of each one. Ho hum.

Anyway, there seem to be plenty of other mad people tackling postage stamp quilts (some even without jelly rolls as well!) - you can check out (and join in) the fun at Rachel's blog and in the Flickr group.

Incidentally, to me, a true postage stamp quilt means 1" finished squares, but even I am not insane enough to adjust the pattern in the quilt along to 1" squares. One day, I'll do that true postage stamp quilt though. If you want some mini square inspiration check out Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making (love this book), Moving Hand's gorgeous squares, or just search Flickr for postage stamp quilt. 

In other news, Teddy's quilt top and back are ready to go, but I'm holding off quilting until I've raised the fund for a walking foot. I'm bored of my straight line quilting letting down quilts that I've invested time and energy in, so I'm refusing to quilt anything more until I've bought one. And my gosh, walking foots are insanely expensive for what they are! A couple more Etsy sales before that happens, methinks.

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!

Waiting for Ottobre

 No, not eleven months' time, the magazine that does those amazing kids clothing patterns for not just woven fabrics, but knits and weatherproof fabrics too. I've ordered a couple more issues to go with the Spring 2010 one that I already have (much thumbed, page corner turned and generally loved). I bought mine from this brilliant UK site (which also has a great range of knits and corduroy, incredibly prompt delivery and free sweeties! What's not to love?). According to the back of the magazine, Americans can order it here. I don't know about the States, but in the UK the magazine is shipped directly from Finland, so it takes a week or so to arrive. I'm drumming my fingers.

I've had the fabric shown above (also mainly from DotsnStripes, although the dinosaur fabric is from this American site) kicking around for a while, but since (a) Teddy needs clothes (gosh, have I mentioned that enough this week?) and (b) I have a dedicated 'garment fabric' section in my storage shelves now and I can see just quite how much jersey and rib knit I actually have, I've decided that the next couple of weeks will be focused on making for him.

It should also help get me back into focusing, in a way I haven't been so much in recent weeks, on my little boy. Adam is back at work today (a mixed blessing, but we're trying to be positive about it) and I am back on full time Teddy-duty. I'm hoping I can still manage a sensible amount of work on my supplies shop and my new handmade venture, but I definitely need to make the mental shift to toddler speed again, at least during working hours.

Next size up, please (and a few more things)

I didn't have the time or the inclination (morning sickness, anyone?) to take part in the Fall Kids Clothes Week with Meg, despite not doing too badly during the first one in the spring. However, as you might have gathered from yesterday's list, Teddy actually really does need some new clothes (the whole toddler-belly-hanging-out-under-the-sweater isn't the greatest look ever), so I've decided to tackle his ever diminishing wardrobe over the next week or two (or three).

I really love seeing Teddy in clothes that I've made for him. It satisfies some really basic urge to nurture and keep him happy and cosy, I think. In much the same way that seeing him eating good wholesome food that I (or Adam, mostly, at the minute) have made for him is infinitely more soul-warming than something out of a packet. Not that we don't turn to shop bought clothes (and pre-prepared food, come to that) on a fairly regular basis, but it's still lovely, and preferable, to have the homemade version where possible.

Incidentally, I don't know about you, but I'm finding that while I'm trying to work most days and Adam is in charge of childcare, this blog is significantly less packed with family related things. It's not that those things aren't happening (in fact, as I've probably mentioned, Adam is significantly better at being the stay at home parent than me in lots of ways), but because I'm not organising them and spending every waking moment with Teddy, they're just not being recorded on here in the same way. If that's why you're here, I apologise, and I hope that you'll hang around till next week when (it looks like) Adam will be back in work and I'll be back on toddler-duty.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand.

First up is new cosy pyjamas, exactly like these (I still have plenty of the same fabric) but significantly bigger - I don't think the old ones actually do up any more. And maybe this time I'll get round to finishing the elastic casing too.

In the search for some day time clothes I've ordered the latest issue of Ottobre, as well as trawling my existing much thumbed copies. I managed to accrue quite a big jersey/interlock/ribbing/sweatshirt fabric stash a while back, so I'm looking forward to turning some of it into actual clothes.

I live in hope that if I'm really efficient I might be able to cross a couple of things off Teddy's section of The List (updated a couple of days ago).

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...

Production line

I gave myself a bit of a break from the endless etsy listing today to work on some custom orders for lavender bags. My favourite bit (apart from mixing and matching my treasured collection of vintage fabrics with modern dots and checks) is sifting through my button tins to find the perfect combinations to go on the front.

It's lovely to get a chance to do a bit of sewing instead of photographing and listing, and I suspect I'll keep making and listing the odd handful of these here and there in the run up to Christmas.

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?

New fabric for a whole new project

Absolutely loving the new organic flannel for the new organic business venture. I ordered a bit of this print, just to make sure that the colours and texture were what I was hoping for, and they're even better. Modern but retro, baby suitable without being sickly sweet, and lovely and soft and yummy. Can't wait to order a bit more! (But not until the fabric destash has made a little more headway).

In case you're wondering it's Cloud9's organic cotton flannel, from their forest friends line. I ordered it from this lovely UK store, but it's available from here in the States (as well as lots of other places, no doubt).

Pretty flowers. Of the hexagonal variety

So, I've finally started sewing my charm quilt together. I would have preferred to get my sunshine quilt basted and quilted before starting anything else, but I've just discovered that we don't actually have a floor space large enough to lay it out in this house, so I'm saving that chore for when we go to my mother's next week.

I'm trying to have a bit more finishitis around here before I start (a) the massive amount of hand making I've lined up for myself for the wedding and (b) sewing things for the new mini-venture I've been mentioning here and there for a few weeks now (sorry if it's getting boring! I promise more information will follow soon).

I hope you're all having a productive Monday!

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!

A somewhat pressing project

My workroom situation is really getting a little bit tragic.

 (No, I'm not sure why I lost the ability to focus a camera while taking these pictures. Sorry).

I've been putting off sorting out my workroom until the sunshine quilt top was finished. Not only is the top finished, but the back is half done too (my goodness, hand stitching of large pieces seems like a speedy activity now!), and I still haven't made any headway on my workroom.

I've decided that it absolutely needs sorting out before major wedding sewing starts (we're excusing the wedding dress from that - progress needs to continue on that front).

 Most of that pile is new unwashed fabric (everything gets washed before it goes on the shelf), mixed in with about a year's worth of filing (ahem). It's a complete jumble of quilting and garment fabrics, and badly needs sorting before being added to the mess of fabrics in the first picture.

I have visions of making some containers for the scraps (or possibly buying some. After seeing the price of stiff interfacing I'm not sure making is much cheaper!) and neatly folding the yardage on the shelves, with a separate area for garment fabrics. I also have grand plans or sorting the yarn stash (mainly contained in the bright orange plastic bag and surround shelves), card making supplies (some next to the fabric, some in one of the other two shelving units. Yes, there are two more sights like the one up top) and sewing books (currently mainly stored on the floor, in the kitchen and next to the bed).

Obviously, this isn't an overnight kind of job. I've got some editing to finish up, and then I've going to set aside a good few evenings for sorting this room out.

Lots of sewing to do too - have you noticed that there are no curtains? Also, no quilt to cosy up on when lounging on the sofa that's just out of shot. At the moment you could cosy up in the enormous ironing pile that's dominating the sofa, of course. How is it possible I still haven't caught up on laundry from camping over a week ago?

ps: making the curtains is on The List (Number 10 on Sewing for the House). A quilt could feasibly come from the quilt list too. I must do a progress report on The List soon.

London calling

And so, I return to this space. I'm sorry for the brief absence, but if I'd posted, it only would have been about the relative benefits of canvas and plastic marquees (we're all about the canvas here), whether one should have a dessert display or a single wedding cake (still not decided on this one, but saw a lovely cake in Martha Stewart Weddings that may have convinced me to go traditional), and whether making 20 picnic blankets in 12 months is feasible and/or likely (umm... yes).

Skipping back to the present (mind the draft wedding invitation designs on your way past. Did I mention that the wedding is still 12 months away?), today I was treated to a day out to London, all alone, with no toddler, no Adam and no responsibilities. I do love my little family, but the odd day off to do my own thing is an undeniable luxury.

The trip was ostensibly to look at wedding dress fabrics (of which I have about six samples, all of them beautiful, and none of them likely to be posted here, as we wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. They're pretty though, I promise!), but once that was out of the way, I went here

 Yup. Liberty of London. Home of the eponymous Liberty Tana Lawn, in more prints than you can shake a stick at (and also a very pricey, but seriously tempting haberdashery department). I used to go to Liberty every now and again when I lived in London, just to absorb the glamour of this wonderful store, and it was really a love of Liberty prints (instigated at a young age by my mother, who gave me and my sister a Liberty print elephant toy) that got me into quilting in the first place.

I spent about an hour wandering up and down the extensive rail of tana lawn fabrics, until, feeling that I was beginning to look a little like a stalker, I actually began to pull out some prints.

Given the range available, I think I was positively restrained (although I did sign up for a loyalty card, which comes with it the added lure of repeat visits).

 I've been meaning to make Anna Maria's Socialite dress for a few weeks now. It's not the style of dress I would normally think to make, or wear, but having seen a few fantastic ones online, I couldn't resist, and when I found the pattern in Liberty as well, it seemed a shame to ignore what was quite clearly a sign that I should buy fabric!

I also bought one or two (ahem) other fabrics to make a quilt. I'm thinking that there might eventually be some scrap bags up for grabs from this lot, as Liberty is a whopping 54" wide, which means you actually get quite a lot of fabric for your half metre! Plus, you know, if I give away scraps, then I simply have to go and buy more, right? (can you tell my love for Liberty has been re-ignited today?)

 It's also possible that I accidentally bought enough of this amazing fabric, called memories of rain (how cute is it, I mean really? It would have been positively rude not to get it) to make another dress, although I have no idea what pattern I might use. Any suggestions? This is a seriously cool print, so I want to get it right.

I'll save the Goldhawk road part of my day for tomorrow's post, I think. I have to just say though, any dressmakers/home sewists out there, check out Goldhawk road before you bother with any of the expensive city fabric stores in London. OMG what a great range, including lots of basic cotton jerseys and some fantastic silks.

I'll leave you with one last Liberty moment. How far wrong can a store go when its stairwell looks like this?

 

Quilting catch up required

Yup, that's a stack of fabric waiting to be turned into 1" hexagons. Ohmygosh. I've spent literally every spare sewing minute on the sunshine quilt in recent weeks (although it doesn't particularly look like the top is going to be finished by July 1st as I was hoping. Boooo), so all the lovely scraps I've received in swaps and as gifts from generous bloggers have been sitting there all neglected and unloved. And I've even got some fabrics in my stash that haven't got little 2.5" squares missing from them yet. Doubleohmygosh.

 

I promise, little squares, that just as soon as that pesky yellow monster in the corner is finished, you'll be top of my list of priorities. Hexagons are the perfect project to work on while chasing a toddler around.

 

I suspect I'll catch up pretty quickly.

Fairy tale prints (prince. Geddit?)

I ordered these fabrics an age ago (well, a couple of weeks), and they've finally shown up! Not the fault of the lovely Etsy seller I ordered from (who shipped the very next day), just typical slow transit from the States.

 I'm absolutely loving the prints - The Owl and The Pussycat has long been one of my favourite poems. I remember reciting it for a school concert aged about 7 and being terribly pleased with myself.

The colours are that slightly muted tone you get from printing on unbleached linen, which works well with the fairy tale images, and the fabric is a cotton/linen blend (I think), so it's slightly more stable than pure linen, but a bit more interesting than acres and acres of perfectly flat quilting cotton.

I'm  debating between mixing this with plain linen or some matching Kona solids. I love the idea of eking the prints out with some solids mixed in, but I'm not sure I'll like the contrast of quilting cotton with this slightly more textured fabric. Saying that, I love the mix of fine and heavy cottons in the last quilt I made using vintage fabric, so maybe it would be fine. Not that I'm indecisive.

Incidentally, this fabric and many others will be featuring in my soon-to-be-released online textiles journal. Click on that link for more information about my latest obsession (and item-to-be-crossed-off on the Mother List)

In other news, isn't it funny how blog lives can run parallel? I was reading Meg's blog the other day (lovely blog, and she's written a book and everything. Green with envy, me? Never) and I saw that she too has given into the lure of Ottobre magazine. I finally gave in and ordered a copy a week or two ago after fruitlessly searching for months for nice and cheap boys' clothes patterns. Anyway, while I wait for my copy to come, I've been searching for some nice jersey fabrics to sew these amazing patterns with. Of course, Meg has beaten me to it and linked to a load of fabulous stores selling knits, but they are all based in the States. So, my dilemma is this: stick with cheaper, more boring, synthetic mix jersey fabrics available in the UK at very-cheap-per-metre or order a load from the States at -less-chap-per-metre-but-much-much-nicer? It's a pain, sometimes, living in the UK - so many of the homemaking sewists whose blogs I read are US based and have access to an enormous range of fabrics (including organic fabrics, which I really would prefer, but are mostly prohibitively expensive over here) within their own country at a reasonable price.

Now, how to persuade Adam into a Stateside road trip....

Pleasing

 The sight of a washing line full of fabric. Yes, I prewash my fabric. I think it originated from using so much vintage and salvaged fabric - possibly if I used exclusively high quality quilting cottons I wouldn't bother, but there can be a fair amount of variation in shrinkage even in quilting cottons. I also find some fabrics fade a surprising amount, which can mean that, for instance, two blues that seemed to match perfectly no longer do when they are washed.

My system is, broadly:

1. Wait until there is enough of a particular shade to do a wash (or throw them in with our normal light/dark laundry)
2. Wash at 40 degrees with standard laundry detergent (we use either Bio D or Ecover). I don't use a colour catcher sheet - too cheapskate. Although possibly the first time I get a proper bleeding fabric will be when I convert to them. Until then, no catchers.
3. Hang on the line
4. Press (this bit is boring. A couple of episodes of Doctor Who on the computer keep me going if there's a lot)
5. Fold
6. Store
7. Sew!

We don't have a tumble dryer, so I don't tumble them. You can't beat a few hours in the breeze on a sunny day, anyway.

This batch has been waiting for a wash for weeks (can you tell I have more fabric than I need in my life?). There are even some of the limited edition Liberty cottons from our trip to the Quilts exhibition in the V&A. I was finally spurred into action by the imminent opening of my fabric journal (just as soon as I come up with a name for the darned thing). Task number one is going to be emptying my stash out, photographing every fabric, and storing it back on the shelves in an orderly fashion. So, come back in about 2016 and we'll be all set to go.

Incidentally, aren't the vegetables coming along well?

 

A blogaversary giveaway (or two)

 Teddy's first birthday, September last year. He was such a pudding (he's only fractionally less of a pudding now...)

I cannot believe it's been a year since I tentatively set up my blog (originally over at Blogger and under a different name, but all the archives have been stored over here now). I've learned a few lessons along the way:

Giveaway closed now, thank you so much to everyone who entered!

1. It took me a little while to realise that the only way for me to write a blog was to write a blog for me. By which I mean that I write about things that interest me and make me happy, rather than things that I think might improve my hit rate or anything like that.
2. Blogging has become an integral part of our family life. Whenever something good/silly/bad/photogenic happens, Adam's first comment is usually, "will you be blogging this? Make sure you only post nice pictures of me!"
3. I adore fabric in almost any shape or form, especially spectacular new and vintage prints.
4. I feel much the same about yarn.
5. I've discovered a new passion for hand piecing and expect to discover one for hand quilting just as soon as I get the sunshine quilt top and back finished.
6. Blogging is the perfect way for me to indulge my love of writing - while I love being a journalist, it's so wonderful to have freedom to write about whatever takes my interest or makes me want to speak up.
7. A blogaversary is definitely a good enough reason to make cake. I have plans for coffee cake with my tea this afternoon.

Now, down to important business. To celebrate my blogaversary I have two giveaways - one for normal people (well... normal for fabric addicts), and one for hexagon addicts like me (although feel free to enter both!).  I'll ship worldwide, and this is going to be the ultimate simple giveaway, no following, tweeting, linking or quiz answering needed to enter:

First up, a bundle of four fat quarters, the perfect beginning to a red and aqua quilt. The top fabric is Michael Miller and the one below is cut from a beautiful vintage cotton which I have been hoarding for years. The other two are, to my mind, perfect complements. Maybe the beginnings of a red and aqua quilt like this, this or this? Or just a bit of good old fashioned stash building.

 Secondly, a whole load of 2.5" scraps. Perfect for making 1" hexagons (or using as squares, if you absolutely must, although some of the scraps will need trimming to become perfect squares). This bundle of something like 70 scraps includes 2.5" squares of the whole Boutique by Chez Moi charm square pack, and a load of other scraps from my stash - mostly quilting cottons, but the odd vintage fabric thrown in for good measure.

In order to enter, please just leave a comment below stating which giveaway you'd prefer to be entered in. If you want to enter both, either leave two comments, or one comment stating clearly that you'd like to enter both giveaways. If you wanted to tell me what you're going to use the fabric for, that would be lovely (it makes reading your giveaway entries so much more interesting), but don't feel you have to.

The giveaway will close at midnight British summer time on Wednesday, and a winner will be chosen at random on Thursday.

Giveaway closed now, thank you so much to everyone who entered!

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

 Food is your friend. Photograph by my father (aka Papa).

Insert melty heart comment of your choice here.

One FO and a happy boy, what more could a girl ask for?

Scraps, wonderful scraps. Not for me to turn into hexagons though, but Part I of my blogaversary giveaway, keep an eye out for details on Monday.

***

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!