Islay finds, makes and bakes...

The laundry pile is getting bigger...

Not that he was ever exactly tiny, but when did he become so grown up? Although still far too small to think of as a big brother (only another four months to grow into that).

Instant gratification required

 

It has not been an easy week chez us, but finally it looks like things might be calming down. Adam's back at work (hopefully for the long term), I'm back on Teddy-duty and I think I might have figured out the problem with my serger - cheap thread (if you follow me on Twitter you'll know how close the serger has come to going out the window on more than one occasion this week).

However, after a week of high stress, last night called for something that would make me feel like I was achieving. I didn't want to move my hand quilting on by another four percent, or sew two more hexagon flowers, and I definitely didn't want to wrestle with the serger to finish Teddy's pyjamas.

So, since Teddy is badly in need of some cosy winter accessories, and I was badly in need of trying out the Rowan/Amy Butler Belle Organic yarn (Ravelry link) that I bought the other day, a hat was born.

I'm loving the Amy Butler yarn - not only is it an actual pretty coloured organic yarn (and it is nigh on impossible to find organic yarns in anything other than natural or pastel shades. I'm prepared to compromise on a tiny bit of eco-perfectionism for pretty colours), but the 50/50 cotton/wool mix makes for a cosy warm knit that still has lovely stitch definition.

I'm hoping to complete the set with a pair of mittens and a stripy scarf at some point this weekend, then I promise normal service will resume on all the ginormo-projects (and also, isn't it time I did some Christmas related crafting?).

And by the way, if you're wondering why there's no cute picture of Teddy actually wearing the hat, it's because he turns his nose up at everything his poor mother knits for him. He'll find it in a couple of days and be impressed, but for now, it's Daddy's bright orange sailing hat all the way.

Quilting update

 For some reason I had in my head that I'd be showing you a completely quilted quilt today. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, since at the beginning of the week the quilt was perhaps 10% done, and hasn't really moved on much from there.

Anyway, I'm really loving how the quilting looks, really textured (hand quilting also seems to be more forgiving of my somewhat limited basting skills). and I reckon a couple more evenings in front of the TV will see it finished. It's actually surprisingly speedy, although nowhere near as quick as even my practise runs with quilting thread and a finer needle.

Incidentally, a comment from Nova in reply to a comment I left on this post of hers the other day made me wonder - does anyone have any tips for quilting with perle cotton? (I should add at this point that despite Nova agreeing that it's not the easiest to quilt with, her stitches are about 1,000% prettier than mine). My biggest problems are needing to use a relatively thick needle (making the going rather slow and heavy), and the fact that an uneven stitch length seems to be that much more obvious. Things have improved a lot since I switched to a full leather thimble, as I can feel what I'm doing more easily, but I'm still open to any tips for improving my technique!

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!

This week I (probably) will:

Notepad from the fabulous looking Boygirlparty on Etsy

1. Miss Adam horribly now that he's back at work after almost two months at home
2. Miss having time horribly, now that Adam's not on Teddy-duty
3. (But love love love having more time with my boy)
4. Quilt some more on the sunshine quilt
5. Sew Teddy's pyjamas
6. Eagerly await the arrival of some more organic fabric for the new handmade venture
7. Cook. I've hardly cooked for two months either
8. Bake. See above
9. Sew more burp cloths, baby blankets and bibs to stock up for my new handmade venture
10. Lay out my new handmade store (expect another Etsy venture. I like it there)
11. Debate buying up a domain name
12. Enjoy being just a little bit more at home than I have been for the past two months (even though my workroom is in the house)
13. Get just a little bit rounder (I nearly kissed someone yesterday who said I looked small, and not at all like I was 20 weeks pregnant)

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.

Say hello to Terry

Looks pretty simple, right? You'd never guess that it took me the best part of a week (in grabbed moments) to get this binding on and looking acceptable. I'm used to hand finishing bias binding (on quilts), but since I'm planning to make a bundle of these to go in my soon-to-be-opened organic baby shop, I really needed to come up with a better solution. I think I've finally cracked it! The size and style (with a generous hood in one corner) is based on towels that my sister and I had as babies, then kids - (they doubled up as hair towels well into our teenage years).

The binding is made from some random fabric that my sister bought in Thailand a year or so ago as I didn't want to waste lovely organic fabric on a test run that was, inevitably, going to go wrong half a dozen times. The towel is the real deal though - gorgeously thick organic cotton terry toweling. As with all the products I'm making, it'll be subjected to a couple of weeks of hard use before I commit to ordering (and making) more.

This sample is heading Teddy's way - the poor child has been making do with his one baby bath towel and/or sharing his daddy's towel for the past year or so.

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).

In honour of The List

 When in doubt, make a list.

We are facing lots of uncertainty about how long Adam might be unemployed for (could be another day or two, could be almost indefinitely), so I'm trying to really work out what I want to achieve while he's here and on Teddy-duty.

Also, I updated The List (the proper one, not the amateur effort you see here) last night, so you can see how much progress I'm making. Do try not to laugh.

In honour of those two unrelated things, I give you...

Things I need (or want. The two are interchangeable when I'm pregnant and hormonal) to do in the next few weeks. Possibly. Unless I change my mind:

1. Finish quilting the sunshine quilt
2. Photograph approximately one million things to go in my etsy store
3. Finish the draught excluder started... a while ago. It is about four seams away from being done.
4. Finish piecing hexagon flowers for the charm quilt
5. Make Teddy some pyjamas
6. Sew a lot of things for new handmade organic baby product business
7. Work out how the printable fabric stuff that I bought actually works, preferably without wasting the whole lot
8. Make labels for handmade baby goodness
9. Look through newly ordered copy of Ottobre magazine and plan some new clothes for Teddy
10. Make curtains for my workroom. I'm a bit bored of being cold every morning until the sun shines in
11. Destash some of my yarn stash in my etsy store. I am facing a slight yarn stash/yarn storage space mismatch
12. Ask my mother to look for the curtains that we mean to look for every time I visit. in fact, if you're reading this, dear sweet mother of mine... Have you tried the loft ion the garage?
13. Buy some winter boots. For real this time.

One for the mother

I started knitting these socks for my mother so long ago that I can't actually remember the start date. We were definitely living in the last house, which means pre-March, at least.

They're not even very advanced - simple heel, simple toe, and no fancy pattern.

I'm itching to cast something else on (always the way with knitting. plus have you seen how many gorgeous baby knits there are in the world?), but am holding off until I've finished quilting the sunshine quilt and have made a bit more progress with the charm quilt. I know that if I don't get on with them they'll go the same way as these socks, and I'll still be blogging about the sunshine quilt this time next year.

Incidentally, it turns out that there are almost no white surfaces in this house on which one can take a photo.

And also, don't feet look enormous from above? I mean, mine actually are enormous (UK 8, is that a US 9? 10?), but they look even more enormous here. The socks are a bit short on me, so hopefully they'll be perfect for my mother's more reasonably sized feet.

And also also, I just looked back in my blog. Apparently I promised to knit these socks last October and cast the on in about February, making them possibly the slowest hand knit socks in history.

New whale-boots

Teddy's name for them, not mine. Just one question. How do I get him to take them off?

Also I had to finally give in and buy a coat that does up over the ever-expanding bump. Turns out I am not one of those women who don't feel the cold when pregnant. Incidentally, am I the only one who looks at that picture and thinks I might be going just a little bit bald on top?

ps: Please try to gloss over my deeply unstylish walking boots. I am in Boot Hell at the moment trying to replace my old faithful black boots. After 10 years of loyal service they have finally given up the ghost, and no boots can live up to them. 

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...

Rainbow or random?

Rainbow (sorry it's not very clear - I hadn't done many flowers when I made up my rainbow!)

Random

I was originally planning on putting my hexagon flowers together in a rainbow, but now I've got all these pretty flowers I'm kind of tempted by a random arrangement too.

I'm kind of thinking that if I went random I'd want to make each flower one row bigger (i.e. sew on another ring of hexagons round the edge), and perhaps even put some white/grey/some other colour hexagons in between as sashing, to make each colour pop more.

Probably I will sew some more flowers while I make up my mind - I've only sewn about 150 hexagons out of my 1000 or so, so I've got a while before I have to choose! Opinions on this matter very welcome indeed though.

Sewing the flowers is taking a little longer than it might as I am alternating it with quilting the sunshine quilt, which is coming along at breakneck speed. Seriously, I'm so slow at machine quilting that actually hand quilting doesn't seem much slower to me. I'm loving the way it's coming together, loving that the hand quilting is slightly more forgiving of my somewhat meagre basting skills, and loving that I can't move from underneath it once I'm settled, so Adam has to run and fetch everything I need all evening.

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!

We have actual quilting!

 

I know, you thought it was never going to happen, right?

I'm only a couple of hexagons in, and there's an awful lot left to go, but I have say it's already going more quickly than expected. It's the perfect in-front-of-the-TV-after-toddler-bedtime activity (in between knitting some socks and sewing more hexagons for the next hexagon quilt. Addicted? Me?) and I'm hoping to have the quilting done in the next few weeks (and I'll thank you not to remind me of that in the new year when I'm still working on it).

I'm settling into using the perle cotton (No 8 - thick, but not too thick) instead of regular quilting thread. I had a bit of a melt down initially due to trying to reproduce tiny hand quilting stitches before giving into the big-stitch mentality of this chunkier thread.

Basting it was a real barrel of laughs, not least because of my laziness in making a rectangle shaped backing. Have you ever tried to stretch out an irregular piece of fabric? Not fun.

It took about four hours, one huge blister (the entire tip of my sewing finger), two broken nails, five relatively impressive puncture wounds and a very stiff back to complete. Who said quilting was for girls?

I also had to piece two vintage woollen blankets (my quilt batting of choice) to make a piece large enough. Much easier than I was expecting, to be honest.

I'm so excited to be making more progress on this quilt. Just don't ask me about choosing a binding for it (in fact, binding suggestions are gratefully received! Should it be yellow, blue, or something else?)

ps: apologies for the horrendous photos - the basting was done in the evening (can you imagine trying to do it with a toddler on the loose?) and it's so gloomy today that I may as well have taken the quilting pictures in the dark too.

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?

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!

 

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).

Want some fabric?

In an effort to clear at least a small amount of space for the new batch of sewing that's in the pipeline, I'm putting a few scrap bags of various fabrics in my Etsy store in the coming days. There's a whole range of sizes, from the postage stamp quilt/charm quilt sized ones above (2.5" square) to some much larger colour themed bundles.

I hope you see something you like!

Edited to add: A couple of the bundles have already sold! But don't worry, I'll be adding more to the shop throughout today and tomorrow, as well as some yardage.

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!

Happy bread

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I've recently, through rather not-enjoyable circumstances, become the main earner in our family. While it's been absolutely wonderful to have time to focus on my etsy store and get busy planning my new handmade venture, I've missed an awful lot of things about being a stay at home mother (not that I'm actually leaving the house to go to work, but you know what I mean).

Number one, of course, is spending time with Teddy. Much as looking after him all day every day while Adam's at work drives me bananas on a regular basis (teething for the 24th time, anyone?), I feel a bit like my left arm's been chopped off now I'm not looking after him full time. Also I might be just a teeny weeny bit bitter about how much better than me Adam is at keeping Teddy happy while simultaneously producing yummy meals, fresh baked goods and doing all my mailing. Ahem.

I've also missed, although I only realised it yesterday when I realised I had absolutely nothing to blog about, the day to day stuff that I do (and photograph) that I fill up this space right here with. Which is why it was with such pleasure this morning that I took charge of the toddler for a couple of hours and sat him on the sideboard (his number one spot for watching the world go by) while I baked bread.

Nothing clever, just my usual two loaf recipe (in this instance, a mix of wholemeal and white flour in an effort to use up some very boring wholemeal I bought a while back).  I even kneaded it by hand (for the first time since we got the Kenwood Chef a couple of years ago, I think) for that proper homemade satisfaction. I also attempted to bake something a little cleverer, but I'll save sharing that amusing disaster story till tomorrow, in the interests of not ruining this heart warming little tale about a simple loaf of bread and a couple of hours with my boy cheering me up no end.

The payoff, of course, is that I'll need to spend a couple of extra hours this evening working, but since we're five hours ahead of the states, it just means my new listings will have more chance of being seen. See? No drawbacks.

Who new happy bread could make such a difference to my attitude?

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.

Boot fair fun

We have a local car boot sale (a British thing, I think. You get estate sales, we get car boot sales) which I used to do pretty well at a year or so ago - I would usually find a bit of new stock for my Etsy supplies store, or some trinket or other that I couldn't live without.

It's been a quiet summer there for me (weird, because normally you'd expect more good buys in the summer when there are, inevitably, more sellers), but things picked up for me yesterday when I scored a massive tin of buttons and buckles for a bargain price, as well as a set of plates just in time for some visiting friends next weekend (we have half a dozen visitors, and I'm not sure we actually own half a dozen plates in total). I actually have three similar plates in red, bought at the same boot fair a year ago. Remember the blog post? (I didn't - it took me about 15 minutes to find that post!)

I was actually looking for some pretty vintage baskets for my new plan, but to no avail. I'll have to go for the old fall back of raiding my mother's attic (shhh, don't tell her).