It's been a while....

So what have I been up to in the past five months? Well, I would have said not much, but having put some thought into this post, actually there's quite a bit. I won't cram it all in here, but it includes 3 baby quilts; 1 wedding quilt; a lot of dressmaking; some lovely days spent working in The Village Haberdashery; a class with the awe-inspiring Luke Haynes; some quality time with friends and family; and a very special quilt made with some lovely friends for someone who's had a much worse summer than I have. There's been some pattern testing, and, I can't deny it, a LOT of fabric buying!

There's also been a job resignation; a lot of job applications; some hyperventilating about whether I'll ever find a job again; but mainly a lot of happiness and relief that I've taken myself out of such a toxic environment. In the words of Yazz, "the only way is up!"

I look forward to bringing you up to speed in more detail over the next few days!

 

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And the winner is......

1. 

Kelly2 September 2013 21:03

I loved those dots in the class and it has turned out amzingly. now i have seen yours and Di's are finished i will really need to crack on with mine. i have added your blog to my reader.

Congratulations, Kelly, please email me your address so we can get the prize sent it to you. 

Thanks to everyone else for entering!

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Ok, so this rather ruins the drama, but this worked perfectly in Blogsy - seems to have got lost in the publishing, but here's a screen shot of the Blogsy original.

1. 
   

   

Well, hello September....

I can't believe it's September already! With one thing and another August was a busy month sewing wise, with wedding outfits, finishing projects and starting new ones. So here goes....
A family wedding mid-month prompted a flurry of stitching with a new frock, two new purses (1 for each outfit I had to choose between), and a tie for the other half made from my hoarded Birds and the Bees by Tula Pink.

Then there was the wall hanging I'm mid-way through for one of my sisters. She wanted a beach scene, so I drew on the improv teachings from Lu Summers at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and made this up, using Kona solids and all pieced with Aurifil 50wt - my new favourite thread now I know how to stop my machine rejecting it!

While I'm waiting on spray baste for that one, and deciding on a backing, I got going on the quilt for another sister (yep, we're never ending!) this time made from Melody Miller's various Ruby Star collections. I've been wrestling with the best way to display her fantastic designs with the huge motifs and eventually decided on super-size hexes. Photos of this on Instagram lead to my most exciting quilt related experience when Melody herself commented how much she loved it!

And last but not least is Fairground Attraction, my mini quilt made from the Triangle City EPP block I started with Katy Jones at FQR, in Mirror dots, and posted today on the Aurifil Facebook page and tweeted by Alex Veronelli himself! What a weekend! Thanks to Kelly at Jeliquilts for letting me know it was up there along with her fabulous Rainbow quilt.

Last but not least, I currently have a giveaway running in conjunction with The VIllage Haberdashery, so just click here for more details.

Linking up with Lynne over on Lily's Quilts for the Fresh Sewing Day. And by the way, according to Aurifil, this month is National Sewing Month, so let's do it proud!

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Fairground attraction and a giveaway.

Today I've got one of my favourite finishes to show you, and a giveaway from Annie at The Village Haberdashery to help me celebrate it.

Back in July I had a great time at the second Fat Quarterly Retreat. Due to circumstances, I was very late booking, but was lucky enough to still be able to sneak places on some fantastic classes, including Katy Jones' Triangle City EPP.

Now, after a cushion made in my teenage years, I've had a very strong aversion to EPP and hexagons, but I thought if anyone was the girl to get me over that, it was Katy. (Actually, I thought the HST class I went to in April was such a giggle, it would be worth suffering through EPP, 'cos Katy would be a blast!)

So I precut the fabric ready before the class - my policy of only using stash fabrics for the retreat lead me to choose Michael Miller's Mirror Ball Dots, and I was therefore determined to finish it after Retreat.

Initially I made some false starts and nearly gave up. Then it got christened Radioactive Porn Star for some fairly obvious reasons, so a rethink was in order, and I nearly gave up again. But I recut the triangles and in a rainbow state of mind off I set again.

And here is the finished EPP. It reminded me of the lights on fairground rides or roller coasters, hence it's new name of Fairground Attraction.

I decided it needed a plain rich coloured backing, and navy blue won over purple. I quilted it by stitching in the ditch with Aurifil 50wt in white, and then echo quilted it with some navy blue Gutermann thread I happened to have lying around.

To bind it, I used scraps of the Mirror Ball fabric in the same colours as I used in the Triangle City block.

And here's the giveaway part - Annie's has very generously offered a FQ bundle of Mirror Ball dots to one lucky winner! Now some might call this planning, but by coincidence Katy featured these fabrics on her blog today too.

You have three chances to win:
1) follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me you've done so.
2) sign up for Annie's newsletter on the shop website and then leave me a comment telling me you've done so. (Click here for an image of where to subscribe)
3) tweet, blog or Facebook a link to the giveaway and then leave me a comment telling me you've done so. (I'm @Pennie_J_H on twitter)
I'll leave the giveaway open for a week and draw the winner on Sunday 8th September. Good luck!

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Can you see what it is yet?

Earlier this year, two of my sisters came to stay and we got onto the subject of quilts. The one made for my step-mum's 60th has gone to my youngest sister now, and the two middle sisters requested one of their own. A's is to be made of Melody Miller - and that's causing me some problems, I can tell you!! The thought of giving so much precious Ruby Star away, especially as now there is to be no more....

Anyway, as usual, I digress.... C originally asked for her quilt to be an alphabet of animals, and quite possibly fuelled by the several sloe gins we'd all drunk by that point, we picked the most obscure creatures we could for each letter. Luckily, a few weeks later that plan was rationalised to be a wall hanging to hide a crack in the wall in their rented. She had also said one of her favourite things I'd made over the years was the beach huts wall hanging - remember this?

After some discussion, we narrowed it down to a beach scene as if seen through a window. We also both liked the paintings of the Welsh artist, Helen Elliott, and so I've settled on a cross between Helen's colourful, naive style, and the beach huts mini. There's a bit of inspiration from two mini quilts in the book 'We Love Color' too.

Today I trekked to The Village Haberdashery - normally a 45 minute journey, today it took me 2 hours and 20 mins, but I was determined to take advantage of Annie's Bank Holiday Sale! Horrendous traffic, and the seasonal flash floods couldn't stop me. I was extremely and unusually disciplined and stuck to only buying what I went for. I can't tell you how hard that was, as there are an even greater array of sumptuous, temptingly gorgeous new fabrics in at the moment - I sense a few covet posts might be on the way.

So, this evening, I've drawn out the design - 45" x 36" so not exactly a mini this time - and I've laid out the colours of what will be going where. Here's what it looks like so far.....

Wish me luck?!

 

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Super (tote) sewing day

Over the last 15 months, since we first met, I've been lucky enough to have several get-togethers with Aneela Hoey, ostensibly for sewing and chat, but in reality far too much chat happens and we rarely, if ever, end up sewing!  Since I went back to the world of full time employment, and with Aneela's hubby working shifts, it's been harder to meet up, but we planned a sewing day for today, and last night in a flash of insanity inspiration, decided to each make a Super Tote.

This is one of those patterns by Anna 'Noodlehead' that much like the 241 tote has taken the quilting world by storm, and is up there with the Aeroplane in the 'must make' stakes. Yesterday Aneela blogged that was planning to make one, and I was dithering between that and the Aeroplane, so it seemed fate that we work on them together.

As usual, distractions got in the way at the beginning - there were quilt tops and yummy fabric to be admired and coo-ed over, and gossip to catch up on.  I don't think my sewing machine even made it out of the bag, let alone be plugged in, until at least an hour and a half had passed.  Luckily, I did quite a lot of prep last night, cutting out all the bits, and working out which fabrics to use for which part of the bag.  In fact, that would be my one criticism so far of the pattern - although the picture shows it being made with different fabrics for the various external parts, the cutting layout (although only a suggested layout) shows the front, back and external pocket being cut out of one fabric, and it took me a while to get my head around which bits to cut from what.

I had decided to go with Melody Miller fabric, much as that made me feel incredibly disloyal in Aneela's house! I used the rich coloured heavier weight fabrics from Ruby Star Sparkle, including the fab roller boots. I managed to cut one piece wrong - not realising there was only an external pocket on the front - and so I used the wrongly cut cameras to line the front pocket, instead of just facing it.  I have to say I'm a bugger for cheating on straps, and I do like to use webbing, so I used some grey heavyweight webbing I already had in my stash for something else (which I will now need to replace - MORE shopping.... *sigh*....)  and I also decided to forego the piping (too much faffing for me!).  Just look at all that wonderful fabric stacked up behind the ironing board - with stuff like that to look at, is it no wonder I got little sewing done??  

Once we'd stopped for a scrummy lunch (thanks, M&S!) we got back to the sewing, and tried to get the gussets done without sniggering every time we said the word 'gusset'!

I went for some of Melody's vintage flowers - one thing I love about that fabric is the colours in it go sooooo well with other Melody fabrics.  I have to confess I was a bit unsure at this stage that it might be a tad OTT.  But I was really happy once I'd wrestled the gusset (hrumph!) into place and worked out how to topstitch it once the back was added - it actually looks great.  Now, wouldn't it be fab if I had a picture of that stage to show you?  

Well, the thing is, By the time we'd done all that bit, we'd run out of time, and so we've planned to go back again tomorrow for a couple of hours and get the bag finished - I'm hoping the lining, recessed zip and internal pockets are quicker to put together than the outside, or I'll be back on Monday too, and work might not be greatly pleased by that!

So you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see that...

Those of you who read Aneela's blog will have seen yesterday that she said she'd been feeling a bit down in the dumps and to make herself feel better she'd decided to make a project pouch for a friend of hers, because making things for other people always made her feel better.  She'd used the puppy print from Sherbet Pips and I have a soft spot for that fabric as it reminds me of my titchy springer, Bella.  So imagine my squealy delight this morning to arrive at Annela's and find out the friend was me!  And here it is in all its puppy glory.  All ready to be stocked up for my EPP class at the Fat Quarterly retreat.  

And while we're on that subject, don't forget the lovely Annie is having a fantastic shopping event at the Village Haberdashery on Friday 19th July, with a special evening opening for retreat goers - there will be cupcakes and wine and evryfin'.  Oh and there's a 10% discount all day for in-store purchasers, so if you fancy on stopping off there en-route to South Kensington for retreat supplies, you'll get a great welcome.

Update on a covet

So while I was in the shop this weekend I got chance to fondle and drool over the beautiful Glimma range that Annie now has in stock. Not only are there the scrumptious quilting cottons I mentioned here, but there are 4 gorgeous solids in lovely dusty colours, a couple of spotty linens, and some canvas - just perfect for THE latest bag pattern, the Aeroplane.

I was fairly taken with the colous on the little iPad screen, but in the flesh they are something else - the flannel grey has a hint of heather to it, while the slate is a rich intense stormy grey.  

So get yourself over to Annie's, either virtually here or literally over in West Hampstead, and get it while it's hot.  Just please remember to leave enough of the dandelion for me and my aeroplane.

Life is a roller coaster...

I'm sorry I was away for longer than expected, but the weekend in Wales didn't go entirely according to plan, thanks to a mystery virus that landed me in hospital at the start of the week with suspected meningitis.  I'm very happy to say, after many somewhat painful tests, including a lumbar puncture, that was ruled out, but I'm only really now back in full health.

After that less than auspicious start, I went back to work on Thursday to confirmation of a promotion I'd applied for.  As this will come with a permanent contract, and a rather juicy pay rise, you can imagine that was fantastic news after the last few months. 

Then, to round the rapidly improving week off, remember this? Well, guess where I spent yesterday? Yep, only in day one of Katy's fantabulous class.  And what a great time was had by all.  It was all a bit of a panic getting ready for the class as I wasn't sure I'd be well enough to go, and then I had a last minute visit from my lovely baby sis, so it was a bit of a case of grabbing a fat quarter bundle of pearl bracelets off the sewing table, whichever solid I had enough of to cut 48 x 5" squares, (which happened to be a white on white by Makower) and in a last minute flash of inspiration, the fat 8th bundle of the Michael Miller mirror dots. (OK, not inspiration at all, they just happened to be in the bag I wanted to use!)

So we learned all about half square triangles, Katy had us cutting the squares in half and sewing along the bias edges to get us used to bias sewing - useful for curves and all sorts of other stuff.  And we got them all chain pieced - this is something I haven't done often, but I can see the advantages - speed and thread-preservation mainly.

One of the most exciting bits for me was using the electronic Janome's Annie has for the classes - I've never used a computerised sewing machine before and got more than a little excited about the fact the needle would always stop in the up position!  And the speed control.... I'm thinking I can see what part of that new pay rise will be going towards.....

So here's a little mosaic of the day. We were sent home with loads of homework, because we all gossiped too much and didn't sew enough!  I have somehow managed to end up with 131 HSTs instead of the 96 planned, and having done my layout ready to sew up before next week's day two, I've still managed to end up with one missing, so I've got one more to rustle up this evening and then I can start sewing them together.  Hopefully, I'll have it finished by next week, 'cos I don't want to end up in detention.....

The 6th, and this week's final, covet of the week

So, all this week, in celebration of Annie's new weekday opening hours at the wonder that is The Village Haberdashery, we've had a daily, misnomered, Covet of the Week. Today being Friday, and the last weekday, this is the last in the mini series, but the question is have I saved the best till last??

 With her ranges Echo and Bella, Lotta Jansdotter brought us clean, Scandinavian design, and Glimma carries that theme on.  I'm loving this range, and having resisted the previous two, I suspect this one will see me parting with more hard-earned cash, as I identify that gap in the stash that only Glimma could fill.

The muted colours and simple designs are gorgeous, and I can't wait to see it in the thread, as it were.

Now, after all that coveting I'm off to Wales for a soul-cleansing weekend with beloved partner's family.

The 5th Covet

Last week, over on Lynne's blog, there was a write-up of a new quilting programme specially for i-pad called Quiltography. I was intrigued and went ahead a bought a copy. Not sure quite how long it's going to take me to photograph, measure, and name every piece of fabric in my relatively small (yes, beloved partner, I did say small!) stash in order to get the most out of it, but there was one feature I couldn't wait to try.

I saw a photo on Mark Lipinski's Facebook page and immediately thought it would make an amazing quilt. Quiltography offers a fab feature where you import a photo and it converts it into a pixelated-style quilt pattern, along with the number of pieces you need in each colour! 

For the life of me I can't work out how to load the photo of the quilt pattern, but take my word for it, it'll be great. There's even piecing diagrams for each block and then a layout diagram too, so hopefully fool-proof..... we'll see.

Anyway, you're hopefully reading this and wondering a) if I own the programme, what am I coveting, and b) what's this got to do with Annie's wonderful shop that this week's covets are celebrating?

So, here we go.... as well as all the wonderful patterned fabrics, Annie has an enviable collection of Kona solids - just what I need to do the design justice. So I need a Kona colour card with new insert so I can match that up with the colour suggestion in the pattern and try and make the quilt look as stunning as I think it could.

Covet and ye shall find.....

Well, I know strictly speaking it should be seeking that does the finding, but that doesn't fit in my week of coveting!  Look what Annie has running over on the LMQG blog.... only a giveaway of a free place on Katy's course!  Of course, what with all my coveting, and working in the shop, I can't enter.....  oh, the irony!!!

Anyway, wiping my eyes and moving on, here we go with day 4. Like many of the quilting community, I'm a little hooked on the texty fabrics which seem to be everywhere these days. I really love the vintage newsprints here, which are from the Collage and Objects in Vintage ranges.  

The more modern fabrics are The Land That Never Was - Fairy Tales, and who doesn't love a good fairy tale. I really fancy a Schoolhouse Tunic/Shirt made out of one of these.

Covet of the week, day 3

Ok, Day 3 of the celebration of the dangerous new opening hours for the best fabric shop I know.....

I thought I'd have a bit of a diversion from fabric today - don't want to get boring after all - and have a bit of a covet of one of the fantastic new classes scheduled this month.

Who wouldn't want to go and learn at the knee of one of the quilting community's true characters, who has an enviable collection of tattoos, a 'husbeast', and call's herself a ginger monkey??  I mean, imagine what a person like that could teach you in two days!

I'm scared of HST's but I love some of the blocks they make, so I really want to go on this course with Katy Jones, and not only have a great time, but overcome my fear.

More details can be found on Katy's blog and also on the shop site, so  make sure you get your place booked quickly while there's still room....

photo courtesy of Katy Jones

Covet of the week... Day 2

Ok, so here we go with day 2....

Today, I'm going for the Spot On Wide - at 108" wide, it's perfect for quilt backing fabric - also, because it's got that fantastic pebbles pattern going on, it strikes me as a bit of a cheat sheet for those of us just starting to attempt a bit of FMQ!!!

Covet of the week...

So, in honour of my favourite fabric pusher shop now being open from 10am-3pm during the week as well as the weekends, I'm having a daily Covet this week.

Following how much I enjoyed making the Renfrew top in the Nani Iro jersey, I'm going to start with the 'coming soon' Elk Grove Knits in the Poppies - I love all the colours and can't wait to add to my Renfrew collection....

Oh happy day......

It's been a somewhat exciting weekend, this one. After my day in the shop on Saturday, and a lovely Chinese meal out with the other half that night for his birthday, yesterday a few of my LMQG friends met up for a sewing day.

The lovely hostess

Nat is lucky enough to have a dedicated sewing space, so five of us happily sat around sewing and chatting, and eating lunch, and generally having a good time!  There was plenty of space for some cutting out, machine sewing, hand stitching of binding, and in my case, unpicking some dodgy quilting!

We had a lovely lunch provided by the gorgeous Kelly who was working on an Aeroplane bag - and very stunning it looked too, in the fabulously glittery latest Melody Miller range.  The weight of the fabric makes it perfect for bags and such like, and I can't wait to a) see Kelly's finished bag, and b) attempt one of my own.





isn't it gorgeous?

Kelly and her cleavage!

Check out that top-stitching

Of course, it wouldn't be Kelly without some tom-foolery, and she couldn't resist demonstrating other possible uses for the amply sized smaller bag - here she models the latest in over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders..... what more can I say! As you can tell, it wasn't a terribly serious day.

I'm quietly confident my little Janome would happily fit into this smaller bag, so I have some Melody Miller of my own that Charlotte very generously gave me for my birthday, and so I will be putting that to good use - watch this space.




binding away

Amanda was happily handsewing the binding onto her stunning diamond ring quilt, which looked lovely made from the Pearl bracelets range. She also had a play with Kelly's 11.5" inches, and we all spent a large part of the day planning what we could sell in order to justify the purchasing of new machines - needless to say there is no limit to the deviousness of female quilters when it come to inveigling a new machine into the house!
  

checking the fit

Amy was having a foray into dressmaking with her Schoolhouse tunic. it will be so summery once she's finished.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful day, and the next one is already in the calendar, when we plan to all attempt The Weekender together... apparently we have homework to do in preparation for that one!

Oh, and I just realised this is my 100th post!  Perhaps I ought to have a little giveaway...

What a surprise!

So, today I was happily doing my shop-keeper act, helping out Annie at The Village Haberdashery - I've been there 3 weekends having a whale of a time while Annie gets to know her beautiful new son, Harvey.

Imagine my surprise when a rather large contingent of Kinky Bee ladies arrived in the shop, and proceeded to stay, chat, and buy substantial amounts of fabric! Altogether they were in the shop for about 2 hours, and it was lovely to meet some new faces and also to chat with others I'd met before, including Moira, Liz and Di (gatecrashing from Lincs!).

Happy birthday to me....

What more could a girl ask for??

Plus and minus....

On Friday, we went to deliver our secret Project President quilt to the lovely Annie, fabric shop owner and quilt guild leader extraordinaire, who is expecting her first baby early next month.  

We had a mini baby shower, and took great delight in force feeding cold baby food to poor Annie, who had to try and identify the ingredients.... apparently it's a Canadian thing...!

You can read the full story of the quilt on Charlotte's blog here.

But that wasn't my only excitement this weekend.... Charlotte, knowing I would be likely to squander my hard-earned pay packet on the new Melody Miller Sparkle fabric, newly in stock at The Village Haberdashery, very, very, very kindly (and wisely!) gave me an early birthday present of more of the fabric to go with the beauties she brought me back from QuiltCon.  As you can imagine, even the brown fabric wrapping didn't manage to quell my squeals.  

I just can't wait to get stuck into these - they're a lovely heavier weight fabric than the last collection.  I think the roller blades are destined for a lamp shade for my sewing room, although I am hatching a plot to reupholster an old arm chair in patchwork Melody - still working on the OH for that project though - he's not convinced.....

(Looking at these photos makes me realise I really need a new camera..)

Kelly had very generously given me some of the blue and green phones a couple of weeks ago, so these are all now sitting together waiting for me to do them justice.  

So that's the plusses, now onto the minus.... Having found myself with some unexpected time off this week, I finally found the courage to cut out the Renfrew Top pattern in the Nani Iro jersey I invested in before Christmas.  

Yesterday, I read up on sewing with jersey and so today went to tackle some practice with the jersey machine needles I bought specially for the project.  

You know what's coming next, don't you?  

Yep, I can't find the blasted things - I am 99% sure I know where I put them in the sewing room, but now can't track them down for love nor money.  So if any of you have any ideas of where I might have hidden them, do let me know.  I've checked the fridge and the bathroom cabinet already, but no joy.  Trouble is, I've tidied the sewing room since I bought them, so they could now be anywhere.  Of course, the fact I've just ordered another pack means the minute I walk back into the sewing room, they'll be right there in front of me.

 

Covet revisited

A while ago I did a bit of a mass covet and covetted 3 fabrics at once - just plain greedy, eh?  I've valiantly resisted the temptation to order Melody Miller's telephones from the States, (ostensibly to be loyal to Annie, but really because it's January, and with 6 weeks and Christmas between pay days, who can afford to splurge on fabric??)  What has helped with this is the little stack of one of the other covets sitting on my sewing table readily available for stroking and drooling.

However, I've discovered today that just being my fabric dealer for the last 10 months is no longer enough for Annie, she's now turned active pusher!  And I am going to have to resort to crime or selling body parts, as that other covet, Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets, is now on pre-order as a fat quarter bundle.... at a discount!  

Just £60 will get you one of these scrummy bundles by the end of the month.

and I really, really, really want one.....  Click here if you do, too!

2 for 1.....

OK, firstly, I confess there is some shameless stealing of images in this blog post!  Problem is I made things and gave them away, but forgot to take pics.... so I nicked theirs!

And then I had something made for me and I knew I couldn't take a pic that would do it justice, so I nicked that too! 

I do hope that Kelly and Charlotte will forgive me....?

Anyway, I had a great time yesterday playing with my friends at the Village Haberdashery's open weekend.  There was banter and shopping and a lovely day spent with Annie, Charlotte and Kelly.

I've been really lucky to have some great and much needed support from these girls over what has been a lousy year, so I made some little Christmassy gifts (although I realised the one I'd made for Annie was totally inappropriate & is having to be replaced!)  

So I made a couple of sacky bottle bags - I wanted them to look like a Santa sack, rather than a sleek tailor-made bag (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) So I used some of my stash of Countdown to Christmas - I went a bit OTT buying it last year to say the least.  The bags are loosely based on the pattern in Quilt Dad's Pretty in Patchwork - Holidays book, and I made one with the same kind of inset and another using the robin embroidery from Annela's class in FQR.  Both bags are lined and one has a selvedge tie, the other a ribbon.  I also bought some reels of Lu Summers' tape, which they seemed almost as pleased with as the grog!

We had a great day together - Annie had some customers too, which we managed to be helpful to, I think.  But in the main, we just had fun and a lot of laughter.  (And heaven knows, that's been lacking over the last month or so.)

Anyway, in addition to all the merriment, Kelly arrived also bearing gifts.  I don't know if anyone saw her blog a few days ago with the wonderful cushions photographed in the park.  One was a fab scrappy rainbow cushion which was 'made for a very good friend of mine, I hope it puts a smile on her face! '  Well, it's safe to say my grin was ear to ear when she presented it to me.  It's a perfect cuddle size, and will no doubt be much utilised in the coming weeks!

On top of all that, I came home and got cracking on the Christmas sewing I'd been unable to get in the mood for, and the mojo is well and truly back!

Just as well, as there's a lot to do, not to mention a batch of brownies to whip up and send out to some lucky recipients...