Getting ready...

A few of us LMQG girls are getting together on Saturday for a sewing day, and this time, I'm actually going to sew instead of spending the day unpicking!

We were originally going to make skirts, but that's kind of gone a bit awry.... possibly cos we're not known for our wearing of them!

I've got two tops cut out - the resolved raindrops fabric now ready to become a Colette Sorbetto, and some hot pink Bike Path from Lucky Penny by Alison Glass, all cut out to be a short Schoolhouse top.

Sunday is set aside for a quilt top day, so it's going to be a busy weekend.

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.

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...

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.

 

I can resist everything but temptation....

..... and nestled in a leafy corner of West Hampstead is the most tempting shop I've ever been lucky enough to spend time in.

The lovely Annie, of The Village Haberdashery is adding to her empire and to accompany the fabulous online shop, there's now going to be a real-life, bricks and mortar version.

I've been a regular user of the online version and rarely get through a shopping 'trip' there without buying extras I didn't go looking for. But I have so far managed to be very disciplined and I don't go browsing -  I go on the site, buy what I want, and get out while there's still money in my account!  

However......that shop..... well, you can't use such avoidance tactics when all the fabricky wonder is spread out in front of you, colourfully arranged on shelves and in baskets and just daring you to leave it there.  I've been in the shop twice now, luckily with Annie having no credit card facilities in the store, but my mental shopping list is up to about £300, and I'm not sure I'll escape so lightly on Sunday when I do my stint as eager shop assistant!!

I had a wonderful day today helping get the last bits and pieces done before the open weekend tomorrow and Sunday - so if you can manage a visit, do coo over the beautifully arranged 'Peg Board of Notions' (I single-handedly put all Annie's cute red tipped 'pegs' into it and added the notions - all to my own design, so remember to be impressed!).  

At the moment, Annie has the fabric, threads, notions, yarns, purse frames, patterns and funky felt balls (it's worth coming to see the Christmas tree alone), and probably a lot of other things you never knew you couldn't live without.  In the New Year, the shop will be opening more regularly, and there are plans for classes and demos, too.

So......


What: The Village Haberdashery's first Open Weekend!
Date and time: Saturday, 15th December 11-7 and Sunday, 16th December 11-5
Location: 47 Mill Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 1NB

Hope to see you there!

Great minds....

Isn't it funny how some patterns or tutorials just seem to capture the quilting community's imagination and suddenly versions are popping up everywhere?  Look at Anna's fantastic bag patterns over at Noodlehead - who hasn't tried a 241 yet?

I guess it's only natural that following on from the handbag theme would be purses and wallets - I've spent most of the summer in awe of the amazing frame purses springing up everywhere after the FQ Retreat in June.  I never plucked up the courage to try one of those, maybe one day.

However, wallets seem to be the next thing, and I very happily jumped on the bandwagon over the weekend with this tutorial from Confessions of a Fabricaholic.  I'd seen the one made by Charlotte not only on her blog but actually in the flesh as it were at our LMQG meet.  I decided it was just the thing to use some of my Summersville for, and I like a nice bright wallet.  

Charlotte's advice was to 'interface the heck out of it' and so I took her at her word and interfaced nearly every pattern piece!  I'd got some of the really stiff Pellon interfacing to use on the outside to give it some support, but I also wanted to use fusible fleece to give it a bit of a soft feel.  So I used both.... hmmm, I like the finished effect, but it meant some adaptation of the tutorial was necessary!  When I sewed around the outside and turned it through, it bowed!  Nothing was going to make it lie flat that way, so I undid it, sewed it wrong sides together and bound it instead.  It's given me a slightly bigger wallet, which I can also slip my mobile phone into when I nip into to the supermarket, almost like a mini clutch.  

This project was also my first attempt at a zip, and I'm not sure I got it entirely right, but for a first go, I'm pretty pleased!

All in all, this has already gone into daily use, and I love it.  I was going to have a got at making a folding wallet for the OH from another pattern by Angharad but I can only find images in flowery girly fabrics, not the rugged denim I was going to use for him, and so he's not keen!  No imagination, that one!

Anyway, it's a big day for me today as I go under the knife myself.  So I may be absent for a little while, depending how things go.  See you all soon.