My Treasure Chest

This past week has seen a number of coincidences in my life. My husband and I were talking about the price of petrol and how our little jaunts out are now more infrequent because of it when I suddenly realised that my (paternal) nan died 10 years ago this year. A couple of days later I received, quite out of the blue, a reply to a query that I placed on a message board years ago. An elderly gentleman, although he didn't know him personally, was part of the same operation(s) thus able to tell me of the events and incident causing my grandfathers loss of life during WW2. I had to get the wooden box out to confirm some details .....................

Now I'm not the type to ask for things nor accept things readily when offered but when nan died I did ask if I could have the box under her bed. Not for any material value but for what it was - her "Treasure Chest". Having delved into it numerous times during my childhood I knew what was in it - all the important stuff - her marriage certificate, notification of my grandfather's presumed death from the MoD and a number of other bits and pieces. I've been researching my family history for 20 years now so the bits left have a good home. I'm rather ashamed to say that it was 10 years ago that I vowed to rejuvinate the inside of the box with some embroidered panels .............. perhaps it's time that I did something about it!

Anybody that saw "Coast" on tv the other night will have seen the old railway on the beach in Brighton. Though we've visited the area a few times, we hadn't known about this before - it was very interesting. There is an old sheet of newspaper lining the box and when I took it out to see if there was anything worth noting of a family history value (it appears to be just a random newsheet published in 1934 not long after nan's marriage) there was a photograph of the railway!

Back to textile things, I've been making a little decorative embroidered horse from my scraps but I really don't like how it's turning out so I think it's best if I put it in the bin later and move on. From the beginning it never had that "can't wait to get out of bed and work on it" feeling - that should have told me something! I did, however, make a little case for the camera from this tutorial

I chose a pretty fabric to pull out of my handbag. My husband said "I will look pretty with that won't I?" I forgot we share things lol!

I'm using the camera!

More Texture

Continuing with my textural cushions theme, I've achieved the effecct I wanted but it's scruffy! After 3 or 4 stitches, the fabric starts to twist and fold haphazardly under the stitching and it's noticeable. Does it matter? Controlled scruffiness it ok but I don't think I can do scruffy! Perhaps a more loosely woven fabric would be better?


To get away from stressing over that, I decided to do something "quick & easy" from my scrapbag. I found the pattern for the pig here

It wasn't particulary easy - I had some trouble matching up the gusset to the body parts due to the darts at the tops of the legs - nor was it very quick but that was me! Personally, I would prefer a more elongated body for a pig and the ears could do with folding forwards a bit - they're a bit long aren't they? I widened the ears in the pattern to make turning easier and folded them in a bit when stitching to the body.

In answer to Chris's comment, I don't have a very large stash of fabrics but what I do have is mostly bright .........

Enough Birds I Think ........

These bits only really came about this week due to me looking through my bags of scraps to see how I could minimalise it a bit and found two partially cut out birds (again from Nellie's pattern ) .....


and enough strips left over from bowls to make some mini ones (handy to keep by the sewing machine) ,,,,,,,

My husband seems to think that it would be a good idea to make more of these to keep handy around the house for dropping threads into rather than them falling to the floor - good idea in theory maybe but in practise ................... !

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Thankyou for your lovely comments about the bag in the last post - am really pleased with it.

"Chickens"

My parents called in at the weekend and mum said "Ooh, you've made another chicken". Chicken? Who said anything about chicken?

Mum grew up surrounded by pigeon fanciers (grandfather & uncles) so the (rather loose it would seem) significance of the coloured head and rings on the legs. The ringlet on top of the head well here's a picture of me as a baby ............

Her dad was a "Simpsons" fan so rather than a "Homing" pigeon, I called it "Homer". Thought I'd explained this - perhaps I hadn't? Sorting through my bag of scraps earlier I found pieces for two more "chickens" that I'd cut out but scrapped so I.ve decided to make them up too - will post pics when they're done.

I've finished the bag ..............

Thankyou for your comments. I managed to stitch the handle in on the machine albeit breaking a needle in the process but it's probably time it was changed anyway. I've thought of another type of bag that would suit the handle but wouldn't know how to make the bag - thinking cap time!

I changed (covered) the blue silk binding in the end - not because I didn't like it but for ease of finishing. The bias part at the top was part of the seam allowance which I decided not to trim off due to the bulk hence the bias wasn't really wide enough neither did the blue silk lining have enough turning at the top now that there was the extra height so I went with the cotton and a cotton lining - it was easier to work! I think I've achieved what I set out to do so it satisfies a whim!

The reverse - ruffled up with my fingers ..............

The colours in these pics are somewhat different to those the other day - I think the true colour is somewhere between the two.

I always find the differing between peoples tastes and preferences very interesting. Mum loved the cream cushions I made recently but didn't give my bag a second glance!

In a Quandry ............

I had an idea to make a little bag for myself - quite simple I thought .......... wrong!

The idea is that there were to be (I shall call them) beads - like above but plain blue velvet - where the handle meets the bag. These were placed over the end of the fabric so that there was only the rope to actually attach to the bag itself. I had them all attached but the handle just wouldn't sit right when stitched to the inside of the bag so I've removed them. It might not help that the rope wasn't in the centre of the fabric handle so I've taken that out ...............

The handles at a good half inch diameter are much too bulky to be stitched as they are so I thought about stitching them and removing as much bulk as possible but planning that out it just doesn't look right - maybe the silk binding at the top of the bag is creating too much of a divide?

Perhaps it looks better with matching binding? I like the body (incidentally it's not so elongated as it looks in the photo - must have been the angle I took the pic. from), I like the handle but maybe they are never going to sit together happily. Any comments/criticism welcome ....................

"Anemone"

It's finished and I love it!

This is me or at least I think it is - texture, dimension, a favourite colour combination and the sea. Now to try get on with some of the more mundane things in life, time management is not my forte, drizzle stitch is much more exciting!

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I've been using a laptop of late so find it difficult to see if the colours are accurate but I think this one is ok.

Clingfilm

Thankyou for all your lovely comments everyone - they are very encouraging. I have curtains to alter, a garden to weed and numerous other jobs around the house but sometimes it's good to do something fun.

Snippets of lightweight fabrics on a cotton background with the outside ring of a hoop beneath .......



Clingfilm carefully laid over and the inside of the hoop fitted all ready for some machine embroidery to hold the snippets in place ...............



Machine embroidered, ironed beneath baking parchment and fitted into a small hoop ready for some embellishment ................

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to fit inside this hand dyed silk "cup"