Pinterest and Stuff

Pinterest, that totally compulsive, addictive, viral online pinboard ......... if you've never heard of it then don't look, it WILL take over your life!  My husband often moaned that he couldn't find his few bookmarks amongst my hundreds (I do sort them out but it soon gets out of hand again) so I started transferring them onto Pinterest.  It's wonderful to be able to see a pic to remind oneself rather than having to click on every link to find just the thing one's looking for and to be able to organise things via boards - heaven!  One of my boards is ideas for Christmas Shoeboxes so I started seeking things out.  A fabric alphabet I've just finished ...........

I used the template here.  I'd make them a little bigger or do them a little differently another time to allow for easier cutting of the internal apertures but I do like the way they've turned out.  All different fabrics with plenty of colours, spots, stripes, checks, flowers etc. for added play value, cut on the bias as much as possible to minimise fraying and a great way of using up all those little scraps - they're probably a little less than 2" high.


This week it's been just the weather for some warming winter soups ......... very cheap too!  Root Vegetable soup = potato, carrot and onion (or leek or both) sweated down in a little butter for a few minutes.  Add some stock, a few herbs and seasoning plus a teaspoon of sugar.   Sometimes I'll omit the herbs and add spices instead (ground coriander/cumin/curry) or add some chopped fresh coriander at the end.

 Simmer in a lidded pan until the vegetables are soft ...............

then blend with a stick blender whilst still hot .................

A head of celery had been in the fridge drawer since Christmas so that got used up too, sweated down with some potato, onion, an apple and a clove of garlic.  I used half stock, half milk, salt and pepper. 

The milk curdled it but it didn't look too bad blended and tasted wonderful.  It was only me that ate it anyway ....... over a few days!
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Scraps and Swaps

My first ever fabric swap.  Tahlia in the US sent me some amazing prints for my I Spy quilt.  I love them all but here's a few .................

Cherry sent me some beautiful pieces left over from the I Spy quilt she made for her grandson.  Am starting to sort all of them into colour groupings but I really must resist fiddling about with them too much as the edges will be so frayed before it's time to stitch them all together!

Ali of Very Berry Handmade organised a fabric scrap swap.  I love scraps and, as much so, the challenge of bringing them together for an actual item.  I had a beautiful package from Helen of Find a Happy Place.  As well as some pieces that are just perfect for the I Spy quilt there were a few squares that just had to stay together.  Very "Heritage" colours that I probably wouldn't buy myself ................

With a bit of jiggling, 4 x 5" squares were just enough for a "Heritage" elephant (maybe destined as a scissor keeper) with just a little bit of machine stitching in keeping with the Heritage theme and not detracting from the fabric too much ...................

Part of my personal challenge with the fabric scrap swap complete, I really must press on with the log cabin patchwork blind before it starts to become a chore more than fun .............

So a special thankyou to everybody who has swapped fabrics, it has been great fun receiving the surprise packages (all of which will be put to good use) and I hope everybody enjoys the fabrics sent in return.
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Very Green ..........

Another cup & saucer, a bit green and not quite to plan but I don't dislike it .............

Whilst I had some green scraps to hand, backgrounds for fabric postcards.  Before I started, was thinking daisies but they're not saying daisy to me .................. more tropical ......... hmmm ......

Thankyou for your comments ladies, am glad the photos look ok, it's difficult to decide just which angle the laptop screen should be at to make sure they're not too dark or light.

Scraps

Well that didn't take long ..................... I'm stuck albeit hopefully only briefly whilst I decide what to do now that the daisy punch won't cut through the vilene so I'll write a blog post instead!

I  don't know what is up with blogger this morning, the pics are only uploading one at a time and positioning themselves where I don't want them and not wanting to move so ............ I'll do my best.

Any piece of fabric less than, say, 6" goes in the scrapbag and I'm talking about any little scrap here not just sizeable pieces.  It's a while since I turned the bag right out so, looking for some green bits for the next cup, it was emptied out.  Out came all sorts of bits that I'd forgotten about ................ the cover for my sleeve ironing board (so that's where it went), a couple of bits of net that I use for felting, some scraps of lace that I'd cut off a dress I threw away ............. there is such a dilemma with clothes.  Do you freecycle them, give them to charity or remove any buttons and/or bits that you may use and bin the rest?  Depends what they are I suppose but I deeply regret ridding myself of an M&S long silk velvet blouse (a Christmas gift that wasn't really me) ............. I should have kept it and cut it up.   Last year our daughter freecycled a bag full of hardly worn branded hoodies ................... it's only just occured to me that I could have used the lovely pink & blue zips hmmmmm .......

A small amount of plain green was needed so out came my dyed fabrics.  I just love them as they are .......... a rainbow of colour!  It's a ridiculous thing to say I know but I could keep these out and derive pleasure from just looking at them on a daily basis.  Large scale isn't really my thing but maybe I should turn some of this rainbow into something which I could admire on a daily basis ............... a strippy wall hanging perhaps?  Am wondering how much dyeing I'm going to be doing now that we've had a (compulsory) water meter installed!

Towards the end of last year, more out of necessity to create a couple of presents quickly & easily from stuff I already had, I made a couple of wallets ..............

There's enough scraps in the bag to make three more of these in pink, brown & blue ................ I might do that.

Using the laptop it's really had to tell if I have the photographs looking acceptable.  If anybody reads this I would welcome comment as to whether they are too dark, light or whatever - thankyou.

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.

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"