Useful tools

I have been working on this months 'Mini Mania' (as it has now been named) challenge, and I have to say it has been a bit of a challenge.  I managed to get all the pieces cut, but as I was piecing them I noticed my machine was skipping stitches, so like a good girl I changed the needle (not the easiest task with my new machine), but it still skipped stitches so I had to resort to reading the instruction book and that gave me another needle choice, so once again changed the needle.  In the past I have never had any trouble doing this, but my new Janome is a bit if a fiddle so I have resorted to finding little tools to help and wondered if any of you have a similar problem and have solved it with your own tools.  Firstly I use a handbag mirror so that I can see where the needle should be placed..

I think this came out of a Christmas Cracker

that helped a lot, then I remembered my Bernina overlocker had a dust brush with a hole at the end where you inserted the needle to help with the placement into the machine so off I went and found that.

You can still buy these from Bernina Dealers

Lastly my old Bernina needle threader came in very handy with those fine needles that have very small eyes for the automatic needle threader to tackle

This used to slide into the side of the old machine 

 So these are my new favourite friends

Can you see the needle?

and these are my old but very trusty friends 

Fine lace pins, sharp snips, Sewing guide, and my quick unpick 

What special bits and pieces do you use???

Bags Beads and Blocks

Once again I have been flitting from one thing to another in my craft room, still,  as they say 'change is as good as a rest'

Later in the year Higham Piecemakers will be having its bi-annual quilt show, where we  raise funds for a local Charity.  There is always a cushion raffle (so a cushion will be made later) and this year we are also having a 'Bagabola' (change from Tombola) so I have to make a bag.  A friend introduced me to Debbie Shore and her 'You Tube' tutorials, so I decided to make the zippered tote bag.  The instructions were really very good and, as you can pause the video, nothing escapes you.  I think if I made it again I would add a thin batting/wadding, but overall I think the bag is really nice and hopefully it will be appreciated.

Love this Ikea fabric

Pinterest is another time waster for me, but there are some wonderful things to put on the 'to do' list.  I added one before Christmas, and have only just got around to making it.  I was hoping to use some old jewellery, but in the end only used a couple of earrings (minus their posts) and lots of little glass beads.   This was so simple to make, I might go raiding the old necklace box for some different types of beads etc.  

Christmas bauble 

I also got an email from a 'flickr' friend.  I used to play on flickr a lot with swaps and 'quilt- a- longs', but flickr changed its format so I dropped out of a lot of the groups,  but the ladies that I used to swap with have what is called an 'Epiphany Group' and if someone was sick or has some tragedy and needs a hug, a begging email would be sent out and those that wanted would all make a patchwork block. They would then send it off to one wonderful person who would piece all the blocks together, someone (or a few) would donate the batting, someone would then sandwich and quilt.  The finished quilt would then be sent and the recipient would receive hugs (in block form) from all over the world.  A call went out this week and it was decided that we would all make a 8.5" block with a house on it  we could add trees or flowers and the colours we were asked to use were pink and green on a white background.

This is my contribution 

Wonky house with lots of love 

I have started working on the new challenge quilt for this month, but that is still a 'work in progress' so will have to show you that at a later date.

Happy creating. 

Mini Mania No. 1 finished

Remember I said that a few of us were having a little challenge?  Well, we had our 'reveal' on Saturday at 10 o'clock, we all used the 'whats app' way of showing and telling on our phones and I have to say it worked well.  Four of us started the mini quilts, but as sometimes happens life got in the way for one person (quilts for dogs, cushions for a charity) so only three of us had our quilts finished.

This is Lesley's

Oh so neat!

 and Lynda's

She even made fancy binding 

and last but (hopefully) not least, my one

Looks like I could do with a lesson in pressing!

If Ann manages to get her quilt  finished I hope to get a photo and then I will show that one.

Our next challenge is now up and running.......this one is going to end up about 8" x 10" ......but for me its a good lesson in cutting carefully.  

Yorkshire and the ipad Art

We visited our daughter, son-in-law and family in North Yorkshire this weekend and had a chilly but wonderful time.

On Saturday  we took the opportunity to visit Saltaire which in December 2001, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (have a look at the web site as it gives you a virtual tour of the mill and is a very easy web site to use).

The ground floor of the Mill 

 The Salts Mill has been converted and a few floors have been taken up with retail outlets, and
on the upper floors there are a number of  galleries, one of which is currently staging  a David Hockney exhibition of his iPad art,  ' The Arrival of Spring'......yes all of the work was done on his iPad.  He tells you that he had found sketching in the winter just too cold so he sketched on his iPad (in the car) he then decided to finish the art work in the same manor, hence 'ipad art'.  His work is truly amazing
Firstly I have to apologise for the quality of the photos.....guess who forgot to take their camera and had to use the phone...(not an Iphone!)

These scenes were repeated for different times of the year

The colours and shading are unbelievable 

Just so vibrant

As I was  away for the weekend  not much sewing went on, but the friends that are joining me in the mini quilt have been busy.  A few of them have almost finished and therefore we have decided to have a 'show and tell' on Saturday.  When I say 'show and tell' -  we will all show our finished quilts with a photo on 'Whats app'  at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning.  It has been fun, and especially enjoyed some of the 'whats app' comments.  Roll on next months mini!  I will try to show you all the completed mini's but until then here are a couple of sneak peeks  of their mistakes......I would love to say I didn't make any mistakes but that would be a big 'fib'  I just didn't take photos of mine.

Can you see the unstitching

 This next one took a bit of looking at to find the deliberate  mistake

Different fabric in the top left hand corner

This is not my block, but I did make the same mistake

I hope next week I will be able to show you 4 mini quilts

While we were in Yorkshire I did get my lacy knit scarf finished.  I have to say it did get a bit boring in the middle section but I am happy with the finished result.

Yards of it

Light and airy, but nice and warm

Mr D and I went for a walk into Grassington and I spotted some Snowdrops growing by an old cow shed and took a photo. However then the gentleman that owned the cowshed came out of his garden and said if I wanted to take photos of snowdrops he had plenty in his garden and invited me in to snap away!

Oh so pretty!

This photo does no justice to the man's garden!

Snowdrops everywhere, and the river Wharf in the background

The water was very fast - flowing

I think each time we visit I take a photo of this weir

Off to catch up on some sewing now.  Bye for now....

Odds and Bobs

You may remember when I went to Yarndale I bought a few hanks of yarn (as you do) to make a few bits a pieces.  One of the hanks I bought was for some lacy fingerless mitts (2ply yarn and 2mm needles) which I did make and have to say they are perfect for wearing indoors when those fingers are feeling chilly.   My sister-in-law came over to visit and her hands were so cold she went home with a new pair of mitts, and as I had lots of  yarn left over I started on another pair, so those needles were out and flying.  I don't know if any of you suffer with cold hands, but I can highly recommend fingerless mitts, I believe that as you are warming your wrists the rest of your hand warms up ..MAGIC!

Even wore them the other night

I also bought some yarn while I was in South Africa.  Its a homespun, hand dyed, 100% wool. classed as 'lace weight' (in other words really really fine).  I have planned to make a scarf, and after using 2mm needles (about an old English size 13) for the gloves, I am now using 4mm (old size 8) for the scarf pattern and with such a change in needle size I found it quite difficult at first to hold the needles properly, but I think I have mastered it now and the scarf is growing..

Love the colour

On Monday I went to Higham Piecemakers  for our 'all day' session.  I have to admit I didn't really have much enthusiasm, but actually really enjoyed the day and managed to get two aprons finished.   We usually make quilts for Linus, but one of the members of the group asked if we could make a few of the aprons for dementia sufferers,.....another good cause.

The project that 'L' suggest we get cracking on is coming along.  There are four of us doing this months mini quilt, three of us live quite close but our fourth member lives way up north, so it will be fun catching up with her quilt in photo form (just have to hope she sends lots).  I did ask two of my friends to join,  both declined this time, but it has encouraged my S.A. friend to get on with a quilt that she has had lying around for about a year, so hopefully we might get some photos of that one.  I love the idea of joining with others to give that little push that we sometimes need.  I have made a start on my mini and had forgotten just how small a 1" square is when sewing...

72,  1.5" squares waiting to be cut in half diagonally 

Triangles sewn to my 1.25" squares

36 neatly trimmed to 1.5"

All the little rectangles, and the 1" squares sewn and ready to make into a block 

3.5" square. one block done 8 more to go

4 down, 5 more to go 

I am busy for the rest of the week, and we have a weekend in Yorkshire, so not a lot more will happen with my mini quilt for a bit...... wonder how the others are getting on?

Computers and the rest

 Over the past few weeks/ months whenever I made a comment on other blog sites, I became aware that although the comment was posted, the blogger did not get a notification that my comment was there. The same applied to a couple of regular ladies that leave comments on my blog.
This was all becoming very frustrating so I thought I would try to solve the puzzle.
After finding that I was getting nowhere, I opted to visit a friend who is a bit more "computer aware" than me.  We then spent a good few hours surfing the web trying to find a solution, with no success, so we decided to stop for some yummy soup, crusty rolls and lashings of butter Yum Yum!!   After our bite to eat what we did manage to do was add a tutorial page to our blogs .......be honest did you notice??  I had hoped to add one of my tutorials but there a has been a 'faux pas' on the pshoto front! - I have managed to delete loads and loads of photos including the photos for the tutorial. So until I create some tutorials of my own I have added a couple from other sites that I have found handy in the past and hope they might be of some use to you.

Other than my computer which has taken up a fair bit of my time I have been playing with my sewing machine again.  Someone asked if I could make them some chair arm covers, so I'm back to practising my free motion quilting.

Hope  they fit

I think I have told you in the past that I have attended a few of Jan Shepherd classes at Poppy Patch, and she brought in an adorable mini quilt that I just fell in love with.  Jan didn't have a pattern for the quilt, so she allowed me to try to fathom it out for myself.  Unfortunately the photo does not do  justice to the quilt but  I think I did a pretty good job.  I now have to decide what I am going to do with it.  I could bind it and have it as a mini quilt, or I could make more blocks, sew them together 'quilt as you go' and give it to my smallest grand daughter who assures me she doesn't have a quilt from me, only a quilt cover.

I even copied the way Jan quilted it.

Closer view 

Now 'L' and I (in the past) have joined in some quilt-a-longs, and this year both of us seemed to be 'slacking of late' so she (with my encouragement) decided that we should have a small project each month.  I do believe there are a couple more folk who are going to join us so it should be fun.  This is just to show that I have started cutting and getting ready, who else has their fabric and rota blade out?

Mmmmmm wonder what it will turn into

I am off to London tomorrow for a couple of days, so don't think there will be much sewing until the weekend.

Just a few bits to show and tell

I am not sure what is going on at the moment, but I can't seem to settle into my crafts so I am just flitting from one thing to another.

I bought some yarn at the 'Knit and Stitch' show back in October,  so I thought I would have a go at making one of  these .  I have to say the yarn is so expensive I choose a different yarn but am happy with the result.  I chose to make Donna ( I know my daughter would love him/her) and for the most part it was very easy,  then I got to the Antlers....Phew! I don't mind working on small bits, but to go around in a circle on only 3 stitches was a bit much. Still it all turned out in the end.

Too cute for words !

I had a birthday at the beginning of the month, and a friend bought me a cute kit from manfieldcrafts  This shop is not too far from where I live but to my shame I have to say I have never been to visit, so the gift was a big surprise.  I sat one evening and my knitting grew very quickly 

The photo was taken at night, so not good colour

I  soon had made the first woolly jumper for my ewe,

Watching the sun set

Watching the sun rise

and now for the lamb

So smart in their woolly jumpers 

and after about a year I have finally finished my Tilda sewing angel.......well, she is not quite finished because I forgot she needed her wings,  Oh well, that's a job for another day

Waiting for her wings 

I wonder what next week will bring.....maybe a bit more sewing....