Thomas Is Finished

I managed to get the Thomas bag finished. Neil put the grommets in for me. I'm very pleased with it.







And in keeping with tradition here is Barbara modelling the latest model.

Barbara really is a good sport.

I hope Neil's nephew likes it. He had no idea what sort of a bag I was going to make or the fabric I used.

Very Important

The very important news is that tomorrow we are taking part in the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning. So if you are in Peterborough tomorrow morning pop into the shop and have a cuppa and a slice of cake with us. We are also having a raffle with lots of lovely prizes including fabric.


I did manage to make a start on the Thomas bag hopefully I will get a bit further with it today.






As yesterday evening was so lovely Neil and I went for a drive and ended up at the pub (don't know how that happened) we had a lovely meal. I also made a small purchase, just a few more vintage buttons. Well you can never have enough can you?


Don't forget to pop in and see us tomorrow.

Plans For Today

I didn't get any work done in my sketchbook at the weekend. We have been very busy in the shop and family life has been also been busy. The days just aren't long enough.



Some time ago I was asked to make a bag for Neil's great-nephew and so far I haven't got around to it. I'm hoping that's going to change today.



I'm planning to use these lovely Thomas fabrics. The photo doesn't do the fabrics justice; the red is such a lovely red it looks like velvet.







On Saturday we have a workshop making a Victorian Sewing Box. I think it would make a great gift box if you didn't do the middle bits and you stitched the sides up.

It is very pretty and we do have a couple of spaces left if you fancy making one.

More Progress

Well I managed to get the rows sewn together and the borders on and I think it's looking very nice. All I have to do now is layer it up and decide how to quilt it. Originally I was going to quilt in straight lines then I thought about wavy lines and now I'm thinking flowers would be nice,time consuming though.





Here are a few shots of the blocks.






Such pretty colours and patterns.

I'm hoping to do some more work in my sketchbook this weekend.

The weather is promising to be nice for tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Yesterday's Progress

Yesterday I managed to get all the blocks pieced and the blocks joined together in rows. Today's aim is to join all the rows and if I'm really lucky get the borders on.



I only managed to get this far because Barbara helped me for which I am very grateful. She passed me the blocks as I was sewing them into rows and she kept them all in order.



I'm of now to join the rows, here's hoping for a productive day.

The Final

I have re-dyed the calico and printed cotton fabrics with the rusty bits and some copper. I'm very pleased with results.





I have got some very definitive marks.



And I've also got some lovely turqouise ones. Having three plumbers in the family means I'll never be short of copper and I'm definitely going to do this again.

Now I have these lovely dyed pieces of fabric I'm not sure what we are going to be doing with them. I vaguely remember Gina saying something about ATCs.

A couple of weeks ago Pam and I signed up for a 'quilt-along' with Fat Quarterly (see link on the right). Neither of us know why we signed up for it as we have both got so many things on the go already. I think it just sounded like fun. We should both know better really.

I'm using a jelly roll called Verna. I managed to get the cutting done last week as you can see. Monday we received the piecing instructions and yesterday I started to put them together.

Halftime Results

Don't panic there's no football results here just the halfway results of my rust dyeing.

From left to right, Calico, nasty cheap Polyester (which I didn't think would work), Silk Dupion.


Printed cotton fabric, Silk Scrim and Evenweave fabric.




Last but not least some Tapestry wool just because I had it.

Now you ask why halfway, well I'm re-dying the calico and printed cotton pieces. I re soaked them last night and I've wrapped Malcolm's rusty bits up in them and held them in place with elastic bands. I'm hoping to get some definitive marks. I've also wrapped in some copper piping , hoping that I'll get the nice green colour.

I will confess that I couldn't wait and I had a sneak peek this morning and there was some green colour on the fabric. So I quickly wrapped it up again and I'm going to leave until Thursday evening.

Finished Bag

I've finished the bag and I'm very pleased with it. It took 5hrs to do each beaded ball but it was worth the effort. I think they finish the bag off nicely.




Remember Barbara and the picture of her with my 3D piece on her head, well she's been at it again with the bag this time. It's a good job she has a sense of humour as she doesn't know I'm putting this on my blog.



Yesterday was the first meeting of our new group, the group with no name as yet. This term we are looking at Goldwork, but not in the traditional way.

We did some rust dyeing which by the time I had got home yesterday had already started to work. You can just see it through the bag. I'm going to leave it until tomorrow evening (if my patience lasts) to rinse out the fabric.

This is the start of a goldwork sampler except it's not gold thread it's a coppery colour but teacher says that's okay.

We have been looking at different stitches - from left to right Straight Stitch, Zig Zag, Satin Stitch, Vermicelli, the squiggle is meant to be Feather Stitch but it wouldn't go right. I'm going to have another go.

In the evening I went round to Barbara's to take a picture of her passion flower, it's a very good specimen.

And it has fruit which when it's ripe Barbara is going to pick for me so that I can grow my own.

Nearly Finished

The bag is coming along very nicely. I'm very pleased with the way it has gone together bearing in mind that I didn't have a pattern.

This is the tube assembled and the base attached. The twists work very well.


This is a shot with the lining pinned into place and ready to be sewn.

So is this.

And now with the lining sewn in and turned out.

Here I have pinned the top cuff on. This was used to make the channels for the drawstrings.

I am now making the beaded balls that go on the ends of the drawstrings.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of our new group, the off-shoot from City and Guilds. We haven't got a name yet, probably the first thing we will do is to choose one. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure there will be lots of catching up to do.

A Special Day

Monday was a special day for Neil and I, it was our thirteenth wedding anniversary. So we both took a day off work (which is a celebration in itself) and went to York.

The day started out at Peterborough train station where I bought a bottle of water and by the time we'd got on the train I'd lost it (not the only thing I lost) we only had to wait 15 minutes.

Neil was very sweet and had bought a bottle of champagne with him so we could toast ourselves over our breakfast. I've never had breakfst on the train before but it was very nice.

We went to the quilt museum which would have made a nice day out itself but Neil had arranged for me to have a private tour of the museum, which was wonderful. I really enjoyed going behind the scenes, seeing some of the things that don't go out on display too often and the storage room. I think the storage room was Neil's favourite bit, everything put away neatly in labelled boxes and shelves. I think he did make some kind of comparison with my sewing room but I wasn't listening.

This jacket was one of the items that had been got out for us to look at. The fact that it is all hand embroidery is stunning but the buttons are handmade as well. There are only two buttons on the jacket but they are both different and both are hand enamelled.

This small quilt is by Pauline Burbridge. Very different from her current work

This is a quilted petticoat.

And a few minatures.

This pincushion is heavily decorated with glass headed pins.

We had a lovely leisurely lunch in Russells of Coppergate.

When we left Russells it was pouring down with rain and I had to buy an umbrella. It was a very pretty umbrella, black with pink and red roses and a frill. By the time we got on the train to come home I'd lost it.

Neil is a very patient understanding person and I've enjoyed the last thirteen years.

More Sketchbook Work

I have done a little bit more in my sketchbook. This time I've been looking at Star Anise. I certainly wouldn't use it for it's real intention.

It has a very pretty shape. Here I used felt tip pens in brown and black.


This is a much prettier drawing. Iused Koh-I-Noor paints, bleach and a drawing pen. I'm really pleased with this.

I have also been working on a project for my City and Guilds. For one of the finished pieces we have to use one or more of the utility stitches on the machine.

I'm making a twisted bag, which uses three fabrics.

I don't have a pattern for this bag so I'm making it up as I go along. As I've made the samples I've been sticking them in my sketchbook and doing the write up at the same time. I don't like doing the write up so this way it saves me from having to do the whole write up at the end of the project and it stops from forgetting anything.

Here you can see how the three fabrics go together and how the twist is created.

This is me just trying out some of the decorative stitches. I decided to use just two fabrics, a black and gold patterned one and a plain black decorated with one of the embroidery stitches.

This is the result, a lovely piece of fabric. All I have to do now is twist it and put it together. Guess what I'm doing this weekend!