Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello!

I was just sitting here “chilling out” after cooking our Sunday roast, adding some more hand stitching when I thought “hang on! I could be joining in with Slow Sunday Stitching” on Kathy’s blog, “Kathy’s Quilts” …..  so here I am!

 🙋‍♀️

I’d been starting to stitch the zip to the second side when I realised I was jumping the gun and needed to add top stitching! So that’s where I am at the moment. 

But, oh dear, I’ve just realised I can’t link to the party - my gadget’s cookies stop me 😟, but I’m with you in spirit!  Edited to say: Yay! I managed to link to the party! It’s complicated, but I got there in the end!

Never mind, I’ll be over to have a look at what everyone is stitching shortly!

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2023/01/slow-sunday-stitching_02094618467.html

Happy stitching everyone!

Hugs,

Barbara xxx 

(Remember “Keep stitching!” 😁🙋‍♀️)

Gifted Gorgeousness and TUSAL - August 2018

Hello Dear Blogging Friends,


I'm linking to Daffycat's blog for this month's TUSAL report. 
TUSAL is where we show pictures of our ORTs (leftover threads), for no particular reason (other than that they look kind of pretty)!

Both of the items I'm making also come under the category of "Gifted Gorgeousness" which, in case you don't know, is where we write about stitchy gifts given and received. Both of the following are gifts from magazines so I am shoehorning them in!

Jo! Don't faint ...... I've done it! I worked out how to add the Gifted Gorgeousness photo at last! 

To discover who else is joining in visit Jo at Serendipitous Stitching by clicking ..... HERE!

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No new projects just yet as I'm trying to make sure I finish these two before I start working on my next project for Art Quilt group I'm a member of ..... The Endeavourers.

Our next challenge is an Improve Quilt!! I haven't done Improv before so it'll be a crash course in learning "how to"! It's funny though, last quarter the challenge was "Spiral" and I just couldn't think what to make ..... it was hard to think of something original, most things have been done before after all! I was really nervous, but, after a false start ..... eventually, I thoroughly enjoyed making my piece.


But, anyhow, I digress! Back to the subject .....

My ORTs are mainly from my Bee needle case which is finished except for stitching the case itself together, and some were from finishing the Camper Van, and, before you say it, I know they don't look much, but I do use each thread as close to the end as possible, so there isn't much left to gather!

Almost finished!

If only I didn't hate back stitch so!

But, of course, it actually didn't take long, once I made myself sit down and stitch!

These fabric ORTs are from my Spiral quilt and also from the little Summer pouch I'm making for Camper Van. 

(If you haven't read about either the Camper Van or the Bee needle case you can read more about them here!)

A little irksome cutting up a zip for the pocket, but at least I've used something that has been in the "Dreaded Cupboard" for forever (it seems).

Of course I got this far and then decided the back would look better quilted (that's the pink fabric). Took a while before I decided how to quilt it, but I made my mind up eventually. 

I'm going to "box" the corners, it's so much easier to find things when you've got a flat bottom, don't you think? Then, I'll attach the Camper Van to the front, oh, and I need to make and add a strap.

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I couldn't finish today without a picture from the garden .....

DH and I were watching "Gardeners' World" on TV last week when Monty Don showed a phenomenon we hadn't seen before!

..... these amazing little chaps will grow up to be Ostrich Ferns!!!! 

At least, that's what I think that's what they're called .... and they will grow up to look like this:

Ostrich Fern which just happens to be growing in our
garden, and we never knew how it propagated itself before!

Strangely enough the little guys don't grow under the main plant, and the little chaps had suddenly sprung up in a plant pot quite a distance from any other ferns.

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Well, what have you been stitching?

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

And if you want to know what TUSAL is, why not pop over to Daffycat's blog to find out more!

Another Squirrel, and two tiny finishes!

This week I suddenly realised I had a DrEAMi (a project I just had to stitch this minute!) and I was chasing squirrels ..... so I am linking to Sandra's DrEAMi link party, do pop over and see some of the lovely projects that other people were sidetracked enough to make this month.


A few days ago I visited a lqs, intending to buy some fabric to finish one of my cross stitch projects. I only needed a couple of fat quarters, and I'd seen just the ones I wanted on a previous visit but had resisted buying! Unfortunately I couldn't find those same ones this time, but while searching I picked up a whole bundle of fabrics I just knew wanted to come home with me!

There were a couple of projects I had in mind, and I was very pleased with my colour selection this trip.


Now this all started because I wanted to make a mini thread catcher for a sewing friend at my handicraft group. I had one thread catcher already made but decided I shouldn't give that one to my friend because the fabric came from another lady from the handicraft group ..... but before I got started on the thread catcher another idea came to mind.

These thread catchers are really tiny and I decided I just had to make something for my friend to keep the thread catcher in so that, hopefully, she wouldn't lose it straight away.

I remembered seeing a small pouch on Pinterest that had been made for use as a sewing kit. I searched and found the tutorial "Snappy Coin Purse" on Rashida Coleman-Hale's blog i heart linen.

Rashida used fusible interfacing ..... I didn't have any so I used cotton wadding. I downloaded her PDF but found the pattern smaller than my 8" square of fabric so I added a 1/4" all round. My flaps only just overlap so I might have altered the shape by enlarging the pattern, but that's fine, it still works for me!

I just love these fabrics!

Oh, and, of course, I quickly started making the blue and pink thread catcher at the same time.

It was a bit fiddly because I decided the rim was too small narrow first time (meaning the base wouldn't push up inside it properly) so I took it apart and started again. I'm really pleased with the finish the way it looks so far, and I will eventually update my tutorial with some fine tuning. This was the fourth one I've made practically finished, (it was a matter of finish the hem or write my blog post!!) and I think it is the best one so far! 

I even learnt how to use "pie" to find the circumference of a circle (but that's another story) ..... maths has never been my strong point.

there were a couple of other items I added to make it a proper sewing kit.

a plastic insert in the base and  it becomes a
 really handy tray for keeping things together too

All in all this was a sweet quick DrEAMi project!

Hope you've all been busy stitching this week too!

Hugs,

Barbara xx

My Favourite Pouch

Hello Dear Readers

I am again joining Super Mom - No Cape for her Vintage Stitchery Party.

My project today, has a little of each of the following:

• hand quilting, 
• embroidery (my name/date label),
• and, Vintage fabric!

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Click on any photograph if you wish to see a larger picture.

Fungi hunting!

This weekend Darling Hubbie, a neighbour, and I, and a small group of other like-minded souls, went on a "Fungi Hunt" with a fungi expert, and a City of London Commons Ranger, on our local common.

We had a very pleasant two hour walk, in ideal weather - cool, but bright - with a lovely group of interesting  people.

My reason for mentioning this walk is to say how pleased I was with this little pouch I made a couple of years ago from a Tilda pattern.

I hadn't used the pouch much before this walk.

The Tilda pattern used high-volume fibre felt - which I didn't have. I prefer polyester wadding anyway, and I like my bags to have body so they stand up on their own, for that reason I used a medium weight wadding, and hand quilted the back and front.

Pouch closure.

I added a loop closure and a toggle (hand made by DH, trimmed from a branch of our own cherry tree in the same fashion as the toggle in my Embroidered Town Ruck), and pockets too!  A large pocket, and a tiny one for a pen.

The little loop on the right is the pen pocket.

I have turned the pouch inside out to show the detail of the pocket clearer.

You can probably make out the dividing line
 between the two pockets, and inch in on the right.

Tilda suggested the pouch be used as a makeup bag but I decided I'd like a bag on a belt, and added belt carriers.

I also added a wrist strap which can be clipped onto a belt carrier, if I don't wish to use the belt.

Have I mentioned, I have been really pleased with "My Favourite Pouch"?

The pattern is from "Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle", and the book can be found via Google.

Have you seen Tilda's blog?  It looks very pretty. They have a new book out - in Norwegian! The English version is not out until December. Oops, I'm sounding like an advertisement again!  I must point out I have no affiliation to Tilda's World, I just like their stitching makes.

Here you can see the matching lining
 on the inside of the bag's flap

The pouch was very useful on our walk as, thanks to the pocket being big enough to slip in either my notepad or the camera, or both, I was able to either quickly make notes on my tiny notepad, or take photographs of the fungi we were talking about, and I had my hands free in an instant to be able to hold and look at the amazing specimens of fungi!

This is definitely the fungi I liked most!

But the fungi themselves will have to be the subject for another blog post as I must bring this post to an end, as it is now time for bed!

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Do have a peep at Susan's blog - Super Mom - No Cape - to see what lovely projects everyone has been stitching. Today's free downloadable is a lovely alphabet pattern.

Thank you for visiting.

You can let me know you've dropped by... just leave a comment below.  I usually answer here, and, if you tick the box to receive follow up comments, my response will find its way to your email box! And I will be along to visit you too!

I do hope you have a great week!

Hugs,

Barbara xx

Patchwork, Quilting and Embroidery

Hello Dear Reader,

I am again joining Super Mom - No Cape's Stitchery Link Party (No 25).

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Some time ago we bought a wine filter kit, made up of 3 items, stand, funnel, and filter.  It wasn't easy to keep the pieces together, so I decided it would be best kept in a pouch.

And, as I was now into my embroidery "stride", it had to have an embroidered picture on the front of the pouch.

This was my second foray into embroidery, the first being my Town Ruck. I drew a test sketch of the wine filter (however the drawing turned out to be far too small).  I then enlarged it in order to do  the embroidery.

Just finished the quilting here! 

After adding the lining, the next job was stitching the layers together with zig zag stitch.

Close up of quilting and embroidered flowers

Please ignore the rather bright fabric I have laid my sewing on
to take the shot, as it is nothing to do with the actual project. 

The little pink tab in the middle of the seam is my name label.

Back

Maybe a little elaborate for the bottom of a bag,
but I do get a little carried away sometimes!

Still the base of the bag!  Ready to piece the bag together.

Joining base to the body of pouch.

Back view of bag and that's the wine filter next to it.

The last two pictures show the carrier and ribbons added to the top of the pouch to finish.

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And here's a quick update on my Cocoa Sampler.

This is where I was last time:

 And this is today's picture of my Cocoa Sampler:

This is where I'm up to today.

A little more progress!

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Do have a look at Sue's linky party to see the amazing range of projects people are working on and maybe next week you can join in too and show your current stitching project?!

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Our latest feathered visitor

This week we had another little visitor to our garden. (Please enlarge to view, he's so sweet!) He seemed to be around most of the week.

He is a sweet little chap who is really quite tame.  I guess he is old.  He had plenty to eat and drink but he seemed a little slow and so, sadly, I expect one of the many cats around here will catch him before too long.

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Well, I hope you have a super week!

Do say "Hi".  It's lovely to see you here, and then I will be able to visit your blog too!

Bye for now.

Barbara xx