Friday Night with Friends / Bag It / Finish It Up Friday

Last night I was stitching with Cheryll (of Gone Stitchin') and friends as part of "Friday Night with Friends", and stitched the finishing touches to this Game Piece Bag:

While writing I'm taking this opportunity to link to Patty's (Elm Street Quilts) "Bag It" competition, oh, and as this is also a "finish" I'm linking to Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) for "Finish It Up Friday".

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I'm so pleased that I treated myself to a new quilting ruler a few weeks ago!

The old one had had a nasty accident ..... a long time ago ..... I finally decided I couldn't put up with not having that corner any more - can you imagine how awkward it's been every time I've gone to start cutting my fabric and realised there's not enough ruler there  ..... and how does it always end up that the broken side is the one I'm using !!!!

Anyway, I didn't really look too closely when I bought this new one, I was more interested in the fat quarters I couldn't resist ..... it's a ruler for goodness sake ..... but, silly me, until now I hadn't realised how much clearer the numbers were! It's so much easier to use.

The new ruler helped me cut the fabric so much quicker, and the pattern was so easy to put together. I used Patty's Game Piece Pattern - here!

And by Friday night .... all I had left to do was to stitch those horrid ends in, and stitch the turning gap closed. Thank goodness for my Easy Threading Needle.

This morning Mitzy just had to help with the final photo-shoot! 

I was really pleased with the finish,
especially as my stitching matched up beautifully

Thank goodness Mitzy soon decided she had found a great new place for a rest and I was able to carry on with my photos! She's not allowed to lay on this tablecloth very often!

I am so pleased with this bag and can certainly recommend it! It's just the right size for all the Rummikub tiles, and will work really well during a game as you can pull the cords a little tighter and a hand can go in and take a tile without anyone being able to see the tiles.

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I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today, and that you will have a little time to pop over and visit these links, and see what is going on! They are all great fun, and there is a lot of amazing stitching to see!

Thank you to Cheryll, Patty and Amanda Jean for hosting your link ups!

Linking to:  "Friday Night with Friends" / "Bag It" /  "Finish It Up Friday"

Thank you for visiting everyone. I hope you will come back and visit again.

Happy stitching!

Hugs,
Barbara xxx

FNWF - Travel Sewing Kit

Hello folks!

Friday evening I stitched along with Friday Night With Friends at Cheryll's place.

I have been meaning to make something with some of my vintage 1.5" sample squares and I had been considering how I could turn them into some sort of mini travel sewing kit.

I thought 3 squares stitched together would make two pockets suitable for carrying needles, needle threaders, bobbins of cottons and other tiny items (hexie papers, buttons, etc).

Previously I had stitched a seam around the lower three squares, turned it through to see how it looked, then decided the pocket would be more secure if the edges were stitched into bound edges.

Friday night I cut all the pieces, but as we had been out all that day I didn't have time to stitch!

I thought  I'd be able to stitch them all together the next morning, and have a finish! Silly me, I always underestimate how long it takes to make my little stitchy things!!!

But there has been progress .... both sides are now ready to stitch together, although I still need to think of some type of teeny pincushion ..... and maybe it needs a little decoration.

I must leave you now, visitors arriving soon, and housework outstanding! Have a great week!

Thank you Cheryll for organising the party!

See you soon!

Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Friday Night With Friends/ And a Finish!

Hello my friends!

Sorry for the delay in posting ..... it's been such a busy week here, I haven't had time to upload my photos until now!

Thank you all for your encouraging comments which spurred me on and helped me finish by Monday morning!

Oops this has ended up a rather long post, and I got more than a little carried away with the photos because I was thinking of writing a proper tutorial, still might ..... maybe, another day!

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Anyway, if you've been following my blog you will know that last Friday night I was stitching along with Cheryll's  "Friday Night with Friends" .....

..... and you would have found me crawling round the floor of our bedroom .... with the door shut to keep the furbabies out ..... as I twisted and turned my fabric on my giant sized cutting board .... looking for a suitable corner of fabric from which to bias cut two handles for my little Christmas bag!

As usual, time ran away from me, and there wasn't much stitching that night, apart from joining the two fabrics for the lining, oh, and I decided to add a tiny pocket too!

Saturday morning I finished stitching the pocket in place, took photos, stitched the handles together, and threaded some wadding into them .... that was a bit complicated ..... but by wrapping the wadding tightly with paper, sticking a safety pin through said paper, and holding this between two of the press bars I was able to force the wadding into the handles neatly; then topstitch either side of each handle.

The Press bars really helped to straighten the handles.

BTW I am not endorsing this product ..... these press bars just happen to be what I use, and they work well for me.

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Last year I found an embroidery pattern, and stitched my first tree, but couldn't decide what to do on the second side, until now ....

the second tree was made with some of the scraps of Christmas fabric I bought from the Pilgrim Quilters exhibition (where I won my lovely quilt), and using Lara's Crafted Appliqué method I added the appliqué tree on the other side of the bag!

Once I had added the second tree I wasn't sure what sort of quilting to do. The fabric wasn't as white as the embroidery cotton so I couldn't really copy the first side, and then I remembered Lori Kennedy's blog - The Inbox Jaunt -  about FMQ (free motion quilting). 

I've never tried FMQ but I remembered Lori saying that you should practise by doodling, hence that is what you can see in my notebooks ..... lots of doodling; and that the stitching should flow from one shape to the next. I don't think my stitching was too bad for a first attempt, do you? (Especially considering I kept manoeuvring the foot up and down! And if you don't know FMQ what I mean is that I wasn't really stitching "free motion".)

I loved stitching the presents too! If you follow the link below you will see Lori's presents are a little different from mine ..... I was working from memory ..... I had no time to check how she did her stitching.

When I stitched my little packages I kept thinking the word "doodle" to myself, and tried to make the lines look like doodles ..... so they were intentionally double ..... not single lines! 

Lori has since posted 10 Christmas tutorials, which you can see here.

There are a few more pictures of  my doodle stitching toward the end of the post.

Finishing the seams

I was very nervous about finishing the seams because the red fabric I used frays very easily (it's Osnaburg which has a very open weave which is good for embroidering ..... I should have hem stitched the edges at the start, but I never thought I would be working on it for so long.)

As I sew, I hold the fabric in line with the edge of the masking tape on my machine, keeping the seam measurement the same throughout the project.

"Bagging Out"

Just look at those handles ..... do they get cuteness points, or what? ..... and the pocket too!!

I was soo.... happy, as I finished making my bag by Monday morning!

And to think this started with me trying to think of an embroidery scene for a bag ..... spotting an embroidery pattern for just the right tree on "Super Mom-No Cape"'s blog (yes, the white tree shown above!) 

Thank you for visiting, and I leave you with this picture ....

Our naughty cat trying to catch birds, at the water bowls.
Mitzy says, "Funny, when it's sunny I don't see so many birds!"

Have no fear, shortly after taking this picture we moved the plant pots away so the little monster can't "hide" so close to the bowls!

Do have a great weekend, and I now I'm off to catch up on some blog reading!

Hugs from

Barbara xx

Linking to all stitching friends at

Cheryll's - Gone Stitchin' for

"Friday Night with Friends"

and            

Amanda - Crazy Mom Quilts for

"Finish it up Friday"

Yipee! A couple of Friday Finishes!

Hi!

This week I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to finish some Christmas stitching ....  I know, who hasn't!

But yet again, I've been somewhat diverted by a couple of friends' blogs! However, from ideas on those blogs I now have two little finishes, which were quite fun and easy to make.

So, I am linking to Amanda's wonderful patchwork and quilting blog, for her:

"Finish it up Friday"

do pop over and see the wonderful things Amanda, and everybody else are making.

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Oh, and talking of visiting Amanda's link party, if you have visited before, then, a few weeks ago you may well have seen on Diann's blog - Little Penguin Quilts - that Diann wrote a tutorial for keeping computer wires under control!

Now here is my version!

I changed the measurements slightly, as my wires are pretty heavy duty, and I felt Velcro wouldn't keep it together ..... and so I hand stitched a buttonhole (I can never control my sewing machine enough to make neat buttonholes .... I used to be able to, once upon a time) .... but I think I am just too impatient these days!

My first hand stitched buttonhole!

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Those of you who join in with "Friday Night with Friends" over at Cheryl's blog will probably have seen the clever coasters she made, which you can either use for standing your coffee mug on, or, push the bottom of your wine glass inside the folds of the coaster to easily identify your own wine glass at drinks parties  ....  I couldn't resist trying them out! I've made one coaster!!!

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Then I realised  ...  I have something more important I want finished for Monday .... which is what I am working on tonight .... while I am joining in with Cheryl and her "Friday Night with Friends", as I attempt to finish that urgent Christmas stitching which I want to use on Monday!

Here's my sneaky peek for you! Do come back to see it finished!

Hope to be able to show this Christmas finish very very soon!

But for now .... I must get stitching!

Have a great weekend!



Barbara xx