Feeling Stitchy

There was a time, not so long ago when I would declare my hatred for all hand sewing.  I think the 90’s cross stitch craze put me off, all those lovely patterns which I never actually finished because frankly cross stitch was downright boring.  (All that repetition and counting tiny squares)

However,  lately I have started AND finished a couple of embroidery projects and developed a new love for hand stitching (although you still wont find me hand stitching down binding!) So on our recent holiday to Hurley I tackled a couple of projects.



This lovely lady is part of a year long stich-a long by lilipopo.  She is the 3rd Princess in the series but the first I have stiched.  I have to say out of all the Princesses, she is my favourite. I am fairly happy with her, I need to work on my stitch length a bit more, but that will come with practice.  The Princesses are all free patterns, but you will need to email Lilipopo for the patterns.  Details are on her blog.

I wasn’t sure what to do with her once finished, but then remembered that I have a Christening coming up. So I added Babies' name and popped it into a frame. Voila

haha I struggled to get a good photo without me reflected in it and thought that I had succeeded

I couldn't find my photo of the finished embroidery, the pattern is from Bustle & Sew.  If you are into your embroidery , then I recommend you subscribe to the monthly e-zine, although it is also worth signing up to the newsletter & blog as well. Helen often posts wonderful freebies and Ben the dog is very handsome!



I fell in love with this pair, well that was until The Husband declared that I was just like the hedgehog (humph)

So I was on a bit of a roll when I spotted this, on the Comfortstiching Blog so promptly booked my place.  Henley is just a tiny bit up the river from Hurley, So Hubby & the boys will spend the day at his parents caravan, playing by the river.

My mum commented on the price, as materials are not included, but we live simply and within our means so we are able to spoil ourselves once in a while.  So the cost is irrelevant in a way.  I am sooo excited.

ugly/uglier

Jo, recently shared a child’s car playmat, that she had made for her son using a fabric panel that he had chosen. 

Jo declared the fabric the ugliest that she had ever used, however she did back it with a rather lovely Japanese print.  (how she can bring herself to lay the gorgeous & expensive Japanese fabric face-down in the dirt I don’t know)

It reminded me of a WIP that I have had for well over a year, maybe nearer two, using similar fabric.  Shameful I know, but I had a vision in my head of some kind of storage box-come-garage-come-playmat-come-overcomplicated thing, that I couldn’t quite work out, surprisingly!  In the end I got as far as quilting the panel, by following all the road outlines and then abandoned the project.



So in the end I made a little Quillow type pocket to fold the quilt into and stitched it to to the backing. I avoided all Jo’s binding problems by sewing the top & backing right sides together, leaving a turning gap and then top-stitching around the edge of the quilt for a nice finish. 

I then added carrying handles which were a real pain as I should have stitched them on before I stitched the pocket to the backing. (actually it still only has one carrying handle as I am too lazy to hand sew the other one)



I think my choice in backing fabric makes me the winner of the Ugliest Playmat, what do you think?



The backing is a Curtain my dear Mum picked up at a car boot in the “style of” Disney Cars. (I really don’t think it is the real McCoy lol)

Like Jo’s Playmat, mine has also been a great big hit. It has already accompanied us to a wedding where we found a quiet corner for the boys to play.  They also managed to stuff the bag with crayons, colouring books and a few random toys which managed to keep them entertained all day. (and into the evening)

Bye Bye Baby,

The Little Fella turned three over half term. 

 
We had a smallish “Royal” themed fancy-dress party in the local Church Hall.  We played pass the parcel, iced homemade crown shape biscuits, decorated crowns to wear, and coloured/painted some Royal themed pictures. 

I made both boys very, very quick “Mike the Knight” costumes from charity shop tees and some felt.  They already had helmets, swords and shields.

I created this masterpiece, which actually took less time than the (insert rude word of your choice here) crown biscuits. (too much rolling & putting in/out the fridge)



The Dummy fairy made a visit to our home a week or so after, swapping all the dummies that he put into her bag for some much desired Mike the Knight toys (which our little local toy shop had managed to stock before any of the big giants) So far so good! I am very proud of him.

So now my baby is officially a little boy and no longer a baby. (He tells me his brother is the Big Boy and he is the Little Boy)

Where has the time gone?

Fat Quarterly Retreat – The classes

Some time before the Retreat, we were sent a list of 10 different classes to rank in order of preference. It was a really difficult task to do, especially because I had no idea how many classes we would be doing over the weekend.  In the end I did,
Freezer Paper Piecing with Kerry from verykerryberry

Kerry was a really good teacher but I am afraid to say this really wasn't for me.  I have been following Kerry’s blog and seen the amazingly detailed freezer-paper pieced quilts/art that she does and really wanted to give it go. However, my freezer paper refused to stay stuck to the orange fabric, I found it far too fiddly for my chunky digits and I just didn’t have the concentration required on the day. So I only made one of the four blocks that Kerry had provided.
Embroidery with Aneela Hoey from Comfortstitching
 

I was looking forward to this class the most, as Comfortstitching was one of the very first blogs that I followed. Aneela was just as lovely as I had imagined. She taught us a variety of stitches and I managed to complete  this cute Robin. We were also given a free pack of Cosmo embroidery thread!
Foundation Pieced Union Jack Pillow with Lynne Goldworthy from Lily’s Quilts

I woke up on Sunday morning with a really sore-throat, probably from all the chatting on Saturday lol.  Which was probably for the best as Lynne's class like Kerry’s the day before required quite a bit of brain power. Lynne herself described the technique as Marmite (you either love it or hate it) I found it took me a while to get going, as you are having to work back-to-front, but the results are so good it is worth it. I went for a London theme but swapped one of my pre-bought fabrics for a freebie from my goodie bag. I only managed to finish one quarter of the flag in the class but I have been working on it this week, so should have a finish to share with you soon (who just laughed?)
Wonky Log Cabin With John Adams from Quiltdad

This was the perfect class to follow Lynne's and to end the weekend on.  The class and technique were both a lot of fun to do.  No matching up seams or points just sewing and trimming. Just my thing!
I was really pleased with all of my classes (even if the Freezer paper piecing wasn't for me, I am glad that I gave it a go), however after seeing all the samples produced, I really wish that I had also signed up for Lucie Summers Portholes class and either of the Purse classes (zipper or frame) Although given the chance I think I would have loved to have done every single class on the list – there is always next year.
The Fat Quarterly Special Retreat Issue is now available to buy (although I was gutted to see no Portholes tutorial ) It contains tutorials and patterns to make many of the projects taught in the workshops over the course of the weekend as well as some extra projects.  It is well worth the $5!

Fat Quarterly Retreat – My Reflections

 Apologies for posting this twice, It is my first time using livewriter & I needed to change a couple of things that I wasn't happy with.

Time flies!  Almost 3 weekends ago, (Jubilee weekend) I was at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and it is only now that I have had the time to write about my experience.
  
In the time since,
We have had half term, I have spent a couple of lovely days with the family by the River Thames at Hurley, redecorated the hallway (I spent weeks deciding on the colour to find once the paint had dried it was very almost the same colour as before sigh) Did lots of baking for my baby boys 3rd Birthday Party (just when did he grew up?), Went To Paultons Park aka Peppa Pig World (I absolutely LOVE that place and will have to do a review one day)as well as all the usual day to day running around/chores and going to work. I have been working a lot more days than I usually do, as I won’t have any work over the school holidays.

So the retreat (this is going to be quite a long post)
 
I went wearing this

a lovely name badge that had been made for by Kathleen. 
I had entered a surprise name-tag swap. My allocated person was Jo from A life in lists.
She sells Liberty fabric bundles so I used a piece of fabric that I had bought from the remnant box in John Lewis.  I thought it might have been Liberty fabric.  I wanted to have a London theme, so I used double sided tape to put the fabric thought the printer to print a London Skyline onto it. I then appliqued a little aeroplane and hand-embroidered Jo's name. I am not really into hand sewing so that took me a while to do.  When finished, I decided to give it a quick press with my new iron but....  scorched it! 
The lovely bluey-green fabric completely changed colour and I melted the ribbon loop.  I showed it to the husband, and he agreed with me that I couldn't send it.

So I made another one.  This time I had no more little aeroplanes so made the nametag to look like a London street sign.

On arrival we were given an amazing goodie bag of lovely things from the Retreat Sponsors. 

We were also given a "bingo" card of names and had to go and find all the people on our lists, a great ice breaker. The room was full of very excited women (and two guys) and so many conversations started like this "Oh hello...(reads name badge) Tammy, who are you?" meaning what is your blog name/flickr ID.  In the end it was easier to say that I don't blog as my blog is so tiny I very much doubt any of my readers where there (where you????) 

I also signed up for a sample swap, the rules were to simply make 4 useful items to swap, we would be told who to swap with on the day in a random draw. I wasn’t going to sign up for the swap as I knew I was going to be quite busy, but I was tempted by all the lovely things appearing in the Flickr group.
Unfortunately, I ended up finishing my samples late on Friday evening and forgot to take photos.  I made little pouches/purses from a  Keyka Lou pattern. 
These are the lovely swap items that I came home with

A London Pouch containing a Retreat Survival Pack from Amy A Prism Pencil Case from Christine Flower corsage from Mary and Boris the Bear Embroidery from Jo 

I also received the little blue pouch in the photo (with a tape measure inside) from one of the lovely ladies on my Iron Man team, who was only there on the Saturday (and whose name I have shamefully forgotten! Sorry & Thanks)I think that I did very well in the swap! Thank you ladies. 

Here are a couple of more swap photos that I “borrowed” from Amy and Christine. (can you guess which one is me?)

Somehow I signed up to participate in an Iron Man competition.In groups, we had to make a quilt between us over the weekend.  We didn’t win, but it added to the fun of the weekend and the quilt will be going to charity. Ours is the large Orange/Yellow one, 4th from right. (can you spot me again?)  

Photos once again borrowed from Amy & also Muriel

On the Saturday evening, I wanted to eat before heading home. I ended up tagging along with a group heading out to a restaurant nearby.  We were quite a big group but I ended up sat with just three other ladies and had lots of very grown-up and sensible conversations.  (covering all sorts of taboo subjects, such as mental health & politics) Such a nice change from the usual yummy-mummy conversations I seem to have these days. (I seriously don’t get out enough lol) Thank you, Shevvy, Judith and Jennie for a lovely evening.

After the retreat, I was reading all the blog posts here, and I was a bit embarrassed to find out that I had gate-crashed a pre-planned booking (oops) and most of the ladies “knew” each other through belonging to the same online groups and quilt guilds.  Very typically Me!
 
Still, the meal reflected the whole spirit of the weekend which was Community. Despite not “knowing” anyone, I never once felt excluded or lonely and spent the weekend in the company of some lovely people and had an amazing weekend!
You can read more reviews/reflections about the Retreat here. 
 
Next up, the actual classes….

FQ Retreat - Last minute rush

I would rather be an hour early than 10 minutes late.  For someone who absolutely hates being late, it may come as a surprise to you that I always leave everything to the last minute.

It is not always my intention, but other things always manage to get in the way.   This week, has been a bit of nightmare for that!!!

I have had job applications to do and then an interview to prepare for and attend, as well as  three days work on top of the say spent at the interview (which I didn't get) and the usual chores that come with having a home and two under 5's.  One of whom has been total  nightmare this week,  I started to write done some of the things that he has got up to this week, but it is enough for several posts! So for once, I was actually rather pleased to see the pair drive off in the back of Nanny's car.  (Nanny as in Grandma not the Mary Poppins type) They have gone to Hurley for the weekend.

So I have just about managed to finish my samples for the sample swap tomorrow, sorry I can't be bothered to take  photos, will do that tomorrow, and I am now (ha ha) in the middle of packing.

Except - I cant blimming find anything!

However, I am now really excited and cannot wait till the morning!

whoop whoop!

(and completely random, but I really enjoyed the Prince Charles documentary that was on BBC1 this evening. God Save The Queen.)

FQ London 2012 Linky Party

Next weekend I will be off to the Fat Quarterly London Retreat, so I am joining the linky party (better late than never) to introduce myself to some of the other lucky people who will be going.

So welcome to all my newbie visitors.  Not much goes on around here as I am very good at starting projects but not so good at getting things finished.  As I started this blog to record my makes, it means that I often have long silent periods.

couldn't find a nice photo where I am either childless or not showing all my awful teeth

I am a 30ish (36 I think) Mum to two boys almost 3 and 4 1/2. I work part time as a Supply Teacher. I was born and raised in West London, and love going back into "town",   I still live in a London Borough, and consider myself a Londoner, even if the people at the post office say I live in Surrey. Although given the choice, I would much rather stay put thanks.

I have always done some sort of making/crafting/doing ever since I was a child.  My Nan knitted and croched, my Mum knitted but also made me some beautiful smocked dresses when I was little, as well as my First Holy Communion dress. 

When my Grandmother died, my Mum was very keen for me to inherit a sewing machine that she (my Mum) had bought second hand in the 80's.  She had lent it to my Nan and never got it back lol, so had bought a new one.  After several homes around the house, the hubby decided it needed to be gone out the house as it was never used.  So I decided to start using it.  The Football World Cup/Euro Cup?? was on at the time, so it kept me entertained during a Summer of constant Football matches on the TV. I have sewn all my projects on that machine, an old 1950/60's Bernina. My projects have mostly been clothing for my boys and quilts.

I will be attending both days of the retreat but I shall be staying at Hotel Happyis and travelling in by public transport.

I will be wearing this name tag made for me by Kathleen (I don't know anything else other than that)

I am really exited about the classes I will be doing (with some amazing teachers)

Union Jack Pillow with Lynne Goldsworthy aka Lily's Quilts
wonky log cabin with John Q Adams aka Quilt Dad
Freezer paper pieceing with Kerry Green Verykerryberry (I hope that is the right link, I follow 2 blogs with very similar names, with similar style)
Embroidery with Aneela Hoey aka Comfortstitching

I am also participated in an Iron Man challenge?????? I have no idea how I signed up to that one but I am in Group 5.  I think it is a race to produce a quilt in the quickest time - who knows!

I still have my swap samples to make eek, and haven't even started sorting out what I am taking with me!

I have always been bit of a last minute rush girl, although you will find that I am never, ever, late - it is my biggest fear.

So I will be at the front of the queue on Saturday, having arrived at silly o'clock, so I am not late ha ha!