I'm sure I used to find sewing fun...

This is #49 lunch bag on the gargantuan list.  Just wanted to get that in before I forget!

I've been meaning to make myself a lunch bag for ages.  I've been using a shop-bought one that is fine, but has gone quite manky and has a persistent, lingering smell that I can't seem to get rid of - and yes, I do clean it out regularly!  I couldn't make just any old bag as I need to use ice blocks from the freezer with it.  It gets pretty warm in our office and there's not much worse than a warm yogurt for your mid-afternoon snack!

Then I came across this tutorial by Clover and Violet and I was away.  Now, this item was on my list under "projects I have supplies for".  I'm not entirely sure what I meant by this, unless it was because I had some of the heat-keeping-in wadding stuff.  I can't remember what it's called!  Supplies were needed and I found myself shopping... I needed some Lamifix (which I bought from e-bay) and somehow or other, I found myself at Hulu Crafts buying this charm pack of Noteworthy and two FQs from the same line!

This is where not having an LQS and not seeing fabrics in the flesh proves a problem.  Yes, the two FQs are from the same line so they do co-ordinate, but most of the fabrics have the orange or green in them...

I started with some simple patchwork - a high percentage of those points meet... though not all of them!  Then it was time to FMQ so out came the curved basting pins.  What a difference they make!  Why did I get by with ordinary safety pins before??  Having never really FMQ'd before, I dug out some scrap fabric and added some of the heat-keeping-in wadding (that's such a catchy name for it- if another supplier starts making it and wants to use that name, I'd be happy to sell it).

It wasn't until afterwards that I remembered I was saving that fabric to make Ange the pair of HK knickers she'd begged me for!  Sorry Ange...

The trial was successful, so I moved onto the real thing.  I LOVE it!  It was such good fun!  I do need to remember to stop for a pause with the needle down though - see that little stitch/line type thing above, in the middle?

I just did a random design - is this called meandering?  It's a lot tighter towards the end than the beginning, but I am SO chuffed with it.  (Speaking of being chuffed - my horse came in second on the Grand National.  I don't actually own the horse but I did pick him on the sweepstakes at work so he's earned me about a fiver!  Oh and yes, I'm actually writing this post "live".  The rest of the week's will be scheduled though, so don't hate me!).

Here it is from the back - no backing fabric as the bag will be lined.

Next came fusing the Lamifix to the lining fabric.  What a mess!  It looks dreadful!  I'd ironed the fabric, but the Lamifix had been folded for posting to me and obviously I couldn't iron the creases out.  I'd think twice before using this stuff again, but for a lunch bag lining, it doesn't seem to matter so much.

And here's the finished bag.  I completely forgot to put interfacing in the handles, so they're quite weak but I don't tend to have bricks or lumps of concrete for lunch, so they should hold up.

I also made the handles longer than the tutorial said so I can put it on my shoulder if necessary.

See the horrendous, creased lining??  Edited to add:  I do know that you sew a lining slightly smaller than the bag, and I have done. It's horrendous and creased due to the lamifix (see above).

Zip ends = disaster.  Absolute disaster.  There were just so many layers.

But, it's done.  So where does the title come in?  I hated every single minute of sewing this damn thing, after the FMQing.  I have no idea WHY, nothing in particular went wrong, I was just hating it.  I think that's part of the reason I'm staying away from my machine this weekend - though I may be tempted to FMQ my Skill Builder blocks... finally!

Edited to add: I do like the lunch bag, I like the finished product, I didn't enjoy sewing it.

This is my first time doing free motion quilting (other than on a coaster!) so I'm linking up to Fiona's New to Me challenge.

An explanation

I've noticed that I'm getting very few comments, and most of them are from spam bloggers - you know the ones who comment but only to get you to come to their page selling crap you don't want?

Then I got an email and I think I know what's going on.

OK, I've been pretty much absent online this week, I'm afraid that's the way it's going to be for the foreseeable future - I don't have time to read many blogs or answer your emails from a computer.  I will answer them, it's just it's slow from my phone and I can't open any attachments or links as my prehistoric Blackberry doesn't go online.

So you're not getting any visits from me, or any replies to your messages or comments, but you see I'm posting every day.

I'm not!

I schedule my posts at the weekend to post throughout the week.  I'm not ignoring you ladies, honestly.  Please don't hate me for it.

I'm going to try and visit you all over the weekend, but I have hundreds of blogs in Feedly and a full inbox, so if I don't answer every message or leave a comment on every post, it's not because I don't want to, it's because I can't.

crochet flowers

Here's my second entry for the Craft Book Challenge (see bottom of post for details).

For these crocheted flowers / leaf I used 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet - Lesley Stanfield which is  a lovely book that I've used before.  You've seen this first photo before.

Using the same Sidar Hug yarn I used for the hat, I crocheted number 44 Lazy Daisy from the book.  I love this little flower!

Despite the fact I have 101 projects on the go or to do, I then launched into the pieces you see above.  There are 3 x 56 - Periwinkle and 1 x 80 - Fern leaf.  This is what they looked like after crocheting.  Clearly a bit of blocking was needed.

Now, my craft room is on the second floor (that's third floor in the US) and the kitchen is on the ground floor.  I'd taken the flowers upstairs to block when I realised that I'd forgotten the squirty water bottle.  I'm pretty lazy so just used the squirty button on my iron, worked a treat!

And here they are post-blocking.  I felt the leaf was too floppy so it's had a good squirt of starch too.  These are destined to become brooches, but I'm not sure the leaf is firm enough so I might have to make a felt backing... I'll think on it (yep, another one for the procrastination list!).

I'm linking up to the Craft Book Challenge on Ange's blog 

polymer clay - craft book challenge

I really did intend to join in Ange's craft book challenge last month, but I didn't get time to make a project from a book.  This month, I have!  In fact, I already have two in the bag - I'll write a separate post about the other project.

Over the long bank holiday weekend (in England we get Good Friday and Easter Monday as holiday) I did a lot of experimenting.  The first thing to come out of the craft box was my polymer clay.  

I own a couple of books by Donna Kato and I tell you, I could just sit and read them like books, well I have, they're full of gorgeous pictures and she explains things so well.  This project comes from The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques by Donna Kato.  Before we go any further, I'd just like to point out that any failure is on my behalf, not Donna's!

It all started with a few canes and a heart shaped cabochon.  I made a mould for the heart shape using some packaging that some brads came in.  I've completely forgotten to take a photo of either the mould or the packaging, but if you want to know what I mean when I say I made a mould, see my previous posts here.

I also managed to forget to take photos of the canes I used, other than this pretty cool zipper cane.
  

The heart itself is a bit of a mess, it was too big really, but the smaller heart mould I made just wouldn't have been big enough.  It is approximately 4" high.

There is so much I don't like about this.  The purple and black leopard skin-like pattern is supposed to be dots but my cane was a disaster.  Likewise the stripy leaves...  You can also see the joins in the zipper.

But, not to be put off, I decided to try my own thing on the smaller heart mould (approx 2" high) which I cast from a glass necklace I have.

The top one is a heart of scrap clay covered with the stripy cane I'd made and used part of for the zip.  The zip isn't pressed into the heart so it stands proud.  The little flower is made from extruded tubes which I sliced.  The bottom heart started with a heart moulded from scrap play, but I loved that pattern at the top left so incorporated it.  The zip is pressed in to the heart on this one so the only raised piece is the flower which is made from tiny balls of clay.  These two will become brooches with a brooch back glued on.

So, one failure, but two successes!

I'm linking up to the Craft Book Challenge on Ange's blog 

silhouette cross stitch

Good morning ladies!  I've shown you the beginnings of this project before, but I got it finished so quick, I didn't really have time to post more updates.  This is #33 on my enormous list - Silhouettes cross stitch.  I bought this kit, which is by Heritage Crafts last November thinking it would be a nice present (completed of course!) for my dad.  He's not really a tram fan, but I don't think he hates them and I think he'll love the sepia, old-fashioned look to it.

Here's how it looked when I first showed you, it's in a 6" square Qsnap frame.

I thought it might be interesting to take a photo after each evening's work to see how it progresses.  Unfortunately, I didn't think of this until I'd got this far:

By this point, I'd sewn some of Mr CA's old shirt fabric round the edges and put it in a 10" frame as the 6" was far too small.  The ruler at the bottom of the picture shows the scale, it's 5" square finished.

I often get asked how I manage to get so much done - craft wise I mean, my family has never asked how I manage to do so much cleaning!  I don't think I do.  I work full-time, often more, and commute 45 minutes each way to work.  I go to bed pretty early - at 10pm usually, as I have to get up at 6am and I need about 10 hours sleep!  (I know that doesn't add up, but I can't go to bed at 8pm, I make up for it at the weekends)  In the space between work and bed, I have random housework to do, cooking dinner on alternate days, cleaning the kitchen, feeding the bunnies... it leaves me with about 1 - 2 hours, occasionally more if I've left work early and Mr CA is cooking. 

Me and Mr CA watch TV in the evenings (I know that sentence is grammatically incorrect, I can never bring myself to say "Mr CA and I", even though I know it's right - it just sounds too posh) but I can't watch TV without something in my hands.  Crochet, embroidery, beadweaving, all are pretty good projects as I can half watch TV as I work.

Each of these photos shows the progression after an evening's work.  Cross stitch is slow, but so satisfying and perfect if I'm really tired.  I do all my sewing, quilting, jewellery making etc at the weekends when I have lots of free time.  Of course I have chores to do and there is some family time in there too, but it does leave me time to get a sewing project or two done.

Anyway, ta-dah!  That back-stitching was a bitch.  I got some of it wrong, but I don't think you can tell if you don't look at the cover of the pattern next to it.  Now I just have to frame it... Looks like that never-never list has been revised!

procastinate no more

I like lists.   I have a book full of lists.  To-do lists, to buy lists, craft lists, you name it, I've got a list for it.  I love to cross things off my lists.  What I don't like is when I've crossed something off my list and then I need to go back to it.  These things tend to sit unmended/unaltered for a very long time.  This Easter weekend I decided to put a stop to it!

A fairly recent addition to the "things that need mending or finishing" list is the beaded scarf I made back in March.  Day 1 of wearing it saw a line of beads falling out.  It sat on the table for a while until I decided enough was enough.  I fixed the broken line and put blobs of invisible jewellery glue on each and every intersection.  It took me about 30 minutes in total.  Done!

Number 2 wasn't something I'd made, but it did need sewing.  It was a skirt where the hem had come down.  I think it happened about this time last year.

It was occupying its own little space on my sewing room sofa, so I tackled it.  I didn't even need to sew the whole hem, I tacked the inside hems to each other with a few little hand stitches.  Took me all of about 3 minutes, and most of that was me trying to thread the needle.  Done!

The next item on the list is also the one that's been sitting on the arm of my sewing room sofa (you're right if you're getting the impression there's nowhere to actually sit on this sofa!) for the longest.  This framed cross stitch was finished in August 2010.  It was a kit by Heritage Crafts of a couple dancing the Tango, originally painted by John Clayton.  I'm currently working on the second one I have and there is a third waiting in the wings.  It just needed framing.  I bought the frames about a year ago.

Using double thread I laced the bag to keep it taught.  I then couldn't get it in the frame as it was too thick.  Luckily Mr CA is quite good at things like that.  It's now hanging in the hall.  That was a 20 minute job.  Done!

Then there was the hat, this hasn't actually been on the list for long.  I thought it was two short and needed a few extra rows.  In the end 1 was enough though I couldn't help myself and added a flower!  The extra row took 10 minutes.  Done!

Finally, the house number mosaic just needed a coat of varnish so it can be hung outside.  Technically this still isn't finished as it hasn't been hung.  That might take a while as I need Mr CA to do it and he's a bigger procrastinator than me!  I didn't take a picture of this as it's just a piece of wood with varnish on it!

hate you, hate you, hate you...

No, not you, it's those damn chair covers again.  I'm talking about #50 on the massive list -  Chair covers for mum.

You may remember that I ranted and raved my way through the first two here.  They were the bit you sit on, now I moved on to the back rest.  I thought they were going to be a nightmare due to the curved top.

Nope.  Not a nightmare.  I still hated every second of it though!

The fabric by the zip pucked like anything.  I honestly couldn't be bothered to redo it and I knew that the zip sits at the bottom and no-one would see it.  Lazy?  Yep!

Doesn't look too bad if you don't look closely though!

I think these were easier as the pad is a lot thinner - in the photo above the seat pad is on top.  It's not covered as I was scared to put the cover on again in case the seam ripped!  

I've handed them over to mum, now I just have to do the other 4.  The other 2 chairs only come out when there's a lot of guests, so they're not as urgent.  Thankfully, I can't face them right now!