coffee matt

I actually made this coffee matt weeks ago.  I tend to take photos of whatever I've made or is in progress at the weekends when there is some natural light as I work full time.  I upload them to the computer and drop them into blank posts - you may have realised I tend to only blog about one thing at a time.  I find it easier to find things I've blogged about that way (after all this is an on-line making diary as much as anything) and I find other people's posts with multiple projects/subjects hard to digest sometimes.  I then schedule the posts, roughly 2 days apart, and then write them as and when I get a chance.  I'm not sure why I suddenly felt the need to share that with you, but I did!

Anyway, coffee mat.  My coffee machine has a little hole in the bottom of the tray.  There is another tray that fits inside but it means my little jug doesn't fit under the nozzle so I take it out.  Hence the need for a mat (I also stuff a j-cloth inside but it doesn't stop a bit of mess).  I made some a while ago, but they're all stained now so I'm replacing them.

I found this block on Pinterest, I just had a look at my boards and can't find it, apologies if I've used your tutorial and not credited you, though I didn't use the tutorial, I could see how to make it from the picture.  I drew a quick sketch and coloured it  in to follow as I sewed.

I had a charm pack of Java, I've had it for years, since I first started sewing, and decided it was time to use it.  I like the little coffee bean print.

This was pretty easy to make and my points aren't too bad!  I sewed it right-sides together with a piece cut out of an old tea towel, then turned - no binding.  It's 12" square.

Some quick straight line quilting either side of the seams to keep the layers together.

And we're done!  Only problem...

...with the coffee machine on top, you can barely see my lovely piecing!

Déjà vu

I'm back! I survived!  I have no idea why the "I'm" at the beginning of the sentence looks like a link... try it, see where it goes.  Anyway, I could regale you with tales of snotgobbling taxi drivers and lack of coffee in hotels, but instead I'll start with a quick apology, and then move on to showing you things you've kind of seen before.  Wow, sounds, exciting doesn't it!

The apology: I'm weeks behind in my email replying.  You may have had a reply from an email sent the other day but not one weeks ago, that's because I've been randomly clicking and replying!  Secondly, I'm days behind on blog reading and my reader went mental at lunch and randomly started scrolling down and down and down, in the end I had to shut the computer down and I've lost a day or so of posts... and some of them looked really interesting as they were shooting past at the speed of light.  If there's anything I should have seen, let me know in the comments!  Let's see, May 23rd and 24th.

OK, on with the repeats!  A week or so ago I showed you my first attempt at a doily.  I've now blocked it and it looks... like a doily!  A real one!

I'm inordinately proud of it.  I've started the next and I'll show you soon as I've got to have it finished soon, I've been working on it for weeks.  I got back from Tunisia on Friday night and Mr CA went to site Saturday/Sunday.  To make up for him abandonning me and for leaving the house in a right state, I used his money to buy myself some flowers and put the doily underneath.

Excuse the backdrop of a pile of books.  They're to go on the higher shelves that I can't reach, even on the enormous ladder.  Being 5foot1 in a house with 13 feet ceilings can be a trial...

My second, third and fourth repeats are further versions of the coffee mat I made to go under my leaky coffee machine.  I used the same print fabric, one is backed with 2 face cloths sewn together, and for the other 2 I cut a tea towel in half.  I wanted to put a lace border on them.  This is the result.

When you try to be a smart-arse and mitre the corners of the lace, that's when you have to cut them open.  It doesn't work.  I know that's pretty obvious, but apparently not to me!

I tried a different method with the next one.  I rumpled the corners up and tacked them before sewing.  Yes, rumpling up is a technical term.

Hmm.  So that doesn't quite work either.  Never mind, they're to catch coffee drips, if the lace doesn't sit flat, it doesn't sit flat. 

The final one is lace free.  Even a disaster-merchant like me knows when to give in... sometimes.  I washed the original mat at the weekend and it came out the wash with the coffee stains still on.  So I washed it on 60 and put it in the tumble drier.  It's still in there.  I daren't look!

The green tea towel doesn't go perfectly with the mat, but who cares?  Below is a sideways picture of all three!

And finally, before I go away and do some work, a reminder about my competition.




Click here for the details.  You have until the end of June to make something out of something old along with something new.  There is a prize!  Please feel free to grab the button over on the right and help me spread the word.  I promise that if you do, I'll have loads of new disasters for you to laugh at... promise!

Something Old, Something New.... Competition!

Good morning everyone. I've been threatening you for ages with a competition and now the time has finally arrived!  Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present...

I have very kindly been sent £10 worth of materials from Will at Abakhan.  The aim of the challenge is to use those £10 worth of new materials along with "old" materials that I have to produce an entirely new item and I want you to join in!

The Challenge
You do not have to go out and purchase new materials!  You can use materials from your stash, but just to be clear here - your stash counts as new.  Old materials include old clothes, old bedding, an old jumper you've frogged for the yarn, an old piece of furniture, anything you like!  As the emphasis is on combining old and new, I've set my limit for new materials at £10, you don't have to stick to this limit, I won't be coming round to check, but the idea is to not have "spent" too much (of new materials or from your stash" on this challenge -  I wouldn't want to see a full-size quilt of new fabric with a small patch of an old shirt for example.

The Prize
You have just over a month - the deadline for entries is 30th June 2012.  Deadline extended to the 31st July! There will be a prize.  As this is open to international readers and as the Royal Mail has just hiked up their prices, I've decided the best way to reward you and not them is by sending you a voucher to your choice of online shop.  The value will be £20 which is $30 US, €25, or 70 Papua New Guinian Kina. 

I can only do this in countries where I am allowed to purchase in your currency via the internet using Paypal, if not, I will send you a voucher for a UK or US shop.

The prize winner will be chosen by Mr Random-Org, so each project means 1 entry, you can enter as many times as you like. 

The Rules

1. It must have been made by you sometime between May 19th and July 31st

2. You must use "old" materials

3. You must use some new materials, but not excessive amounts

4. The deadline is midnight on 31h July 2012 UK time

5. The winner will be selected in the first week of August, I will email the winner so please make sure I have a way to contact you

6. Your item DOES NOT have to be sewn - you can use any craft medium from crochet and knitting to painting and drawing and anything in between

To Enter

Post a blog entry on your blog and put the link in the comments on THIS post, you must link back to this post in your entry.  If you do not have a blog, you can post a link to a Flikr photo-set, please write about your project under the photo.  No blog or Flickr?  Email me (click on "view my full profile" in the top left of this page and it will bring up a link to email me), but don't forget to leave a comment as this is where I'll take the prize winner from.

Here's a button for you to use. 

The lovely Pam has made me a grabbable button!! It's over there on the right hand side at the top, so please take one and display it on your blog to help me spread the word.

My Challenge
I will be playing along with you, though I won't be eligible to win!  So, here is what I'm starting out with, these are my new materials all supplied by Abakhan:

2m of denim drill, 2m of black satin binding and 2m of 6mm piping cord.  Below is a picture of my old, a ripped poof that I'm going to reupholster.  I will be adding some further old materials to this in the form of old clothes, but you'll have to wait and see what I do!

For a little inspiration, here's a Something Old, Something New... project I did last weekend.  A mat for my very messy, very drippy coffee machine.

Here's what I used to use, an old tea-towel.

I used a piece of this gorgeous coffee fabric, I've completely forgotten who makes it!  And 2 old face clothes that were still in a good condition, but were getting a little worn around the edges. 

It was very simple to make, I joined the two washclothes, cut off all the hems (I did try unpicking but it was a bit of a nightmare), cut the joined washcloth to the same size as the fabric and sewed them rightsides together.  I turned through and top stitched.  It measures about 20 x 10 inches.

I have another 3 in the making, using more washclothes and an old teatowel, but the construction got delayed as I had a bit of a lace "issue".  I'll post about it more when they're finished.

Much better!

So ladies and gentlemen, get your thinking caps on, grab some old material and some "new" and get creating.  Don't forget to comment here, one comment for each project, with a blog link, a Flickr link or a comment to say you've emailed me your project.  I'll show all emailed projects on my blog.

P.S. You can also leave a non-competition comment if you like, I'll only count the actual competition ones when I do the drawing.