my creative space...in the middle of the day...

 yesterday i snuck in some playtime...

you know, the kind of crafting that has nothing to do with work.

 i indulgently got on with jan's march blocks for the bee a brit stingy group...

right in broad daylight...

well it was my birthday!

meanwhile today it's back to hitting the list proper.

what have you been up to in your creative space? either legitimately or in an oh so sneaky fashion?

check out what other peeps have been up to this week here.

x

De stashing

I am having a de stash!

Sounds painful I know...

actually it is...very...clearing out lots of beautiful, once favourite pieces, but needs must.

I am sure I will regret getting rid of a lot of them (shhh, don't tell, but I've kept a little scrap of a few) but I am trying to be ruthless.

I don't use as many fabrics these days since my work is mainly with my own fabric. Quilting obviously is the time when that is different and I know I am going to be swearing a lot when the perfect fabric I thought I had is no longer there. But most of the time they are sitting there and I'd much prefer them to be used and not just loved.

Please go and browse my sample shop where they are all hanging out, some for not as long as others and keep going back as it is taking me rather a long time to upload them all! So there will be more added over the next few days.

Having tidied my studio this week and cleared out and sorted through all my fabrics, the scrap buckets were crying out to me.

Coupled with being in a manic sewing mood to accessorise all the clean freshly sorted rooms, I couldn't rest until I'd played with some of the scraps.

Some of my scraps are so diddy that at the time, I'm not actually sure why I keep them, but when projects like this come to mind, it reminds me why I never, and I mean NEVER throw away any fabrics. Even the teeniest inch square piece of loveliness has a use.

This was the easiest, quickest, prettiest quilt I have ever made. I simply laid scraps onto wadding until I'd filled all the gaps. Then it was a matter of sewing every edge in place. There's no front-to-front sewing going on here. This one is all about the raw edges.

A quick one piece plain backing was sewn on and then I whipped up some green stripy binding (oh, I'm such a pro at binding now) and before you knew it even the dollies had a new quilt.

As predicted, Ruby wants a full size version for her bed.

Not sure that will be quite so quick to whip up...

With Orla constantly around me and being my biggest source of inspiration these days, is it any wonder that my latest little girl's bag has turned out quite the way it has? I like to think of it as my Orla for Kids Bag.

It has a strap large enough for a little one (or a bigger little one) to wear over one shoulder as an across the body bag. If a certain model had been in the mood for showing how this looks, then I would have been able to illustrate the point. But let's put it this way - never rely on kids for anything.

The bag is fully lined in my favourite of the moment crisp fresh green stripy shirting fabric.

I've also inserted a zip to keep everything in it safe and secure.

This is the first of a new style of bag for me and whilst it took me a while to work out the best way to design this zipped bag with a flapped front (I'm sure there's better terminology for that), now that I have, you'll be seeing a few different versions of this. Particularly if that afore-mentioned model gets her requested designs approved and produced.

Not that she deserves it, mind.

Ok, it's time I started declaring all the fabric that has been mounting up over the holidays. Part of the reason I have been ordering with such gay abandon was that my Aunt came over from US during the hols and I always make use of getting fabric Stateside, without the worry of heavy postage and import costs. However now that the airlines have started charging their baggage allowance according to weight, I'm not sure she'll be quite so agreeable to letting me take up precious kilos. In the meantime I made the most of it.

First up in the show and tell pile is this collection from Fabric Closet. I'd seen the Kisses in Red by Wendy Slotboom and thought it was fab and then found the other 2 by Wendy too. They are perfect basic stash fabrics. While I was there, as you do, I dropped Michael Miller's Brady Bunch (far left) into my basket. too.

Whilst it is pretty clear that there is little chance of me giving up my fabric buying addiction anytime in the near future, so it really was pointless to make any resolutions to do so, one thing I have however made a resolution to do, is to keep any new fabric on my work desk in full view and approach it first when making something. This way, hopefully it will become integrated into my making psyche and not hide away and be forgotten.

So today when I needed to make some gifts, I headed straight for the new pile. The girls in Noah's year are all celebrating their Bat Mitzvah's this school year (girls come of age the year before boys) and he seems to have a party almost every weekend. I'm trying to keep stock up in the present pile to avoid that "aggghhh, what do you mean you are going out in half an hour and you need a gift??" panic.

Judging by Ruby's response to these Make Up and Purse Pouch Sets, I'm hoping the girls will be pretty pleased with them.

I know what your thinking..."not more blinkin' zipper pouches."

And I'd like to be able to tell you that these are the last ones.

But I'm afraid i can't.

There are about to be some very exciting developments in the land of zipper pouches and I hope you'll be as excited about them as I am.

But that's all I can say right now...

So all that is left is for me to leave you with pretty pictures of the latest style of zipper pouch - the Mini Pouch - perfect for little hands to keep their pocket money and bits of change in.

And of course they are right here...

Not only are December and Christmas creeping upon us oh too quickly, we are just one sleep away from Chanukah. Chanukah fluctuates every year, as the Hebrew calendar is lunar. December 1st is the earliest it ever is and it throws me every time it is this early. We are all geared up commercially for Christmas and when Chanukah comes 24 days earlier, it's more than I can manage. We don't celebrate Christmas so you would think it wouldn't matter. But, it's there everywhere and also, obviously, my business is centred around Christmas.

So now I'm panicking. I did a big Amazon shop last night (thank goodness for Amazon) and

fortunately I got an early start with some of my handmade gifts, but I still have the Poppy Doll to do for Ruby.

All the family are coming over to us for candles, presents and dinner on Friday and whilst we normally only buy the children gifts at Chanukah, I wanted to give each of the ladies a gift - a gift FOR the ladies, but for the men to USE, obviously...

I've made each of them a pretty tea towel to match each of their kitchens. The pink one above is my Mum's. She has the prettiest palest pink kitchen.

This yellow one isn't actually for anyone, but how I could sew something and not do a yellow and grey version? It will however be in my Etsy shop, along with several others very shortly.

Can you guess who this one below is for?

I'm feeling a little more relaxed and prepared now that I have these made.

But no relaxing just yet...it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow too...and I haven't done a darn thing about that...

I started working on some blocks that I was planning to use with the Orla Car patch I began the other day. I began by sewing together long rows of fabric, but I wasn't overly keen on how it was working out so I cut them into these strips.

I'm liking them alot better like this and have a few ideas buzzing around as to how I now want to use them. But, uncharacteristically, I am going to leave them on the side for a few days and be sure of what I want to do with them. I have about 5 ideas all at once for them and have a feeling they may become a theme for new work...watch this space.

In the meantime I had to get back on track with the Car Cushion. I decided to continue on the Log Cabin style that I'd started, with an added sashiko stitching around.

I have backed it in linen with an envelope opening, in a style that I normally use for my cushion covers. I like this style. Is it because I'm too lazy to do zips? Or simply that I like them this way? I like to think it's the latter...

There are going to be a fair few of these, but if you want to grab this first one, it's right here...

I can't believe it's Tuesday already...and I haven't blogged since last Wednesday. And I was on such a roll!

Being away for the weekend is partly to blame. As is the amazing summer we are having. I'm almost beginning to feel how you peeps that live in warmer climes must have it... knowing what to put on in the morning...enjoying coffee breaks in the sun...a general feel of merriment going on.

It has meant that I'm not doing as much sewing as usual. Quite frankly, even though it's one of my most favourite things in the whole wide world, I'm more than happy to give up hibernating in my attic studio for a bit of sunshine.

And that's why the boys' version of my quilt-cum-playmat has taken a little longer to produce. But, just as long as I'm continuing to produce things, albeit at a slower pace, I'm more than happy to take a step back and enjoy the summer we are being blessed with. Long may it continue.

I've been working on Ruby's quilt this weekend and would have finished it if the sun hadn't been shining quite so much (I know, such an inconvenience).

We had one of those weekends where everyone was just chilling and doing what they wanted. Our kids and the kids next door spent the weekend hopping from our garden to theirs and back again. We were never quite sure whether we had 6 kids about or none!

Because everyone was happily doing their own thing, I snuck some guiltless time in the attic and pieced together the quilt. I actually thought Ruby would be able to take it to bed last night but that didn't quite happen. It was one of those gorgeous evenings so all activities were temporarily halted when we decided to stroll up the road to our local Pizza Express.

A shared bottle of wine later and children not in bed at a decent hour stopped any further progress being made last night. Since I had nothing pressing to be done this morning I decided to finish what was almost completed so at least tonight Ruby would have it.

Translate that to mean a bribery to get one overtired little girl into bed at a reasonable hour, after her galavanting about far too late the night before.

I seem to have kick started myself back into action. First the blog post, next doing something with the cut out squares for Ruby's quilt that have been lying on the studio floor for several weeks.

Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's waking up from my little hibernation.

Maybe it's not having to make any more paint/wallpaper choices (don't mention the carpet/curtains/rugs/wardrobes...)

Whatever it is, hopefully it will hang around a while as this quilt still has a long way to go.

I haven't had alot of time for playing in my studio recently and I'm not even sure I've felt the desire to do so either. My mojo has definitely left me stranded. Part of me has wanted to just escape to the studio, but a bigger part hasn't even had the energy to do that.

I do know however that if I can just get myself back into the swing of it I will feel a whole lot better about everything. So yesterday I forced myself to start cutting squares out of the fabrics Ruby had chosen for her quilt.

Isn't it amazing how with those first cuts a rush of excitement enters and you just want to do more? You start to see the design in your head. The fabrics start talking to you and leading you and you wonder why it took you so long in the first place.

This afternoon I'm going to start laying them out and see where we get to. It's going to be interesting to see how it all blends. The quilt is for Ruby so I did have to let her choose what she wanted. However, as we all know, kids choices aren't necessarily the right ones, so I have added a couple of my own and taken out a couple of hers. There were some that where non negotiable...from both of us.

By the time they are all together and I've added the necessary (for me) linen and embroidering, I'm hoping it will be pleasing to us both. Time will tell and I'll be sure to let you know how our journey goes...

As some of you know, on my lists of things to have a go at this year is quilting. And as per usual my actions are somewhat driven by an external drive.

Some very good friends have just had twin boys. This wonderful occasion was the driving force behind the start of my quilting journey.

I decided to go for a simple design to start with. Partly because I am a complete novice and partly because we are going to visit them for the first time tomorrow and I wanted to be able to take the quilts with us.

Whilst I'm very pleased with the way the fabrics have come together, I am less pleased with the feel of them. I probably should have asked you experts out there before this what you use as batting. Both Manda and Kristy suggested a wool batting.

I however didn't use a wool batting and not only that used a too heavy weight one. The result is that the quilts are a bit stiff. They haven't got the snuggle factor that I was hoping they would. I think I might have to suggest they are used as changing mats or playmats.

So what type of batting do you use ? If you use something that makes a soft and snugglable quilt I'd love to know. Particularly if you are in the UK, but would love to hear your suggestions anyway.

I'm delighted to have started my quilting journey and I'm certainly not put off. I have loads of plans, including the rather large one I have in mind for Ruby's bed and for our new lounge. but I definitely need to purchase some superior wadding before I do.