Just not "feeling it."

So this morning I took a class on "Big Stitching."  I had never taken a class at this store before, but had been in the store a few times and found the owner to be very pleasant.

So I get to the store before the appointed time as I needed a couple of things to use in the class.  The instructor was very nice and told us there were nine in the class.  Four seats on one table, and five on the other.  So I went and put my bag down at a seat on the five table by the wall out of the way.  Went to buy my things and came back to sit down.

The woman sitting opposite me started telling this other woman come and sit next to her, which she proceeded to do, but a woman got to the seat before her and sat down.  By the look on the woman's face opposite me she wasn't happy, so I said I would move so this other woman could sit opposite her.  I found this all very unusual and actually thought to myself that the woman I had been sitting opposite was a little insecure.

Anyway, there were now four of us seated and the fifth person at the end of the table, although all her things were set out at the table she was still in the main part of the store shopping.  I brought a coffee with me in a travel mug with a sealed lid.  The new woman who I am now sitting opposite brought a coffee from Tim Hortons in one of their paper cups.  

You will know what happened next without me saying it, but yes she knocked over her cup and the coffee went over the woman's things at the end of the table.  Although the woman opposite apologized she made no effort to help clean up the mess.  Suffice to say the woman's whose things had coffee all over it was not happy and you could cut the air with a knife after that.

To cut a long story short, what with the whole atmosphere at the table and the most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat on; I lasted an hour and a half.  The class was three hours long.  I was just not feeling it.

THEN.......as I was packing up to go, the woman opposite me says, oh could you drop me off at the garage it's only five minutes up the road............to which I said, there's still another hour and a half left in the class............she says that's fine and up she got.😦  So I take her to the garage, and yes it is only a five minute drive but I was flabbergasted???

Anyway, this is what we were aiming to do, this is the sample:

This is where I am at with mine:

Bit to go, will work on it when I have time.

I have been neglecting my blog recently.

Why?  I have been busy with this and that, mainly the Facebook shop.  I have to say it has been a success so far; BUT you never know how long that success will last, or when your next order will come in.

I booked a craft show at a parent and teachers evening in October.  It cost me $30 for the table........oh and you have to bring your own table....LOL  I figured $30 wasn't a lot of outlay and I am quite confident I will sell $30 worth of stuff to cover the cost.  However, who knows?  

If anyone has done craft shows, any do's and don't would be greatly appreciated.

I actually got a little bit of sewing done for me this week.  I made our grandson a bunny when he was born.  Then made two more ..............who can forget scary bunny!!  He has chewed that one to death, as it's a favourite!!  I made him another, along with one for the chiropodist's newborn and one for the grands cousin.  I am thinking about adding them to the shop?

I then made a couple of passport holders out of cork for dh and I.  I will be making more for the shop and selling those at $15 each.

Just finished another custom order today for an I-Pad/Tablet holder.  Lots of pockets in it and very sturdy.

Taking a class tomorrow on hand stitching quilts, which I have NO interest in, but I want to pick up some tips and tricks about the hand stitching, so I can incorporate that into my work I do in the shop.  Will be back with show and tell after the class!!  Have a good one........

Appleby Lane......its all about the pouch today!!

These pouches I make are great for all sorts of uses and although the cork ones aren't washable, you can wipe them down with a damp cloth.  All are a decent size.  The one I have I carry all my sewing stuff in it.  They make handy cosmetics bags, a great place to put all your hair stuff in, or can be used as small clutches when you don't want to carry your regular sized handbag/purse.  All come with zipper pulls.

1. Farmer's Market and Natural Cork Pouch with cotton lining. 10" W x 6" H $20

 2. William Morris Print & Blue Cork Pouch with cotton lining. 10" W x 5" H $20

 3. Owl and Teal Cork Pouch with cotton lining. 10" W x 6" H $20

 4. Flower and Natural Cork Pouch with cotton lining. 10" W x 6" H $20

 5. Tula Pink Raccoon with Blue Cork Pouch with cotton lining. 10" W x 6" H $18 **Missing a row of top stitching, so price reduced, does not affect the functionality of the pouch.**

 6. X-Large Linen and Blue Cork Toiletry Bag with blue laminated cotton lining 10" W x 9 " H $25

 7. X-Large Linen and Grey Cork Toiletry Bag with pink laminated cotton lining 10" W x 9 " H $25

 8. Tula Pink Cotton Pouch 10" W x 7" H $15 (machine washable; just unclip zipper pull)

 9. Cotton + Steel Moth Cotton Pouch 10" W x 7" H $15 (machine washable; just unclip zipper pull)

10. Black and Red Yarn Pouch with double inside pocket 12" W x 6 " H $20 (machine washable; just unclip zipper pull)  Matching key fob available.....and matching knitting bag (see Saturday's post)

 11. Word Knitting Pouch with large inside pocket 10" W x 7 1/2" H $20 (machine washable; just unclip zipper pull) Matching key fob available.....and matching knitting bag (see Saturday's post)

Tomorrow, I'll showcase my bags and totes.

Jelly Roll Rug.........

I mentioned the other week about taking a jelly roll rug class, but it was cancelled due to a power outage.  It was rescheduled and I went to it yesterday (29th of May.)

It was a six hour class, but it will take a heck of a lot longer to finish it.  I decided to make mine out of fabric I had on hand, rather than a jelly roll kit.  A jelly roll kit is a package of 2 1/2 inch strips by the width of the fabric, and generally around 42 pieces.  So I cut out 42 2 /1/2 inch strips from the fabric below.  

You can also buy a package of batting that is already cut into one long roll of 2 1/2 inch width that is specifically made for a jelly roll rug. I had a couple of bags of batting scraps, so I chose to cut them into 2 1/4 inch strips and used them also.

 Donna our instructor wanted us to get a feel for what we had to do, so we had to sew the first six strips together and make a start on the rug.  Below is what that looked like.

 However back to the beginning you have to sew all your 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric together like you would if you were making quilt binding.  There is a tutorial here if you want to see how to do that.

 You then lay your batting down on the fabric.  Fold each side to the middle of the fabric and then fold in half and stitch along the edge.  There is a good tutorial here.

You carry on sewing in the batting until you are ready to run away.........believe me it will take a while to do that. If you are using up pieces of batting, we/I just butted them together, no extra sewing or tape was needed.

Once you have sewn in all the batting, you can now start on the rug.  You use a larger multi stitch zig-zag stitch. The key is not to twist the rug and keep your tension constant so as to keep it flat, otherwise you will end up with a giant bowl.

 One of the other ladies in the class was making a table runner, in the pink, blue and black jelly roll.  She had to pull out her stitching a couple of times as it was all crinkly and wavy. 

This will take me a little while to get this fully sewn but it's a project I will keep coming back too and will show you updates as I make progress.

The rug will be machine washable, and will be going by our patio doors.......now to just find the time to sew it!!

Flipping typical...........

So dh took Monday off as we are getting our evestrough/guttering and downsprouts/drainpipes redone.  It pours down so they cancel and rightly so.

I go to my class and there is no hydro/electricity.  So I could have hung around and "hoped" the hydro would have come back on when the hydro folk said it would come on (no chance) and go home and do the class another day.  I opted to go home!!

So I made three bunnie's.  They are not pretty, but for some reason our grandson loves them...LOL  I mean, do they actually look like rabbits?  Or are they scary creatures from outer space.  They look as though they are ready to do the splits?

 This one is extra scary..........LOL

I can't find the pattern I used so I am tweaking my own pattern!!

Mother's Day 2019

I was a lucky girl and my children and "R" gave me this for Mother's Day:

Not sure what I am going to make with this yet. 

I did Facetime with the two girls, and I popped round to son's house a couple of times, once to bring coffee in the morning (son and dh opening pool) and then later in the afternoon to see daughter-in-law (her first mother's day) and to see grandson.

When I went home I prepared supper and it was one of my favourite suppers.  Broccoli quiche, garden salad, quinoa salad and hard boiled eggs.  With strawberry and rhubarb crumble pie and cream.

The good thing about making all that food, is that I don't have to cook tonight.  I am out all day on Monday doing a Jelly Roll Rug class.  Here is a video on what I will be making, or something similar.

Like a kid in a candy store..........

I know we all have things we adore and places we love to visit.  In my case I adore visiting fabric stores and I feel like a kid in a candy store looking at everything.

I have been busy taking sewing classes at a local store called Country Concessions Quilt Store.  I was there at the beginning of the week to purchases some fabric!!  I took some photos while in there.

The building looks so quaint doesn't it?  Where the large windows are on the second floor of the building to the left is where meetings and classes are held.

 Look at all those sewing machines.  They sell Pfaff machines.

 Look at all those colours of thread.

 This is what you see to the left of the door when you walk in.   It's where all the Tula Pink fabrics live!!

 Another section with lots of goodies.  I see they have got a number of felt heavy duty pressing boards.

 Here are some of the batiks, love the colours, but never been a fan at batiks. 

 They have just got new signage.

 The "Queen" seemed pretty happy watching the world go by in the car while I shopped.

They don't have an online store yet, but it is in the works. Country Concessions is located in the village of Cookstown, if you click on this link you can read more about Cookstown.

I nearly forgot, here is what I bought!!  I bought the coral fabric and the black and grey fabric on the left of the photo.  You will see what I am making next week.

All done - The Sling Along Bag

Took me three classes and a little bit of homework to get the bag completed.

Below is my fabric choice, which is "Spring Awakens," by Debi Hron for Henry Glass & Co.  The bag pattern is "The Sling Along," by Studio Kat Designs.  I ended up swapping out the striped fabric for a plain orange one, as I only wanted to deal with one directional print.  I am so glad I did that!!

 There are many pieces to this pattern and it took a couple of hours just to cut everything out.

 After the first class and after I did my homework, this is where I got too.

 Here it is all finished.  

 Love the pop of colour with the orange.  The hardware for this bag does add up, as it consists of many pieces.  However it is all metal and will last forever.  The pattern tells you to use webbing for the straps. We made our own which looks a lot nice.  They also said to use store bought binding for finished edge of the bag, again we all made our own.

 Back of the bag.

This bag does involve hand sewing, so if you don't like doing that I would avoid this bag.   The instructions are not the best.  I was glad to have Laurie helping us along in class; I took the class at Country Concessions again.  Would I make another one........yes I think this is the best type of bag to have if you're traveling, as it leaves your hands free, and has so many pockets and compartments.

(If I remember I will take photos of everyone else's bags in class this coming week.)

Zippers........

I took a short two hour course on how to sew in zippers the other day.  I will say although useful, for me it didn't really help much, as this was more geared to sewing in zippers in clothing.  I did learn a couple of tricks which I can and will apply to what I sew. (I have put links on each zipper, so you can see for yourself how it is done.)

The first one we did was a centred zip.

 The we did a lapped zip.

Then an invisible zip. 

 You do need a special invisible zip foot for your machine for this one.  I just borrowed the one from the store.

 The lady at the store used this quilters tape so you could be more accurate with your stitching.  I picked some up, as it will come in handy also for other things.

We did talk about having a class that was designed more for zippers in household items rather than clothing.  I would be interested in taking that if it comes up.

Are you confidant when it comes to sewing zippers in items?