"It takes ages to finish a quilt you're not working on!"

Monday, August 10, 2009

Playing with fabrics

The MOTH went out without me on Saturday night - to his chook club meeting. I'd been to the first three and was bored out of my mind, so I said he could go out in the cold on his own. I'm staying put! Was I sad and lonely? No way! I had my night planned, playing uninterrupted with my stash! For a start, I was itching to make some of the items I mentioned on the previous post, and I started with the pincushion. I pulled out my bags of fabric scraps, instead of cutting up fat quarters or larger pieces, and found some nicely co-ordinating pieces - two different floral, and one plain which matched them both. Here is the result: I even found buttons which matched each side, instead of using the same button on both sides. These are rather conservative colours, but I plan to do more of these and use brighter colours, and perhaps add lace or trim as well.
Next, again looking through my scrap bags, I pulled out all the really small bits and machine-stitched them together in rows at random. Then I stitched the rows together to make this block: Using a template of a heart from a magazine pattern, I drew hearts over this block and will eventually cut them out to use on cards as per the article in my previous post.
Finally, I extracted this apron from a pile of unfinished aprons, and finished it off with bias binding. That is all it needed when I bought it years ago, and it's taken me all this time to do that! However, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I learnt several lessons while doing this. Distant memories flooded back, of my tech.school sewing teacher, insisting that we press the bias binding before we attach it. Now I remember why. Now I also know why she instructed us to tack it on to our calico aprons after we'd pinned it, before we machined it on. I didn't do any of these things, and now I know why I failed Needlecraft at school...don't look too closely at the edges of the apron in this photo!
Topsy didn't care that Ken was out either. She had something to eat, then curled up in front of the gas fire and went to sleep.

6 comments:

Jane said...

A perfect way to enjoy some time on your own, lol. The pin cushion is really pretty, and congratulations on finishing the apron.

Linens and Royals said...

I failed needlecraft at school, now if I ever complete one of my unfinished aprons I will remember to press and pin bias binding first. Love the cat on the apron and hello Topsy, love you and your shiny black coat too.

Gina E. said...

LOL Sylvia - I bet like me, you never thought when you were at school, that later on in life you would love needlecraft with a passion!
Thank you both for your comments; I'll be dropping in again on you shortly!

Sherri said...

Hi Gina, sounds like you and Topsy had a great evening! I love the pincushion, may have to try one myself. I didn't learn about bias binding in school so I've always been afraid of it. I'm sure your apron is just fine!

Joanne said...

Cute pincushion. I didn't exactly fail Textiles at high school, but I didn't do well either. A month or two ago I met my old Textiles teacher. She was selling earrings at a local market. We had a nice chat and I told her that I sew, but I didn't tell her I didn't enjoy her classes!

Unknown said...

Love the cat on the apron and your shiny black coat too. sounds like you and Topsy had a great evening..
Cute pincushion.
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