Entries Tagged 'I've been shopping' ↓

Sometimes the very simplest of things can make a day brighter. Simple things like perfect new soft-soled slippers. I like to sew without shoes, to feel the pressure of the peddle with the sole of my foot, but my sewing room has a hard floor and can be so very cold in the evenings…

Linen Ballet Slippers from Muji.

I had a lovely meeting with my midwife today, where we talked about labour and birth and the fact that my due date is now only six weeks away, and how quickly it’s gone. I do love my midwife, and it’s reassuring that my own thoughts on how I want things to go coincide with the group practice’s normal procedures. (Incidentally when I say my midwife I do mean that – I’m lucky enough to be with a practice that has community midwives so she was assigned to me from day one and comes to do all my visits at home. It’s very non-medical, which is how I think a normal pregnancy should be treated, and all I’ve had to go to hospital for are scans.) Happily, she’s now pregnant as well so our meetings aften involve me asking her how she’s doing too, and whether or not she’s managed to quell her addiction to ready salted crisps.

Once she’d gone I thought about those six short weeks, that could be as few as four if he’s eager to come out, or as many as eight if he isn’t, and decided it was about time I made a start on the boy’s quilt. Oh how I love to plan, and how I love to learn new things, and yet there hadn’t been room to contemplate doing either properly until I was in my new room.

It’s always been at the back of my mind though, and when I was going past Borders on Oxford St, who are having a mad closing down sale, I popped in and managed to pick up these two titles. The craft shelves were completely ravaged even though the sale had only been on a couple of days, so I counted myself lucky to get anything at all. Jelly Roll Quilts was almost left on the shelf, because I already had their other book, which includes charm packs and layer cakes, but I hadn’t found anything I really liked. 200 quilt blocks has a good techniques section at the end on putting the whole thing together, and I thought I’d be certain to find something in it.

I’m very pleased I got the former as it turns out, because a jelly roll is what I have, and their instructions on making the block I finally chose are specific to using the long strips, whereas the instructions in the other book are presumably for cutting from larger pieces of fabric and would have had me doing all sorts of unnecessary slicing.

I’ve settled on a simple nine patch block, which will make me feel as if I’m doing some proper piecing, but isn’t so complicated that I’ll doom myself to failure. I’m not entirely sure how big I want it to be, or even just how big it ends up being of its own accord, depending on how many blocks I make, but the quilt in the book (the ninepatch wonder) is mixed with hourglass squares and ends up being 64″ x 76″, which is probably too large for a baby.

I unfurled the roll to get a better look at the fabrics, and removed the pinks and yellows from the equation. I probably wouldn’t have included the pink even if I was having a girl and since I took this picture I’ve decided to remove the orange and simplify the colour scheme even more. I’m sure I’ll find something to do with the leftover strips, and I might even end up using some of them if I think the quilt will be too small.

Of course, no new skill would be complete without a spot of shopping, and my first purchase had to be a cutting ruler that measures in inches, since the two I have only have centimetres, and it makes no sense to use a strip measuring 2.5″ wide and a 1/4″foot on my machine if I can’t cut in inches. I went for the creative grids turn around ruler, since they have a nifty ability of easily measuring in whole and half inches, and while I was there I figured I might as well get some safety pins for basting. It’s a long way off but better to be prepared.

This makes it sound like I’m making progress, but have you any idea how long it’s going to take me to pair those strips up?

You know I have that category called ‘life getting in the way’? Well sometimes it truly does, but in the best of ways.
 
 On May 1st my oldest friend, who I’ve known for half my life, became a father for the first time. His heroic wife gave birth to their son at 1am, and I felt so priviledged to hold him only 16 hours later. In the hours inbetween I made fish pies for the hungry parents to have in their first few weeks.

I also went on a trip down the river on a boat, with a friend who has lived here for years, many more years than me, but has never experienced the delights of the Thames Clipper out to Greenwich – when they get out of the speed restricted part of the river it’s terrific fun, especially on the open decks at the back (just don’t bother doing your hair). When we arrived we were both oddly disconcerted by the huge aircraft carrier moored just along from the pier. We walked across Greenwich Park and Blackheath to get some lunch and then back again, only to find the aircraft carrier shedding its load of helicopters…

There was also another bout of stash shopping, with Florence, Helen and Lisa, although I’m refusing to feel guilty about this one. It was a grand day out, though I had to bow out slightly early due to tiredness – there was still time for three hours of laughing over one cup of tea, and I came home with new shoes. Lisa wonders how you get your purchases into the house – I confess I walk in with them boldly and proceed to tell Mr J exactly how much everything cost, while he tells me he doesn’t care. Last week I went home with an Orla Kiely flannel from Heal’s and kept brandishing it at him while I said ‘three pounds!’ repeatedly.

We’ve also been doing a spot of Ikea hacking. I bought the shoe rack when it was on offer for £35 (see - now I’m doing it to you) but what it really needs before I can let it live in the hall is a good coating of Farrow & Ball. I don’t know if it counts as true ikea hacking but it’s enough for me, because it’s more than just getting it out of the box and putting it together. This is all part of Operation Holy F*ck, where we have to somehow rearrange the house to fit a baby in it.

And of the baby, all is well according to my lovely midwife. In fact it’s better than that – the wee one really started to squirm around at the weekend, which I am finding incredible and incredibly funny. I hope this baby likes laughing, because that’s all it must be hearing. It quite makes the heartburn and insomnia worthwhile.

Say, for instance, you went to Fabrics Galore recently, and you already bought some stuff you haven’t used. Say also that your lovely friend wants to go and get fabrics for this beaded scarf idea she has, and you mention that you know a good place. Say that you hatch a plan where she drives down to visit you and collect her overlocker and then you drive her across South London to the fabric shop.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable of you to come home with another bag of fabric, would it?

The trouble with that place is that there are too many nice things, and the prices are so reasonable, that you feel silly for not picking up something lovely while you’re there. And I do have plans for some of these things, in the bag department, only I do seem to be running at a snail’s pace when it comes to actually making anything at the moment.

So I have stash guilt, even though Mr Joleo called while I was in the middle of the shop and told me to ‘get enough stuff’ this time. It’s only made worse by seeing what lovely things Helen has made from our last trip, compounded by having bought the same fabrics and yet being far too lazy to have done anything with them. I ought to have been a Catholic really, with the amount of pointless guilt I carry. When we got home, Jo asked to see the stash and declared that it wasn’t that bad at all, and in fact made it seem like a very reasonable amount of fabric to have hanging about at home. This is the mark of the very best kind of friend I think.

Happily Jo also found the right kind of fabrics for her scarves and made herself a new friend in the owner of the shop. And me? Well, I now know how to drive there in the car…

See what happens when you get out of the habit of blogging? Weeks pass and you forget to write down all those things you have swirling in your head. I’m going to attempt to blog every day this week, just to see if I can get back into the habit, althought that might mean that by Friday I’ll be very dull indeed…

So. Maternity Clothes. I’ve been less than impressed with the offerings from the big pattern companies, with the exception of Burda who have a cute tunic I like the look of. The pickings are very slim, and not exactly fashionable. I know I’m old to be heading down the mama road, but I don’t really want to look like I fell out of Laura Ashley circa 1981. Desperate times called for sensible measures, so I fired off an email to the Hot Patterns team to see if they could offer any advice, and got back the most useful email from Trish.

Her recommendation was to take a pattern like the Sunshine Tops (which I already own) and make it a size bigger to accommodate my expanding middle section, possibly even expanding the bust size again, depending on how I grow.

I bought the other two patterns she suggested too, because she’d said that it would be very simple to elongate the peasant tops into a dress (and I think a tunic too). And the delicious dresses would be great for wearing throughout, and most probably afterwards – nothing too tight or clingy. I really need no excuse to wax lyrical about Hot Patterns, but to get such useful advice from Trish herself sets them apart from the competition just that little bit more in my book.

Last weekend I took the best fabric shopping companions I know on a trip to Lavender Hill. A couple of years ago I came across Fabrics Galore at the Knitting and Stitching show, and vowed that one day I’d make it to the shop. I didn’t, because the easiest way to get there from my neck of the woods is on the most unreliable bus route in South London, and I am scared of looking for parking at the other end of new to me driving adventures. It’s one reason I know a really quick route to Ikea, because I know there’s definitely parking, so when I got my license it was a good practise drive for me. Anyway, I know they are terrible excuses, and I have only been spiting myself, because look at the loveliness we found there. Some of my haul is for bags but the middle one above will possibly become one of those peasant tops.

But there’s part of me that knows it would be wise to test the pattern first which is why I’ve got these cheaper fabrics to play with. I can test the fit and make adjustments, but I may still have a wearable house garment at the end of it, if nothing else. I’m just not very good with the muslin concept yet – I want something to show for my efforts.

But I’ve got to practise before I cut into this beautiful silk. It’s so unlike me to choose something like this, but I couldn’t resist. Of course I’m terrible scared of it, so it might still be sitting folded in the stash come Christmas, but at least I’ll have been able to look at it for a few months.

So on to the cutting and tracing. In preparation I thought I’d take my measurements and see how I’ve changed already – cor blimey guv’nor is all I’ve got to say about that…

I settled down today to do some serious cutting out. I’d only got this far -

when I heard from my friend that the fair we were going to do in two weeks has been put back to October 3rd. Shame. I pondered for a few minutes how likely it was that I’d want to do said fair then (not very, given current circumstances), took a look outside and decided to scrap the cutting out (not to mention any household cleaning) and go for a walk in my new shoes.

First day of the year without socks – bliss!

Thank you all so much for your comments and emails about my news :) It’s very nice to come out of the closet into such lovely company.

I really didn’t like Midwest Modern. To be honest I don’t much like Midwest Modern 2. I was starting to get the sinking feeling that Amy Butler and I might have to part ways but then I came across these in John Lewis yesterday:

And I love them! They’re from the Daisy Chain collection, and they have that contrast that I love in some of Amy’s earlier collections. It’s nice to have bought something new as well – I haven’t really bought fabric since Japan, so it’s no wonder I was feeling lacklustre. I think the only way to sew into your stash is to introduce something new that has to be used now.

You never know – my poor dusty Janome might even get a run out this weekend…

I intended to finish the kitten blanket before the winter arrived, but with one thing and another (namely ny own lack of interest in all things woolen over the summer months) I ended up with a bag full of squares, which do not quite have the same impact as a blanket. I thought it would be a relatively simple task to join them all together, right up until I opened the book and read the pattern again, when I realised that each of these little squares is supposed to have a nice border before they can be joined.

Now I realise that there will be those of you who will say ‘pattern schmattern’ and suggest that I could have just plunged on, joined the squares and finished the thing at Christmas. I’m afraid that’s just not possible for me – if I’m following a pattern then I’m following a pattern. Well, at least the first time I make something. Being a new crochet convert makes it seem all the more important that I follow it through, simply because I don’t have that innate sense of what would happen if I did or didn’t. When you can cook you can look at a recipe and mentally subtract an egg, or the rosemary, because your experience tells you what it can and can’t do without, and with this I simply don’t know what I’d get if I subtracted the egg, aside from a smaller blanket.  I’m sure I’ll get there with the wool thing, but for now I’m edging.

As part of my commitment to wool I bought this in the sale at Johnny L. It’s a silk/rayon/cotton mix and feels very soft to the touch. Mr J asked me what it was for. ‘It’ll be the next blanket,’ I said. He looked at the pile of squares, some edged, some not, looked back at me with his mouth open to ask the inevitable question, but then said ‘oh never mind’ and went back to his laptop.  Sensible fellow.

I bought this book for the next blanket, which has been on my wishlist for ages. I can see this keeping me happy for a good number of years to come, since I’m not feeling the need to branch out from making squares. Crochet is something I do to keep my hands busy while watching TV or listening to an audio book, so I’m not sure I’ll want to complicate it. When Helen said this week that working with wool is a craft that keeps itself to itself I knew exactly what she meant, since I too have been neglecting my sewing machine. Like all things I’m sure it’s temporary, and it probably has a lot to do with it being so cold and wanting to sit in front of the fire.

Why is it that the arrival of one new toy…

can have such far reaching consequences?

Truthfully, I wanted to rearrange things anyway, as an excuse for a clearout, because I’ve been shoving boxes under and around the table for long enough now that I could hardly get my legs under it. You may remember that this is something I periodically do, and it’s mostly a psychological thing, to clear out old cobwebs and get me moving on things again.

I’m quite excited to have a printer that prints in colour. We’ve never had one before, which is crazy considering how geeky we are. Or maybe that is the mark of a geek. Another mark of a geek is using words from a short lived sciffy tv show as your post title, because it makes you chuckle. Dear oh dear.

Last week I took my yearly jaunt north of the river to Alexandra Palace, for the knitting and stitching show. Unlike previous years we went late in the afternoon, when the coach parties had started leaving and all the school girls were heading home. For once we could actually move around and see things properly, which was bliss for us, but I suspect not so much for the exhibitors. They do need to make money after all. I helped in a small way:

Having enjoyed my mini rant against Christmas in October I thought I might as well bow to the inevitable and get some felt and some buttons to make Christmas decorations. I bought a felt star from a Christmas market last year, giddy with mulled wine, but when I got it home and examined it it was badly made and had blobs of glue on it, and it depressed me so much I couldn’t put it on the tree. I’ll make my own this year, and if they’re badly made I’ll only hae myself to blame.

I also picked up some plain fat q’s in several colours, for linings and things, and just one from eurojapan links. I love them so much I couldn’t help myself, but considering where I’d just been on holiday I thought it would be silly to spend much more, so this lovely grey crane print will have to do until next time. The linen thread came from the selvedge stall, and I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with it, but it’s very nice to look at.

This is one of my favourite purchases ever: a sharpener for rotary blades! Buying blades is so horrifically expensive that this will pay for itself with just three sharpenings. I got it from the lovely people at Coleshill Accessories and they have them available on their website. The woman there also told me about another craft show at Excel in February, which she called ‘one big shopping opportunity‘, so I think I’ll pop it in my diary. I know the internet is there whenever I need it but those delivery charges can mount up, can’t they? And besides, I’m never unhappy about having a day out…