buttonholes

Today I sewed on the sleeves of a short sleeved white blouse.

Fixed the sleeve heads of a long-sleeve blouse made of a shirting fabric a bit like onsnaburg.

and after cleaning my iron when a bit of lightweight fusible interfacing jumped onto the soleplate, I stitched the buttonholes on that blouse.
It still needs a collar and hem and the buttons sewn on.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a bit more on the finish column.

One Blouse UFO finished

It 'didn't need much'.
Buttons, hem. But I also needed to take it in and I had bound the seams. I sewed the buttons on the other day, but was dithering on the hem.
So, finally I sat down and completed it today.

I will take a photo wearing it...promise! I am using the current UFO contest on Pattern Review to motivate me to get some of these incomplete garments done!

The beads are still going on...22-28

Week 4 - 2017

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Something on Saturday

Cow 3

Another cow I use as a doorstop.

This is the only cow that lives upstairs. (I think)

reminds me of a calf curled up resting.

70,273 project x's 76 - 85

And then an extra post, a few of the blocks for 70,273 project I have made this week to add to the rest of the group I have been making. oh, and some more sequins I didn't realise I hadn't documented.

x76

x77

x78

x79

x80

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x85

70273 project and related events

I found that this week I just needed to stop the wheel and get off for a bit. Watched some telly with the Thoughtful Man, did some random jigsaws online, went down a rabbit hole following links from a few blogs and so on. I have been working right out straight on things for a long time. So this week I just did puttery things.

Anyway,
I wanted to mention the 70273 project. Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. There was a special celebration remembering these who were murdered under the Aktion T4 programme.
An interesting article on the BBC website
and even more interesting report on the special remembrance for the first time in the German Parliament.

Last Saturday, one of the demonstrators for the TVCT meeting couldn't come, so I thought it would be a good time to introduce the 70273 Project because I thought these ladies would be interested.
So, as the group was divided in 4 and then rotated around every so often, I had 4 different groups who were stitching the red x's on the white fabric I provided.

We made 45! and some have taken blocks home to work on and bring in May.

Some who are teachers are going to look into the project and get their children to make some (they don't have to be stitching, it can be pieces glued on.)

Ladies above top photo from left to right

Jacqueline Calcutt, Heather Brand,

next photo from left

Kate Nightingale, Gill Knight, Sarah Bond

The beads are still going on...15-21

Week 3 - 2017

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Something on Saturday

Cow 2

Love the 'Wallace and Grommit' sort of eyes.

This is a similar shape to the one last week. It comes in handy for a door stop. The other one may become a doorstop, too.

Our dog Holly was a rescue dog. She is afraid of banging doors. In the summer when the breeze is going through the house, the cow works to keep her from dashing into the garden ready to run away because of a door blowing shut.

Dreams of Sewing Dance in My Head

...otherwise known as Dancing with Sewing Machines.

Why? Because I had to give it a title before it was really started.

Anyway it is finished and on it's way to the Stretching Art and Tradition organiser in America.

The theme this time was Dream On.
This was the challenge: For Stretching Art and Tradition 18, Dream Big! Dream house, dream job, dream body, dream quilt - if dreams were reality, what dream would you have come true?  This year, complete a quilt 18" wide by 36" long using any technique you choose to represent your dream.

And for each one, we are challenged to honour SAT’s origins by identifying an area or technique of fibre arts that we would like to explore and incorporate that in our piece.

My challenge was actually getting it done with family death and extreme pain! But the official challenge was quilting using words. Not sure I was totally successful as I was thinking of my back more than the work!

But the statement about the quilt says:

Dreams of Sewing Dance in My Head

(Dancing with Sewing Machines)

One of the things I would love to do is to teach sewing to women who are marginalised in third world countries. I have friends in different African countries who support these women in developing skills. Sewing would be such a help to many of them. I have seen images of women dancing with joy when they receive a machine to use to set up a business.
However, at this point, it is a dream, a hope, a wish because I am just not well enough for the travel.
*********

But as I can, I try to help in different ways. and also to make more work drawing attention to the issues.

dancing with sewing machines - words

For the quilting for this piece I decided to use words of encouragement and blessing.
Here is a detail.

and the whole before being bound.

And today it is off in the post. Will show the completed piece tomorrow.

Dancing with sewing machines

The machines have arrived for the ladies. They are going to stay in their boxes.

The pink surround doesn't count, it is the excess of the felt I am using for wadding. It will be trimmed away.


I have been in a lot of pain. Finding I can only manage 5 or 10 min at most leaning over and sorting placement. I need to get this done and posted. Stop fretting over whether it is perfect! So, that is why the machines are still in their boxes!
So, today I am doing the sewing on my own sewing machine.

If I did it again, I would do one lady full of joy.

Dancing with Sewing machines

The normal dance of where pieces want to be positioned!

I find it easier to work out if it is right when I take photos...especially as my design 'wall' is really a table. So perspective gets distorted.

And even posting this, I think the orange lady might want some knocking back of the colour. I just could not find a print that read as 'African' that was big enough from my stash. And I like the idea of the butterflies for she and her companion...for me it points to the transformation a sewing machine gives for these ladies so they can earn money to support their family.

The beads are still going on...8-14

Week 2 - 2017

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Something on Saturday

This past week we were in York again for a memorial service for my Mother-in-law at the care home where she stayed. It was quite lovely to hear the comments of some of the residents who knew her.

While we were with my sister-in-law, she gave me a cow she had picked up in a charity shop.

I have a bit of a cow collection. Not as much as I used to, I gave a lot of them to a charity shop because there were just too many. So, I really don't 'collect' anymore, but sometimes my sister-in-law gives me one.
I have kept some special ones and have a few humorous ones I like...not rude humour in case you are getting ideas. The one above I count as humorous.

I am trying to give myself a little more time for making. Also, Saturdays are sometimes quite busy with life things and I find my self scrambling around for something to post. Sooo, I just got the bright idea to post one of my cows on a Saturday. I can set the blog to post it on Saturday at a set time (like I do the beads on Sunday - another busy day). Then I can focus on working on something on a Saturday (in-between ironing and whatnot), or running one of my groups, without worrying if I have posted to the blog.

So here you are Cow 1. But they really won't be in any particular order, I just have to number them so I know where I am in my scheduling.
I see I have already got a 'cow' label, if you click there, you can see posts about a few small cow art pieces I have made. If you read through, you might even find out 'why?' about the cows.

Have fun.
PS don't send me a cow. 😛

Today is a paperwork day

So, I have been paperworking.

The TVCT meeting is next Saturday, so plans and newsletters and things.
But here are a few photos - a reminder of what we did in November, which I didn't post because of going back and forth to York.

Mavis Walker talked about her award winning chess set.

apologies for the blur

And we had a wonderful talk by Birgitta Debenham, who is a plant physiologist. She told us about a variety of plant fibres which can be used for textiles and thread.

There were a variety of pieces in which she used different types of fibres. But I had to be sure to get a photo of this one!

Just wonderful!