Farewell Gill

Our friend Gill from Offcuts sewing left us near the end of October. Today we said final goodbyes.

always puzzling out a complicated pattern...

always sewing with a bare foot on the pedal!

There is already a big gap where she used to sit.

Along with the gap from missing Juliet.

I am glad we have had more friends come along in the past couple of years! Looking forward to sewing with the rest again in the new year.

In memory of lovely friend

Yesterday I had very sad news about a special sewing friend. Juliet.

Juliet passed away last week very suddenly. She will be greatly missed. Such a lovely lady. So generous to share her baking with us at each meeting.
She had been looking forward to traveling to South Africa this week for a family wedding and to see her sister.

Juliet was one of the original Thames Valley group who started the Offcuts sewing meetings. There will be a very empty spot over to the right in the middle.

walker caddy

We had the last couple days visiting family in Yorkshire.

When my mother-in-law went into a home, I thought it might be useful for her to have a sort of caddy from her walker. That way she doesn't get all the way to the loo and find she has left her comb on the other side of the bed. Or if she is trying to take something somewhere, it is hard to use the walker and hold onto something at the same time.

I finally got around to making this up on Saturday for the TV Offcuts sewing group. I put buttonholes in straps an sewed the buttons on when we went to visit. when the straps are buttoned in place, it keeps the caddy from swinging back and forth and knocking her down.

It can be changed round, depending on which pockets she finds most useful. But for now

FRONT

BACK

I think she was quite chuffed. And it wasn't hard to do either.

Something on Saturday - LOTS!

Okay. Nearly past bedtime, but today was the day Jeanne Crockett came to the TVOffcuts/TVCT combined meeting. It was a great time. To start with the two of us hit it off very well. We work in similar intuitive ways...and she even admitted to being of the chop-chop sew-sew methodology of sewing! We are going to have to work out a way to meet up when we can have a longer chat!

Jeannie, as she likes to be called, had a presentation that was very well put together. She kept all of us interested even though the hall was rather cold. (I think my husband has come up with a solution for that now.) She told us the stories behind so many of the dresses. Some were done quickly, some took a lot of thought.

Jeannie also told us how she was thinking of taking some of the dress ideas and translating them to a full size dress. So, some wouldn't translate well to a dress for certain figure types, but there would be ways to take the ideas and turn them into an interesting sweater or scarf.

Afterwards people had a chance to look through the selection of about 80 she had brought. 366 dresses take up a lot of room! And of course, some made out of food were temporary.

And after we warmed up with a cup of tea and a selection of some of the cakes on offer, we had a chance to rummage through the bits and pieces Jeannie and I had brought.

and then set to making our own!

Fun things happening!

intense concentration

Here is a photo of the little dresses we made. Some were able to make 2.

Here is mine on it's own.

and to show the difference directions people could take, here is one made by one of the other ladies (She left it unintentionally, so I hope to get it to her in the week.)

Jeannie lives in Paris just now, but will be back in Baltimore in the summer. If you are looking for someone to come do a talk to your group, I would highly recommend Jeanne! Her blog 365 dresses is a great one to send your friends to and you can contact her from there.

I am linking to Off the Wall Fridays at Nina-Marie's.

Journal sleeves and tidying

Tomorrow is the much awaited talk and workshop by Jeanne Crockett at the TVOffcuts meeting. I have been sorting through ribbon and lace and odds and ends to bring. Jeanne has brought a lot with her - probably enough all together, but it won't hurt to have more. It means I have sorted through some bags of broken jewellery I have picked up here and there.

I learned a new word...Bibelot. Still need to work on pronounciation, but that is what Jeanne called the little bits and bobs, found objects or what have you. I had heard it before, but this time took the time to look it up.

I picked up Jeanne/Jeannie and her husband from Heathrow yesterday. They came back here for a cuppa so we could work out what we need from here...and just to find out if we were on the same page. Then they went to the hotel. Today they were considering going off to Oxford.


So, besides sorting. I also put sleeves on 4 of my journal quilts from last year. I was asked earlier for a photo of the Blackberries Blue journal from November. It may be used for publicity for the ICHF show in early April at the Excell Centre. But they also found that the Sewing, Embroidery and Stitch show at the NEC will have room for CQ to have a stand after all, so we have been asked to 3 of one of the other journal colours too. They needed more yellow ones, so I am sending the Yellow one with Red strips from June - it was also on the recent CQ@10 book. And I am sending the Lemon journal from July and the Banana journal from August. I hope to get them in the post tomorrow.

I used some failed snowdye fabric (I think the Dylon stuff isn't too happy about working in the cold!) and cut the sleeves. 9in by 8in. Then stitched on the side edges - I did the continuous method one right after the other.

and then folded and stitched a seam. Pressed a little fold in it so they could have a bit of slack so the hanging rod/batten can be slipped in with out distorting the quilt.

and stitched them down.

They are all parcelled up and ready to go if I have a bit of time to go to the Post Offics in the morning.

Why do we put this job off? It didn't take more than an hour for all 4! Maybe because it is boring?

My black and white journals should be doing the rounds of the Grosvenor shows at present. I haven't checked the paper to see just where they are at present. Maybe the show in Scotland this weekend?

A Special Speaker on the 23rd of February

Do you remember when I mentioned the blog 365 Dresses? Blog author Jeanne Crockett is coming to talk to the Thames Valley Offcuts sewing group about the daily project which she has just completed!

The Final dress

Put February 23rd in your diary. The talk will start at 1:30 pm at our normal venue - Birch Hill Community Centre in Bracknell. The cost is £10. (For the hall hire and for paying the speaker.) There will be a mini-workshop to follow the talk.

one of the earlier dresses in the project

This is what Jeanne says about her project:

Quote:

In December of 2011, I found myself at the end of one of those character building years. Wanting to take the initiative to pull myself up, I searched for a “project” that would interest me and allow some creativity along with some defined structure. Somehow, I stumbled upon a book titled, “365 Make Something Every Day and Change your Life” by Noah Scalin. Before I even finished the book, I’d decided that I would do a year’s project. I will complete my 366 day project on January 27th, 2013.

I’ve always loved designing and sewing and wearing dresses was my signature for years in the workplace. I discovered that making these miniature dresses is a step beyond a sketch and is a great designing tool for real-life garments and accessories. Issues of scale, color, and coordination can be attempted and the results evaluated quickly. Not to mention that the mockups are adorable, and fun to make.

I learned so much about myself, my creativity, my passions, and my world with this project. More than just making little dresses, it has changed my life for the better. I’ll be sharing my experience with the project, and my plans for future development with you on February 23rd, 2013. We’ll discuss the dresses, the lessons, and the ideas, and follow the discussion with a hands-on workshop with you making your own sample.

A recent idea

If you want more information just leave a comment, or click on my profile and you will find my email address. Other groups have been invited to join us. We'd love to have you come along. Bring a friend!

offcuts - end of May

My sis got to come to the TV Offcuts sewing group meeting at the end of May. She had met my friend Gabrielle one of the times when I went to Houston. We found some headbands in a shop like some my niece has, so my sister decided to raid my quilt fabric stash to make some more.

We had fun both trying to use the same machine! Well, I could have taken my good one, but it wasn't too bad.

Some of the other projects:
Elaine's quilts

 Gabrielle - a new summer dressing gown

 Gill G - sewing away

 Juliette explaining something (I have forgotten what!)

Mavis sandwiching a quilt

Sheila getting to grips with her overlocker

Me working on more of those jeans bags. I never did get back to them after that! Perhaps after the current "needs to be delivered the 17th" deadline.

GillG - forget what she was sewing, but I loved her painted blouse.
Back

front

April TV Offcuts

I posted about the blue wool skirt with silver threads the other day. Actually, I got the handstiching done on it before the TV Offcuts meeting anyway.
Here is what the blue-silver skirt looks like. (The ever popular photo in a mirror trick.)

So what I did do at the meeting was to start a bit of altering on some of the skirt waistbands that are getting too big. I didn't get a photo. but actually there was alot of altering and mending going on during the day.

Mavis sandwiched up a quilt she will quilt for the Linus Project charity.

And she is also mending a well loved crazy quilt for a friend. It means a lot of unpicking.

Gabrielle was adding some bright stitches to the collar of a cardigan. She had another project previously, but I didn't catch that one.

Gill C was replacing buttons.

Juliet was mending towels...like you do. :)

Lyn was (shock!) chopping up some of her own weaving to make cloths because the colour in some of the thread she used kept running.

Gill G was constructing something interesting, and Anne had something interesting as well. But both of them left before I went round with the camera.

At times there was much conversation, but later on it was pretty quiet...heads down working. It struck me - yes I could have done the same thing at home, but not with the same feeling of companionship that we have there. They are a really special group of friends.

events

I did manage to get away to the Sewing for Pleasure/Fashion Embroidery Stitch event at the NEC before Pepper got too ill. However, I forgot the camera. A lot of very interesting exhibits - The Downton Abby costumes were interesting. The stills from the TV shoots were much more lively looking than the actual garments. Maybe because someone was wearing them? or maybe the lights, etc. I have never watched the show.

I have added a link at the side to my friend Helen Cowen's blog. She had a really good exhibit of her work at the show. I wish she didn't live so far away! It would be great to pop in and out of each other's studios. I am sure she would be great to bounce ideas off of.

And then on Saturday, I popped out for a bit to the TVOffcuts meeting at the community centre. Where I also forgot the camera, but was able to finish off the last bits of the Loads and Ladders piece. Everyone else had great projects, but my brain was a bit fried, so I don't actually remember them all.

also, a Certain Young Man was 23 on Thursday. My husband's nephew had travelled down from his uni to visit our Young Man, so they came over on Sunday. I did manage to get a photo of the 2 of them. The Nephew is off on adventures this year which sound exciting.

I was in my studio (hiding - too emotional about the dog) and The Nephew came to look in.
"So this is where the Magic happens." Just what I needed to hear...someone - male! - who was willingly interested in what I do.
"Grandma showed me a photo of you in the paper when you started to be famous." (Me? Famous?)
I tell you, that boy will go far! He knows just the right thing to say!!
So, I had a few pleasant moments showing him some bits including the dragons.

I also told him how special I thought his comment was about the Magic happening. I may make a sign or something to hang in here to encourage me when I need it. :-}

TV Offcuts meeting

at the end of February quite a few projects were worked on at the TV Offcuts meeting.
Anne's quilt top

Elaine's quilt in progress

Gabrielle's bag

Gill getting to grips with her overlocker

Juliet tracing a pattern

Mavis applique work

sheila with a complicated knitting project

Me starting another skirt

well, I started a dress, but I came to a bit I wasn't sure just what I had done at the underarm seam, so I gave up.