Overheating!

Hello Everyone, I do hope you are all fit, well and happy.  It has been amazingly hot here in the UK this week - apologies to everyone outside the UK if you are not enjoying glorious weather!  I am not a sun person lovely people, much prefer the cool breeze and the autumn tints but I hate to spoil it for all the sun worshippers out there who just love the heat.  I had every intention to posting you some news this week but the days (and evenings) have slipped away in a haze of jobs and chores.  I have been getting to bed at unearthly hours since I spoke to you last due to the pressures of my day job and sorting things out here at home.

 

I must admit that zips have been on my mind this week and if you remember, last week I had cut out a VW and overstitched it but, when I had finished it I realised that the whole thing had slipped on the fabric as I had not bonded it, only used pins.  I was so disappointed lovely readers but was determined to make something out of it.  This is what the finished piece looked like - not very straight at all!

I decided to ask the help of my lovely husband who is such a whizz at maths and getting angles straight, technical stuff which by passes my brain folks.  He soon straightened the whole piece up and I decided to make a bag to hold some of my sewing stuff or a bag to give as a gift, depending on the outcome.  I lined the inside and forced - yes forced - myself to put in a zip, a red one.  It didn't come out too bad and I was congratulating myself on my progress - my attention slipped for a moment and drat, a mistake!  I was getting too tired to take it all out so decided to try and camouflage  it in some way - have a look at the photographs lovely Readers.  It looks quite reasonable here, not quite Sewing Bee just yet but good for me anyway.  I was gaining in confidence, but.........................................

 

 

You can see the slip here - so it wasn't going to be a gift after all, as I couldn't bear to give someone something I had made which wasn't up to the standard I expected of myself.  What about you lovely Readers, what do you think?  Maybe others wouldn't notice the little errors made or possibly they would view them as something unique to that piece of sewing...........would love to hear your views on it Folks.

 



 

 

I had an idea - what about a button or a bead on the outside to hide the misshapen stitching.  As usual I reverted to my old red colour and my stash of blood red sparkly hearts - that would certainly do the trick for me!  So here it is.

 



 

 

 

Actually I quite like it, in fact it is growing on me daily.  When the other sewers saw it at my Sewing Group they all commented on it saying that they would have bought it had it been for sale.

 

On Saturday I attended a  class at Liberty Bell in Chester.  I have mentioned Sue before - she is such a wonderful tutor and always has fantastic workshops on offer.  Some of these are quilts which I am not quite ready for yet!  It is always quite a small class so everyone gets Sue's attention, including me.  The only thing I find stressful lovely Readers is that we have to cut out our own fabric using rotary cutters.  I told Sue that I have a congenital disorder which prevents me from cutting anything straight! Sue reads out the measurements and off everyone goes to happily cut out their pieces.  I usually slink after them and attach myself to a kindly soul who offers to help me - it is not good Folks but I have to face up to my deficiencies in life.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The project last Saturday was a really wonderful beach bag which I knew my lovely daughter-in-law would just love (hopefully).  The fabrics were just yummy and I quickly set to work as I needed to get as much done before the 4.30 deadline when the class finished.  The majority of the class were quite proficient and whizzed along at a rate of knots.  It was an extremely hot day but I did stay on focus and must admit I was really tired at the end.  I managed to finish the bag apart from the bunting and the few bits at the end.  I also decided to add the names of my grandchildren to each of the three beach huts.  I was going to try to embroider them but was running out of time so used little beads with letters on them - I hope they look ok and my lovely daughter-in-law likes her bag.  I have posted it to her this week in time for their holiday.



 

 

 



However, I couldn't leave my two little granddaughters out so am in the process of making two bags for them - I need to get my skates on as they are going at the end of next week and I have to post them to them!  I had bought some quite heavy duty fabric in a thrift shop for £1 - there were loads of it and I thought it would be ideal for 2 small shoppers for them.  I spent ages thinking about the designs and decided to use the VW logo on one side and put a beach hut with their initial on the other side - I am going to use the bunting theme again as I really enjoyed doing this and thought it was cute.  I got the two bags ready and took them to my sewing group on Wednesday planning to overstitch them as I had done before.  What a night though, for some reason the machine did not like the fabric at all and I really tried hard to get it done but it kept snagging and the thread kept breaking.  The lovely Rachel tried hard to see if she could rectify it and we tried other combinations of fabrics and came to the conclusion that the initial thrift fabric was just too coarse/thick for the machine and with all the applique added it wasn't a happy bunny and neither was I!

 



 

I decided to cut my losses and have chosen two lovely fabrics in pink - pink stripes and pink spots (any clue about their favourite colour????).  The pattern I am using is from a new book I have just bought which has such lovely photos in it, they are just gorgeous and with proper patterns included which I love.  The design is so sweet, I just adore the gathering piece on the top so at the moment I am busy working on these two designs.  I will post more photographs later today or tomorrow to show you how I am going with these.

 

Lovely Readers I am getting quite stressed at the moment as I know that I am working full pelt and have a couple of knitted/crochet projects which I must finish on the go at the same time.  I am very conscious that I seem to be mainly concentrating on my sewing but I am really keen to upgrade my skills and am really enjoying it.  I wonder if any of you lovely Readers out there have similar difficulties - am sure you do.  Modern life is so fast and pressurised, work doesn't seem to lessen and I do get tired.  Mind you I am my own worst enemy as I am up early around 5.30 but hate going to bed so it is well after midnight, usually around 1am I finally fall asleep - absolute nonsense but I have always been like this so it is the norm for me.  My husband says that I obviously don't do my basic maths - early rising + late bed = one tired person!  Would love to hear your views on this. 

 

I have tons to tell you and want to do another post again in a day or two.  My original plan was to post every 2 days but as you can see this has fallen away due to time constraints and everything I have talked about.  I love blogging and adore reading all the wonderful posts which so many talented people create - you all inspire and encourage me lovely Folks and I thank you all.  I will stop now as I have a thousand and one things to do - the sun is shining, the house needs cleaning and my sewing/knitting/crochet is calling.  Have a wonderful day everyone wherever you are - thank you for visiting, I love you being here with me and hope you will leave a little comments.  Speak very soon.  Lots of love as always, Dorothy :-)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx