A great day out at the Quilt & Stitch Show in Uttoxeter

On Sunday I travelled to Uttoxeter to attend my first Quilt and Stitch show, it was excellent.   There were lots of great store holders, who all had some good products for sale.

I stopped and spoke to lots of lovely ladies and their husbands, who complimented me on my patchwork jacket.  It was good to meet you all and to learn about what you are sewing.  It quite made my day meeting so many really great people who just loved to talk about sewing.  I can't wait until  the next Quilt show to meet some of you again. The Quilts on display were amazing so much hard work goes into them, it's a pity everyone can't win a prize!

This is the African Fabric Shop stand, where I'd previously bought the blue fabric for my waistcoat last year.  I stopped by to show Magie my finished waistcoat and to enquire about getting some fabric to make a matching pair of trousers.  www.africanfabrics.co.uk   for details of the wonderful fabrics  they sell.

These two enthusiastic ladies are from ZigZags a company offering workshops and courses for Creative Textiles, their web site is well worth a visit, they supply all kinds of lovely art items as well are running courses. www.zigzagonline.co.uk 

This is Hany AbdelKader, he came over from Cairo, Egypt especially to demonstrate his skills at the show.  The quality of his work is excellent, the applique wall-hangings he stitches are wonderful. 

He has just opened his own shop and is now developing his own personal designs.  The tiny stitches he does are almost invisible and the speed he sews at, is quite remarkable.  For more information about his work explore www.khayamiya.com 

Yes, I did buy something, I have just designed a new patchwork jacket, that I want to work on over the summer months. The fabric I found to make the jacket is perfect, just what I was looking for.

This came from Castle Court Quilters in Oswestry. 

Finally the  two books I bought are wonderful, really pleased with them from Kaleidoscope Books, full of interesting projects and ideas to develop over the coming months.  www.kalquilts.com

         The Complete Photo Guilde to Textile Art by Susan Stein
          The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff

I think I might be very busy for a while now!

My new Cosmo bag

I've been making myself a new bag all week.  I need a roomy bag that I can take out with me that doubles as a handbag and holds all the 'junk!' I need to carry everywhere I go.  At the same time I need it for the odd bit of shopping and the impulse purchases (mostly fabric and gardening items).  Also my lunch from time to time, and my sewing bits and pieces, when I go to classes or go out to visit my clients.

The fabric was left over from the waistcoat I made last autumn and I bought some red to do the contrasting handles, side pockets and the lining. I got the pattern from one of Amy Butler's books, she calls it the 'roomy and super-easy-to-make bag for today's runabout'. Which was just what I wanted. Well roomy it certainly is, it will hold all the normal things, like purse, keys, phone, water bottle etc.  And there is enough space to add things when I'm out and about.  However, the easy bit I did not agree with.

Like last time I found the instructions difficult to understand (I've made another bag from this book already), so had to make it up as I went along.  I did some minor adjustments too; I made pockets inside for the things I want to take out regularly with me. Like my hand sanitiser, my glasses, a pocket the correct size for my purse and another for my note book.

 The stiffening that is needed to make this bag is difficult to stitch and work with.  The bag was a challenge to do and I spent a lot of time working on it, perfecting it to my standard of workmanship.  Otherwise it is great, just what I wanted. I really like it, and can't wait to go out with it and give it a test run.

I used my new gadget for the first time as well this week.  I found these silicone finger covers that help when pressing, they worked a treat pressing the side seams open.  I bought them because I find I burn my fingers a lot when pressing the seams during tailoring projects, but now I know they work and I am sure they will be very useful. 

Local Quilters Meeting was Brilliant

On Tuesday evening I attended my first meeting of a local quilters group.  It was excellent.  I was made very welcome by the members and enjoyed it so much I shall certainly attend next month, and most probably join them as a member.

The speaker of the evening could not have been more appropriate, it was Magie the lady who runs the African Fabric Shop www.africanfabric.co.uk.  She explained all about the use of  indigo dyes in the fabrics she buys. How they are produced and the facts we need to know when working with them. She showed slides from here visits to Africa where she has seen first hand how the fabrics are produced.  She brought along some of her wonderful printed fabrics too that  helped illustrate her talk. Many of processes used to finish the fabrics were also illustrated. We learnt how the many different dying effects are achieved, it was a very interesting evening.  Anyone wanting to find out more should explore the web site, it's well worth it.


I knew about her after buying some of these lovely fabrics last August, at the Quilting Show at the NEC here in Birmingham. Which I made up into a waistcoat for my City and Guilds.

My fabrics were indigo dyed, I used four different fabrics to create this waistcoat.

It was lovely to work with these fabrics, the African designs and colours are wonderful, I intend to buy some more for another project soon.

Happy Easter

My cake may not be perfect to look at, but I did my best, not quite enough marzipan to put on the 11 Disciples, that are the traditional topping.  Instead I topped it off with a nest of eggs. Which is quite appropriate for someone who loves birds.

The recipe I saw Mary Berry do on TV earlier in the week, I found it on the BBC website.  The birds nest is my own addition, 2 shredded wheat broken up and then mixed into 25 grams of butter and 75 grams of good quality chocolate that was gently melted over a pan of warm water. The eggs came out of a packet, I did not make those. But the marzipan is home made, far nicer than shop bought. 

Just had a piece for lunch and it was lovely. 

A week of making patterns

It's been busy here this week, everything but sewing.  Having a new boiler installed did not run smoothly and stress levels in the household rose somewhat!!

But I did find time to make some patterns for some new clothes.  A dress and jacket for a lady client has been drawn up ready to test out in calico.  And a casual jacket for a gentleman client. 

Watch this space to see the patterns develop.

Another task completed

Yesterday I had a great day out at the NEC in Birmingham, attending the Sewing Show.  I found all the things I needed and came home very happy.  My sister went home happy too; we met at the show and before she went home I gave her the coat I have been finishing for her this week.

I started this coat after she did her own toile before Christmas, which I fitted.  I have only seen her once since then in the middle of February, when I fitted the coat for the first time in the fashion fabric. It's a lovely 100% Bouclé wool.  That fitting went so well that I was able to get on and finish it for her.  I spent all this week on and off completing this job as I wanted to make sure that it was done for yesterday.

It was very bulky in places and difficult to stitch, the buttonholes were a real headache, because the fabric was so thick under the sewing machine.  But it went together very well, the pattern was lovely to work on, it's Simplicity 2311.  

This 'fitting' in the car park at the NEC was done in very bad weather, it was windy and snow was falling around us, but I wanted to make sure it was OK before she took it away with her.  Considering it has only had one fabric fitting and the original toile fitting, I think it is rather a good fit. 

It was her birthday recently and I found the perfect birthday present locally, a nice blue scarf to match her new coat. If she knits herself a woolly hat and some nice gloves now, she is all set up for the cold weather that seems to want to stay with us this winter!!

I'm back on to other projects now that I've managed to get some more check fabric yesterday to make another man's jacket.  I'd bought 2.5 metres last year, of a lovely check to do my second jacket at my gent's tailoring class but it was not enough, fortunately for me the fabric was still available and yesterday I bought some more.  And I found some cotton lawn at the show to interline a nice suede effect fabric I want to make into a jacket.  But my first job is to finish the red jacket I cut out at the end of February, something to keep me busy this week perhaps.

What price is time?

It's done.

Over the last eleven weeks, I have designed, cut, joined, stitched, pressed, quilted and finally constructed my jacket and I can say after 77.1/4 hours it's done. 

I am so pleased with it, today I wore it for the first time and must admit, showed it off to my sewing friends at a lunch date.  Then I called in at the shop where I purchased the fabrics to show them the completed jacket. I really enjoyed all the positive comments I received, and must say I am quite proud of my work.

The sun was shining as you can see in the photos, it's been a nice but cold day here in the West Midlands.  The plants and bulbs I planted back on 9th November - blog title  'Thinking of Spring' are looking good now.