Finally reaching out for some help...

RosaBernicia

Ooh Kerri the quilt looks gorgeous. You are an inspiration to finally get learning with my sewing machine but I think it will have to be a next-winter project as the allotment will keep me busy for the summer!

WI sounds like a good plan. You could also look up the events page for your local area in case there's anything similar? Eg. there is a sewing shop in town here who run 'club' sessions at a nearby cafe. (I found it via their website but decided £80 or so for a day's workshop wasn't very MSE, especially when I could probably make the project for half that even including the 'help!' phone calls to mum!). Here's hoping you find lots of lovely stitchery friends!

Oh and I also meant to say that if you were to stop by the lovely Knitting Nora's thread you would find someone who knows lots about craft fairs (Nora pops by mine sometimes, if you like I'll introduce you )

Rosa xx

kerri_dfw

Awww thank you ladies I'm very much feeling back to my old self today, it was so nice to see my work colleagues. I'd really missed speaking to real life people! I've had a bit of a spendy day (again!) as I spent £75 on petrol (apparently they're announcing the strike tomorrow, so filled up a weeks worth of fuel just in case), and I spent £60 in the swedish furniture shop on my way back from Ipswich. I bought a gorgeous white lamp to match the quilt (I want to go back and get another), some drawer handles for my units to jazz them up a bit, a 6 socket surge protector extension lead, 3 boxes of 70w light bulbs, a small ironing board for my crafting, and some tupperware

It is absolutely amazing what a difference a 70w bulb makes! It's also a power saving one, but the lower wattage bulbs seem to affect me in a similar way to S.A.D. I've got an ugly lightshade in the middle of my bedroom that looks like drooping flowers. However, it's got small bulbs in that are a low wattage so don't give very much light. So now having the lovely new lampshade with high quality light is fabulous

SpagBol I bought the purse frames from fleabay for £18.95 for 10 silver frames 3" by 1.5". I did try to shop around but couldn't find them any cheaper (or I just don't know where to buy them from), I shall endeavor to find them cheaper than that though.

Rosa, you should definitely try sewing, I've found it so much easier now I'm using a rotary cutter, board and ruler. I've always had issues trying to get 1/4" seams as scissors don't seem to cut straight, but the rotary cutter makes life sooo much easier. That was £16 well spent in JL before christmas
I have seen Knitting Nora knocking around the forum, I shall have a search for her on the threads and subscribe to her thread. I didn't realise that she had one

I'm sooo much happier today

Tomorrow I'm going to do some more to my quilt,
make another coin purse,
wash up,
do the washing,
tidy room,
move car,
pack bag to go to parents,
go to parents for the weekend

kerri_dfw

I'm all happy clappy again today

I've:

1) washed up
2) Put away veg box
3) thrown out old veg and gone off carp from the fridge (really should eat more veg so I don't have to throw it out!)
4) put a load of washing on
5) cut out a few more pieces for my quilt

I need to:
1) tidy bedroom up
2) put away dry washing
3) hang out wet washing
4) pack bag for weekend at parents
5) move car
6) load up car
7) go to parents

I'm in a super happy mood today though I've put the radio onto heart, and I soooo should have done this ages ago. I forgot how much happier I am when I'm listening to cheesy music. Just like a prayer is currently on the radio as a prime example of cheese

My rectangle cushions have arrived today, I've measured them and will need 4 patches for each side. These will be widths: 2", 4", 6" and 10". It'll make the case slightly larger than the cushion but it won't look quite right if I make the bigger one smaller than that The pillows and duvet cover are going to just have a co-coordinating Fibonacci strip down them, otherwise it'll be a little overwhelming. I haven't quite decided about the curtains yet as I've not found the right curtain material, nor can I afford to buy curtains at the moment.

Right best move car.

Oh and today is going to be my first NSD all week! Must do better next week.

PinotGrigio41

kerri_dfw wrote: »

I'm all happy clappy again today

I've:

1) washed up
2) Put away veg box
3) thrown out old veg and gone off carp from the fridge (really should eat more veg so I don't have to throw it out!)
4) put a load of washing on
5) cut out a few more pieces for my quilt

I need to:
1) tidy bedroom up
2) put away dry washing
3) hang out wet washing
4) pack bag for weekend at parents
5) move car
6) load up car
7) go to parents

I'm in a super happy mood today though I've put the radio onto heart, and I soooo should have done this ages ago. I forgot how much happier I am when I'm listening to cheesy music. Just like a prayer is currently on the radio as a prime example of cheese

My rectangle cushions have arrived today, I've measured them and will need 4 patches for each side. These will be widths: 2", 4", 6" and 10". It'll make the case slightly larger than the cushion but it won't look quite right if I make the bigger one smaller than that The pillows and duvet cover are going to just have a co-coordinating Fibonacci strip down them, otherwise it'll be a little overwhelming. I haven't quite decided about the curtains yet as I've not found the right curtain material, nor can I afford to buy curtains at the moment.

Right best move car.

Oh and today is going to be my first NSD all week! Must do better next week.

Kerri, I am to found on a regular basis dancing around the kitchen to Heart, and singing away in the car at the top of my voice . It really is good for ones mood !!

You are such a super talented clever lady. I am sure you will do really well with the craft fairs, and as others have said hopefully will be a good way of meeting people. I subscribe to Knitting Noras thread, not that I can knit or sew, and I dont tend to post, but its a great thread to read !

I hope you have a lovely weekend with your parents and sister.

fallenwiccan

One of my old friends from my clubbing days way back when (I swear I'm only 25 ) goes to a "Stitch n B*tch" knitting club, maybe have a look around for one of them

I must confess I was not very MSE on Monday and bought myself a new Bose hifi for my ipod (was £170, £30 cheaper than anywhere else and it was in J*hn L*wis so 2 year warranty) OH told me to go for it because he knows how important my music is to me, I could quite happily live without TV but I could never do without music and my old Hifi had stopped playing my iPod although that now looks like it may be a problem with the ipod (the old hifi wasn't very good anyway so its no real loss either way).

debtfreewannabe321

I always have heart on in the back ground when cleaning i recently keep wishing i knew who the secret voices were on there though every day . I'd be £60K richer right now if i did!!!

p.s quilt looks fab. I want to make one but am relatively new to the sewing machine and a bit scared to try in case i b**er it up! and then ruin lots of nice fabrics!

kerri_dfw

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

Kerri, I am to found on a regular basis dancing around the kitchen to Heart, and singing away in the car at the top of my voice . It really is good for ones mood !!

You are such a super talented clever lady. I am sure you will do really well with the craft fairs, and as others have said hopefully will be a good way of meeting people. I subscribe to Knitting Noras thread, not that I can knit or sew, and I dont tend to post, but its a great thread to read !

I hope you have a lovely weekend with your parents and sister.

I'm so glad we all do this I love heart, I can't listen to any other channel, well maybe Magic if I'm feeling really old I am going to try to read through Knitting Nora's thread this weekend at the parents.

fallenwiccan wrote: »

One of my old friends from my clubbing days way back when (I swear I'm only 25 ) goes to a "Stitch n B*tch" knitting club, maybe have a look around for one of them

I must confess I was not very MSE on Monday and bought myself a new Bose hifi for my ipod (was £170, £30 cheaper than anywhere else and it was in J*hn L*wis so 2 year warranty) OH told me to go for it because he knows how important my music is to me, I could quite happily live without TV but I could never do without music and my old Hifi had stopped playing my iPod although that now looks like it may be a problem with the ipod (the old hifi wasn't very good anyway so its no real loss either way).

Ooh that reminds me, I have a ipod hifi that I should sell as I don't use it at all. I've got a blue-ray home theatre system that came with ipod dock. I paid an obscene amount for it as well eep! I shall have a goggle for a st1ch and b*tch session in the area, maybe the ladies on Tuesday will be able to give me an idea of any that are around the area

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I always have heart on in the back ground when cleaning i recently keep wishing i knew who the secret voices were on there though every day . I'd be £60K richer right now if i did!!!

p.s quilt looks fab. I want to make one but am relatively new to the sewing machine and a bit scared to try in case i b**er it up! and then ruin lots of nice fabrics!

It's really annoying me who the voices are too, I want someone to guess it to put me out of my misery

Thanks re: quilt. If you want to have a go at making your own, then why not try with some scrap material to start with? All you need to do is stitch in a straight line, if you're cutting your fabrics in a straight line already then it's just a case of putting the foot of the sewing machine on the edge of the fabric and guiding it through in a straight line. The slower you go the more accurate you will be to start with. There's loads of tutorials on youtub. I always thought all this stuff was super hard, then I goggled and found loads of videos showing just how simple it is. For instance I thought piping was stupidly hard, turns out you just make a pocket in fabric and feed string through, simples!

Right, back to tidying up. I've just tried putting some handles on some drawers, which is proving trickier than I'd like. Put the drawer back in and the handle is slightly higher than the one on the drawer next to it. Oops!!!

debtfreewannabe321

i think once ds2 goes to nursery in september and dd to school that will be my autumn/winter project quilt making! i'd love to make one for each of the kids eventually. something they can keep forever xx

kerri_dfw

DFW if you want to practice do what I'm doing for my nephews... I've just bought this fabric I've ordered 1 yard. So then I need to lay down some backing material, put the batting on top, then the fabric. Then I'll sew along the lines on the fabric (nice and easy, not cutting of patches required).

When the blocks are all sewn, I'll trim the backing to 1 inch wide, fold it over once to make a 1/2 inch border, then fold that over the top of the top fabric to create a nice and easy bias binding

When I get the fabric and start making the quilt, I'll post pictures to show you how easy it is

PinotGrigio41

Those Damn Voices !!!