Seasonal projects.

Now all the family and friends have had their birthdays I can concentrate on the more seasonal projects. I'm hoping that I can get all my Christmas cards made by the end of November, (last year I managed it) so I hope I can repeat it again. Last year my cards were of a contemporary theme and the colour themes I used were black and silver, brown and gold, aubergine and copper. I used some gorgeous papers and die cut shapes using my Sizzix dies. This year I'm using white card and I shall be stamping and colouring, not sure what though, I haven't made that decision yet. I will be using some other items on some cards. I've been doing some preparation work recently....

....reusing something is all part of the fun. I'll get all my things sorted, stamps, colours, (maybe a bit of glitter) and then decide which theme I will go for then I shall made a start this weekend. My Christmas knitting is still on track, and am keeping up with orders. I've put some mince pies into my Folksy shop....

........along with the Christmas treats selection.........

.....and I'm just finishing off a set of four of these little chaps.....

....I first made some of these about 20 years ago for a school Christmas Fair. Pardon the pun but they sold like hot cakes! I have ideas to adapt the pattern even more, but it will have to wait for now. There's something else which I would like to tackle in the next couple of days, and that's changing my little work room around,again. I'm still not happy with it. it isn't the storage which is the problem, it's how it's all laid out. I have a terrible habit of moving things to a "better" place and then can't find them when I need them. I need to think about how I use this small space and make it more workable, I know it's possible if I just give it some thought. I still haven't sorted the files out on my laptop, I should have done it a few weeks ago and it really need doing, maybe it's another job for this weekend? Forgot to ad..... Here's the hot water bottle cover which I made completely from scraps....

...even the ribbon binding was a scrap. So I proved to myself that I now have another way of using any leftovers, if there are any!!

Think twice....make once!

It doesn't always pay to be eager, as I've found out recently. On my last post I was so delighted in how my rag rug had turned out...

........and was so eager to use up the left over scraps of fabrics which I now had...

Well my enthusiasm overtook everything else last weekend, and I set aside some time to work on making a hot water bottle cover. here's how the story goes.... First I made a pattern for the cover. I drew around the bottle with an inch or so to spare around edges. I made the pattern from lining paper. I made up the fabric using my scraps. This was so much fun. For the base fabric I used a pillow, ( the filling had been used to make a garden chair cushion) which I cut into two pieces. Using one of the pieces I filled it almost completely with fabric scraps....

...The great thing is, the more I "worked" the pieces into the base fabric the more dense it became. Also, with it being cotton, where I'd used the thinner pieces the thicker ones began to show through. It was looking good, and the reverse side was great too....

...and it felt quite fleecy. Once the piece was complete I cut the pattern pieces out....

...It sewed together like a dream. Where is the picture of the finished article? I hear some say! Well cleverclogs here,( for want of a better word) whilst viewing my pictures on the camera has just manages to delete two frames. Why did I not upload them onto the laptop first heaven knows! So I've lost them in Digiland" now, but I shall have to retake the picture of my finished hot water bottle cover and post it later. But, have no fear because " cleverclogs" has struck again, with an even bigger gaffe this time. Rewind, back to the making of the cover pattern. It would be wise to make sure that you are making a pattern for the correct hot water bottle. because I made a pattern for one which is now defunct. The one I used had perished around the neck seam and was totally useless. I was going to cut some small pieces from the old bottle and attach them to the base of a large plant pot to protect the floor. I should have cut it up and just stored the pieces. Why didn't I realise it at the time!! Anyway my new hot water bottle is wider than the old one by almost an inch. Why they aren't all the same size I don't know. So from making the wrong pieces, deleting pictures from the camera, I'm hoping that today I will be able to get things right without giving myself to much grief and more work. I shall concentrate on the housework and quietly sit and knit later on in the evening, ( hopefully correctly) I do have two birthday cards to make for the weekend. I've got it planned what my themes are. One is for a friend who is a musician. He's going to be 50. The card will be a sort of music review paper, which means using my Serif software. I'm not even going to attempt it today. I have made notes on what I want to make and just hope that I can put it all together correctly. What shall I put it down to, age, or over enthusiasm?

Rags to Riches....... completed!

My rug is finished, and I'm so happy with it. Here it is placed in front of the living room fireplace, ( just so I could get a decent picture) the light was quite dull.

..the finished size is approximately 27" x 22", that's plenty big enough to fit into my little room. Here's how I finished it off. First of all I decided (whilst I was still making the rug) to keep back half of the white and black fabric, as I'd had an idea for another project. So in the end I used all the striped tee shirting in its place. Once it was all finished I checked both sides to see if it was straight. I did this whilst it was still on the frame...

...better to check it now, before I released it.....

...as you can see, I didn't work in straight lines.it doesn't matter in the slightest. It was okay from the front too....

...there were just one or two pieces which I had to trim to size. The next thing was to release it from it's frame. I used one of these...

....mine came with the stapler. It wasn't an expensive one, I bought it from Aldi early last year, a great buy at a great price. Once released from the frame I trimmed all around the rug leaving about three inches to turn and stitch.

...as you can see from the picture above, there would have been far too much hessian to fold if I'd left it. Once trimmed I then folded over about half an inch and then folded over again, making sure that my fold was close to the rug edge, (I didn't want any hessian showing from the front) then pinned into place.

Now to stitch into place and to do this I used 4 ply cotton. I do have some fine string ( 4 ply thickness) which was my mums. It was once a huge cone, and she and my dad used it for everything. Mum gave it to me when she no longer used it and there was about half a cone left. I can't find where I've put it, (I've been sorting out I can't find anything) so this was at hand....

...I used it double thickness, and this helps keep the fold into place.

...I laid it flat on my desk to sew, which works better for me as I have arthritis in my fingers and sometimes gripping can be awkward....

....

....I'd got about 8" along when I decided to change my needle. I have a tin with specialist needles in, and I have one of these, I know it as a packing needle...

... it's curved with a flat section and it made it so much easier. I know I could have used latex glue, many people do. But this is the way I was taught to do it, and I'm happy doing it this way. Once all the edges were sewn down I gave it another check.....

...yes, I was very happy with it. Now, if I was going to use it over a fitted carpet I wouldn't use non slip backing, but as it's going to be laid on vinyl flooring I shall.I don't fancy skating across the room! This is what I will use...

...I've actually bought this for another project, ( place mats) but theres enough on the roll for me to cut a few squares off and stitch them to the back of the rug. It's a good mesh fabric so should be easy....

....the whole roll only cost £1, a bargain. My mum used to use the used seals from Kilner jars for the backing on her rugs. She would stick them on with cow gum. ( If you're my age you will know what that is!) So that's my rug done and I'm thrilled with it. I may even make another larger one at some point, for the living room. I shall have to collect quite a few fabrics though. I think it would be nice if I used coat fabrics for that one! Now, with all the off cuts I have from all those tee shirts , two projects are lined up to use them. The first being a hot water bottle cover, and I still have all the off cuts of hessian to use up too. Speaking of hessian I thought I'd show you this, something I made in 1991....

...this is my "goody" bag, as the family affectionately call it. When we are away from home I use it to keep my craft project (I always take something away with me) my notebook, sketch book, pens, and other bits and bobs in. It is made from a piece of hessian and is covered in cross stitch. I used oddments of acrylic yarn which I had left over from making sweaters, ( and I made many in those days)...

....it's fully lined. I used a piece of curtain lining which I had left over from making a pair of curtains.....

...the strap is made from 3" wide webbing which was left over from a costume I made for a panto. It's so nice getting to the end of a project, because there's all the excitement of beginning a new one!