A little something

 to keep my hands busy and use some "oh interesting" purchases and bits.

Firstly, some little hessian bags.

Secondly some un-numbered gifted thread

Then some little plastic flowers and a pearl (I bought quite a few looking for the right size and now I have many available for adding wherever).

And done.

I have some of everything left so I might repeat it next time I have the hand figits but don't feel up to working on any of the bigger projects.

A bit of bag decorating

 There was a chat at my mother's group meeting about recycling and she came away with a free bag. One side with a pink decal covering the specific recycling it was promoting, the other side was blank.

Oh the possibilities of a blank space.

I happened to have a stencil I'd not used yet, you will be unsurprised by the focus of that design.

Used T-shirt pens and chose the colours to echo the printed side.

The added bits in Korean are via Google translate and hopefully I got it right. It has no particular significance it is just a space filler that felt right.

It was quick, it was fun and unlike on my mug the lines for the lettering stayed in their own lanes and did not merge. It will be useful and it filled in a moment of "want to do something crafty, don't know what and have very little time" so all good.

Oh and the "official side" just in case it is of use to anyone.

Strips of material equals bags

 once again. Strips of gifted material combined with some bits from my scraps and oddments become random bags.

I call them random as there is no pattern, very little measuring and a whole lot of make it up as you go along.

The light blue at the bottom and the dark blue for the sides and handles are from my scrap stash.

The cream for these two is from the stash and yes the colours on one bag are off sett to the side.

All of the bags are lined but they are not too heavy and fold to a reasonable size.

They fill a need to do a bit of sewing on the machine without having to make a decision or start on anything complicated or large.

I can't quite make my mind up which quilting project to start next.

Gifted gorgeousness link up September

 so here we are for September and time for the link up to Jo's monthly blog link to host page

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

So this month I am sharing a gift I received from my BFF. A patchwork bag.

I currently use it to store my finished but not "fully finished" cross stitch pieces.

Gifted gorgeousness Link up July 2020

 The months just fly over and here it is another 15th of the month and the format stays the same, anything connected to the word gift is allowed gifts to or from.

This month I have another bag to share, made from the top section of the curtains I bought for the neutral fabric for my chorley-crossed quilt but the top part certainly was not neutral.

What is was was shades of purple, so it just had to be for my purple loving BFF.

I could not share it till it had been gifted.

Now pop over to this themed link up hosts page and see what she and the other participants have under the gift theme.Click here for serendipitousstitching21/07/gifted-gorgeousness-july-link-up-post.html

Up cycling

 that is what they call making something out of something that had already had a life as something else. 

It is something that I have known my whole life, my Grandfather was a fixer, mender and repurpose before considering something new.  There was not always either the money for new or during the war years new to be had.  My Dad is similarly inclined and initially for the same reasons.  So I learned about it whilst it was still all for the practical and had not become the fashionable.

My mother made clothes for me and my dolls, things for the house and every item was considered to see if it would be of use as something else before it was disposed of.

If it is something from a charity shop I feel like it is a double win as the charity gets some money for their good work and I get something to work with.

So this is the first of hopefully two posts about up cycling from a pair of curtains.  It was the tree pattern that caught my eye in the charity shop. The curtains were lined and made to go on a curtain pole, so there were 20 metal hoops in the top of the curtain.

I cut the top off, the curtains a bags length below the rings. Curtain fabric and lining together, as the rings caught in both of course. There was enough to make five bags (four rings to a bag). I added gussets to the sides (with lining added) and then it was time to decide how to do the handles. 

I have done a bag with the curtain rings before a-curtain-bag and just used the material. I wanted something different this time. After thinking about it for a bit I recalled some white cord that had joined my collection of "stuff" and I knew what I wanted.

Two lengths of cord for each ring...looped through

 and then plaited (a four plait that I learned how to do when learning to make bobbin lace)

The pin stopped me pulling to hard and squeezing the material of the bag onto the ring.

If  you are wondering about the other end, or ends..well I did wonder myself if this was going to work out. I sewed the plaited cords together about an inch before the loose ends, then the loose ends together.

I laid the two loose ended on top of each other and sewed them together. That was both messy to look at and a tad rough on the hands for a bag.  I had a plan for that, there are always small bits of wadding left when I am making quilts. Some of those thin scraps wound round the middle of my now joined straps and then covered with the same material the bags were made of.

I did not have any recipients in mind when I was thinking about the construction of the bags and I had the main sections of the bag cut for some time but had not made a start.  Then I decided who they would be for and finishing became time bound.

I made five and four were to go to Missionary Sisters and the fifth to a member of my local church who has been of great help to my mother's Family History.

Just to be sure the bags would be recognisable I added a small personalisation (and a hand made tag) to each bag. The recipients had fun trying to find them and one sent me this picture with glee when she had found hers.

I considered putting their full initials on, but I did not have enough of the right letters for all of them so I just stuck to their surnames.

I hope that the next part of using the curtains, and what I bought them for in the first places will go as well.

More bits from the loft become a bag

 as previously mentioned people offer me random material and I most often say yes.  Oft they then head up to the loft for a bit of a thinking time. (the bits of material not the people!)

As regularly happens a trip to the loft for one thing unearths others and I am apt to get side-tracked. 

I was after some off white material with green leaves on it as I thought it would go with some blocks I had been working on (I did find it and then decided it did not go, sure that project will progress at some point and get a post of its own) and came across two pieces of brown material with a sequined strip on them. The remains of a NEXT skirt in pink with lining.

So, down they came, well brown bits, skirt band and lining material.  Band unpicked from the lining, (oh a handle, maybe with a brown lining), brown bits the outer bag and the pink lining, well pink lining.

So her it is, a fancy bit of a bag. 

I am not sure if I am going to add buttons to the handles where they join the fancy section, or maybe some sequins next time I have them out. 

A bit of scrappy Magic

that bag of interesting off cuts from Nikita is a gift that just keeps on giving and also turning into gifts as well.

A bit of sparkly material with various Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Baker again just enough to make bags.  They are slightly different sizes to allow for a wider seam allowance on the bag where the selvedge was part of the available material. 

I was pleased that there was enough that each bag had some full fairies and butterflies on each side.  

On one bag both patterned panels were the same, the other has something different on each side.  That is just the way the material worked out.  Both bags are lined.  I did consider adding button embellishments but the buttons I had in mind did not complement the design sufficiently to use.  Ah well I have them for another time.

Both bags are Christmas gifts for my wonderful pen pal, she was visiting today so I was able to give them to her she appears to be pleased with them.

Second bag of green bits

In September I shared a bag made from the scraps left after cutting squares for some gifted-stuff.

I noted that there was still material left over.

So from that comes bag number two, a wider bag with just one strap. 

and the lining is pieced as well from left overs of other bag (for a later sharing).

The bag is different on each side, well made from bits it would be.  There was no pattern it just evolved from the available bits.

So is this all of the bits used up (apart from the squares) well no there are two small panels of sewn together bits that are left.  Not enough on their own  to make an anything but perhaps with some other scraps..there may be a third bag possible.

Gifted stuff

I have, depending on your point of view a bad or good habit of  accepting gifts of "material" in various forms. I may at the time have no idea what it will go with or even what I will do with it but regardless 9.5 times out of ten if I am asked do you want some material the word yes hurtles out of my mouth. 

That can lead to the gifted whatever it is spending some time as loft insulation before a project for it arises.

So a bit of "see what is in this bag" sorting in the loft and I came across some green material with  little pink and yellow flowers.  I can't recall when I was given it or by who, although I wonder if it was amongst remnants from a craft play scheme, or perhaps not.

It had been a duvet cover, with a slightly different pattern (more flower heavy) on one side to the other. Each side had a very large circle cut from it (cloaks from the crafts, or had someone been making round tablecloths?) So what I had was the corners and some edge bits.

Such an irregular shape it was hard to fold and I figured the best way to deal with it was to emulate some scrap quilters method and just cut it into squares of a set size.  No project yet in mind but they will be there all cut when I do.

Used the 6.5 " square ruler for that and the rotary cutter.  Produced 80 squares and bits. Oh some fair sized bits, too small to get a 6.5 square but to my mind too big to throw away and too big to add to my Bits-A Quilt.  Also as the idea here was to reduce if ever so slightly the loft insulation, putting the bits back  was not going to meet up with that.  So what to do with them.

I have mentioned before that the local council at the annual show often gives away cloth bags as part of their push for less waste (not that they did this year) and I have received those bags.  Indeed it is one of those bags that featured in my post in-to-2017 although the pictures in that post are all of the decoration and not the bag. 

The original bag is cream cotton with the statement "Love Food, Hate Waste" on it in green  with the O as a tomato on one side and "Recycle" on the other.  I had managed to get one of the bags stained with red onion and it would not wash out . So I figured I would used the bag as a lining, the scraps as the new outside for the bag.  For handles I would use the hemmed edge from the duvet. The old handles will come in handy as ties for things in the loft being stored in rolls.

I sewed the bits together  in wide strips the width of the bag until I had one section  double the height of the bag.  Sewed the sides together.  Turned it right side out, slipped the original bag inside then turned the hem over the upper edge.

For extra strength I machine stitched round the top of the bag just below the inner hem (it was a bit too thick to sew on the inner hem itself.

A strengthening row of stitches to the handles and then  added them by hand also. And this is the finished bag.

So all the bits used up then? Alas or perhaps joyfully no.  I have bits left which I hope might stretch to another bag, perhaps with some other bits and pieces.

This is a picture of my joining hem for the outer and inner bag.

 and how the handles are attached, just in case you wondered.

A quick update

Found a bit of the grey that had tried to hide and used that for the handles on my bag instead of the bits of stripy material. 

Used my little sewing machine to make and attach the handles. I was contemplating making a fastening of some sort in addition.  Not quite settled on how I want that to go, so for the moment I am still contemplating.

But at least it is now a bag and not just a bag in waiting

The finished (it may never get a fastener) bag is going to be home to the quilt the scraps to make it came from.

There are still a few small scraps left, I expect they will make their way into the current bits a quilt

I will have a sense of completeness and satisfaction once that happens and it is all used up.

Confessions of a would be knitter

Back in 2013 in my post infections-and-coals-to-Newcastle. I made reference to my BFF having a genetic proclivity to knitting and my lack of the same gene.

I noted her attempts to infect me with the knitting bug and the immunity I appear to have to that particular infection. I did promise at a later date to give that a post of its own.

It has taken some time but here is that post.

Haven given it some consideration, and because as you may have noted before if you have visited with me I am a keeper of things past I note that my friend was not the first to try me with the knitting.

School made the first attempt that I can recollect and for which I have evidence.  I think in the juniors, we were supposed to knit a scarf, I recall being quite firm that I had no use for a scarf, that I and my family just did not wear them! Stubborn about that I did not knit a scarf, I knit a much shorter  length than required for a scarf and turned it into a little bag.  Which I still have.

Little Red bag front

Knitted red bag back

The next knitting project at school was to make mittens, we were each told to bring two balls of wool with which to knit mitts.  I was even more apposed to this project as I could not see the point of so much effort for something that would quickly become a mitt, I was always loosing one of whatever pair of hand coverings I had.  I had a cunning plan, forget to tell my mother I needed wool and there would be nothing to knit with.

Sadly for me the class teacher had her own cunning plan, odd balls of wool, so whilst all the other girls in the class (yup just the girls, I forget what the boys got to do whilst we knit) made single coloured mittens. I made two tone ones, half red and half yellow.

I can't really recall the knitting process, I have a feeling it was fraught with difficulties and for the thumb there was much help required. Additionally it took me so long to finish kitting these that all the other girls had moved on to sewing an apron and then a "gypsy" skirt, the kind with an elasticated waist and a flounce at the bottom. I never caught up enough to make the skirt, although the apron was finished and was shared on an earlier post. proof-positive.

I do however recall that I did not like them, which is possibly why all childish predictions aside I still have both mittens.

And what is more I can still get them on! Not sure if that is because I made them too big in the first place or my hands have not grown all that much.

This is a little update on the mittens,  I fiund the pattern in with some of my mothers things tucked into a box.  I can be sure it is the pattern for the mittens as if you look closly you will see how helpful the instructions for the thumb are...well perhaps not...I very much doubt my teacher is still available to see...therefore having taken the picture for the blog I have thrown it away.

That was the end of the knitting at school, things moved on to material, at least for the others as noted above. With for me at that time, an equal level of enthusiasm as I had towards the knitting..  

Whilst my mother did knit, and I had nice things to wear because of that, it was never something I picked up or had the concentration level for.  Occasionally I would set out to knit a blanket for a doll, which would become a cloak as the intended rectangle somehow became a steeply angled trapezium.

Knitting and I as a craft and skill parted ways for many years. Well other than as a recipient for others skill.

Periodically I would try and do squares for those charity knit blankets , also not a great success.  By the time I managed a credible square everyone else had churned out so many the project was over and done with and my contribution no longer required.

Then there was fancy wool, with  fuzzy bits, wool that hid little mistakes in tension..I could manage a scarf with that, and I did.  Delighted to have found a knit I could do I made scarfs, for my friend the knitter, for other friends...then I was done with that and bored.

Scarf

Now my friend having had a go at quilting and cross stitch at my urging, now felt the need to reciprocate.  She felt that what I needed to help me focus was something a bit more complicated than basic knit or purl. Not a change to something that required shaping, but variation in the combination of stitches to hold my interest.  So cable was the idea,  A pattern for a sort poncho, that is made from two knitted lengths with cable and basket work that are sewn together.

And so it began, only seventy stitches wide with three lots of cable separated by basket work.  Oh my!

The level of concentration it takes for me to do this knitting thing! My friend kept telling me it would get easier, it would become muscle memory, that I would be able to knit whilst carrying on a conversation, watch the TV, do both even.

Sadly she was wrong, I am not even capable of thinking anything other than knit one purl one (or whatever the required combination) any other thought and I loose my place, forget what the count is or even whether I am on a knit or a purl.

Still I kept going, very slowly, very very slowly.  My friend would keep helping, checking my count, taking it back a stitch or two when I mixed up stitch type.  After many months of work I had about sixty or so rows done  (I did say I was slow didn't I) but there was something wrong, something , my friend took a look, she figured I has made a mistake a couple of rows back.  Oh that was awful, that was hours for me, my friend said taking that back would be tricky for her, she would get her mother to take it back to the mistake. Deep breath and off it went to her mother.

My friend, got in touch with me to gently break the news, her mother had taken out more than expected to get back to where I had made a mistake 29 rows.  Oh! 29 to do again, horror....

Sadly, that had been a slightly misinterpreted message from my friend's mother. The correct message was that she had taken it back to row 29! That was an evenings knitting to replace for my friends mother. This was beyond horror for me, this was put it in a bag and can't face even thinking about it for nine months bad.  

I did eventual get back to it and even finished the first half.

And here is another one of the confessions promised in the title, chronologically (not actual hours spent knitting, even if it did feel like it) it took me seven years to get to this point .

Yes the eagle eyed knitters amongst you will see a mistake in this...and I don't care! It is staying there no pulling out for me on this project I shall just pretend I can't see it, and most of the time that is quite true I can't and that is half the problem.

If knitting was music, I am tone deaf. (Actually I am not that good with music either)

First half

Making progress ?

The second half is started..and is going even quicker than the first (yup sarcasm)

And it is still just as hard, I only knit when I am alone, to avoid the chance of someone inadvertently speaking to me so I loose count or place or even what type of stitch I should be doing,, I knit in silence as anything, TV or music, is just too distracting. The only sound is me muttering, knit one purl one once, knit one purl one twice, knit one purl one three times, knit two..where was I!

Each row finished is a victory, if I manage four that is time to stop, any attempt at more than that and I am tempting fate. If I think I have gone wrong..well if I can't take it back, I apply the motto of this blog.  (My BFF's mother is avoided at all costs LOL)

Given it took me seven years, as noted earlier, to get half way, and I have taken almost as many years again I think (having slowed considerably, which is saying something) to get to here I am not expecting an announcement of a finish anytime soon.

{ a little light hearted update, my BFF decided to knit this poncho in a mottled wool, she has got further in a few weeks than I did in a few years, however she has decided that the pattern is doomed...pop on over to her blog, it will be like time travel to the future to see why Click HERE for link and I am not laughing honest I am not..but it does make me feel a teensy bit better...)

Madly this is not my only knitting project, the other one lives at my friends house.  A bobbly sort of wool she did not like, not at the speed she knits, became mine as my slow style suited the wool better.  A pattern less complicated but with shaping, a long line sort of waistcoat.  It went quickly enough when all I had to do was knit row after row till a set length was reached, ah but then the shaping began.  And this required such a level of concentration for both my friend and I we both have to be in the right place mentally to attempt it. Add on vastly reduced visits to my friends house following my mothers illness and that project has also stalled.  Perhaps when we both retire (either sadly or happily depending on how I feel on the day and that is a lot of years away yet) we might have the time and the stillness of mind to make progress.  Of course by then the size chosen to make it will no doubt be too small.

Oh I did have a piece of my knitting win a prize in the local craft show, well sort of, from a certain point of view as Giles may not have reached the giddy heights of first place without his amazing scarf.

Ah you thought that was the end of the knitting confession, nope as it is not just the knitting it is the notions for the knitting.  My friend immediately thought it was a new gift category and bought me one of those folding floor stand basket things. Now she can be forgiven for thinking that there would be much knitting ahead.  However I should have known better , and not bought a  knitting needle case.

Or a variety of knitting needles and other oddments to put in it (oh and ones that won't fit) as the likelihood of them getting used is rather slim.

Especially all those single needles with the plastic bits!  What are they even for! Now this was not expensive as I got them all at a charity shop at a combined price.  That the money went to a god use is a mitigating factor but still why!  I expect that they at least will be going back to a charity shop some time soon.

Just to finish a couple of recommendations (knitting related but not knitting assisting) The Vampire Knitting Club series of books by Nancy Warren are light-hearted, funny and the main character and I have a lot in common with our attempts to knit.  And secondly the U Tube video Learning to Kit with Brandon Farris makes me laugh . My friend taught me to cast on with the long tail method...drove me crazy trying to get enough tail to do all the stitches without running out or having far too much all of a dangle...anyway if you want to try the u tube this may be a link to it, I an not to grand with tech either. Link to The video click this.  Shared it with my knitting friend and she felt for the teacher!

Quick bags

theses were fast easy and satisfying to make.

I had some gifted material, I trimmed it so it was even, folded it in half then cut it in four with the fold at the bottom.

Sewed up the sides. leaving the fold for the bottom.

Hemmed the tops.

Used the material I had cut off to make the eight handles.

Stitched them on and hey presto! Four useful little bags.

They are not lined as they are just a nice basic bag and the material was strong enough on its own.

Little update, and then there were three..gave one away and it is off having a useful life.

Not quite able to handle it

Making a bag from the scraps of converting my patchwork duvet cover into a patchwork quilt

I had some grey from the envelope fold and some bits and pieces form the striped material that the new edge came from.

I was thinking of a simple bag that the finished quilt could live in when not in use.

Of course me, being me, I complicated it up a bit.

Then when it came to the gusset I sewed it right side to wrong side and had to un-pick it .  I think that is were I started to loose momentum.

I managed to finish the bag, I even got the lining in.  However making and putting on the handles was just too much for the available sewing time in one day.

So for the moment it is a a bag in waiting....waiting for handles,  not too sure what form or style they will take.  Hoping to get them out of the few bits of material I have left without cutting into the larger piece.

Free style creating from bits...

...I have previously mentioned being the happy recipient of bags of bits from another quilter.  Some large fat quarter size bits and some smaller bits.

Sometimes I just feel like sewing, not measuring or planning just sewing.  Most often that results in work on the current Bits-a-Quilt.

However, in this instance within the gifted fabric were some long thin strips so I started sewing them together, no plan in mind.  Some had a pattern on most were plain cream fabric.

First I was sewing the colours together, then as I sewed I began to think I might make a bag, and the cream was incorporated and a pattern developed.

Once I had sewn a big rectangle, I cut it in half, added a gusset with the cream, added a lining and handles (from the same material scraps) and the result.  Another Bag.

I am quite pleased with the result and what is more important, I very much enjoyed the process.

It was utterly relaxing as the lines did not have to be straight.

The seams did not have to be exact.

The size of the finished item well it would be whatever it turned out to be.

Oh and the lining, well it was made from some sheeting, it started life as a brown fitted sheet.  It was bought as a costume for a charity dress up at work.  The Nativity had been the plan, although puff ball outfits had not, there had been no flat sheets!

I got the sheets after the fact (with a head hole in the middle of each) and they have been living in the scrap bag.


What will I use the bag for? Not sure yet but I guess there will be something in a plastic bag that can be moved into a cloth one.  This bag, unlike the previous one doggy-bag made from gifted material, is mine I am keeping it.

It is not quilted (elephant bag and dragon bag) as some bags previously shared here were, however the seams, being quite numerous give it a padded sort of feeling.

There are still many bits and pieces of donated inspiration still to turn into a finished project, I hope using them up will be as much fun as this.

My ORTS project.

Some people put the bits of left over embroidery thread in a jar.  Some put them inside clear plastic ornaments and use then as Christmas decorations.  Some, throw them out!

I have had a different approach, for many, many and I do mean many years.  Much longer than the Thread bag even before the Thread Ball there was 

 THE BAG

Also on occasion known as the everlasting project (wrong as it is finished but I am getting ahead of myself) there is of course a story behind the existence of

THE BAG

A brochure popped through the letter box, landed on the mat.  A brochure from a charity selling things to raise funds to save endangered species and their habitats. So I looked through the W.W.F brochure and I bought a stationary set and a 100 % cotton bag with a design on each side in green.  A picture of the world surrounded by  some of the creatures the charity aimed to support.  I rather liked the bag and I had been using it just as it was.

Then it went to London with me on a trip, and I put some fruit in it (in its own bag, but that split and I ended up with squashed fruit on my bag.

That's OK it would wash and it did and it did again but this time I noticed a bit of fading in the green.  That was this projects moment of birth, I wanted to keep the design, so I would sew over it.  If you have visited my blog before you will know it could not be just that simple, and it wasn't, I would just use bits too small to use for anything else. 

And so it began , about twenty five years ago, it began.  

For the first side I just wanted to use earth tones, the greens and browns and subtle yellows.  They did tend to be the colours I was working with the most.  My brighter toned threads went on the other side.

That is not to say it stopped being used as a bag whilst its pattern preservation commenced. It became the project bag for holidays, the stuff a jumper in it and it becomes a pillow bag for camping trips and it was still getting washed and still fading.   

The green side was finished first.

W.W.F Caring for our world.

I did bend my rules for the blue lettering and the leaves, but only in so far as these leftovers could  have been used for other small projects

(The dark green in the body of the whale, elephant and the continents is the original print, I settled on outlines for those rather than trying to fill them in.

The second side took longer, it felt longer, for there to be the thread to fill in all the little dashes of the pattern.  I guess there were less bright colours in the other projects I was doing to produce bright ORTS.

The coloured side

Having finally finished the sewing I felt the bag needed a lining to give it a bit of extra strength.

Here it is finished

WWF shopping bag

WWF shopping bag

oh and a few close up shots just for fun and to mark all those years.  With my sewing thread (thread bag) and my embroidery thread scrap projects completed, I wonder what I will do with them next.

W.W.F Panda

The classic black and Gold Panda on the green side.

W.W.F Panda

And one in a green that is very close to the original stamped pattern colour.

Tree with French Knot fruit.

Penguin and Polar Bear

Brights penguin and Polar bear

Elephant and Kangaroo

Trees

Bird and giraffe

close up of the dashes on the tones side

and on the bright side

And its first job as a fully finished lined bag, to carry my parents large print scriptures to Church for the 2018 Carol Service as we all had readings to do.