Sew Tired

No not a complaint but a new group for parents or carers in Norwich!

This week sees the first session of Sew Tired, a group that will meet fortnightly in Norwich with the aim of giving parents or carers (with or without their children) a chance to be creative in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

We've all been there....it's ANOTHER early morning with your baby (whatever age that baby might be!), the start of a new day.  Your creative juices are flowing...'Nap time' you say to yourself, 'I will make something/get started on that drawing/finish that scarf/cut out that pattern...but nap time doesn't always happen and in all honesty when it does there's often (horrifically often) housework to be done.  Then nap time is over.  

'Tonight'..you think to yourself, 'tonight, I will get a tray prepared so as soon as they've gone to bed I can get one with what I've been really hoping to achieve'.  But guess what?  You're exhausted and food needs to be prepared, eaten and quite frankly there's probably something awful on TV that is all you can face.

Before you know it, the hobbies that make you YOU are feeling like they're falling by the wayside.

Obviously there is joy in every precious day spent with your baby and it whizzes by before you know it, but whilst you're looking after them, making a small amount of time to keep yourself happy is equally important.  

People often discuss whether the transition from 2 to 3 children is the most stressful but quite obviously its 0 to 1 (or 2 or 3 - hats off to the Mum's of multiple pregnancies!).

If sewing or being creative in any way is your bag then maintaining that can be a very healthy choice.

This first session will include some English Paper Piecing, one of my favourite patchwork methods.  Hopefully I can convert some of the attendees!

If you're a Norwich parent and fancy getting involved search for group Sew tired 💤

or email me for more details - venue has car parking a plenty and baby change facilities  It's £5 per session and coffee and cake is provided to fuel us 😊

By the way if you're admiring my rather super logo - check out the very talented Sally Franks, she worked fantastically with the brief given!

Love me a sew along

💗  I do love me a sew along, I've said it before and I'll say it again, whilst the internet has undoubtedly brought many ills to the world it has also brought groups together who have a shared love.

The first time I got involved was The Splendid Sampler and personally it's that BEING PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER that really touched me.  I had two babies under two but being a determined sausage I managed to (most days) get them napping at the same time. Of course I took joy in my babies and every change that they were going through and still do, but I found the satisfaction of getting my weekly block completed gave a little nod to my own self worth.
I would share my blocks on the website and then gradually a Facebook group was set up and I would share in that medium.  Here were other quilters who didn't know that one of my sons had cut a first tooth and the other was starting to talk.  Here my small achievements or funny stories of misread instructions were taken just for my own and not linked to my progeny.

Fast forward a few years and I find myself in the throes of another sew along....enter the #fussycuttingsewalong
Now I was not on instagram for the first but having read about it on it's creators website https://naomialice.co.uk I sure as heck was getting involved for the second!

Last time hexagons took centre stage but this time small diamonds making up six point stars are the focus of learning and showcasing different methods of fussy cutting.  Below you can see a few of mine so far:

These are shoddy workmanship indeed compared to some of the crackers to be found over on Instagram.  I implore you to follow the #fussycuttingsewalong to really appreciate what can be done.

I took the opportunity to ask Naomi how much love has been put in and come out of the fussy cutting sew along and quite rightly she questioned 'how do I measure it?'

Obviously I took the opportunity to suggest on a lovely new cutting mat from www.finecityquilting.co.uk

It's clear that this sew along is a real success and due to the effort put in by it's creator and participants, as with every sew along there are skills to learn and friends to be made - get involved!!

How do you make Beeswax Wraps?

CALLING ALL ECO SUPERHEROES!!!

WHO WANTS TO HELP SAVE THE PLANET ONE FOOD WRAP AT A TIME? 

All of you. Brilliant.  Lets get going then...

You'll need - Fabric (approx 1 Fat Quarter), Beeswax, string, pegs or buy a kit from the gifts and kits section at  ↴

 https://www.finecityquilting.co.uk/gifts--kits-5-c.asp

also you'll need some sort of spreading device, I used an old paintbrush.

1.  Preheat your oven to 180F (160F fan) and get a baking tray ready.

2.  Tie some string up as close to the oven as possible and get some little pegs ready.

2.  Cut your fabric with pinking shears for pretty edges. Now a quick note about fabric choice...I'm not saying pre-wash but you need to make sure its a quality cotton that is colour fast, cut a few different sizes - think about what you want to use it for.

3. Line your tray with grease proof paper or foil and pop your fabric in, sprinkle beeswax lightly over it.

4. Pop it in and check after a few minutes.  When it's ready the cloth will look soaking wet, use your paintbrush or spreader to ensure all the fabric is covered.  Carefully remove the tray from the oven and peg up to dry.  You will get hot wax on your fingers at this point unless you wear gloves.

5. Enjoy being a smug eco sandwich wrapper.  

** Your beeswax wrap will last about 3 months - some careful people manage to make them last 6-12months!  You can clean them with water and gentle soap.  

To wrap around food, fold as you would cling film and hold you hand around the wrap, it will soften the wax and you can mould it over the top of a bowl or around an item.

When your wrap is tired and old it can be added to a compost bin, it will biodegrade. If you have a fire or bbq you can wrap it round wood for a decent fire starter**

Christmas Tree Bunting

It may be controversial in some circles to have your decorations up before advent....but you can definitely scratch that festive itch by making some!!

It's always been on my to do list to have a stall at a craft fair and so when the opportunity presented itself for the Christmas Fair at my sons' School I thought why not...a sentiment I never repeated once the reality of making bits and bobs that people who know me will have to walk past and buy or ignore *gulp*

Its a week and a day away now and those who know me well will be right in thinking that I've probably got a lot to do.

However, this is a fun bunting you can make easily and quickly.

1.  Make your templates, being the scavenger I am I used an old birthday card and a magazine cover.  The card was useful as its already folded in half.

If you're not confident making your own, you can follow this link to a pdf to stick to card and cut out.

Christmas Tree Bunting PDF

2.  Now pick your fabrics.  I chose 4 complimentary greens and one Christmas Fabric.  Now use the larger tree template to cut your material.  Fold your fabric in half, right sides out with the tree 1 on the top.  Cut around the template in a big curve...this template is just to make sure you have enough.

3.  Now lay tree 2 on top of the fabric and pin in place

4.  Sew all the way around your tree with machine or by hand and unpin template 2.


5.  Trim approximately 1cm from sewn line with pinking shears for a lovely tree like edge.

6.  Choose or make some bias binding and cut roughly 2m.  Fold it over so you've got two neat edges so you can tuck the top of the trees inside as seen above and iron gently.  Starting in the middle pin one tree in place and then measure equal distances to each side and attach your other trees.  I put 6 inches between each of my trees. 


7.  Sew from one end of your bias binding to the other securing all trees in place.

8. Et Voila!  Sit back and enjoy your festive smugness..

Keeping up with the Kashubians

Firstly apologies to anyone of Kashub descent for that shocking title but it was too tempting to resist!

Without further ado let me just show you why we're talking about this ethnic group from North/Central Poland....

YES - a fabulous folk print, I'm getting obsessed with folk prints.  They're having a fashion moment and this is one you DON'T see everywhere.

This 100% cotton print and will shortly be available for sale on my website www.finecityquilting.co.uk and is inspired by the rich embroidery patterns of the Kashubian people.  Etsy is awash with beautiful Kashubian inspired embroidery and if you want to go back to the source to get some inspiration, I found this site really useful:  http://originalhandicraft.org/en/kashubian-embroidery-symbolism-and-history/

I'm thinking these patterns would look awesome quilted on a whole cloth quilt too...

The Beast from the East

Having ventured to Copenhagen in February half term I thought we were hardy to this cold....but no!  We didn't count on the Beast from the East and being in the East of England (Norwich) we really got hit by it!

A few weeks ago I felt that nothing I was sewing was coming from the heart.  I started reading about improvised quilts and felt like 'Yes!  This is what I should be doing!'....it wasn't easy.

Olly and I had been missing skiing and wishing we'd booked to go and gradually the blocks and different sized half square triangles were forming something like a mountain scene.

For once instead of feeling like it 'had' to develop into a quilt I decided to have a go at a wall hanging.  I feel I should let you know that at this point I felt that I was making the best of a bad job but I guess that's part of finding yourself as an artist is to let yourself make these mistakes and grow with them.

Starting to quilt this wall hanging was a relief, with my complete lack of FMQ skills I decided to just jump on in and give it a go...I wanted swirling wind/mist round the mountains....I got this!!

Do you know what though...I finished it and then took it out to play in the snow!

The Splendid Sampler is taking over my life!!

Since Valentines Day there has been a new love in my life...The Splendid Sampler!

The above shot was taken as we reached 18/100 blocks.  This project run by Pat Sloan & Jane Davidson is great fun...more to come soon WHEN I HAVE TIME!!!