New to my craft room this October

With crafting now seemingly part of my everyday life I think it’s true that buying, or acquiring, new supplies is a separate hobby to actually using them. And while I have plans to start using much of my stash it’s likely that there will always be new things entering the room.

My crafting outputs have definitely increased - you’ll have seen posts on my newly put into practice skills proclaiming my pouch love, and the updates to my quilty plans, and the accountability these posts bring is good, and that’s where this series of posts comes in. I’ll share the new things that have crossed the craft room threshold in the last month. Some months will be leaner than others, and some of the things I'll share I may have already been included in other posts on my blog.

Last month I said I wanted to make more clothes, and planned to start making some culottes. After a conversation at my Monday night sewing group where one lady asked if I had an invisible zipper foot - I don’t! - I set about ordering myself one. After a bit of a delay, it was due by the end of October but still hasn’t arrived yet - and is now due hopefully by the middle of December, so it looks like the culottes will either be a just-before-Christmas thing, or a next-year-thing.

While I’m on last month, I’ve already repurposed my old and much loved Joules t-shirt has into a new project bag, which is already in use. I used material from another top I loved as the lining, and it’s currently holding material for another project I haven’t told you about yet (but all in good time!).

Knowledge and truth

Probably the most valuable addition this month is my increased knowledge and confidence following my Bernina training day in London. It really was worth the time, and I’ve made a few changes to my set-up since then which have really helped me. So if you get a new machine and are offered training on it definitely take it up, and if it’s offered when you collect your machine and you think that might be too soon for you, then ask if it can be deferred.

And the truth? Well, I think I’m a Fabricologist.

But I think I love that - and I definitely love this greeting card which I picked up at the Festival of Quilts back in the summer, and have now framed. I can’t decide exactly where to hang this, so instead I have it propped up against a jar of ribbons where I can see it, and it makes me smile every time I do.

Learning from a fail

Despite my newfound knowledge I still had a spectacular fail when switching between my Bernina and my ‘take to’ machine, and worse is I knew it could happen and yet it still did! The smaller subsets of this block were sewn on my Bernina with a patchwork foot, when I assembled the complete block I used my ‘take to’ machine which didn’t.

Which as you can see meant my seams were out - by quite a lot! I even reminded myself mentally before I started of this potential issue, but carried on regardless happily sewing a very mismatched block. It’s the first time that I’ve decided to completely abandon a block, but it was probably easiest - thankfully as you’ll have seen the replacement block turned out ok.

To avoid restarting blocks becoming a regular occurrence I decided to get myself a 1/4” foot for my ‘take to’ machine - and it seems my timing was ok after all, as this was in the sale and cost me less than a tenner. I think it will be money well spent!

Fuelling my Fabricologist

I do like a stash sale, and follow a few people on Instagram who do this occasionally. I was pleased to spot a ‘low volume’ stash sale taking place, as buying low volume fabrics isn’t my forte. I’m drawn to the bright and bold colours more naturally, but I know that not everything can be bright and bold…

These are gorgeous though aren’t they? I’m hoping that the two silver/grey and white fat quarters on the right will work well with the various grey fabrics I’ve been collecting for my extended Floral Fancy panels, when I get to them. I have no immediate plans for the other fat quarters but at around twenty pounds I was pleased to get these, and I’ll have them for when the perfect project turns up, which I’m sure it will.

I also had a bit of a splurge on these Spread the Word fat quarters which I spotted in one of the Sew Hot newsletters, I was even more pleased to spot in a subsequent newsletter that these were included in the 20% off sale. When I saw them initially I was struggling to choose between them and with the reduced price I decided to have the full bundle, which with postage was around £35. I’m fascinated by words, and so words on material is a no brainer for me - these are likely to be admired for a little time before they actually get used, but we’ll see.

It’s on the wall!

Huge progress - the Vogue pattern pages picture is now on the wall, and looking fab. I’m really happy with how they were framed, and even happier to get them on the wall where they can be admired every day.

So that’s a wander through the new things in my craft room this past month - I’m off to the Knit and Stitch Show in Harrogate later in November and I’m looking forward to seeing the quilts there, and checking out what the suppliers have that I can’t live without.

Check out my previous updates for other additions and acquisitions, and let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

Making my Mystery Block of the Month: September 2025

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and in my last post I shared the test blocks which I made into my eleventh charity quilt, today I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

Despite being relatively ahead of my relaxed schedule for this month’s quilt and central blocks, as always seems to be the case I found that somehow, all of a sudden, the block for my actual quilt still needed to be done almost at the last minute. Isn’t that always the way, the trick of having too much time on your hands, suddenly becomes no time at all.

Anyway, my block is done, but somehow with no photographs until it was assembled.

I’d chosen the materials I’d use way back in time too, if you look back they’re included in September’s Quilty Update, and I’m pleased with how the colours turned out. It’s the first time using both of these colour ways, and while the basket’s contents is blue so perhaps not too realistic, the basket definitely has a touch of realism about it with those colours.

It’s also the first block for a long time that I had to do some unpicking - I mixed up my green order. I contemplated living with it, but as it was only one piece, I decided to head for the seam ripper and add the green fabrics in the same order as before.

I couldn’t help but have a peek at how the completed row would look, although I’m sure there will be extra sashing to add to assemble the quilt - but you can get an idea of what it will look like when finished.

So September’s block done, and the basket that I wasn’t sure I liked when I started turned out to be way easier than I ever imagined. Who knew.

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.

New to my craft room this September

It seems that crafting is now part of my everyday life in a way that I couldn’t have imagined when we moved here - and I’m not sad about it. I don’t always get to do some craft every day, but if I don’t I’m pretty sure I’m thinking about new projects or possibly even shopping online, or in real life.

I’m beginning to think it’s true that buying, or acquiring, new supplies is a separate hobby to actually using them, and it’s one I’ve been working on over a number of years. Now though I have the time to start using it all, or some of it at least.

With more crafting time in my days my productivity has definitely increased - you’ll have seen earlier posts on my newly put into practice skills proclaiming my pouch love, and the updates to my quilty plans. I’ve realised though that the accountability these posts give me is good, and so I’m planning to share more about what I add to my craft room every month in this new series of posts.

Some of these I will most likely already shared, like the vintage table runner and £1 fabric sample from our weekend in Malton - not forgetting the cute hand painted little cards.

My plan for the vintage table runner is to have it on standby to use in my hand sewing EPP (English Paper Piecing) blue diamonds project, that’s if I can bear to cut this one up as it is so pretty. For the green chevron fabric sample, that’s looking at a new life as a project bag, though I need to find the perfect fabric to pair with it, but one that doesn’t detract from the striking design.

I’m a convert to Aurifil thread for quilting and generally most of the other projects I’ve been sewing recently, but I’m also a lazy colour changer! This is something I want to be better at, and braver too and as I’m nearly through my ‘go to’ white thread I added some pretty variegated threads to my basket at the Morris Works Quilt Shop to encourage more thread changes!

AURIFIL THREADS: NATURAL WHITE (2021), DESERT DAWN (4648), LIBERTY (3852) & MARRAKESH (3817)

Planning to make more clothes

I also want to make more wearables, and at a recent Sewing Group meeting I saw someone wearing some great 3/4 length culottes strangely not that dissimilar to those in the image below. After thinking I like those, somehow my next thought was I could make some - who even am I?

As fate would have it this pattern dropped into my inbox soon after, and so a plan formulated. I bought the pattern, opting for the A0 printed version (rather than just the PDF self print and stick option) and I’m planning to use the bargain material I picked up from the fabric stall in Newark Market which was closing down. It’s a bold print and so I’m hoping that will disguise any blips I have…

When the pattern arrived I realised I’d also need an invisible zip, and then I remembered that zips are a whole other world - especially when you don’t really know what colour you need to match to your fabric, which isn’t helped when shopping online. So I turned to eBay and picked up more invisible zips than I will probably ever need for £15, reasoning that one of these colours must work. And if I make more of these culottes then I’m a step ahead with the zip already…

It’s true I have made myself a dress, and I have worn it a few times over the summer - and it does bring compliments, more importantly it hasn’t fallen apart. And sewing is just sewing (sort of!), so it should be within my grasp, especially now that I’ve had plenty of zip practice following all those pouches!

Watch this space (but remember to blink).

Still adding to my stash

At the charity sew day for Project Linus UK I picked up these two bundles of fabric from the sale table for less than a fiver. The lighter colours have a touch of Cath Kidston about them, and I liked how they looked alongside the dark fabrics - I’ve a feeling that these may appear in another charity quilt at some point.

Repurposing too

I have finally ‘retired’ my favourite Joules t-shirt, which is well past wearing in public stage - even for gardening, sadly. But I can’t quite bring myself to throw it away completely, or turn it into rags as MOH suggested. Instead I’ve added this to my ‘potential pouch’ pile, and I’ve sorted out some lining and a zip too so there’s some chance this will happen in the not too distant future.

On the wall

Well, it isn’t quite - but that’s the plan. This month I want to get my newly-picked up, carefully unwrapped, admired and then laid on the spare bed for safekeeping Vogue pattern page picture up on my craft room wall. I’m so pleased with how they turned out, that it’ll be good to see them every day. And it’s just as well the pictures were cheap - unbelievably just a pound each, as the framing was a bit more than that - I have expensive tastes clearly!

So that’s a wander through the new things in my craft room, let me know if you enjoyed reading this post - and what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.