New to my craft room in February

As predicted last month it has been a relatively quieter month for things arriving into my craft space this month, and in better news for my purse they’ve cost little, or nothing.

I’ve recently started going along to a new-to-me crochet group which impressively meets in the nearby village pub every Friday afternoon - all very civilised! But of course I needed a portable crochet project to take with me, for the first session I dug out some wool I had and a hook and at the first session made the granny square in the photo below.

The wool I had would only take me so far I knew, so I stopped off in one of the shops in town selling wool and picked up three matching 100g balls for less than a fiver. I’ve now got three larger than usual granny squares, a new craft group and a new project. My plan is to make eight of these squares and use them to cover one of the many canvas tote bags which are now ubiquitous aren’t they?

The shop selling wool was just along from where I bought some fabulous yellow buttons (pictured in this older post) which is sadly closing at the end of this month (mental note: must make another visit before it closes!). I was hoping to discover some more vintage buttons, and I did leaving with this bundle of buttons and trims for £10.

At my sewing group I was given these small squares and rectangles of fabric, some of which are the same size that I’m using to make my scrappy houses (more on that project another day), so those have gone straight into the scrappy houses biscuit tin. I’m planning to use at least some of the others for small lavender sachets, that’s the plan anyway.

I also nabbed some pretty remnant Liberty fabric from an Instagram destash sale for £4, and then a few days later I added the rather fabulous and completely eccentric ‘Emergency Brooch Kit’ for another £4. I love the idea of carrying it ‘with you at all times’ for ‘those quiet moments or to kill a bit of time’.

I’m still collecting stuff for potential weaving with waste projects, this month adding three plum fruit nets and a further lime fruit net to my stash, along with the length of blue wire cut from our new chandelier when it was installed.

I’ve also finally relinquished some much loved tops from my wardrobe. They’re well past donating to charity, so they’re currently in my craft room waiting for the perfect project to claim them, or until I no longer need to store them - I’m not sure which will come first if I’m honest.

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

New to my craft room in January

The Newark Quilt Show takes place each January, and as I’ve said before it’s my local show so it’d be rude not to go! So I knew there would be the opportunity to top up my supplies, but I also knew that at the end of the month I was going along to a new-to-me quilting shop in Worksop, also new-to-me, and I didn’t really want to splurge at either.

But more of what I picked up in those two outings later, there’s been plenty new to my craft room in the first month of the year including our Christmas cards which I’ve already recycled into gift tags for use much later in the year.

Last month I shared the contents of my quilting advent calendar, one of the items was a replacement blade for a 45mm Olfa rotary cutter. The only thing was I didn’t have that size cutter, but I do now - and while I was at it I bought myself a replacement blade for my larger 60mm cutter, as I don’t think I’ve changed the blade in it ever, oops. While I was looking around the Morris Works site I also snagged a couple of fat quarters in the sale for my growing collection of greys, though the darker one is probably just about on the edge of what I’m after for my long-awaited and unlikely to be finished just yet Floral Fancy project.

At the Newark Quilt Show I felt almost restrained, I hadn’t taken my own advice and gone with a list of things to look out for and I managed to walk around the show without buying anything, but taking note of things I wanted to look at further. It is a relatively small show, but even so I was impressed with myself - but of course I did leave with a few things including this bundle of five V&A Indian Summer prints, and a pink and orange batik both because I just liked them. I’ve no plan for these yet, but I’m sure something will make itself known.

I also picked up several pieces of this hedgehog fabric in two colourways for a fiver - the pieces are fairly large, and I’m hoping that with some creative joining there’ll be enough for the backing for at least two more charity quilts. Cute aren’t they?

I keep finding myself attracted to Moda fabrics at the moment, and when I saw this Ruby Star Society fabric I knew I’d be taking some home - it’s the Daisy Stripe in the Catnap collection and it just makes me happy. For this one I do have a loose plan, and that’s to make it into the same style dress which I’ve already made, along with some denim - but that’s about as far as my plan has gone so far. And yes, I’ve a growing list of fabric that I want to remake this dress in, so I need to make time to get on with those (all of them!)

The labels were an impulse buy, and potentially a strange one for me as I mostly cut labels out of my clothes - but I’ve been a Sarah Hearts follower for a long time, even regularly changing my wallpapers when she released a new one. I stopped with the June 2020 wallpaper, which remains on my laptop to this day - it was the one I loved the most, and haven’t felt the need to change it yet!

But anyway, back to my purchases. As I’m no longer afraid of or scared by zips, and because some of the new style pouches I want to make have zips galore, and so I thought I’d have some funky zips for those. I opted for this metallic set by Sallie Tomato, and also added a metre of the gold and silver fold over elastic (the bundle on the right) - I’ve no idea what this will be like, or how it’ll work yet but I’m prepared and already have supplies.

I also signed up for one of the workshops at the show, and these are from the Shabby Chic Rosettes workshop which was led by the tutor from the bag making course I went on last year. I finished the green rosette on the day, and brought the materials for a larger version home with me - look out for a blog post to see how I got on soon.

The final things I left the show with were part of my Christmas present from MOH. A couple of the smaller items from the order were still out of stock, and so the supplier brought the items that were in stock to the show and I picked them up from there. There’s two patterns for the new style pouches I want to make, and a selection of accessories for those in apple green, including another funky zipper, some mesh (for pockets) and more of that fold over elastic.

I’m hoping the out of stock items will be back in stock soon, they’re more bag type accessories from a collaboration by Sallie Tomato and Tula Pink. They’re out of stock in the US, so it’s just a case of waiting - but at least I have most of the order, and my present, now.

I’m also finding that material has a way of finding me, case in point this green floral design fabric. I went along to my Saturday morning sewing group, and as we’re moving venues more of the group’s fabric was out to tempt those attending. I don’t normally look, but this almost Sanderson-like fabric caught my eye - and that was fatal.

There’s two large-ish pieces, and I now have them both for a donation to the sewing group’s funds. I’m planning to use these on one of the quilts I’m making for myself as backing, I’m not sure which yet - but I have a similar green, and another in pink that I have also earmarked so I’ll need to work out when I’m closer to finishing my Mystery Block of the Month quilt, which works best.

I’ve also been collecting various stuff which I can reuse: a nice box and elastic tie which is bound to come in useful, a binding tool which one of the patchwork group was giving away as she had more than one, some mesh from oranges and easy peelers and a much loved camisole top which needs to be retired. I’ve not tried the binding tool yet, but I expect I’ll give it a go when I finish my next quilt - assuming I remember, if not it’ll be the next one!

Which brings me to the last fabric shop outing of the month. The Patchwork Garden is based on Worksop railway station and opens on request, and it was stuffed full of the most amazing fabrics. I did well to leave with two more additions to my grey collection, a pink that I hoped would (and does) match the Spread the Word collection which I acquired last October!

And that ‘testcard’ multi-coloured fabric, well isn’t it great - again, no plans for it yet, but I love it. Until I find the perfect project, that’s the one I’ll be taking out and looking at and admiring for a little while!

I’m expecting February to be a quieter month craft supplies wise as I’m not planning to go to any shows, but who knows - hopefully I’ll find plenty of time to crack on and get sewing as I’ve not spent as much time in my craft room in the early part of the year so far, the days when our heating wasn’t working weren’t the ones to be sewing in there. Instead I dug out an old crochet project that is now almost sewn up and ready for the borders - it was just the thing to have on my knee in those chillier days!

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

New to my craft room this December

I ended last month’s post by sharing my advent calendar, so let’s start with that. I was impressed with it then, and I’m even more impressed with it now. It’s the type of advent calendar that I don’t think you’d need to do every year, as many of the items were tools and gadgets that will last hopefully for many years. Actually you could easily reuse the packaging for a self-filled advent calendar (of any nature) in future years too.

And as much as I love a pouch, I really love a box that can be reused!

MORRIS WORKS QUILT SHOP ADVENT CALENDAR

MORRIS WORKS QUILT SHOP ADVENT CALENDAR DAYS 1-14

With thread, needles, needle threaders, needle storage, a seam ripper, magnetic grips and a super long tape measure as well as a kit to make a pouch (well I never!) there was plenty to unbox each day.

MORRIS WORKS QUILT SHOP ADVENT CALENDAR DAYS 15-24

And there was more thread, some embroidery scissors, an extra hand (if only!), tools for cleaning and some bejewelled mixer fabric on the 24th. There was plenty of new to me tools, and only one that I was completely baffled by (day 17) - and that’s a magnetic seam guide.

There’s things I know I will find useful, and other things I definitely want to try. There’s probably a couple of things I may not use, or maybe I will - and that’s ok. All in all it was a great advent calendar which brought an influx of aids which I most likely wouldn’t have tried without it.

But December also brings opportunities for recycling additions to my craft room, more so than normal. I mean Christmas crackers anyone? Exactly. This year I think I’ve been relatively restrained, saving the main cracker ‘bodies’ and the ribbons that were tied on each end - which are kept together with my cracker paperclip gift!

I’ve also added a lime fruit net, the first green net for my weaving with waste supplies. And there’s various ribbons too - the pink ones were out of some new pyjamas which had four ‘hanging ribbons’ - four?! I don’t even need one! The white ribbons are from an already slightly adjusted Christmas present, and I’m not sure where the multi-coloured braid came from, but it’s pretty isn’t it - and I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.

Good news - the long awaiting invisible zipper foot arrived! In fact it arrived in a few days from the new supplier, so that’s good news. It’s pictured below along with some more sewing gadgets and aids which were Christmas presents from my parents. Mum’s also sews and this year she included a pen-shaped chalk wheel, a measuring gauge, some bodkins (that’s a great word isn’t it?) for pulling elastics and ribbons through a casing, and a clapperboard and roller to help seams behave in patchwork.

Mum also knows how much I love pouches and boxes, so there were a couple of pouches and a collapsible box tied with ribbons. It’s this that I’ve adjusted, as it’s immediately in use with that pouch I mentioned the other day that’s still on my ‘to do' list. I’ve trimmed the ribbons and added black poppers in the corners so that the box/tray remains collapsible, but without long ribbons.

I’ve also been fortunate with other Christmas gifts, with some new books to read and learn from and a smaller size ruler which will be much easier to take out to craft groups, and a thread spool which I’m keen to try as I’ve several really large cotton spools that I’ve picked up from destash sales which at the moment I can only use on my overlocker, and as I try not to rethread that hardly at all, then it could be a while before the really large spools get used. I’m hoping that now I’ll be able to use the standalone thread spool with my sewing machine, that’s the theory anyway…

I love to receive a book on Christmas Day, as there’s no better way to spend the afternoon with my nose in a new book. These will be useful too, I hope - the Machine Magic book was recommended on the Bernina training day, and I think it’ll also be useful for when I actually tackle my Floral Fancy. The Modern Folk Embroidery book is for a project that’s been brewing in my mind for a while - I want to embroider a plain jacket I have, whether or not I will I’m not sure, but it’s currently at the research and examining possibilities stage!

The final book - Journey to the Centre of a Quilter - tells the story of many of Jo’s quilts I saw at the Festival of Quilts earlier this year, and looks to be a great introduction into improv quilting, which both interests and intrigues me!

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.