New to my craft room in September

I finished my post last month waiting for a pattern to arrive to use with that gorgeous block printed Indian cotton, and I think it’ll be perfect. I have decided to pause this outfit making foray for the moment though as despite the October sunshine as I write this post, it’s not going to last is it? That and given that I’ve recently lost weight and subsequently need to alter the sundress I made, I know it makes sense but I must remember to pick this up again early in spring next year - in fact I’ve set myself a reminder!

In other less shocking news, my love of stash sales continues this month. I picked up the three reels of glossy cotton and the wedge of sparkly vinyl they’re sitting on along with the cupcake material, both reels of thread and the lime green ric rac below at my patchwork group early in the month for a tenner - that’s what makes it hard to resist, but I do intend to try out the thread for quilting my smaller quilts, so fingers crossed my machine likes it as I think it’ll look fabulous.

I’ve no plans for the ric rac yet, but since I’ve got this I’m seeing it used as an edging on quilt bindings, so it could be bound for that if there’s enough for a whole quilt, or if there isn’t then maybe I’ll mix it with another colour on a bright and colourful quilt - plans will be made.

The green ribbon came on a bunch of flowers which MOH sent me - a bunch of cheery sunflowers, which brightened the corner of our kitchen island for a good week or two, and the purpley-blue magical fabric was a remnant I picked up from the new fabric shop in Newark for £4, this one may come in useful for a project I’ve acquired, more on that later in this post.

There was a new wool show in Newark on the first weekend of the month, and with it being so close it would have been rude not to check it out. It was a good show, and I was pleased to learn the show will be repeated for the next three years, though potentially at a different time of year. It was good to spend some time with my knitting group, which given my lack of current knitting, I don’t go along to so frequently.

I think I took more wool with me than I bought at the show, which is unusual in itself, but I did have a very specific wish list for this visit - specifically for some mustard wool to go with the wool I dyed myself a while back, and some to go with a teal bundle I’ve been collecting - so job done there. I also fell in love (again) with the idea of crocheted mandalas, and this book should help with that project which has been long on my list. I have the hoops, and the ideas but wasn’t sure of the pattern to use, but I learnt at the show that the hoops should be my last, not the first, purchase! Oops.

The orange buttons were a bargain for a £1 and I’m sure will come in useful. I’ve also added some more red onion nets and a garlic net to my weaving pile - and I need to get this idea started too.

I’ve been watching Sewing Bee more keenly than in previous years, and the final three were my favourites throughout the series and any would have been worthy winners. I’m pleased that Anna won, but sad that the others didn’t as it was good to have so many great sewers on the programme. I’ve been following the three on Instagram, and that prompted this next purchase - another pattern.

Emma shared that she’d worn these Flint trousers on the programme, and they looked great and easy to wear - and they are, they were my next wearable make which I’ll share here soon.

But first more stash sale bargains - £2 for these two pieces. The geometric one would do a simple dress, but would also make a very snazzy pair of tailored cropped trousers (another one for my list!), and the rust one I just couldn’t leave behind. At the time I wasn’t sure what I’d use it for, but a plan is formulating for potentially a jacket - watch this space.

At the same meeting one of the other members was also clearing some of her older items, and I picked these five fabrics (of varying lengths) for £6 - and I quite like them together. I did have to smile though as one of the pieces she was selling was one mum had used to make quilts for my brother a good few years ago. Together we worked out it was probably more like thirty + years ago, not the twenty years we initially thought. I left that one there though, as I think mum still has some scraps left anyway.

These two were also from my patchwork group for a couple of pounds - the pink flowery one is pretty, but the glittery fabric is intriguing. There’s more than pink in this packet and I’m thinking that there could be some sparkly pouches on the horizon…

I thought I was done for projects, quilt projects especially, for the year but then the sampler quilt image was shared in our patchwork group chat, and I knew I was done for. It’s the Colour Study quilt along by Alison Glass and while I intended to use my stash, when I saw this Halloween fat quarter bundle in that new fabric shop in Newark I mentioned before I knew it’d be perfect. And I don’t usually even like Halloween, let alone Halloween fabrics - more on this one soon too.

I also thought my purchases were complete, and then I saw this fabric on an Instagram destash. I’d been resisting everything the algorithm threw at me, until this piece of fabric. There’s plenty of it there too - a good four metres or so, so for £22 it was good value and will be perfect for trying out a pattern before I cut the more expensive stuff.

Thank you for joining me for another month in my craft room, please 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 August

This month’s additions can be summarised as ‘too good to pass on’ and remarkably the majority of new things this month have either been free, a gift or very good value, though my final purchase of the month blew what would have been a frugal month - but it was definitely worth it!

Both the lace above and the ‘Fat Cat’ ruler below came via my patchwork group, some from the same stash sale as last month. The lace - something I’ve not sewn with yet - was £1 per card, and the ruler just a fiver. It’s designed for making patchwork cats, and the triangular shape is the cat’s body. While I’m a cat fan, cat quilts aren’t on my radar - but I did like the shape and have a project in mind. It’s one that’s not on this year’s list but maybe it may just sneak in.

The vegetable nets are from onions - red and the more usual sort. Usually I pick up bags of onions but this month MOH picked up these in the nets and I was like ‘oh why not’ I may be able to weave with those, and I think I can. They’re not as soft as the fruit nets, but for what I have in mind I don’t think it’ll matter.

Which is handy really as I’ve managed to snag a small weaving set, along with some other goodies from Hobbycraft. I was gifted a voucher as thanks for looking after our neighbour’s cats, which was totally unnecessary as I was happy with the cat chats and tickles, but very much appreciated. Though I went to my local Hobbycraft to suss out some of the items, especially the shears as I wanted to feel the weight of them, something you can’t do online. That I was able to do but many of the items weren’t available at the store so I ended up shopping for some in person and for some online.

The small embroidery stork scissors were part of the online shop, which meant our local DPD needed to ID me for the delivery - when I told him what was in there, and specifically the size of the scissors, we did have a chuckle. Rules are rules and safeguards are safeguards and all that, but it did make us smile.

I also learnt of a huge stash sale via my patchwork group which takes place in Chesterfield market place once a year, and this year it was in August. I was umming and ahhing about whether to go along or not, but with sixty market stalls full of very good value craft stuff I decided that I’d go along and see what it was like. Chesterfield is about an hour from us, and seems proper up North, but it was worth going and I’d look out for it again next year.

It was particularly good for large pieces of material which I plan to use as backings for my charity quilts. The white/pink flowered fabric is an Ikea print from 2005 and everytime I see an old Ikea fabric I’m reminded of how good their fabric was, I don’t know if it’s still the same though?

The green and lilac raindrop material is actually a single duvet cover, and the colours were just my thing. Since I’ve been home I’ve realised these colours are a really good match for my Mystery Block of the Month quilt which remains stalled. I wondered now if that’s because I’m not really onboard with the backing fabric I have, and maybe it’s that. I looked to see if this single duvet cover would work size-wise but it doesn’t - it’s wide enough, but not long enough and I don’t want to piece it with another fabric to make it fit, so I think I’m resigned to my original plan (which btw is absolutely fine, it’s just this one was better - well if it fitted anyway!)

The other two pieces will definitely be for those charity quilts, and it’s likely that some of the material will also make it onto the tops too. When I say these were good value, in total these four pieces of large fabric cost £7 and will do many more than seven quilts I’m sure.

Also good value were these balls of wool at 50p each - I’m almost knee deep in crocheted decorations for our tree dressing later in the year, and these will also be used for that along with more scraps of wool I’ve found that I didn’t have plans for. Our tree will meet its brief to be colourful, that’s for sure.

The final items that I picked up in Chesterfield were these two dies for £2 and the blue and white linen remnant for £1 - meaning in total I spent just £12 at the biggest stash sale I’ve ever been to - see what I mean when I said things were too good to pass on?

I’m not sure what I’ll use the blue and white linen remnant for, but it reminded me of the willow pattern and a jumper I knitted myself a long while back. I think it’s the memories of that jumper that meant this one was always coming home with me.

So that just leaves my final purchase of the month, and it’s another that I couldn’t leave behind. My long-time fabric store nemesis had a stall on Newark market last weekend, and so I thought I should show willing and support this, as having a fabric stall on the market is to be encouraged.

Sadly though I approached from the non-remnants side, after our visit up the church tower, and fell in love with this Indian block printed cotton.

Isn’t it beautiful? And very much ‘my colours’ - but at £12 per metre it wasn’t cheap. The big question was how much would I need, in the end I decided not to scrimp, as not having enough would be worse - and despite a conversation with some other ladies also perusing the stall who suggested making a skirt, decided to stick with my original thoughts for a dress. I like skirts, but when the fabric is so bold I struggle to pair items with them, and like to have versatile clothes rather than set outfit choices.

But anyway, it came home with me - and when I got home I looked out the pattern I had in mind, and then decided that that wasn’t right at all. But luckily - or at least fortuitously - a pattern sale dropped into my email box the next morning, and so I’m almost set. I’ll share the pattern next month as it’s not arrived yet.

So I really do need more time at my sewing machine next month, I’ve plans and projects that just won’t stop forming!

Thank you for joining me for another month in my craft room, please 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 July

This month I’ve been to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham’s NEC and despite thinking I didn’t need or want much, my heart said otherwise when I got there in person. It’s the leading quilt show in the UK, perhaps Europe and happens once a year so while there’s lots to see quilts-wise, there’s also plenty of vendors.

I went along armed with a list of potential purchases, some for me and some requests for mum. Of those I was only successful on one, and probably the one I least expected to be, but let’s start with my purchases from the show.

It was the Bauhaus inspired fabric on the right that broke my resolve, which to be fair was early on in the day so it hadn’t had much to resist. But I fell for the fabric immediately, I was only walking past and it was just discarded on the top of the various rolls of fabric. It was the type of love at first sight that you just had to keep hold of the fabric even though I had no idea what I’d make with it. It’s a very light lawn material (think the same weight as the Liberty tana lawn fabrics) and so will drape fantastically. While pondering what I could make - a dress, but goodness knows what style, and how much I’d need - hard to judge when you have no plans I saw the olive green and ecru material too. I knew I was done for, and so ended up with 4 metres of the Bauhaus fabric, and 2.5 metres of the other - as I think this will make some fantastic summer trousers and will match a plain olive top I’ve bought recently.

I’ve still no idea what I’ll make with the Bauhaus fabric or what style it will be, but it’s a gorgeous fabric - and slightly weirdly reminded me of my favourite secondary school teacher, music teacher Miss Smith!

I was keen to look at patterns at the show as trying to wing it entirely making clothes isn’t always the way to go. The dress pattern I have in mind for some fabric I already have, but the trousers pattern is for that olive and ecru material. The Sew Different ladies are very clever as not only do they have their pattern designs made up so you can see what they’ll look like (or what they’re supposed to look like!) they also wear their designs - and one of them had the trousers and cami combo on and it looked great.

The Alice Caroline bee pattern appealed too - there were kits available, but it was just the pattern and know how that I needed, I have plenty of material to source my own bee colour ways. But I did pick up some Liberty scraps while I was there, mainly because these too are hard to resist.

The labels are pretty cute too, the Sarah Hearts ones say “Thanks I made this” and I think should really go on the outside of the garment; the others say ‘You can’t buy this’ which made me smile.

I had taken with me the pack of hand dyed fabric which I had for my birthday in May, as I now have a plan in mind for how to use them and wanted to get something that goes with them to extend what I already have, as I think I need a few more squares. I bought the bundle of fat quarters for that project and was happy that I could make them work.

However less than ten minutes later I stumbled upon the Whole Cloth Studio stand (the makers of the hand dyed fabric) which was both fortuitous as I didn’t know they were going to be there, and expensive because they were there! As I approached the stall I pulled my existing pack of fabrics out of my bag and immediately struck up a conversation with the vendor and other customers, who praised MOH’s foresight for such a wonderful present. It is of course a wonderful present, but he did have great guidance!! And so the small bundle of purple fabrics, which match perfectly was now added to the day’s purchases, and I’m very happy about that. I think I will still use the bundle of fat quarters (or at least some of them) on this project but just not in the way I first thought I would.

It was quite a show, and quite a day - and now I need to find time to put all my plans into action (as always!)

As you know I’m also a sucker for a stash sale and via my Patchwork Group I’ve been party to one of the largest ones yet, and once again I’m very happy. I’ve had my eye on these Bias Tape Makers for a while now, mostly through a saved search on eBay as they are no longer in production. The ones on eBay go for quite ridiculous sums though, and I’ve never managed to purchase one, so when this one turned up on our WhatsApp group I hesitated briefly, then jumped at the chance as not only was it something on my list, but it was also a bargain.

I also picked up the three threads after a rummage in the box, and the navy and white spotted fabric - which on a quick measure is way over the three meres I thought, so for £9 it was another complete bargain. I thought I’d used this to make a sundress, but now I’ve felt the material I’ve another project in mind, which is to use it for a toile for a more structured linen dress I have the pattern (and aspirations) for.

A visit to mum’s craft room provided the contents of the next few pictures, and there’s some gems, some gadgets and plenty of material which I can use in my charity quilts. The fern fabric below is just gorgeous, and it’s the trimmings of a quilt mum made when they returned from a holiday in New Zealand, and where mum had bought fabric. I’ve yet to unroll it fully but I’m intrigued to see what other prints I’ll find.

I also left with a healthy amount of calico which I didn’t want to pass on, and a mix of Hardanger and Aida fabrics for hand embroidery and some useful looking gadgets. The magnetic window markers in the image below I know I’ll use on my intermittent cross stitch project, which has been out again infrequently already this year. It gets put away as I think I spend more time finding my place in the pattern than actually cross stitching, so hopefully these will help.

Mum gave me her tatting shuttle a while back and I’ve not yet even tried to figure it out. It looks a totally alien craft to me, though much like crochet did before I really got the hang of it. As primarily a knitter at first I couldn’t get my head around how such yarn magic could be produced with a single stick (aka hook), but now I totally get it.

Though I’m not sure my crochet skills will ever be as exquisite as this next item mum wanted me to have. It’s a crocheted pin cushion which easily fits into the palm of my hand, isn’t it gorgeous? What’s more it was made by one of mum’s friends, I’m in total awe and I’m planning to include it in my ‘take to’ supply kit, though I need to get myself organised to start that too.

This next purchase is from a local craft shop in Framlingham, Suffolk where we spent a few days after MOH did the mammoth East London to Dunwich overnight cycle this month. The fabric was in the window and initially I thought it was the same as our garden scatter cushions, and I teased MOH that he could have a shirt to match. On closer inspection though, yes of course we went into the shop, it was more of a velveteen finish and not something you’d really want to wear, though maybe as a jacket…

Anyway, the shop had a bag made up using this fabric and these tortoiseshell handles - the bag itself cost £39, but the materials cost about a third less - and while it’s another project, it’s going to be beautiful.

The shop owner generously showed me her hand drawn pattern and gave me tips for attaching the handles, now I just need to talk myself into making it happen. These handles though, they reminded me of a patchwork bag mum had (and possibly still does somewhere), which was also velvet which I remember her making when I was a child. In fact I made myself a patchwork bag - long since gone I’m sure (sadly) - at the same time, but my handles were more rounded and a lighter wood coloured plastic.

Ah the memories, I’ll have to ask mum if she still has that bag.

And finally I’ll share a bit more about my latest crochet project, which the neon green yarn is new this month. My crochet group are one of the local community groups in a nearby village who are ‘dressing a tree’ in the village orchard this November. As a group we’ve decided to ‘throw colour at the tree’ and this is my first garland for that - I’m sure there’ll be more to come, and I’ve already a plan to make a garland of something that was traditionally kept in orchards, but more on that another day.

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.