An embroidered heart

There was only one pouch in my pouch love series to share on Valentines Day wasn’t there? And from a simple printed heart it’s blossomed into a large and very beautiful pouch.

It’s hard to believe that this is how it started - a test print for some bunting I made to celebrate my dad’s 90th birthday last year. The bunting was simply embroidered but I wanted to explore the interlocking circles this time round.

Unusually I don’t have any photos of it ‘in progress’ and I’m not really sure why - it definitely came with me on our trip to Glasgow last September and has been on the train to London too. After outlining the heart and before exploring the inner circles, I added several coloured stripes across the fabric, which reminded me of a 1970s/80s tracksuit.

And then I braved the circles trying not to have two of the same colours next to each other, which just about works. Embroidering the circles with my beloved chain stitch was incredibly mindful and relaxing. Once the main emblem and its stripes were complete, I still felt that it needed more, and at the back of my mind I remembered a cream/beige embellished fabric which I picked up at a WI stash sale, which might work with this.

I knew I wanted to make this one into a pouch, and so finding the fabric to go alongside this in my stash was a complete win. That fabric I had in mind absolutely worked, and also encouraged me to add several rows of cream chain stitch stripes above and below the heart to tie it all together.

And this is how it ended:

What’s even better is the lining was also in my stash - and while dark orange skulls on an orange background might not have been the natural choice on paper, once I saw the colours together there was no other choice for me. To finish it off, of course I needed poppers, and as the fold over flap was relatively large, it needed more than one - and so unable to choose between pink, orange and red, I had one of each!

If my embroidered heart pouch reminded you of one I’d already made - you’re not wrong, it’s a much larger version of the baroque lady version which was the first one I made at the bag making sewing course.

I’m loving them both, and I’m pretty sure there’s plenty more pouches to come!

Starting my own floral fancy

As I said in my This January post I impulsively booked onto a workshop, and then wondered if I had the enough of the right skills and the right sewing stuff to do the ‘floral fancy’ panel justice (spoiler: I did) The workshop was run by Region 10 of the Quilter’s Guild of the British Isles (QGBI), and was taking place in a village about 15 minutes away from me - even better, I knew where the village was!

I needn’t have worried though as while there was quite a long list of stuff needed - some of which I didn’t have and so Amazon was my friend - I was told not to worry about the long list of stuff, but of course I did. The workshop itself was a fabulously creative, inspiring and friendly day, and I was so glad I went. I couldn’t decide between the two panels offered at the workshop, and opted to buy a kit for the material, so that was one less thing to worry about, though to be fair, I probably I could have sourced that from my craft room relatively easily. In the end there was only a kit left for the floral wreath, so the choice was made for me.

I did laugh though as when my Amazon parcel arrived MOH couldn’t help but wonder how I had a whole room of stuff and how I needed more, but as I said to him it wasn’t the right kind of stuff. Well, mostly anyway.

A stitch and flip background

The morning session consisted of assembling the background of the panel using a stitch and flip method, but before any sewing could be done I needed to cut and layout the background in a radial design, with the darker fabrics in the centre. This challenged me more than it should trying to get the different length fabrics (there’s three different lengths) from the fabric I had. Thankfully there were also some spares so I dipped into those, as I think did everyone else.

Despite trying to keep to the same layout, it seems that as I stitched and flipped at one point I must have flipped, stitched and flipped so one of my rows turned around. Of course I only noticed when I was way past sewing that strip, and so it stays. And to be honest this is the background so it’s not the focal point of my piece. So if anyone asks, you didn’t notice it.

After lunch the real creativity started

Having completed my background piece before lunch I had the whole afternoon for the most interesting part of the workshop, and that was the floral fancy. My floral fancy was the wreath version, though others were also making a vase of tulips (which was also gorgeous).

As we know all good wreaths start with greenery, and so did mine. I had several greens in my kit of material and so chose a selection of those and headed over to the Sizzix machines, which I’d not heard of before. Though I soon realised they were a die cutting machine for fabric, and worked very similar to my paper cutting die machine.

I choose two leaf dies and cut the designs randomly from my selection of greens, working on the theory that leaves aren’t all the same shape or colour, and the contrast of both would enhance my wreath.

And then I arranged them on a pencil circle line I’d drawn on my background, and rearranged, and faffed about with them some more until I was happy. Without my own fabric die cutting machine it was important to me to get all the cutting out done on the day, and that became my mission.

I cut five simple five petalled flowers from the fabrics that most appealed to me, and then realised they’d look better layered with the same shape offset in a complementing/contrasting fabric.

So back to my kit and I finally settled on the combination above - remembering to take a snap so I didn’t forget my choices!

After I’d added the flowers I realised they needed a middle, so I was back cutting various circles I could use from the offcuts, and then working out where they worked best.

It was good, but I thought it needed more flowers - and probably fatter flowers. So back I went to the die cutting machines again, though this time just taking three fabrics with me, reusing the bright pink material of the flower that’s at about 10pm in the photo above and below.

The fatter flowers also needed middles - and all of the middles for these were also cut from offcuts. Needless to say I spent a fair amount of time using those die cutting machines - and got everything I wanted cut out on the day. Though since the workshop I’ve decided I definitely need a Sizzix in my craft room - so I’ve been sussing them out online, and I’m planning to order one from Hobbycraft this week taking advantage of an online offer, and vouchers I seem to have accrued.

Finishing it off

With my design finalised and home safely (phew), this has definitely gone on my craft to do list to get finished. It won’t be a small job though as first I’ll need to dismantle it - I’ve already printed out a picture - and peel the bondaweb backing off each piece before ironing and stitching it into place. And that probably needs to be done in layers so the stitching builds up as you’d expect.

But I can’t wait (sort of). I’m keen to get going, but also keen not to mess it up! Though given that I wasn’t sure if I had the skills to get this far, I’m pretty certain I’ll be fine I just need to get on with it.

It was a great workshop and I left feeling really pleased I’d gone along as well as feeling like I’d really achieved something. It was also a really friendly and welcoming space so that helped too.

I also brought all the offcuts home as my plan is to make this into something bigger - I know running before I can walk again, but I’m aiming high, though I’m not sure just how high yet. I don’t want this panel to be a cushion cover, or a bag and I want it to live outside my craft room, so I’m thinking it would work as the central panel in a quilt for our spare room with more panels that complement it, but aren’t the same - that’s the bit that’s mulling over in my mind, and I think will continue to percolate for a while yet.

And anyway, I’ve plenty of other projects in mind before that - but keep an eye out on the progress I make with this one. This isn’t a project that’s going to sit in the cupboard I’m pretty sure of that.

A mandala pouch for my poppers

Since I shared the stack of vinyl pouches with you, pouches seem to have overtaken my life, which is a little dramatic I know. But I seriously have a bad case of Pouch Love!

This isn’t new to me, I’ve known I’ve had it for a long time - but what is new is that now I’m creating my own, and my answer really is ‘oh I need a pouch for that’ whatever the question. I’ve a few ready to share with you so will start to do that over the next few weeks, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This one though is both practical - it’s already in use - and had made use of two of the Adult Learning courses I did last year. This combines a print from the Indian Block Printing & Stitch course, along with the skills I picked up in the Bag Making course - most notably zips.

Though for all of the pouches I’ve made so far, I’ve still not switched to a zipper foot, so I think I probably should add that to my ‘to conquer’ list for this year, but back to this pouch.

It started off as a neon pink printed mandala on the cut up frill of an old valance sheet. Seriously.

Quite humble beginnings. At this point not even the edges had been finished on my overlocker - I guess I was keen to carry on printing during the class, and had underestimated just how many squares I’d need so printed and cut as I went!

As for many of the prints that I did in the class I had no real plans for what I’d do with the outputs, I was just enjoying the creative process and exploring the patterns and colours available. After the class finished I made more of a plan as to how I would embellish the prints, or at least chose a colour scheme.

The colour scheme chose me

This was was always going to have an element of teal, and I don’t know why. It’s not a colour I usually go for, though I have since bought clothes that are a similar colour, and I think it goes well with the pink. I was also keen for some of the printing to remain on show, and not to cover it all with embroidery, other than that I had no real plans when I started out.

After embellishing some of the printed area I knew I wanted more teal, and so it seemed natural to enclose it with a circle. And I thought I might turn it into an eye, but as I continued to embroider I decided against that. I didn’t do the outer circles - or at least two of them - freehand, I used a glass vase and then a plate to draw around to stop it all going skewif.

Nor did I use an embroidery hoop, and on reflection I probably should have for this one, as I ended up with more material than necessary in the centre. Thankfully though I came up with a plan for dealing with that - to use wadding to fill the hole, and so creating an almost raised central area. This in turn reminded me of the poppers I’d used on the first pouches I’d made, which the all important tools for were functionally, but not prettily stored in the metallic plastic bag it arrived in.

Now I really had a plan

With that I realised the answer was ‘I needed a pouch for that’ and what better than one with a big circle on the front. It was meant to be! But did I have any material that would match my teal scheme, probably - and as it turns out I did.

I’d bought the Liberty silk remnant during lockdown, along with some other prints which I’d used for some fancy masks, but I hadn’t used this one at all. Now was its time - I even found a complementary zip from the large stash I bought from eBay. The lining is the pale pink t-shirt remnant which I’d saved from a recently retired camisole top. Perfect.

I used the same approach as for the vinyl fronted pouches, but obviously without the vinyl part - and a whole lot bigger. Having made that stack of pouches really helped me out, as knowing how they were assembled meant I could made the adaptations I needed.

And it turned our really well.

Not only does it hold the tools for attaching the poppers - and the spare bits that came with it, it also holds the plastic container full of poppers.

So now when I want to add a popper I just need to go to my mandala pouch for my poppers - which may not always be easy to say, but it sure is easy to find!