A nearly completed bag...

But, really I suspect you’re more interested in the winner of the fabric…

A winnner....

… which is Amy Lane (…. look at the cakes…… !!!) Congratulations, Amy! If you e-mail me your address I’ll get these fabrics sent off to you.

As it’s Friday and we’re talking fabric, I’ve had a few new fabric designs in the shop this week;

Kaffe Fassett fabric - Spot in Brown and Asian circles

But, something which is not only a completely new fabric to Gone to Earth but comes from completely new fabric manufacturer (to the shop) is this, fabric designed by Patty Young of Michael Miller.

Mezzanine - designed by Patty Young

Sandi Henderson - Farmers Market

I suspect that I shall be adding to these fabric ranges.

A pretty bundle of pinks and greens...

This is Mezzanine designed by Patty Young of Michael Miller. Vibrant colour and bold, complex designs…gorgeous and all in lovely quilt weight cotton.

So, I thought that this weeks giveaway could be a fat quarter of each of these four fabrics. (’Mezzanine’ by Patty Young)

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post to join in the giveaway and I’ll announce the winner next Friday. In the meantime I hope that I get a bit further in writing up this bag tutorial.

Have a good weekend and if your going to a bonfire party… stay safe.

Golden colours in the low autumn sunshine

Butternut Squashes

The leaves are definately falling… and burying the garden… and the chickens and anything else that stands still for long.

Something else which is burying me at the moment are the number of pieces of fabric that get left at the ends of bolts that aren’t exactly any particular size and I’ve loads of them….loads and loads.

So, time to for a sort out and I thought I’d have a giveaway on my blog every Friday until Christmas. Sometimes, it’ll be a set of fat quarters (because I’ve some new fabriccy news to share next week), sometimes it’ll be a ‘large-ish’ collection of fabric remnants. It’ll include the cuts that get left at the end of bolts, so 6 inches or so wide cut across the width of the bolts, sometimes there will also be fat eighths and fat quarters. So, quite a lucky-dip, fabric in a mixture of sizes and from a mixture of designers. I’ll also include some useful solids…

Pretty fabrics from many different designers.

This collection includes some Heather Bailey Pop Garden and Bijoux fabrics, some Amy Butler Midwest Modern, some Lotus and Belle fabrics, spiced up with a little of Amy’s home dec fabric. Plus, there are some pretty Moda fabrics, which I wish didn’t disappear so quickly and some glorious Anna Maria Horner Garden Party fabrics. (You can click on the pictures for a closer look.) Useful bits and pieces for those little projects and useful colours and designs for applique. Some of these fabrics are current designs, some have now been discontinued and others have been discontinued and are about to make a comback due to crafters demands. (Being re-printed as we speak…)

If you wish to join in then please just leave a comment on this post and I’ll announce the winner next Friday when I’ll post the next giveaway.

Free snd Easy stitch style by Poppy Treffry

I’ve loved Poppy’s work for a long time, you can see some of her bags, coffee cosies, egg cosies and cushions here. (She makes tea and coffee cosies for Claridges Hotel you know!)

I’m completely guilty of dragging protesting children into shops to admire her bags. Now they’re older they more often stand outside and wait, pulling faces of desperation at me through the window! I just love that ‘folky’ charming style she has, that looks so simple and yet you just know that it isn’t. I love the way she signs her work too. as any artist would. A stroke of genius!

The book is about the stitching techniques (by sewing machine)… feed dogs down, darning foot or no darning foot (depends on how brave you are) and off you go. She talks about suitable fabrics to use, those which help create more texture in your work, the role played by the frayed edges of the applique in the ‘look’ of final project.

Pointers to achieve success with this style of sewing.

Poppy also talks bout threads and mixing bobbin colours and top thread colours to achieve yet more effects as you stitch in this free and easy way. There’s loads of information about finishing off your work, layering fabrics, stitching, drawing and shading plus some projects to try. I think it’s one of those books that reveals more secrets as you begin to experiment and understand a little more of what she’s saying and why it’s important.

There are a few stitching projects in the book; a greetings card, book cover, wall tidy, egg cosies bag, clutch type purse, apron and headband, picnic blanket, doorstop, coffee pot cosy, cushion covers and curtains. All made completely stylish and charming with the stitching.

As the ‘girls’ are very busy laying eggs I thought I would start with an egg cosy….

An Egg Cosy

The patterns are included at the back of the book but they’re the kind you either photocopy and enlarge (sometimes) or trace in some way. Templates for the applique motifs are included too.

I followed the egg cosy pattern almost slavishly, but I think if you really want to develop a skill at something ‘copying’ a master isn’t a bad place to begin. Artists do that don’t they when they study the ‘greats’, copy in order to understand.

O.K. back to reality and my little egg cosy. I hooped up the fabric in my tiniest hoop.

Hooped up fabric - ready to go!

My sewing machine paniced and demanded oil before it would allow me to go any further. But once that was done, I lowered the feed dogs, added the darning foot and sewed in black and pink… felt like a bit of a rebel…

My finished egg cosy. Simple but charming…

Egg Cosy - Poppy Treffry style

Pink background fabric with a little polka dot heart in a cranberry red- a sugary sweet colour combination and I used a red ’stripy’ fabric for the loop and the lining.

My big complaint is that the scribbly freestyle stitching was over too quickly. So, I’m going to attempt a ‘free and easy’ stitched cushion cover next with a few more motifs or maybe a tea cosy.

Remember this bag?

Sometimes it seems so simple.

You draw a pattern out and off you go…. but then you decide it’d be nice to share and you have to find way of translating you’re wonderous artwork into something electronic that can be printed off and used. A doddle I thought….

The design is already worked out, I know the measurements the basic shape, seam allowances… shouldn’t take any time at all. mmmmmm! Confounded by software.

It’s taking me an age to get to grips with the software that’s supposed to enable me to create a printable pattern and I don’t think it’s because the software is particularly complicated. I think it’s more that I’m not that familiar with concepts of canvases and then layers. I got to a point where I wanted to print it out because it might be nice if I tested it…. just to check… before I unleashed it on an unsuspecting world. Ooooo! or should it be ‘Arhhhhhgh!’ (more dramtic emphasis in an Argh.) there’s nothing to print…. just blank pages! Why?

I won’t describe the agony involved in drawing that simple curve…

Where’s the masterpiece I can see just in front of my eyes? Ah, yes, well you’re trying to print out the ‘Master‘ canvas and the little canvas you want to print is buried more deeply than that….!

You’re next test of complete incompetance is it to see if you can retireive it… Hmmmmmph!

o.k. that hurdle overcome… Now I need to mark in the darts that give it, it’s shape and move on.

At least now I can start thinking about which fabric to use …. I’m considering using Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden and Bijoux fabrics … because I fancy something bright and cheerful. Just because the days are growing noticeably shorter doesn’t mean that everything else has to suddenly get dark and sombre too does it?

Heather Bailey's Pop Garden - Pop Daisy and zag stripe... Big, bold, vibrant colours and very 'happy' looking...

I was thinking about doing something interesting with that big bold stripe as the top band and the Daisy as the main body of the bag…

… or there’s these fabrics from Anna Maria Horner’s ‘Good Folks’….

Cathedral and Buttoned up from 'Good Folks'

and I’m looking at these two fabrics…

Mingling in Ice and Fanfare in Blue

I love the deep turquoise blue of that Mingling – reminds me of the sea off of the Hebrides. Yes I know that sounds unlikely but really even when the temperatures have been enough to freeze your bits off, the colour of the sea in the sunshine has been extraordinary. Just that colour of blue. (Deep, deep Sigh!)

I then got distracted by this fabric for a while… for quite a while actually…

Honeycomb from Midwesst Modern

Amy Butler's Honeycomb and Anna Maria Horners Polka lIne

So, thinking about the brown I then put this fabric, Park Fountains in Brown, alongside, just to see what that looked like. It picked the brown up really well and the yellow … but thinking about what I wanted to use it for it didn’t quite work.

Amy Butler Park Fountains and honeycomb fabrics

I then tried out a fuschia fabric, one of Amy’s quilting solids….

A great deal of pink....

… perhaps the pink might work? It might be a bit too pink and sugary sweet looking. It would let me share/use a new trick I’ve learned using fabric cover buttons, any button would do really… I’m excited about trying that out…

So, after all of that fabric overload (can’t happen can it?) HELP! Do you like any of those combinations? Do you think they’d work in the bag? You know the more I think about it the more I think that maybe using just one fabric on it’s own may be enough with perhaps something ‘contrasty’ for the lining….. Back to the drawing board I think….

Paisley from Valori Wells' Del Hi range in Earth

This fabric, Paisley in Earth from Valori Wells’ Del Hi collection ( Link) only arrived in the shop this week and I love it. I’ve been cutting fat quarters of it and sending it off on it’s way but what has really got my ’sewing fingers’ itching is that when you look at it, really look at it, what do you see?

Quite a large design

What I see is a piece of gorgeous fabric in a warm tan, with a design printed on it that just begs for attention. It says ‘embroider me ……’ in a very loud voice….

I see a piece of fabric that would look fantastic, filled in with soft colour, painted or stitched, or painted, stitched and beaded. I can imagine it as a Clutch Bag made special for evening outings or as a skirt with a stitched and beaded lower hemline… In fact a piece of fabric full of possibilities.

Picking out the paisley design..

I couldn’t keep my hands off it any longer. So, I’ve ‘hooped’ a piece just to see what I can do with it… I haven’t embroidered anything much for a while… but with the longer darker evenings it seems like a good thing to be doing. Plus, it’ll be a good excuse to learn a few new stitches… Anyone cruel enough to challenge me to a French Knot to fill in those ‘berry’ type shapes?

I find stitching like this completely absorbing, even though I’ve a great deal to learn …. I enjoyed the time spent picking out this pattern and the thread adds a nice texure to it. The thread colours I’ve used are based on the colours I can see in the garden just now. I’m sure the natural world has more skill in mixing and matching colour than I do. I’ll show you how it ends up and what it ends up as when I’m finished. It may take a while!

Have a good weekend.

…the fabric is Tapestry from Valori Wells’ Del Hi fabric collection… I’m waiting for a few more fabrics from that range to arrive….

I’ve called it the Drop-in Bag because you can drop in your keys, you credit/store cards, your shopping list (Does anyone actually write those and remember to take them with them?), drop into town, and drop in for a coffee whilst you’re there. Dear daughter however is adamant that it should be called the ‘Purdy’! (Perhaps I should spell it ‘Perdie’ as she says it’s short for Perdita.) I wonder which one of us will win. Only time will tell.

I love the soft shape of the Drop-In/Purdy. It’s not a large bag, just a useful size to pop things into and go, whether it’s into town or hurrying off to pick the children up from school on time. It’s got a zipped pocket for keeping things securely tucked away from unwanted, prying hands and a slip pocket behind that, making it quite an organised little bag. There’s simply nowhere for anything to hide!

The 'insides'

As it’s a bit of a prototype I took it out with me on Saturday, just to see if it works ‘practically’. So, now I have a couple of ideas for modifications. I think the interlining needs modifying a little. I used Vilene H630, fusible fleece which is quite a low loft fleece which worked really well with the gathering of the fabric onto the top band because it didn’t give too much bulk. I may however, achieve a better effect if I use the H630 and a medium weight sew-in. This should give it just a little more structure but not interfere with the softness of the gathers. I’ll have to see what the next version turns out like.

The pockets you ask? They’re a bit of a success story. I’m really pleased with the pockets. No more will the children manage to up-end my bag as they get into the car at the end of the school day and manage to tip everything everywhere. So, they’re definately staying as a feature in the next version. The handle could probably do being a little longer, as I like to carry bags on my shoulder and it wasn’t quite long enough to be comfortable. Otherwise, with a few embellishments I’m happy with it. What do you think?

Another bundle of fabrics from Daisy Chain - also from the aquatic palette

…Daisy Chain fabrics… (Link)

Do you remember the questions I asked about fabric bundles and ways of presenting fabric in the shop? Well, your answers have been brilliant, really thought provoking and completely useful. Thank you!

I’ve added the numbers into the ‘Random Number Generator’. It’s not as pretty as a hat or even a bowl, but I suppose it’s completly impartial and incapable of acting in a preferential way towards pieces of randomly folded paper.

So, adding in the numbers of all the comments I received and clicking the button…..

… and 18 is Penny…

So, Penny if you’d like to get in touch with me… I’ll get these fabrics off to you.

Remember this little block …

The beginnings of a log cabin block

Well, it’s grown a little bit… and now it looks like this

A log cabin cushion cover with ties

It’s made out of one large log cabin block (18 inch block), which I backed with fusible fleece and just quilted simply around the ‘logs’.

Making the block used some of all those many small bits of fabric that get left around here. The back I made out one 18 inch square of fabric, so I can’t really call that a ’scrap’.

The back of the cushion cover - it uses Dandelion Fields in Mist

All the fabrics are from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain range, (apart from the plain/solid colour which is ‘Blue Raspberry’ from Moda) and I used a mix of the softer blues and the really intense indigo’s and turquoises’. When I first started sewing this block together it was going to be an envelope back cushion cover but I succumbed to the temptation of the ties…. I’m quite pleased with the ties .

So, does knowing that this is an 18 inch cushion help give an idea of the pattern scales of the fabric I used, or does the fact that I’ve used them in a patchwork block confuse the issue?

There are always questions to answer when you drop in here aren’t there? But, it’s proving to be a really interesting conversation…

Speak soon…

Fabric from Amy butler's Aquatic colour palette

Some people, I know are brave enough to ask for samples… quite sensible if you’re trying to match fabric with some that you already have or putting together a quilt. But is there anything else that might help given that we don’t (yet) live in a Star Trek like world where samples can be ‘beamed’ across the airwaves in a nano second!

Does it help to see the fabric used in a completed project? I’m thinking particularly, of those designers who blog and produce sewing patterns using their own fabric lines, plus the multitude of other crafters who also blog. I know that sometimes that sends me off looking for paticular patterns and designs. Does this wealth of ‘visual’ information help you to have the confidence to mix and match fabrics for yourself? Would shopping on-line for fabric be more difficult without this?

What kind of information do you look for in fabric descriptions? I try to include a description of the colour but that of course is quite subjective. I’m going to resolve some of these issues with matching and contrasting some of the ‘pink’, ‘roses’ ‘fuschia’ and ‘green’ type colours in some of Amy Butler’s fabrics by getting some of her ’solids’ fabrics. But they’ve yet to arrive. I’ve also been wondering whether it’s useful to include care information; details of washing and drying etc. ? At the moment I only supply this if I’m asked for it.

Fabrics from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain - Basil palette

For now anyway, I’m holding on tightly to the belief that fabric bundles help. I get a great deal of pleasure in putting fabrics side by side and seeing the effect they have on each other, which is why I think that the bundles are helpful. (… did you think I was just being self-indulgent, tsk, tsk) Also I think that it gives you the opportunity to see the patterns side by side, you can see the sizes of the fabric prints in relation to one another and you can get an idea of how they interact and ‘work’ together.

These fabric bundles from the Daisy Chain range are based on Amy’s own colour palettes. Look I even got a bit carried away and took a more ‘draped’ looking photograph to accompany them, just to show a little more of the fabric you understand.

The more 'draped' photograph

But is that enough?

I should love to hear what you think about all this.

In the meantime I’m sticking to putting fabric bundles together…. it’s fun, playing with the prints and the colours…. and I’ve all the Midwest Modern, Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner fabrics to work my way through….

Working out some bundles from Pop Garden - Heather Bailey

So, how about a giveaway ? I haven’t had one for a while. How about this?

Another bundle of fabrics from Daisy Chain - also from the aquatic palette

and of course it’s more drapey partner.

The 'draped' photograph...

All you have to do is respond to this post by leaving a comment and I’ll use the ‘random number generator thingy’ to randomly select a number…. and that person will be the winner of some lovely fat quarters…. all this excitement will take place on the 23rd September which is a Wednesday.

Speak soon

Amy Butler softwares CD

Now despite a great deal of temptation, I do manage not to have a personal copy of everything that appears in the shop. But I do like to have tried out a selection of the patterns. It helps me have an informed opinion to share if I’m asked for advice or help. This can be good or bad but as least for the most part my answers are based on first-hand experience.

This was too much to resist though: Amy Butler softwares contains 22 sewing projects on a CD – that’s 8 quilts, 3 table runners, 7 pillows/cushions, 1 floor cushion and 3 bags.

…Carry all Carry anything bag – big, roomy and beautiful

…Something to get my teeth into. They’re all new sewing projects and they’re all designed by Amy Butler.

There are also nine bonus projects in case that’s not enough sewing but these are actually the ‘free patterns’ on Amy’s website, which are PDF’s to download and use. You’ll find those here (Link) They’re at the bottom of the menu.

I’ve often said in the past that frequently the most time consuming part of any new sewing adventure for me is the selection of fabrics, which colours, which designs. You change one element and the whole look changes, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s inspired and sometimes … well … you start again.

It’s also true that often that’s part of the fun, but equally it can just get frustrating. Something that ’softwares’ allows you to do, which isn’t as easy when armed only with a paper pattern, your imagination and maybe a few fabric swatches, is to try out your ideas. It’s possible to design using the software tools and ‘virtual swatches’ of Amy’s fabrics to experiment with different colourways and different prints, giving you a good indication of what your completed project would look like – before you start spending on more fabric! (Please click on the images to make them larger.)

… I like the graphic impact of this solids quilt…

The sewing projects on the CD are self-contained and can be printed off as PDF’s to use just as any paper sewing pattern or instructions you might purchase. There’s also an inspiration gallery on the CD so you can see the projects in different colourways and in use in different settings. Loads of gorgeous photographs just like you’d find on Amy’s website. All to help get the ’sewing’ tastebuds drooling!

Softwares isn’t just a new way of presenting a pattern/instructions for you to print out however, it comes with a set of software ‘tools’ which allows you to customise the original projects and add a little of your own creativity into the mix. Some projects are more ‘customisable’ than others. For instance, there is a great deal more that you can do with the quilts, pillow/cushions, and table runners than with the bag designs. But there’s still a great deal of fun to be had!

…a gorgeous table runner… each set of instructions also tells you what fabrics (with fabric codes) were used in the example so that you can replicate it exactly if you wish…

Not everyone will want to alter the projects, but if you get tempted the CD contains some quite detailed instructions as to how to go about modifying and adding your own creative twist. You can add borders; plain or patterned, alter the sizes of the finished project, print out a pattern and get the fabric requirements for your version. You can choose to ‘fussy cut’ your fabric and the program will work out the fabric requirements. You can even try out different threads to get an idea of what the quilting would look like.

Table runner pattern modified from Amy Butler softwares

If you’re a quilter who’s ever used EQ6 software you’ll already be familiar with this method of designing and because ’softwares’ has been developed with the ‘Electric Quilts software company’, Amy Butler ’softwares’ is compatible with EQ6. What this means is that the sewing projects on the Amy Butler ’softwares’ can be imported into EQ6 ( you will need to save the projects in Amy Butler softwares first ) and modified using the full design functionality that EQ6 offers.

Modifcation of Amy's 'any way you slice it solids quilt'

In terms of system requirements, It runs on a PC using windows XP or Vista but will run on a Macintosh running Windows plus virtualization software (such as Parallels) (Umm! better persuade the children to let me at the PC then! Never easy….) More detailed system requirements are given on the shop. You will also need to be able to use Adobe Reader 7.0 (free) or higher for the PDF patterns.

But enough chatter, I hope to have something to show you that I’ve made using the designs soon, so I’d best get started……