Caroline's Crafting and ........

My New Toy Has Arrived !!!!!

2009-11-12T19:55:00.002Z

Ok, after having Kerry give me a kick up the backside, I realised I haven't posted about my new sewing machine since I got it. Very lapse I know, but the truth is that I've been so excited about it that I haven't stopped playing with it.

I had lots of things I needed to get done on Saturday, so Jon agreed to drive over to Sheffield to pick up my new sewing machine. I was like a kid on Christmas Day when I saw the car coming up the drive. I anxiously opened the door with a little frustration that he had to take a couple of other things out first in order to get it out. Now, my car is only little (Citreon C3 Pluriel), and the box was absolutely HUGE. I have absolutely no idea looking in my boot how on earth he managed to actually get it in there.

Anyway, he brought the box inside and I eagerly opened it. Gen was well under my feet trying to get in there to have a look, she was as excited as I was (well maybe not quite). I couldn't believe the size of the machine, it really does need to be seen in 'the flesh' to be believed. I was shocked to say the least. I know it was bigger than my old one as the hoops for it were larger, but I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it is.

The other thing that shocked me were the embroidery carriage and hoops, they come in their own hard case, which is also VERY big. It's a great thing to have in order to protect them, but goodness knows where I'm going to store it when I'm not using it.

It took me about 10 mins to get through all of the packaging and set it up in the middle of my lounge (it's still sitting there too, as I keep having a play).

It's arrival is just in time for a craft fair that I am going to on Saturday. I've been busy playing … I mean embroidering with my machine. I've done around 30 bibs with funny slogans on them, and have had a great deal of fun making them. This machine is so much faster than my old one being able to embroidery up to 1,000 stitches per minute! Whereas my old one could only manage 600. Hopefully, the fair will go well and I'll get quite a few orders like I did when I attended the same one last year.

Talking of orders, I'm currently working on a few PE bags for customers who have ordered via my website. Hopefully, people are looking for Christmas gifts to give and more orders will be received over the next few weeks.

New Machine!

2009-10-28T10:44:00.001Z

I know I'm really lapse in my postings, again it's been about 3 weeks since I last wrote something in my blog. But I really haven't had much to write about lately. Life here is rather dull and boring, as I'm sure I've mentioned before.

I did take my embroidery machine to the Brother dealer that I mentioned in my last posting. They came to the conclusion that the machine was actually beyond repair. Now as you will know from previous postings I rely on my embroidery machine a great deal. I have been completely lost without it over the last few weeks. We made the decision to purchase a new machine. I am currently awaiting delivery of the fantastic Brother 4000. I am honestly like a child waiting for Christmas. I am so excited at the prospect of owning such a wonderful machine.

The facility that this new machine has compared to my 2100 is astronomical. Previously with my 2100 it was necessary to write all of the designs that I wanted onto a Brother memory card. When I needed a different design I had to override the designs were already on there. Due to the cost implication, I had no way of storing favourite / popular designs on memory cards for easy retrieval. This will become a thing of the past us with the new 4000 as this can be linked directly to a laptop containing my designs. The embroidery designs are sent directly to the new machine without the need to use the Brother memory card any longer.

Designs can also be stored on to a USB memory stick of which the price difference is extremely vast. A USB memory stick costs in the region of £8.00 or less, whilst a Brother memory card has a much higher cost at round £65.00!

If you would like to take a look of the details of my new machine you can do so at the following site … http://www.brother.co.uk/display.cfm/id/127000

I think that's about all for now, I've got a few craft fairs booked in during November. Once I get my new machine delivered, I will be an extremely busy bee getting all of the items embroidered ready to take with me.

Happy Crafting xx

What a carry on !!!

2009-10-01T13:08:00.001+01:00

I know it's been some time since I last posted. Things have been rather hectic here that's for sure. Although I guess that is nothing new at all is it. The worst thing that's happened is my embroidery machine isn't working at the moment. I am completely lost without it I've got a pile of things that need to be done, I even mended something by hand the other day!!! I'm taking it over to Sheffield on Saturday to my Brother Dealer and hopefully he'll be able to fix it. If not, it looks like I'm going to have to purchase a new one which I don't relish whatsoever. I've been advised by several agents that the current day equivalent of my machine will cost me £3,300!! I think that if it comes down to it, I'll have to purchase another from eBay as I can't justify spending so much money on a machine.

Jon decided over the weekend to sell his car. He's been contemplating this for quite some time. I think the fact that he's had to call the RAC out 3 times over the past couple of months was the deciding factor. Don't get the wrong idea, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his car at all. The problem is that now he's commuting to work on the train, he was only doing around 6 miles per week. Now with a 3l engine, it just wasn't enough to charge the battery, and it was constantly going flat.

I've been desperate for a new laptop and finally managed to get one yesterday. Jon kindly bought it for me with some of the money he got from the sale of his car. It's a wonderful machine, and I've finally come into the 21^st Century with both Office '07 and Microsoft Vista. I know I'm probably miles behind everyone else with that one, but it's a huge thing for me right now. I've been very anti-Vista since it was launched, but after spending a few hours on it with the kids at school and last night, I'm finding my way around it slowly but surely. I'm even typing this in Microsoft Word for publishing into Blogger … hopefully it will work first time. So far, I've managed to set up my email accounts in Microsoft Outlook. I thought it would take ages for me to work it out, but actually took only a couple of minutes …. Am | good or what! Lol. Isn't it typical though that I obtain Vista just prior to Microsoft launching their new 'Windows 7'. Oh well, I guess that one will be a few years down the line. My biggest challenge right now is how I'm going to get all of the information from my old machine onto the new one. When you consider the fact that I have around 250,000 embroidery designs on there, it's not going to be easy ….arrrrrrrrghhhhhhh.

My studying seems to be going well. I'm still waiting for a lot of information to come through from the college, but I'm really enjoying it. As part of my studies, I'm working in school all day on a Monday and Friday and then on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Hopefully this leaves me the time to go to sewing club on a Tuesday, that's if the work doesn't overtake me and I end up writing essays on Tuesdays (on my nice new laptop of course!).

Talking of sewing club, Jo showed us how to make some Christmas Decorations this week. They are really cute, and a lovely size to place on a Christmas tree. I made a small star by folding material. I then covered a polystyrene ball with material and finished off with ribbon and a few beads. Finally, I made an adorable Christmas Tree using yo-yo's. These were extremely simple to make and look lovely. I made mine with the same material, but they looked just as nice using 2 or even 3 different fabrics which some of the other ladies did.

I guess my next task is to start thinking about Christmas presents. I haven't got a clue what to purchase for Genevieve, she has everything that she needs. I was going to buy her a new Nintendo DS as hers has a broken screen. However, she used the money that she had been given for her birthday and bought one herself which has been delivered today. She has absolutely no idea either what she would like. Maybe I should write to Santa and ask him what girls are asking for this year.

Craft Fair Preparations

2009-08-25T21:01:00.011+01:00

Well, preparations for the craft fair are coming along very nicely. I've had a bit of a dilema knowing whether what I've got is sufficient or whether it's too much. I guess I won't know until Monday when it's all over and finished.

These are the little girls tote bags that I've made. They are available with either a matching or co-ordinating purse. They really are a sweet item for those little girls who just love to be all grown up and carry a shopping bag 'just like mummy'.

I've embroidered a few bibs that will be available for sale at the weekend. These look so cute and most would suit either a baby boy or girl.

I've also got lots of PE bags made up ready, I hope that they will sell as well as they have from my website. Keep your fingers crossed!

I am also taking some ceramic items that I've painted which I hope will sell.

I'll update early next week and let you all know how the fair went.

To digress a little .....

I've set up an embroidery gift section on my website. It is up and running, and orders can be made on there. We have found a few teething problems that I hope to sort out soon.

I'm also hoping to set up a Personalised Ceramic Gifts part within my website soon - watch this space !!!!

Busy few days.

2009-08-17T21:11:00.003+01:00

I seem to have been suffering a little from insomnia over the past week. Two nights I've not actually got to sleep until around 5am, and the others it's been at least 2am! You'd think going to bed at that time, that I'd still be there around noon, but no, I was actually up and around no later than 8am all week. It all well and truely caught up with me yesterday.

I decided yesterday was the day that I was going to go in and sort out my sewing room. Over the past few months, things have been steadily creeping their way in there and generally making the room a dumping ground. Well no longer, I've sorted through everything. Thrown out loads of rubbish that seems to have been accumulated in there. I've moved all of the furniture around (with a little help from hubby). All my U.F.O.'s are now neatly sitting in a drawer rather than all over the cutting area. I've found material that I didn't know I had, that is now neatly folded in another drawer. I have now also got a drawer for scraps that Genevieve has already claimed for her crafting projects.

I have a few things left to do in there, which I'll hopefully manage to finish tomorrow afternoon. I'll then take a couple of snapshots for all to see.

I spent 6 hours in there sorting and sifting and moving yesterday. After I had finished, I was feeling really tired and my back was aching. I laid down on the bed about 5.30 and promptly fell asleep! I woke up when Jon came to bed around 10.30. I laid awake for a while and considered getting up as I was now wide awake, but decided to persevere with it and after a while, I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 8.30 this morning! I think I had around 13-14 hours sleep. I obviously needed it and I do feel a lot better today.

On a high note today - Ferret's book arrived! It certainly hasn't disappointed, the book is absolutely fantastic! Check it out http://ferfab.blogspot.com/2009/08/theyre-here-and-they-are-ready-to-go.html

When do you stop??

2009-08-16T01:30:00.002+01:00

I've been extremely busy this week making items for the Craft Fair. I've got loads done. So far, I have about 12 PE bags made up with about another 5/6 that I've embroidered and are sitting waiting to be made up. Hopefully I'll get round to doing these over the next day or two.

Today, I've embroidered 12 baby bibs. I have taken pics, and will hopefully get them posted on here soon. I have updated my other blog with PE bags that I have available for immediate despatch. These are limited in availability as I will be taking what I have left to the craft fair.

I went to my local fabric store this morning and purchased some wonderful material. I have the same design in 2 colours (pink and yellow) that I'm going to make some tote bags suitable for little girls complete with matching purses. I'm also thinking of making some drawstring bags with this material, as it is sooooo pretty.

Secondly, I got some 'camouflage' material in blue that I thought would make some nice coin purses for boys. I've cut this up to also make 2 little tote bags for the 'tomboy' girls too. And lastly but certainly by no means least, I purchased some denim to make purses with.

All of the material is currently sitting on my table, all cut up and waiting to be either sewn up or embroidered onto. This is my job tomorrow.

Once I've finished sewing, I then need to pack everything back upstairs so that I can get some glazing done. I've got loads sitting waiting to be dipped from recent events. I've been putting it off because I've had all my sewing stuff all over the kitchen table. But if I don't get into the swing of it soon, I won't have them all finished for delivery when the kids go back to school.

Jon has next week off work, we were hoping to get away for a few days, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen. I'm going to sewing class as usual on Tuesday, then hopefully we're going to go out for lunch somewhere. I've got a pottery painting workshop booked in for Wednesday, and as it's in Grimsby, if the weather is nice, we're going to take Gen to the beach (don't tell her though as it's a surprise!).

Thursday is going to be the best day of all next week. I'm off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=22. Originally, I arranged to go with the ladies from sewing group, however when I mentioned it at home, Jon said that he would like to go too. Maybe he's making sure I don't spend any money lol. Anyway, I knew that Genevieve would love to go too, so we're having a family day out. It's going to be a very tiring day, but well worth it. I can't wait to see Ferret's creations (http://www.ferfab.co.uk/). I know she has been working extremely hard to get new creations made in time for the exhibition. One in particular she was working on when she was up here to teach. From viewing her blog, her ideas and designs look as amazing as always, but photographs, especially when they're only snippets do not do the finished articles any justice whatsoever.

Will take lots and lots of pics (where I can anyway).

C x

Purses :-)

2009-08-03T21:25:00.007+01:00

As some of you know, I've decided to do a craft fair over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August. I'm planning on making a few PE bags to sell on there, along with various other embroidered items. I realised in my planning that I didn't have many 'pocket money' items that children could purchase on their way around.

With this in mind, I purchased an 'in hoop' purse embroidery design. I was a little unsure when I downloaded the design - I hate instructions, those who really know me know that I would much rather do things, and look at instructions when I get stuck. But this needed careful reading as I had no idea where to start. I cut all my material to make a purse and set to sewing. WOW how easy they were to make. Once you've cut to the desired lengths, that's completely it. ALL of the hard work is done for you. There's even a little 'notch' to show you were to position the little 'money pockets'. I've made 16 of these today in various colours, some with little embroideries on the flap and some plain.

I really did enjoy making these, and hope that they will sell well at the craft fair.

Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

2009-07-14T22:58:00.012+01:00

Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

As previously mentioned, I was extremely lucky enough to attend a 2 day workshop recently to learn 'ART QUILTING'. We had a fabulous weekend, and I learnt a great deal. Here are a few photographs of the samples that I made during that time.

Our workshop got off to a flying start on Saturday morning with the unveiling of a quilt that I've been in awe of ever since I saw it on Ferret's website. (photograph courtesy of http://www.ferfab.co.uk/). It is a truely stunning design, and upclose it certainly didn't disappoint. It's one that I truely hope to aspire to (with lots of time, and even more practise!).

Whilst she was there, Ferret was working on another 'Portrait Art Quilt'. It was great to see how she takes a photograph and looks at the shades and hues in the colours to turn it into a quilt. I hope that she has had the time to complete this one, as it would be lovely to see the design from the conception to completion.

We started sewing in my 'comfort zone' and made a quilt sandwich using approx 1m square of black fabric. We divided this into 4 squares which was then to be used as our sample / practise piece throughout the weekend. Firstly, we played with decorative stitches on our respective machines. This is quite easy, I thought! I can do this. Hmmmmm .... cocky? Stupid? Idiotic? All 3?

For the second square, we were asked to 'write' our names using the machine. Ok, getting a little trickier now. There are a few letters in my name that don't flow naturally when you don't have a choice but to do 'joined up' writing. You can't take your needle off the canvas as you would a pencil. It's not precisely hand-written quality, but I don't think that I did too bad a job of it.

Next, we were all shown various drawings on Ferret's white board. (I'm sure that girl has shares in the whiteboard marker company, as she seemed to have a never ending supply!). Now the designs she produced on the whiteboard were beautiful, many were totally stunning. As she drew them, they flowed so naturally, and looked fairly simple when you knew where you were going. However, when you were then told to go away and stitch them .... hmmmmmm not as easy as it seems.

I had big problems with my machine as I started to the 'free motion' quilting designs. I broke 4 needles within a very short period of time. I was becoming more and more stressed as I carried on. I was very wary of moving the fabric by this stage for fear of breaking yet another needle. Fortunately for me, Jo brought out her old faithful Husqvarna D1. This worked a dream - it didn't make my stitching any better, but it sure made it an awful lot easier now I didn't have to worry so much.

Unfortunately though, the psychological damage had already been achieved. My confidence had taken a great knock in the morning with all those needles, I was so convinced that I was doing something wrong that I just could concentrate completely. Even with Jo's machine, I was still waiting for a needle to break.

However, on Sunday, after a good nights sleep, I came back to the workshop with a whole new attitude to it. I sat down, and completely ignored my machine that was sitting at the back of my table. I set to work quilting my 'mini wholecloth' that I had prepared on Jo's machine. I divided the square up into different shapes which I then filled in with various designs. There's a lot of flaws on there, but for a first attempt, it isn't too bad. Some of the designs maybe difficult to see as I played rather 'safe' with the colours that I chose to use in both the material and the threads.

The photograph on the left here is of the back. the designs can be seen a lot clearer, however so can the mistakes including a few 'bird nests'!

All in all, I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, however next time, I would ensure that I had a different machine from the start so that I wouldn't have to cope with the stresses of machine errors. I know a lot of bad workmen/women blame their tools, but in this case it truely was my machine that has taken a dislike to free-motion quilting.

Bags

2009-07-12T08:39:00.013+01:00

Wow, how busy was I last week. As I mentioned in my previous posting, I needed to make 17 bags in rather a short period of time. However, I managed it, and here are the results of my hard work. Fifteen of them were for a nursery. The manager chose a beautiful spring bug and very cute butterfly. Both of which stitched out lovely.

They were all personalised with the children's names and then the nursery on the back. Please note, that to safeguard the children, I have not taken photographs of the back of any of these bags.

Jorja's mum chose a catterpillar for her design which fits in nicely with her class theme. These were stitched and made into both a PE and matching shoe bag ready for Jorja to start 'big' school in September.

What's been happening?

2009-07-09T21:57:00.003+01:00

Anyone wondering why I haven't posted the photographs that i promised? There is a reason - and a good one too.

On Monday evening, I received an email from a lady asking me to make her 15 PE bags. She runs a nursery and had a great idea of giving each of the children one to take with them as they leave to go to attend 'big school'. The only problem was that she needed them before Monday of next week!

Impossible task? ? ? You may think that, indeed I certainly did when I received the message. Surely I would need all weekend to enable me to make this quantity and the PE & Shoe bag that I had already received an order for. Especially with the amount of time that I've been in school this week.

Well I certainly love a challenge and rose to the task in hand. Each bag needed to be embroidered with a cute design (a spring bug for the boys and a butterfly for the girls). I also embroidered each one with the childs name on the front, and the nursery on the back. I knew that they would take around an hour each to complete just the embroidery. So time was very precious indeed this week.

I spent all day Tuesday embroidering the designs on the front on the bags.

When I came back from school on Wednesday I got straight to work embroidering the backs of the bags. I programmed the name into my machine and made it into an arch and added the year. I loved how well they stitched out.

Finally on Thursday, I spent the afternoon sewing up the bags and added the cords.

I completed all 17 bags just before Jon walked through the door at 8pm. I was so impressed with my time management. They're all now sitting in a box in my lounge awaiting a trip to the Post Office tomorrow. I hope that they will all be received in time after all the hard work that I've put into making them.

It was too dark to take photographs this evening after I'd finished, so that's a task for the morning before I visit the Post Office.

UPDATES

2009-07-02T20:32:00.004+01:00

Oh my, how time does fly when you're having fun. Things have been rather hectic here recently with one thing or another - although there's nothing at all unusual in that now is there.

I finished my swap pincushion, and after a slow start due to missing emails eventually sent it to my partner. I decided to hand sew a felt cushion which took me most of a day to make, however I was really pleased with the results.

The pincushion I received is absolutely beautiful, unfortunately, my camera isn't working at the moment so I haven't been able to take pictures. However, my brother is visiting at the weekend and i've already asked him to bring his over so hopefully I'll manage to take some then.

Gen was extremely happy with the 4 letters that she received. She does keep asking why she hasn't received the 5th letter, which I haven't been able to give her an answer. She's hoping to write back to the children that have written to her, hopefully she'll manage to do this soon.

Last weekend, I atttended a workshop at Jo's http://hobbyholidays.blogspot.com/ . The tutor that she had invited to run the workshop was the fabulous Ferret http://ferfab.blogspot.com/. She was an inspiration to all who attended. I will post a seperate update regarding this, hopefully with photos.

I was back at Oasis Academy this week to complete a tile project with the Year 6 transition students. I had a great time meeting everyone, and am really looking forward to seeing all of their glazed masterpieces displayed when the school re-opens in September after the Summer break. Again, I will post photographs when I can take them.

I've received 2 orders for PE bags from customers who have found my website following a Google search which is fantastic news.

ooooooh .... last but certainly not least ... I've finished the top of Gen's quilt this week!!! I just need to buy the wadding and backing and then quilt it up. Again, pics to follow soon.

letter swap.

2009-06-02T22:49:00.004+01:00

Here is a very proud Genevieve with the first letter that she received as part of http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/ 's kids letter swap. She was so excited to receive the letter from Eamonn a couple of days ago. He included a picture that he had drawn of a platypus which Gen had never seen before. She also received a lovely pencil with pictures of Australian animals down it, this has now gone into her desk drawer and she has assured me that she won't sharpen it as she wants to keep it to remind her of her penpal (sweet!)

She has also received a letter yesterday from Jade who is another Australian. Jade sent a map of Australia to show where she lived and a lovely letter. Gen particularly liked the picture that Jade drew for her too.

I had to laugh as when I picked Gen up from school yesterday, I told her that a letter was waiting for her from Jade in Australia. She said that it would be nice to communicate through MSN and wondered if they have computers in Australia! I didn't go into how she thought that they had signed up for the swap if they didn't have a computer! LOL.

Swap Update

2009-05-14T18:47:00.002+01:00

Well, I now have one even more excited little girl. What great news to give her when she came out of her exam.

Christie has sent details of her swap partners. Her face when I told her she would be communicating with children from different countries was so wonderful to see.

She will be exchanging letters with :-

2 boys - One from America and one from Australia

2 girls - again one from America and one from Australia

and last (but certainly not least) sisters from America who have joined the swap together.

She has already drafted her letters, she just needs to print them out and get them posted which will hopefully be on Saturday.

I really do hope that this is the start of long lasting pen-pal friendships.

Good luck to all those participating, I'm sure your children are just as excited as Gen is.

Another Swap!!!!

2009-05-07T15:29:00.002+01:00

This time I've signed Gen up - Every time the post lady arrives, she asks the same question 'why is there never any letters for me Mum?' .... well now there will be 5 of them for her! woohoo she'll enjoy this one for sure. Although it does mean that she has to write 5 letters too LOL.

If you would like to sign your kids up too, then the link is http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/2009/05/kids-mail-swap-2-sign-ups.html

Happy Crafting xxx

Pincushion Summer Swap

2009-05-06T23:13:00.002+01:00

I've just signed up for Sandra's (http://www.quiltathome.blogspot.com/) Pincushion Summer Swap .... why not join me in this creative crafting swap .... just click on her link for more information.

Beads, Beads and even more Beads!

2009-05-03T16:13:00.012+01:00

First of all are you impressed .... two postings in one day! Maybe a hangover isn't such a bad thing afterall LOL.

I've been saying for a while now that I really must put some photographs of my beaded jewellery both on my website and here on my blog. Well today I've finally managed to get the time to do them! wooohoooo. I've taken pics of all the necklaces I currently have in stock. I have made more but didn't take pics before I sold them. I will be putting more details onto my website with regards to lengths and pricing etc. so if anyone would like to make a purchase, then please let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

Here goes : -

I also make charm, they make fantastic accessories for your mobile phone / PDA / MP3 players etc. I also use them on my scissors to avoid any confusion when I go to sewing class - it's so easy to pick up someone else's scissors if they are the same as yours, these beautiful charms avoid all that confusion. The one on my brown scissors has a little bell so it jingles as I cut :-)

Embroidered Blocks Galore!

2009-05-03T13:15:00.011+01:00

I know there will be some reading my postings who aren't sure of what a Tripple Irish Chain looks like. The pic above shows a plan that I worked out on my computer using Excel and colouring in the squares - easy peasy. The middle 'chain' should actually be a darker shade of blue, but it printed out the same colour as the 2 chains either side. This centre chain is the one that I'm making with the lighter fabric instead of a darker one.

Here is the first block finished (I've made 4 so far but need to purchase more material before I can make more). I think that the centre pale chain stands out really well against the other fabrics. Although, you won't get to see the 'chains' until I have put quite a few blocks together.

These are a selection of the embroidered squares that I have done to place in the middle of the second blocks. I've used about 4 different designs and stitched them in various colour combinations. I didn't want these to detract from the chains, therefore I have only used 4 colours (lilac, purple, fuschia and green). Unfortunately I did make an error when cutting the blocks. I knew that I needed them to be 10" finished square. So dutifully I cut them all to 10 1/2" to allow 1/4" seam allowance. As I put the first one in the embroidery machine, realisation hit me - I should have cut them slightly larger as the embroidery will pull the material in slightly. Unfortunately, I was right (for a change LOL). The squares are now measuring approx 10 1/4". I think what I'm going to do to rectify the problem is cut them down a little more and add a border around them in one of the other material. Hopefully, when I've finished, it will look as though this was my intention from the beginning!

This last photograph gives a bit of insight as to how the second block will look when it's put together. The squares aren't in the correct order around the sides as I just laid the embroidered square on top of one of the block #1's. But at least it gives an idea of where I'm going with this one.

Baby Gift

2009-05-02T18:59:00.006+01:00

As promised, photographs of the baby gift I made for my friend. I embroidered a bib, face cloth and muslin cloth with this Winnie the Pooh design and added the baby's name. I thought that they looked beautiful altogether. The green in the background of the design is cotton material that is stitched on first as an applique. I've used this design quite a few times and never tire of it. When I've done this for girls, I tend to use a pink butterfly material which looks stunning too.

In doing my bit to save the planet, I try not to use unecessary packaging, so thought it would be a nice idea to wrap the gifts in the muslin rather than using wrapping paper. I added a little blue wool to keep it altogether. I then placed them in a small paper carrier bag made from recycled paper. I loved the end result.

All stripped and ready for action!!!!!

2009-04-30T15:22:00.010+01:00

woohooooo ... how many men have peaked because of the title??? LMAO

I've made a start on Gen's quilt (shush don't tell her as it's a surprise for her birthday). I've cut up plenty of strips and am ready for action. This quilt is going to be a Tripple Irish Quilt. She saw the design I had made on the computer and said she liked it. I innocently asked her what colours she would use if she was making it and 'PURPLE' was her answer. I was hoping she would choose blue as that seems to be her favourite at the minute and I didn't relish the thought of another purple quilt this quickly, but if that's what she wants, then who am I to argue.

I'm not going to write too much detail in this posting, as I'll do a full one when I've actually finished the quilt. However, as promised to Kerry, I'll post a quilt teaser of photographs below to make sure you come back to see the finished item (hopefully not too long away).

I needed 4 fabrics for the design, I found a wonderful batik fabric (http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=FQ4355) and decided that this was going to be the material I would base the other colours around. It was a struggle, we had almost every purple fabric off of the shelves to compare them together and spent a lot of time, but we got there in the end. I chose http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=ST3329509 and http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CC575111t. After a suggestion from Jo, I decided that instead of a darker colour in the middle of the chains, I would use the light colour again, therefore only needed 3 fabrics.

To ensure that I was on the right track, I showed Gen the colours last night and she loved them - Although I did fib and tell her that it was another quilt for Jo! lol

FABRICS

EMBROIDERY

Going Potty over Pottery!!!!

2009-04-26T13:43:00.026+01:00

I have has many customers during the 3 1/2 years we have been running Potter Doodle Doo, some come back time after time whilst others just come along for something different. Either way it's always a pleasure to see their creations. Each and every time I open up the kiln after a firing, I'm like a kid in a sweetie shop. The colours and designs really do come alive during the firing process. Many have asked what happens to their items when I take them home so I thought that I would write a posting which will hopefully explain the process.

Those who have attended will know that we start off with a blank plate. This is called bisque or bisqueware which is a clay product that has been fired without any glazes. All of the tableware items that we sell are imported from either Italy or America by our supplier.

The bisque is painted using a non-toxic, lead free coloured glaze. The brand that we use is called 'Stroke & Coat' and is made by a company called 'Mayco' http://maycocolors.com/ in America. As this glaze is water based, it is suitable for using to make wonderful baby footprints. The colours aren't very interesting when painting, however the effect after firing is fabulous.

I use a super high gloss unleaded glaze which is made in Italy. It gives a wonderful sheen and shine to the surface of the item. The item is held with a pair of tongs and then dipped into the bucket of glaze. This covers the item with a light blue / green colour which if you haven't seen before can be quite concerning.

Here on the left is a selection of pottery waiting to be glazed.

As my website states, we are a family business, and many of your will have seen Gen at the events and workshops that I have run. She is always asking to help during the glazing process, but I don't allow her to dip items unless she hasn't painted them herself. Tiles however are unsuitable for dipping as you do not want to have glaze on the underside of them, therefore we brush glaze these. As you can see, Gen was in her element glazing these for me, she was so proud when they came out of the kiln - you would think that she had actually painted them all herself not just glazed them.

Items that have been dipped and are now drying out waiting to be fettled.

Once the items have been dipped, they are left on the table to dry, the time this takes depends upon how warm the room is. In the Summer, items dry in just a few minutes, however in the cold of Winter, it can take upto half an hour or so.

When they are dry, they are 'fettled' this involves removing any glaze from the 'foot' of the item. The foot is the area underneath your pot that sits on the table, if glaze is not removed from this area it will fuse to the shelf in the kiln. It is done by firstly scraping the area with a fettling knife and then sponging with a damp cloth to ensure that all is removed.

The kiln I have is a Paragon Kiln (again made in America), this will hold approximately 20 plates with special plate racks. I can get approximately 45-50 mugs in there at once. They are then loaded into the kiln for firing (unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the kiln loaded up - SORRY!)

The kiln takes approximately 8 hours to reach the high temperature of just over 1000 degrees celcius and then about another 8 hours to cool down again. The cooling period can be longer during hot weather. I don't open the kiln until it is showing about 30-40 degrees at which point I leave for at least another hour with the lid open as the items are usually a lot hotter than the ones at the top. being a bit stupid last week, I opened up the kiln and thought.... 'oooooh that's a lovely mug' at which point I decided to pick it up to take a better look! How dumb was that idea, I burnt my hand on it. If it had been anything else, i would have dropped it instantly but knowing that it was something a customer had lovingly painted, I grinned and gently put it down on the top of the kiln controller ... now how's that for dedication! LOL.

Below are some photographs of fired items, these were all painted at events that took place over the Easter Holiday 2009. I apologise in advance, I didn't have time to take photographs of everything, so just chose a few at random. If you would like to see your item on my blog or website, then please email me a photograph of your item, including your age, name and where you painted it and I will display it for you.

How does this strange looking substance go clear?? WELL! It's all part of the firing process which sees the kiln heat to temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees celcius! How I explain this to the children is the fact that the kiln gets over 4 times hotter than the oven in your kitchen. The coloured glaze that was used to paint your design also undergoes a chemical reaction to the heat and becomes a lot more vibrant giving some stunning colours and effects.

These tiles were painted at an event I did on Easter Monday for Oasis Church Wintringham. Guests were invited to paint a tile with what Easter means to them. We had a varied selection of tiles painted from beautiful Spring flowers and Easter Eggs through to the Cross. These are going back to the individuals who painted them which in a way is a shame as they look wonderful all together there on the table.

Spring Garden

2009-04-24T22:21:00.015+01:00

I know I promised my next post to be about Ceramics, but I haven't yet managed to take some pictures of complete items and I just couldn't resist posting some of the snaps that I took of the tubs in my garden a couple of days ago. They are all coming along nicely now, it looks like Spring has finally arrived - especially considering the weather that we have had over the past week.

This pic is of my extremely expensive greenhouse LOL. A bargain from The Range costing £12.99 which was half price. Makes a change me getting a bargain purchase.

On the right is my lavender which is just starting to send shoots off again. I have a few of these in tubs dotted around, and the smell from them in the Summer is absolutely wonderful. Especially if you rub your hand across them. I really do like the smell of lavender, but if I'm in a room with it for any length of time (e.g. a candle or air freshener), then it does start to give me a headache.

This one was an experiment. It's actually cress. Gen is keeping an eye on it to see how high she can grow it. I'm quite impressed with her efforts so far. whenever we have tried to grow cress in the past, she's forgotten to water it and it's gone all brown and yucky within a short time.

I'm good at experiments and this is another one .... believe it or not we're growing some lettuce in here. They're both mixed leaves and were planted a couple of weeks apart. I'm going to plant some more over the weekend to hopefully have a constant supply as we eat a lot of salad .... that's assuming that the damn snails don't get to em first. If you see tiny blue dots in any of the pictures, these are actually snail pellets that I've put down all around my garden to try and eradicate the problem that we have. (this area is fenced off from our doggie, therefore doesn't pose a problem for her.

ok, this shelf of the green house contains my favourites .... the back tray is strawberry seeds that we planted and the front tray contains yellow tomato seeds. The strawberry seedlings seem to be growing very nicely, however the tomatoes don't seem to be doing as good yet. I'm hoping that they will start to sprout in the coming weeks now that the weather has made a turn for the better.

I purchased 5 strawberry seedlings from B&Q last year and we got a wonderful crop from them. I'm hoping that we will have the same effect this year but from seeds. There will be a lot more plants than last year too if they all take when I plant them out, yummy strawberries and cream all summer long :-).

Gen is like myself, she absolutely adores tomatoes. I remember when I was her age, my grandad had a large greenhouse full of them. He always had at least 2 plants that were yellow, no-one was allowed near them except me. Last year Gen brought home a tomato seedling that she had planted at school. It grew very well in the conservatory, however unfortunately, we didn't get any fruit from it at all. So like I used to, she kept visiting my dad's greenhouse and pinching from her grandads crop.

Now these are something that I would never have considered planting, however when we were browsing in the garden centre they caught my eye. They are actually sweetcorn seedlings. I planted them in small pots last weekend after they had been in the greenhouse for a couple of months. I don't know if they will take or not, hence the small starter pots. But you never know with these things unless you give it a try now do you.

These are yet another item that is completely new to my garden. These seedlings are actually garden peas. They were planted at the same time as the sweet peas below, however they did sprout up quicker and are growing nicely. They are already putting feelers out ready for climbing. Once they are big enough, I plan to tie them to some string that I have for the fence. Hopefully we'll have a nice crop of fresh pod peas to have with our salad as I have 3 pots full of these.

Yes I do have some flowers in the garden too! The rectangular pots on the right contain sweet peas that I have planted directly outside. The smaller of the round pots on the left are also sweet peas, however these were given to me as seedlings that my mum had planted in her greenhouse. Hers are slightly more mature than mine, however will all of the ones that I have now I should get a really nice smelling crop during the summer ... and also plenty of seeds for next year! The larger pot in the left picture is a selection of mixed flower seeds that Gen planted.

Now I don't have a clue what these are, the yellow ones look like a flower from the daisy family, but I wouldn't swear it under oath. The purple ones are absolutely beautiful, altho unfortunately I think they were a little camera shy and didn't show up as well. I planted this tub last year with what I thought were bedding plants. It has been stuck in the corner of the garden over the winter, and hey presto just as I was about to dig all the roots out of the pot and plant something else in there, these started to sprout up.

Well I think that's my garden more or less summed up. I do have more pots containing some carrots (we had a good crop from the same brand last year), spring onions (again a lot of success previously), radish and beetroot that we haven't tried before. I will try and update the photographs in a month or so as things grow.

99 Bobbins of Cotton in the Box

2009-04-10T11:24:00.020+01:00

I started this posting on the 10th April, but unfortunately I've been too busy to upload the photographs and finish off, so I'll apologise now if the timeline seems a bit weird. I've finished all of the Pottery Painting workshops for this school holiday, and I've taken lots of photographs of the items. I'm hoping to do a long posting on this during the week especially for those who have painted with me and haven't any idea what happens between painting and me delivering the glazed item back to the schools.

Ok ... back to my sewing post ........

So, maybe 99 bobbins of cotton is a bit of an exaggeration ... but there's a lot! I decided it was time to wind all of my empty bobbins this morning .. and boy did it take a while. I've been embroidering like crazy over the last week or so and didn't realise how many I had empty, despite the fact that they were right there in front of me and I kept taking one out every ten mins or so LOL. But the dreadful job is done now and these should last me quite some time. I think there's around 50 that I've done!

When I last purchased some new embroidery threads, I decided to purchase 2 x 10,000m cones of sewing cotton. I honestly thought that I would never get through it, or if I did it would take me years to do so. With that in mind, goodness knows why I decided to purchase 2 of them. BUT during my bobbin winding marathon this morning, I've finished it! I can't believe I've used over 10,000m of thread, I knew it was starting to get low, however I was sure that it would last me a long time. I've now broken the seal on the second one and have it ready and waiting for the marathon sewing of bags today......wish me luck.

I've been wondering why my sewing machine is playing games with me today. I've had 5 broken needles within the space of about 20 mins ... very unusual as they don't break that often at all. Then the penny dropped when I looked properly .... Stooooopid me had been putting embroidery needles in there when I was sewing - no wonder they were breaking d'oh. Once I changed to a 'proper' sewing needle, the machine worked perfectly.

I was very proud of myself last weekend when I was able to post all of the bags that had been ordered. I thought it was going to be touch and go for a while as I've been so busy working, however they went out on Saturday and were received mid week after the Bank Holiday. All customers were very happy with their wares.
Little Ruby has been carrying hers around the house completely empty and won't let it out of her site ... bless her. I understand that she's going to pack a few things in it and take it to nursery with her next week.
I made this one as an Easter present, her mum has asked me to make some party gift bags with the same designs for Ruby's birthday at the end of May ...... I have an idea in my mind as to how I'm going to do them, I just need to get cracking on them soon. (it's in my task master list to ensure that I don't forget).

Nicki is getting married soon and saw my auction on eBay. She asked me if I could do a Greek Flag design for 2 children and then 2 tote bags for the Mothers. I came up with these, I received a lovely email from Nicki saying how pleased she was with them. Don't they look fantastic all together there in the photograph? The one at the bottom is an additional gift I did for Nicki for her large custom order.

The last bag was made for another lady who purchased following my auction on eBay. She asked for a rainbow which I found amongst my vast collection. The photograph doesn't do this one justice, the colours are much brighter in 'reality'.

I haven't got around to finishing off our laundry bags yet. The above ones took priority over my own sewing. I think I mentioned in my last posting that I've got them all embroidered, they just need finishing off which shouldn't take a huge amount of time.

I did however, have a play with my machine yesterday (on my one day off this week) making some labels to put inside any future bags that I make.

This is a picture of them all together and shows you how many I can make per hooping. i.e. 3 large, 4 medium or 6 small ones. I've included a £1 coin in the photographs to give an indication of sizing on the close up photographs.

These are the 3 large labels. I have my own favourite, however before I comment on any of them, I would like other opinions.

Although these labels do look ok, i was very unimpressed with how the machine stitched the border on them. I've never known it do this with anything else, but it only stitched around once and didn't knot the ends properly. As you can see in the photograph on the right, they are coming undone at the start / end point. If I decided to use this size, I would change to the border used on the smaller ones below which stitched around the whole border 3 times and knotted properly.

I love these small labels with the reel of cotton on them. I played around with these for quite some time. I didn't want to make them any bigger as I liked this size to use on the inside of Party Favour Bags. Unfortunately, however it did mean that I wasn't able to stitch the website address on one line. So, I decided to make a feature of it and spread it across 3 lines. I thought that it would be nice to stitch some in both blue and pink rather than all the same. I had images of boys opening their bags and throwing a fit because it had a pink label on the inside LOL. I like the effect, however I'm open to constructive suggestions and comments.

Gen is back to school on Tuesday, and I'm going to go off to quilting class where hopefully I can finish off Jo's quilt. I haven't been for a few weeks and am really looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Blood Tears and Toil !

2009-04-09T15:23:00.004+01:00

What a busy weekend I had. I was embroidering all day on Saturday and got quite a lot done. In between embroidery, I was on the laptop downloading hundreds of new designs. However when chatting to a friend (you know who you are!) I realised that I had spent way too much time at the laptop and machine over the past few weeks. So I decided to do something else. I picked up a book and started reading. Now, if I'm honest, I absolutely love reading, but never seem to have the time. When I start a book, I can't put it down and then I'm disappointed when I get to the end because it's all done. The book I started reading is one I purchased in Asda when I was shopping last week. It's one by Marian Keyes called 'This Charming Man'. I've read two of her books before so when I saw it on offer, I picked it up with eager anticipation. So far it hasn't disappointed at all, I'm loving every page...... yes all 883 of them! So far I'm about 3/4 of the way through it (yes since Sunday). I'll try and write a little review when I'm done.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I delivered pottery painting workshops which were fun as usual. When I've sorted out the boxes of painted items, I'll do a few 'before and after' shots with firing. It's amazing how the colours change when subjected to over 1000 degrees. I'm back next week delivering activities Mon-Thurs.

Today, I have been back at the machine again. I've embroidered flags galore! A customer wanted some bags to give as gifts at her Greek wedding. Therefore requested the Greek Flag. Personally, I think it's a great unique idea. The fact that time has been taken to obtain a personalised gift is something special. I hope she will love the items I have done for her.

Unfortunately, half way through one of the flags I had a little accident ... oops! Yes it was my own stupidity. I saw the end of the thread and decided to try and grab hold of it when the machine was running! I can see everyone reading now cringing at what comes next. Well, the screw used to tighten the needle came down full force twice on my index finger before I managed to hit the stop button, and has taken a nice little chunk out. However, being a true professional, and despite the fact that the air in here was as blue as the colour of the flags, I managed to continue the task at hand without dropping even the slightest little spot of blood on the item ... now how's that for dedication! LOL.

From my recent work, I have 9 PE / Tote bags sitting on the side with all of the embroidery and personalisation that are now waiting to be sewn together. This is my task for tomorrow as I need to go make tea and do some glazing soon. We're having toad in the hole with mashed potatoes and gravy .. yummy!

Weekend Tasks To Complete

2009-04-04T09:34:00.010+01:00

I tend to jot things on here during the day, hence one minute things are in the preparation stage and the next they're completed - sorry if anyone gets confused, but I will try and divide where I've come back later and added bits in. The way it saves having numberous postings on the same day.

Tasks I set myself for the weekend - to complete 3 laundry bags (one for each of us).

I thought that this would be a very easy task to do, but boy was I WRONG! Gen has just spent over an hour choosing the design that she would like on her bag. Then we spent another 20 minutes trying to find a nice font that I think would work with her super long name. Knowing my luck, when I start programming her name in it won't fit :-( Why didn't I name her Amy? It would have been a lot easier (and quicker) when embroidering LOL.

Gen has chosen a daisy design for the middle of her bag which is currently stitching on the machine, it should take around 50 minutes to complete this. The picture here is a screen image of the design - I think she's chosen well. She has also claimed the 'Mrs' Cute Monster design that I did yesterday. This will be on the reverse of her bag.

The next thing I need to do is choose a design for mine and Jon's bags - a womans work is never done is it LOL.

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I was rather surprised at Jon's choice - he has asked for Yogi Bear. Again, the picture on the left is a screen shot. If I'm honest, I didn't even realise that I had any Yogi Bear designs until I did a search and found a folder full of them. He's chosen one complete with BooBoo. This design takes around 1hr 10 mins to stitch out! There are 13 colour changes within the design, only one colour is repeated throughout.

Two designs chosen ... one to go!!!!

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Now, what have I chosen? Hmmmmm, I haven't a clue yet lol. I can't decide between some beautiful flowers or butterflies. I can see my bag being full of all different embroidery designs. That's the beauty of having your own machine, it doesn't matter how much time it takes as it's my own to use so I don't have to calculate 'woman' hours into the costing.

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After hours and hours of deliberation, this is the design that I have chosen for my bag. This will take around 1 hour to stitch out. As it is rather a large design (only just fitting in my large hoop), it actually stitches out in two parts. Starting on the left, it stitches Perdy and the two puppies next to her. Then when complete, it stitches Pongo and the two remaining puppies. Fortunately however, it doesn't need rehooping inbetween.

The lines that can be seen on the design in red and black are 'jump' stitches where the machine 'jumps' from one area to another. These are cut off when the design is finished (newer machines cut them automatically whilst embroidering the design.

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I'm going to get all of the sides embroidered before I stitch them together. I find it much easier this way as I don't have to keep attaching and detaching the embroidery unit of my machine.

I'll post photographs of the actual bags when I've completed them which will hopefully be tomorrow.

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OMG - my dalmations were about 2/3 of the way through embroidering when a certain little madam decided to plug in her Nintendo DS which needed charging. To be fair, she did ask first. She plugged it into my extension and pressed the button to switch the charger on. At which point my machine went off argggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! The silence in the room was so LOUD. She just didn't know what to do or say, she stood there in horror crying 'I'm so sorry mum - I'm really sorry mum'. She was very lucky that I hadn't altered the size or orientation in any way from how it loaded onto the screen so it didn't take too much work to get it back to the position where it stopped.

Usually, I've got a few things on the screen, or I move them about or resize them, and it's almost impossible to get them back in the same place again. Her angel must have been watching over her!!!!

Alls well that ends well.

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2009-04-03T19:55:00.013+01:00

Tasks completed today - not as many as yesterday, but then I haven't been sewing as much today.

Finished of a 'Mrs' Cute Monster to go with the one I did yesterday

Finished the top of Jo's quilt as far as I can

Unpacked my ceramics delivery

Watered the plants!

MR & MRS ... now wasn't that a TV programme??

Further to my posting yesterday, I decided to stitch out a 'Mrs' Monster in cute pink colours. As I thought, I wasn't at all disappointed by the outcome - quite the opposite in fact.

The darker colour on her looks blue in the photograph, but it is actually purple.

I think she looks just as cute as 'Mr' Cute Monster ... don't you think that they make a fine pair together?

In hindsight, I should have flipped the Mrs so she was facing the other way - just to distinguish her a little more from her mate.

Both of these are available for sale as PE bags immediately or I can do them onto towels / facecloths etc. Due to the amount of embroidery, they are unsuitable for baby bibs.

OFF-CENTRE LOG CABIN

Spot the difference!

When I first looked at a picture of a quilt made with this technique, I just couldn't work it out at all. I mean, if you put thick strips down one side and thin strips down the other - how can it make a square??

I must have pondered the question for about 40 mins, and drawn it out on paper twice. But I kept coming back to the same conclusion - my drawings were square (well as square as my drawings can be).

When the penny dropped, I felt so stoooooopid! I realised that I kept looking at it from the point of view of the log cabin that I had just completed, which was all central - this technique isn't central. You sew thick strips down two sides and thin strips down the other two sides - wayhey that's how it makes a square - the centre square isn't in the centre when you've finished! LOL.

By the way, for those who haven't noticed, the one on the left shows thick pink strips, whilst the one on the right shows thin pink strips.

The picture on the left shows all of the 16 squares sewn together. It gives the effect, however I'm sorry that my photography isn't as it should be (that's the problem of not having a digital camera - all pics have been taken using my mobile phone)

The picture on the right is a close up of the centre four squares.

If you would like more information on sewing / quilting techniques please check out Jo's website : http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/ .... believe me, you won't be disappointed after attending one of Jo's workshops.

Tasks for tomorrow : -

Get up and see what the day brings! LOL

Sewing & Quilting

2009-04-02T10:37:00.024+01:00

What a productive day I've managed to have. Here's a few of the tasks that I've got through -

Cut up enough canvas to make 10 .. yes 10 PE bags!

Embroidered a beautiful rainbow on a PE bag for a customer
Embroidered a 'Cute Monster' to use as a sample for boys -

I've taken photographs of a lot of my equipment - isn't it surprising how much stuff you actually have when you take up a hobby

I've place the order with my ceramics supplier - should be delivered sometime tomorrow

Oh yeah, I also managed to watch Gilmore Girls, Neighbours AND also keep Twittering and update my blog .... what a day!!

Glad I'm going out tonight . .I think I need a rest lol

OK now for the fun bit, I've taken loads of photographs this morning. I know Kerry will faint when she see's what I've done LOL.

The folded squares on the left are what I've cut up this morning , the fabric on the right is my 'stash'.

I now always cut fabric using a rotary cutter and quilting ruler - it ensure that a straight edge is achieved. Much easier than trying to do it with scissors. Using a rotary cutter does need a little practise to get used to, but once you've used it, you won't want to go back to using scissors for cutting again!

This is the rainbow that I have embroidered for a customer. This design took around 50 minutes to stitch out. I'm waiting for the personalisation details before I make it up into a bag.

It is far easier to embroider when you have a long piece of fabric than trying to clip your hoop up inside a bag and ensure that you don't get any of the edges stitched into the middle of your design! And YES I know from bitter experience, I've been there and done that one! I left something happily stitching away whilst I went into another room for something and when I came back one of the edges had moved and become caught in the middle of the design ... very frustrating having to start all over again, especially if you've made the item too :-( ..... BUT I have learnt my lesson and I now pin the edges to stop them moving if there's even a slight possibility that it may happen again.

I've stitched this little guy before for Gen to give to one of her friends on their birthday. I loved him then, and he hasn't dissapointed this time. He is absolutely adorable.

I did wonder last time I did it, what he would look like stitched out in pinks rather than blue and green. Does he look a lonely fella? Maybe the alternative colours could be a Mrs for him.... now there's a thought for another day maybe.

This fella took me around 1 hour and 10 minutes to stitch out.

I talk a lot about my embroidery and needlework (sowwy!!!!). I thought I'd take the time and photograph a few of the items that I keep very close around me when I'm busy sewing.

SEWING MACHINE

Of course the most important thing is my sewing machine. I couldn't really get very far at all without it now could I? I have always owned brother machines since I bought my first one almost 20 years ago. I have found them to be extremely reliable and very easy to use. This one is a Brother Super Galaxie 2100. I purchased it about a year ago from eBay. It had been very well looked after and doesn't dissapoint on that Brother quality that I have come to know and love. It is a combined sewing and embroidery machine. The machine itself doesn't hold many images, and the ones it does are quite small and not very interesting at all. However, I have a library of 1000's of designs on my laptop which I can transfer over using my PE Design Basic and blank memory card. You can also purchase memory cards from Brother which contain various designs, however I have found them to be extremely expensive (around £60-£80 per disk!!!!!). There are many sites on the internet where you can purchase designs at very reasonable prices.

EMBROIDERY FRAMES

Next on the list are my embroidery frames. Again, I wouldn't get very far without these. I do have 2 more than shown in the picture, the large one was in the machine at the time and the giant hoop didn't fit in the pic very well so I didn't bother with that one. It's also one I don't use very often as I find it difficult to line up with the multi-positions. I tend to use the large one more than anything. They are made up of two pieces which 'sandwhich' your material and stabiliser inbetween ready to clip into the machine.

THREADS

With so many threads on the market these days which one do you choose? I have a wonderful array that I use depending upon what I am doing. The colours on the left are high quality rayon thread used for machine embroidery. They have a beautiful sheen to them and give the designs a little something special.

The threads on the top right hand side are polyester threads. They are suitable for machine embroidery, although are rather dull in comparison to the rayon. I use polyester threads for general sewing.

The second picture on the right shows my limited selection of quilting threads. I am adding to these with each quilting project that I do. These are a very strong cotton thread which is ideal to hold all the pieces of your quilt together. The colours on these are variegated (i.e. they have different shades through the reel). They give lovely effects when sewing decorative stitches too.

My bobbin stash now, although as you can see from the picture I desperately need to wind some of them up. I had 11 left when I took this picture earlier, I now have only 8. You can purchase pre-wound cardboard bobbins, however I have found them to be very expensive in comparison to winding them yourself. I know it can be a bit of a pain to do so many at once. However, I would rather spend an hour winding them than paying so much more to have them done for me. I always make sure that I have enough to do my project before I start a design. There's nothing more frutrating than getting half way through and have the machine bleep at you telling you that your bobbin has run out when you don't have any left.

STABILISERS

A stabiliser is absolutely necessary when embroidering. As the name suggest, these 'stabilise' the fabric and make it stronger to take the embroidery stitching. There are many different kinds, here are 4 that I use myself.

The big one at the back is the one that I use the most often. This is called 'STICH AND TEAR' is it placed on the back of the fabric in the hoop. Once you have finished stitching, you 'tear' away the excess leaving stabiliser where it matters .. under your design. The picture is of a new unopened 200m roll as I only have a tiny bit left on my other one.

The roll just in front looks a little like strong cling-film. However this is a 'WATER SOLUBLE' stabiliser. It has many 'brand' names to it also. This is used when embroidering on 'nap' fabrics e.g. towels. It allows the design to be stitched on top of the towel rather than sinking and getting caught in the loops. Once finished, you can tear away the excess, any remaining will dissolve when the item is washed.

The item on the right is a 'CUT AWAY' stabiliser. This is usually used for stretchy fabrics. To me, if feels like tumble dryer sheets but a little stronger. Idea for using on t-shirts and baby items.

The final one on the left is a 'SELF ADHESIVE' stabiliser. This obviously sticks to the back of your fabric. I tend to use this mainly when I have a design that is made up of smaller components where I need to re-position my hoop several times. This is most valuable when I'm stitching the latte blocks (more on this in another posting).

U.F.O.'s

Before you start thinking of such things as StarTrek and Area 51, a UFO does not have anything to do with flying objects when you mention it to someone like myself who does a lot of stitching. It does in fact stand for Un-Finished Objects - of which I have several. Currently on the corner of my bench there are :-

The start of 2 latte quilts - One made of a dark pink/purple satin which you can see on top. The other is blue on cream cotton fabric (more to come in later postings).

Two cushion panels that I can't decide whether to make into bags or cushions. I have already quilted them, but they need to be finished off.

A shopping bag that I was making for my weekly shopping - this is a very large bag suitable to take boxes of cereals, or loaves of bread etc that you can usually only get one or two in a carrier bag.

There's also a few cut up pieces of cotton to make needle books and pin cushions that I just haven't had time to complete.

Now if only I could make more hours in a day then maybe I'd be able to get everything finished off.

Have fun and HAPPY CRAFTING :-)

Spring or not?

2009-04-01T18:34:00.011+01:00

The weather has been absolutely wonderful here this afternoon. Has spring sprung or do we still have a lot of cold spells to get through before it finally arrives??

I've spent all afternoon pottering around in the garden. I've got a few more tubs planted up with seads and been generally tidying around - including the mess that the dog made this morning when she decided to play with a shrub!!!! The little monkey had dragged it around the garden .. there was compost EVERYWHERE :-(

MY FIRST FINISHED QUILT TOP!

Eventually, I've managed to take a picture of my log cabin quilt

The picture here is of my log cabin quilt. I've only finished the top, I still need to add the wadding, backing and then quilt it. I've laid it out on the bed and it really does look stunning. The photograph really doesn't do it as much justice as they should. The technique is so simple to do, but looks beautiful when finished. The one I have made is for a king sized bed. The feeling when you sew on the last square is absolutely amazing!

Here is a pic of a single square block and the centre squares.

I'll try and take photographs of the Bargello lap quilt that I've made and post soon.

I got through quite a lot of sewing last night, and I've almost finished the square blocks on the off-centre log cabin quilt I'm doing for Jo. I need an extra strip of 2 colours in order to finish off the last 2 squares. I'm going to try and sew it together over the weekend, or rather sew as far as physically possible whilst waiting for the extra strips.

On the agenda for tomorrow is to cut up some canvas for PE bags. I've sold another 2 on eBay today which is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! I also want to make up a couple to take with me to the Pottery Painting Workshops I'm running during the school holidays, fingers crossed I'll be able to sell a few then too. I PROMISE faithfully that I WILL put photos up when I've made them .. HONEST I WILL!!!!

I've finally managed to get a stock take done of the pottery I have on hand. I know it's a bit of a close call as my first holiday workshop is on Tuesday and I need to make an order with my supplier ... talk about leaving it until the last minute as usual LOL. Jon has taken on the task of phoning it through tomorrow so I should have delivery either on Friday or Monday next week at the latest. Which will give me the time to crack on with my sewing :-)

Updates

2009-03-30T17:21:00.003+01:00

Where does the time go when you're having fun. A few people today have remarked about how their body clock seems to have been throw out completely by the clocks losing an hour on Saturday night / Sunday morning. I'm not sure that I understand this, it's been described as something similar to jetlag. Been there and suffered from that ... but from clocks changing one hour? Is it only me that finds this a little strange? The only difference I noted was that it was lighter later yesterday evening and a little darker when I got up this morning. Anyone have any comments on this???

I've spent many hours over the weekend updating my website. I still have a way to go BUT I've managed to get a lot of products on there. There's now a section dedicated to items that I've embroidered and how to purchase them. Don't forget, if there's something you would like but don't see a design you fancy, then please do email me with some suggestions of items you would like and I'll see what I can find in my database of 1000's of designs. http://www.potterdoodledoo.co.uk/page_1225652638593.html

I've also added pages for my beaded jewellery, but haven't managed to take photographs of items as yet. I'm hoping that I can get this section up and running over the Easter Break. As soon as this is updated, I'll post a link to that too.

I'm in the process of making another PE bag for a customer. The lady has requested a rainbow, and I've found a very nice one from the Care Bear range which I'm sure will stitch out beautifully. Once finished, I will add a photograph.

I did it AGAIN

2009-03-28T22:42:00.004Z

Hello and welcome to my blog. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Caroline and I own a company called Potter Doodle Doo. We povide Mobile Pottery Painting Workshops and Parties within the NE Lincs / N Lincs / S Yorks & ER Yorks area. I also do a lot of crating at home and this blog will hopefully show you many of these items, so of which are available to purchase.

I've just set up a blog account that I've been going to do for sometime now. Only to find that I've already got 2 that I started previously. Both of which only had the opening post son them! So much for opening and making sure that you'll post in there regularly.

Now the missing piece of the puzzle is 'How do I make sure that I will post regularly now that I have added it to my website?' ... difficult questions to which I'm unsure of the answer. As I do more and more crafting, so little time is then left over for typing up a blog. However, I am determined to make a more concerted effort to make sure that I keep things as upto date as I possibly can. Maybe I should place a reminder in Outlook so that when I open my emails, I also get a message to post a blog too LOL.

There's a lot of new things on my website now. I've been busy for most of the day updating and adding new pages. The most exciting of which is the 'personalised embroidery' tab. I know there's a desperate need to add a lot more pictures in there, but at least for now, it's a starting point.
The PE bags that I've made are fantastic (even if I say so myself). I really am pleased at how they have turned out. Using the heavy cotton canvas makes them sooooo strong and very long lasting. I have listed both on eBay and MISI (make it sell it) but they are also available direct - if you're interested, just email me.

I have so many embroidery designs, it is impossible to list them all. At some point, I will try and put a posting with many of the popular designs. However, if there is something that you would really like to be embroidered onto an item, then please do email me and I'll see what I can find for you.

If I can get some good light tomorrow, I am going to try and take photographs of items that I have made or embroidered and add them in here and directly on my site.

Fingers crossed and watch this space for updates!