Florence's Attic

Better Courtside Booties and a new arrival

Here are the Courtside Booties from Crochet Today. 

This is my second attempt at them, and they are so much better this time.  I am really pleased as I love the design, and they will make good baby pressies.  I think even if the baby doesn't wear them, they still look cool say hanging from a drawer handle in the bedroom.  Once figured out (these are definately an intermediate pattern, not easy as the magazine says) they are quite quick.  These were for a baby shower at the weekend.  I'm also going to put in an iou in for a baby quilt as I couldn't find any suitable fabric.  The happy couple don't know if the baby is going to be a pink or blue one and are quite alternative so are loving the colour grey.  Do you know, there is a real lack of grey fabrics out there?  I wanted graphic prints, but there was hardly any grey at all in my nearest quilt shop.  So the boots are grey, and I'll make a baby quilt later on in the summer.  I had never been to a baby shower before, but one of the girls I work with is from the US so decided to organise one.  It was fun - tea, cake and a natter.  I have heard stories of very grand gifts being given at American baby showers, but the done thing here is the wait till the baby is born, so hopefully my present has covered both bases!  My parents made me laugh.  My Dad didn't understand what a baby shower was and thought it was wrong that I was leaving Bizzie at home, and my mum tried to explain to him "it was one of those things you see the celebs go to looking glamorous holding extravagant gifts".

I would also like to announce the arrival of...

Janome Decor DC3050.  Do you name your sewing machine?  My last one would have had a very child unfriendly name if I did.  Going off topic for a mo Mister J and I were talking about naming the car the other day and all he could come up with was Herbie.  Mmm, very original.  So being a Breakfast at Tiffany's fan I think we will leave it as "car without a name" (just like her cat).  Anyway, here it is.  I am so chuffed as there was no way I could've bought one this summer as there are too many other things to pay out for, but my mum gave it to me out of a little amount of money she has just been left.  My great aunt would have really approved of the gesture - she was even knitting earlier on this year at the age of 96, and Bizzie has baby Annabel wrapped up in one of those blankets.
I have said before on this blog that I am not geeky about sewing machines, but I found myself questioning things such as how many stitches I really need, what will it's main uses be, and whether I wanted a computerised one.  The latter was the one that most troubled me.  This machine I really liked,it's functions were exactly what I needed, but it had a digital screen which put me off.  The owner of the shop told me it is just a circuit board, and not a computer, so I went with it.  It fits my walking foot, and he swapped my quarter inch and darning foot over so I am very happy.  In case you are interested, the funtions it has that I wanted are:
Variable Speed (the amount of times the dog or children have walked past and my foot has gone down and my old machine ran away with me
Up/Down needle function - this is so good for chain piecing and turning corners
A couple of button hole stitches - just watch me applique everything in my house now
High Presser Foot - for getting quilts through
Wide feed dogs
Free arm - I really want to start making more clothes and some of the made for quilting machines don't have this.
Now I know some of you probably have fancy Berninas, but this to me is like a dream.  Also, just to add my political statement, please buy local.  This machine is from a little shop in Portslade (to the West of Brighton).  It is really old fashioned, but my first machine (a tiny Frister and Rossman) came from there about 20 years ago.  I then bought my old Janome there about 4 years ago, and now this one.  They service and repair machines, and really know their stuff.  The owner spent over an hour showing me the features of different machines and let me try them out.  I had a bit more to spend than the £289 it was, but he just explained the next machine up did a very basic alphabet and to question if that is worth another £40 to me.  I could have bought the machine cheaper online, but money can''t buy this service!

Oh and by the way.  I will always put the dust cover on it, and never shove it under the dining table when we have dinner...

x

Creative Stitches

I had a good afternoon out with my mum today at Creative Stitches at the Brighton Centre.  The last time I went there my opinion of it was the same.  There are some gems, but also some really awful stands.  The gems were embroideries from the WI archive, and quilts from the Quilters Guild Stitch in Time exhibition.   From the stands I loved the work of Sue Allan who makes dolls and embroideries.  She was lovely to chat to and had used lot of Liberty fabrics so I was taken with her work immediately!  My mum bought me a doll pattern from her stand, which rather cheekily I am planning to make for her for mothers day (she doesn't know this and she loved the dolls as they are filled with lavender).  From other stands I bought buttons, paper, thread and some fabric, however the range is rather dissapointing considering the show calls itself Creative Stitches.  When I went before three years ago I remember being rather dissapointed at the quality of some of the stands as there are far too many of the gimmicky demonstation type stands selling tat.  They seem to be using forcefull marketing techniques and are nothing to do with stitches and it is very debatable how creative they are.  I know the organisers can't please everyone (the card making and cross stitch isn't my cup of tea), but if they kept true to the name of the show it would be much better.  Also the workshops and talks could be improved - grr there is so much more they could do with it.  Still, it is very local to me, and worth going to see things such as the amazing knitted gingerbread house.  The stall next to it was even selling knitted gingerbread men and sweets to raise money.  I was so pleased I didn't have the children with me as it would have been very hard to stop them getting in it. 

The tree growing next to the house (wonder if you could knit one out of plastic bags and have it in the garden..?)

Check out all these goodies on the roof

A bit blurry, but I love the detail on this box of matches.

Now, I am going on a wine search in the kitchen.  I am quite pleased as I haven't fancied a glass since I was ill last week, so it shoes I am getting better!

Chin chin x

Quilting Bargains

Time is flying by and I feel we are most definitely in autumn.  I am loving the cosy evenings in and desperate to finish a quilt top to sit under and sew in the evenings.  Unfortunately my plans for my college quilt have stalled.  It is foundation piecing, to my original block pattern, and I cannot get all my grains sorted.  To those of you who don't do patchwork, I have probably lost you, but to those of you who do, you will know what I mean!  I need to work out fabric quantities to get on with dyeing and printing, but cannot do this until I have worked out exactly how much of each I need through my samples.  Grrr, I had great ideas when I broke up for the summer of having the top pieced by now.  It has however freed me up to get on with the Zine (after years of seeing them collecting dust under friends computer tabels, no one now has one) and other bits such as crocheting (more on this tomorrow).

I had a bit of luck in the charity shop last week.  Everyone I know seems to get great finds, but I rarely do.  Wel, meet my knew fabricsI  I don't really go in for ditsy prints, or even blue, but they were such a bargain and I liked these, I even left quite a few in the shop of prints I really didn't like and weren't Laura Ashley.  Each piece is at least a metre, some as much as three and there are two Laura Ashley cottons in there - one from 1976 so it is even older than I am!  I have decided that when I use it I will try to incorporate the selvedge so there is a bit of history in the quilt.  I also love the dark blue colour and print.  The other blue ones are big enough to back quilts with so I'll save them for that.  The cream and blue one at the top is in a upholstery weight, as is the stiff linen - these will be turned into bags.  I paid 50p for each piece, apart from the linen which was £1 - not bad eh?

I have also had a bit of a result with books.  I find you don't get many patchwork books in charity shops, so always snap them up when I do.  I love to see photos of seventies patchwork clothes (a dressing gown is my favourite, I must post it one day), and can always find projects to inspire me.  These are no exception, with projects going from the sublime to the ridiculous.  On the right is a booklet from the needlework development scheme, (more here).  It is tatty and not even all intact so the shop owner gave it to me for free, but I read about the sceme in a copy of Embroidery magazine and am really intrigued to find out more.  I love the style of needlework from the first half of the Twentieth Century.

 

Here are another two books, real finds.  The one on the right is a book of quilts from the American Museum in Bath.  It is a good book, full of colour photographs and short descriptions, and was a bargain for a quid.  The one on the left is by Valerie Campbell - Harding and is called simply Strip Patchwork.  If you are into strippy quilts I cannot recommend this enough.  I get frustrated at books which are just pattern after pattern, and this one is not like that.  She takes you through so many different ways of strip patchwork and curves.  Despite having black and white photography, it is so inspirational.  The link I have put in is to a later edition, which if you buy I hope has been left just as it was. 

 

and here is a peek inside at a picture for inspiration and diagrams.  The book is full of these diagrams for putting a quilt together.

So there we are, not much money spent and loads of information.  I still have a gap in my collection though.  I am about to Google to see how big a cot quilt should be.  I always make them really big so they fill a cot, or really small so they last for about a year in the buggy.  i am intrigued to see what size it should be and unbelievably I don't have that information on my shelf!

Happy Monday x 

Take a deep breath - and go shopping!

Phew, things are starting to slow down round here.  As well as the holiday we have had a family wedding and my brother and his family have been down from Yorkshire so I have tried to spend a lot of time with them.  We have also had the last of the birthday parties (I did not plan the children so close together!) and had the start of the new school year for Mister J and nursery for Bizzie.  It is only two short mornings a week, but gives me a bit of time to do all those things which need doing.

I went into town before work yesterday and bought myself a new pad, pen and pencil in Paperchase to help get me organised.  A necessary purchase I am sure!  I also popped into the new Cath Kidston store in town.  I love her stuff and it is a real treat to have a store I can pop into.  I love some of the new merchandise for autumn such as this sewing range but felt a bit uncomfortable when I saw that the cute needle case was manufactured in Indonesia.  I feel the brand is based on Britishness and it would good to see some items made in the UK.  Apart from that the layout was lovely, very homely and there were some vintage items which were gorgeous (if pricey).  My favourite thing was a textile wall-hanging of a cottage.  Retailing at £275 there are 2 per branch and they are in the style I love - naive applique with decorative stitching.  At that price however I did come away doing the crafters mantra - "I can do that myself", especially as they were a bit similar to the box I recently made.

It is the Hever Quilt show this weekend.  Whilst not local, is is about a 50 minute drive so not too far.  I took Bizzie last year and had big problems wheeling the buggy round the marquee as it is in a field with lots of divits!  I have decided not to go this year as I bought some bits at the Festival of Quilts and really need some time to get on with actually doing some sewing, but if you are going then have a good time.

Talking of the Festival of Quilts here is a photo of some of my purchases

half a metre of fabric which was £3, two packs of linen ribbon (check out the Eiffel Tower one) for £1.00 and couple of blades for my rotary cutter.  One is plain, but the other is pinking and I have wanted one of these for ages.  I am going to use it to cut the fabric up for the Zine.

5 fat quarters for £6.25.  I like the cute thirties prints so whilst I don't know what I am going to use them for, they won't be in the stash for long.  Peeking out from the bottom is half a metre of plain blue which was £2.50 - bargain!

 

and whilst I was in town yesterday I popped into a fabric shop and bought these Tana Lawn prints.  They are the ones which I think are Liberty bolt ends.  At £12.95 a metre they aren't cheap so I just bought a little bit.  I love these prints, although they are a bit thin and slippery to be used in patchwork so i take care about which projects I use them for.  I love the deep colours of the one on the left, and the whimsical print of the one on the right.

Another buy from the Festival of Quilts is the fabric to dye for my City and Guilds quilt.  I have never used cotton sateen before and worried about putting it in the washing machine to pre-wash it.  A few days later I realised that it will need to handle going in the washing machine if I am to dye it!  Moral of the story, don't consider dyeing fabric when you are doing a million other things, and never get too precious about fabric for dyeing!

Finally, just a plea for the Zine.  If you have made a quilt you are particularly proud of and fancy sharing a photo and tutorial with us, then please get in touch.  Either leave a comment on here or email thequarterinch@hotmail.co.uk and I'll reply with with a bit more info.

Thanks for reading! x

Liberty

It is a lovely sunny day today, so photographing white fabric is not an easy task, you may need sunglasses to look at this!  This is my latest Liberty print purchase.  If you look closely you can see it is made up of colouring pencils - so sweet and perfect for the back of doll quilts.  I buy my Liberty fabric in a shop in Brighton where it is £10.00 a metre, but I get 10% off for student discount, and they sell it in increments of 10cm so it doesn't work out too expensive to use in patchwork.  They have a limited number of prints, and I reckon many of them are the previous years range, but they are gorgeous.  It seems difficult to buy Liberty fabric on the internet.  The Liberty homepage doesn't even show the fabric ranges, and the easiest place I have found to browse and buy is Purlsoho over in NYC.  I love their site, but shipping is $30.00 which even with the fantastic exchange rate at the moment is still the equvilant to a cheap day return on the train to London to buy it in person.  I haven't been to Liberty's in London for about 5 years now, but remember it as a wonderful store and the fabric and yarn department always gave me that Tiffany's feeling.  I worked for them when I was a student on the fabric counter and boy was I envious of the Americans who used to buy 15 metres at a time of the prints.  Back then they sold a lot of their prints in wool for customers to make suits and heavy skirts, but with the way fashions have changed I would imagine there would be more cotton now.  If anyone knows of any websites where you buy or browse the Liberty prints can you let me know.

Bizzie is going through a stage of emptying out my handbag when I am not looking and I can hear my keys jangling so must go, otherwise there will be lots of cursing later on and looking in plant pots, videos, shoes...! x

I didn't get a bag...

I didn't blog last week as the children and I had a rather nasty bug.  It is all shaken off now though, so I am just trying to catch up...

I've seen some amazing quilts which have been sent out in the doll quilt swap.  I've made two as Bizzie is going to a party tomorrow and I thought one of these would make a sweet present.  I do find surprise swaps very difficult as I always worry the person I am swapping with won't like my work.  Oh well, I'll post photos up as soon as she has received it and fingers crossed she will love it.  Send outs are by Monday, so I better have a binding night tonight!

My mum and I went to the Wealdon Quilt Show on Saturday.  There were some lovely quilts, and photos will be on the website soon.  I won twice in the raffle so will be collecting my cushion and bottle of bubbly next week.  My mum won a lap quilting frame last year so it is a lucky one for us! 

Our local Sainsbury's opened today after being shut for a week for refurbishment so thought I'd pop down there after the school run to get one of the fab looking Anya Hindmarch environmental bags.  Unfortunately I got there too late, although did stand in the queue for 5 minutes with the security guard shouting "over here for the Anya bags" - classy!  For those of you who may not have heard about them, they were launched in store yesterday following a major press campaign involving editorial in nearly all the major glossies.  However, following stories such as this I don't think it has been very well handled.  I rather like this write up here about them.  How environmental are they really?  I mean if they wanted us to ditch our carrier bags then surely there would be many more available.  Also, by selling them through a supermarket is it promoting the un-environmental retail practices of underpaying suppliers, food travelling for miles and over packaging goods?  Furthermore, there was a rumour on Popbitch that the pr company sent the press release out in plastic envelopes and all the people I saw in Sainsbury's today had their "I am not a plastic bag" in a plastic bag!  I am probably just a sour puss as I didn't get one, but I do think I have a bit of a point.

On the subject of bags, my Cath Kidston pink stars book bag has been my permanent escort since I bought it in February.  Contents normally include, nappy, wipes, Selvedge magazine and power rangers - does anyone else have such an eclectic mix?  They are doing 20% off star items at the moment so I may treat myself to one of here carry all bags to compensate for missing out this morning! 

Homework, homework, homework for me over the next few days (with a bit of childcare and tidying!).  I bought a piece of cute Liberty fabric for my doll quilt backing, so I will just have to show it off here as soon as re-charge the camera batteries!

Happy Thursday x 

Art Van Go

We have had a great school holidays here and managed to cram in so much.  One of the highlights this week was a behind the scenes tour of the Theatre Royal, Brighton as part of the children's festival.  It was really interesting and Mister J loved it.  We went out for dinner afterwards and I had a great time with my "date".  After this we went on the Palace Pier.  I haven't been on there for a few years and can quite honestly say it is awful.  If you ever come down to Brighton for the day do not just go on there, it will give you a horrible impression of the place!  Mister J quite enjoyed it though so I can see me having to go back on there during the summer holidays...

Yesterday afternoon I went to a friend's quilt group .  It is about 15 miles from here, but was worth it as Art Van Go were visiting.  There isn't anywhere local to buy dyes and other textile bits so it was a treat not to have to pay for mail order.  We had a few demonstrations which were good and I bought some procion mx dyes and some Markal oil sticks for my assessment 2 fabric.  It was amusing having a look on the van in as the community centre shares the local Tesco's car park.  Despite the fact it said "Art Materials" in big writing on the side of the van people were really staring - I'm surprised the police didn't turn up in case dodgy dvd's were changing hands!

I finally tyed in all the ends on my first granny squares blanket last night.  I have decided not to make it any bigger and to just get it finished.  My recommendation to anyone making one of these is to tye the ends in a you go.  I had been putting of this task as it was tedious!  Anyway, it is finally at the putting together stage, and here is is laid out.  A couple of the squares are a big skewed as the dog decided to walk across it - I just think it at least he didn't try to sit on it!