Friday 25 March 2011

The advantage of being without the machine...

...is that it's encouraged me to do some finishing off bits. I enjoy hand sewing but I tend to put off the last bits on machined items - like buttons and poppers. So, as I was without the Janome, I took the opportunity to finish off a couple of items which I had done at Chaos summer school last year.

The first is a bag which just needed poppers on the sides and the handles finishing off. Not the best photos I'm afraid as I don't have any good background to hang it against, but hopefully you'll get the idea.

I thought the fabric was fun - it's a good size so I'll probably use it for storing projects. Or wear it out if I'm feeling brave!!


The second was a cute pencil case - again just needing buttons and poppers. I love this fabric too - I've got loads of the stuff ready for Halloween projects.

So that's 2 off the 17 on the priority pile!!



The UFOs are never-ending

I have never got to grips with UFOs in all the time I've been quilting. I think that I'm tackling them and then I have a sort out and find I've got more than ever. Last year was supposed to be the year the UFOs were sorted but that never quite happened, so this year I'm trying a different strategy.

Recently I've got together a box of nearly finished / needs to be finished stuff and I've moved it down into the dining room where I've currently got my sewing machine set up. The idea is, that if the stuff is there, waiting, that I'll just pick up a project and do a bit on it when I have a spare half hour or so. It's a kind of priority UFO pile - with the second division still in the craft room!

I thought this was going well. I have two large quilts that I have made good progress on. Although these came into the 'need to be finished' rather than nearly finished so although I've spent a lot of time on them, the UFO pile isn't going down. And then yesterday I had some time to quilt so I was hoping to really get on. But no, the universe obviously had other plans for me as my sewing machine started to skip stitches and make strange noises.

So - the Janome has gone for servicing, which to be fair it needed, but I was hoping to put it off a bit longer. Mainly because I didn't want to be without it. Should be ready on Saturday so two days without means I'll be getting on with the hand stitching in the priority UFO pile.

I also listed the priority UFO pile, just so I knew what I was facing - 17 items!!