Past and present garden

Lots of quilters seem to have lovely gardens. After quite a few years of no vege garden I have finally made minimum effort to get something going. It feels really good and I am very pleased with the progress of the little seedlings. I have planted lettuce and little cucumbers and some parsley.

I just tore the bag open and planted.

Unfortunately I am a little ashamed of how minimal it is so I have included some pictures of the garden I used to have. It was based on the mandala method with a chicken dome to nourish each of six beds. I would plant 3 beds in winter and three beds in summer. I had quite a seed sowing thing going, a worm farm and compost piles. I think I kept it going for about 4 years.

One side

Close up of the chickens

The other side

I have plans to start up my vege garden with new energy late next year after all my traveling has finished. It never works to leave someone else in charge of sensitive vegetables. Funily enough I have noticed that keeping up a vege garden is quite a drain on the finances. It is lovely to have fresh veges but having the garden doesn't seem to save money. I may have to sacrifice some of my fabric money to keep it going but since I am traveling in search of fabrics I should have a pretty good stash by then.

My travel bag is coming along nicely. Instead of making pockets for my passport, phone and purse I am going to make a special wallet to keep them all together in the inside zipper pocket. I have experienced losing a pair of expensive glasses as I rummaged in my bag before boarding once so I think a wrap up wallet will keep things more safe. I plan to have only that wallet in the zipper pocket so I won't be rummaging for anything else in that pocket. I have made the tote quite deep to try to stop things overflowing and the top is narrower than the bottom also to discourage overflow. It is becoming quite a work of art :)

Happy quilting,
Val

My new tote, some sewing tips and scrapbooking

Scrapbooking

I was going to post about the progress of my tote bag and ended up taking pictures of my sewing room and my light box set up and then I checked my email and found a nice reply from Vanessa at Whirling Butterfly. She is into scrapbooking and pointed me to her guest spot at Tamar's blog. She has included lots of links to free scrapbooking related things. I can see myself spending hours looking around those sites.

Back to the tote.
It is from this pattern. I like the separate inner concept.

I put my patterns in A4 envelopes. I also write the year I bought it and an alphabet letter referring to what part of my pattern box it came from.

I made it to the pattern a while back and it was just a bit too wide for comfort so I narrowed the ends by nearly half. I put a zipper in the side pocket and divided the pocket on the other side.

The end pockets would be too narrow if you follow the instructions. I could only fix one end because I had to have it flat to sew the stitching that divides up the pockets. The other end has two skinny pen pockets but they will need to be long pens so I don't lose them into the pocket :)

I want to add a shoulder strap as well as the tote handles so I can have hands free for check in.  I thought it lent itself to folding the top down (if it is not packed too full) and I have a magnetic clasp that I will use to keep it folded. I will attach the shoulder strap just below the fold line. I will also put a zipper across the top opening. It stops things falling out when it goes through customs.

The lining is dark green and I plan to put a big zipper pocket on each side. One side to put the ipad and one side will have slip in pockets inside the zipper pocket to hold my passport and purse and phone while my travel jacket is in the overhead locker. I plan to keep this tote under the seat.

I think I will also make the inner bag with a magazine or ipad slot and pockets on one side only (since the bag is narrower now). I think if I put tape loops on the back I might be able to attach it to the tray table to have my stuff easily accessible during the flight. Elastic might be too thick to fit behind the tray when it is closed.

Magnetic scissor keep
I found this in Ikea and it is perfect for holding my scissors within reach and out of the way while I am at the ironing board. It is also close enough for me to reach them while I am sitting at the sewing table. Now they don't get lost under fabric or pattern pieces.

My blue screen
In order to make my scrapbooking elements from my own tea cups etc I needed a blue screen so I could remove the background. I do this in Fireworks on my Mac.
The screen is just some blue fabric - you know I have just realised where my light blue homespun is. I was looking for it earlier this week :D  
It is long enough to flow onto the table and under the item I am photographing.
It is just tacked to the window sill.

You can see the pillowslip I am working on and the green tote bag lining.

My light box
I have a little glass top coffee table that also came from Ikea a while back. At some point I realised it would be good for tracing patterns because I had the goose neck lamp that fitted underneath.
I sit on a little stool or just bend over from the lounge chair. It would be possible to do it on the glass doors during the day but the big sheets from the quilting books are a bit awkward to hold up. It is easier to do sitting down.

Just a goose neck lamp that I can twist over.

When it is pressed flat it is easy to trace.

Something I traced the patterns for. A 36" diameter table topper.

Crickey! It is lunch time already and I haven't even looked at any of Vanessa's links. When will I get time to sew :)

Happy quilting,
Val

Pleased with some finishes

Even though I wanted to make my travel jacket it was a 'have to make it' item with a deadline. It feels good to just make something for fun.
I have one sock. It turned out perfectly. I love the way the yarn just knits into those fancy stripes. Knitting is an evening craft so I hope to get the second one done soon while I watch some Star Trek Voyager DVD's.

I have had pillowslips on the list for a while so I made one up. I have started a second one that will have a floral border on one side and dark brown paw prints across it. I think I will give them to my DD1 for her birthday. She likes cats.

The final thing is a place mat for the kitchen counter. I made one a while back and it is nice to have a soft surface to put my teapots on while I make tea. When it goes in the wash I miss the soft surface. This second one is mostly scraps. The cat is made of crazy scraps and the binding is the crazy binding I made a while back. As with the first one I used an old hand towel for the backing.

My DH's new (well old now) jeans are still sitting next to the sewing machine with the hems turned up.  When I finished the cat mat I moved the jeans a bit closer. Maybe tomorrow :)

Happy Quilting,
Val

Trip to Dunedin

I spent a lovely week in Dunedin NZ visiting gardens museums and eco centres. I also managed to buy a gorgeous tea mug and nut bowl from Glenfalloch Woodland Gardens Artisans Gallery. I was starting to wonder if I would find a nice souvenir mug. All the usual ones had quite ugly pictures on them.

Of course we found our way to a quilting shop and I bought a few NZ fabrics and I just had to have this little owl. It is about 4cm high and looks really cute in the cupboard.

I thought the Otago Museum was fabulous. It has a live butterfly forest. We also did a tour to look at seals and albatrosses. We were really lucky and had almost fine weather for the whole week.
All the places we visited are on the My Maps I made in Google maps.  Well worth a look if you plan to visit Dunedin.
I wore my travel jacket the whole time. It was great to have the pockets in the lining.

Zipper pockets for my purse and extra money. Button pocket for my passport and a pen pocket.

A big deep pocket. It was handy for my keys and is big enough for a rolled up tote bag. I even put a rolled up magazine in it.

Since being back home I have started knitting a pair of socks on 4 needles with special wool that makes a nice stripy pattern as you knit. When I finish one I will post a picture.

Happy quilting,
Val