Fabric challenge

When my mam died four years ago I inherited her sewing things. Whilst I’ve made use of most of the items I haven’t done much with all her quilting fabric.

Shortly after she died I finished off the quilts she had started, or was about to, and gave them to the charity she had intended them to go. However the rest of the fabric hasn’t really been touched.

I thought it was time I did something about it so I’ve set myself a challenge to try and make use of some of it (I can’t say all as there is a lot....). I don’t want to profit from the things I make using the fabric so they won’t become Gertie’s Bags. I decided they would be turned into quilts and given to charity.

Our new next door neighbour is a Pastor and he mentioned doing work for the elderly and homeless. As I’d already made four quilts out of John’s old work shirts looking for a good home, I asked if he could make use of them. He said yes so I’ve decided that any quilts I make from my mam’s fabric will go to him. 

Gertie xx

The wanderer returns

Sorry for the radio silence. Whilst I love sewing I find I need to recharge my batteries every now and then so for the past few weeks I’ve only been doing just a small amount of sewing – hence the lack of postings.

I’ve been using the time to catch up on some reading. I’m slightly dyslexic so it takes me a while to finish a book.  I’ve also been trying to get my head around social media for Gertie’s Bags business.

My Flickr account is up and running and I’ve taken the plunge and become a tweeter. I took an online twitter course so am trying to put what I’ve learn into practice. Next to conquer will be facebook.

While I’ve been away I’ve had a couple more Gertie’s Bags sales; another from eBay and my first one from Etsy. Hopefully once I’ve mastered (or at least got my head around it....) social media it will generate more sales.

One of the things I’ve been sewing during my time away is some potholders for a friend’s house warming present. I worked on the similar idea I did for my friend’s potholders last year, though instead of cats, I used items from a kitchen.  

 

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

A round up of the news

So, what’s to report since I last blogged. 

I was drastically running out of storage space in the workroom so had a massive clearout. Even though it’s only a small room, it was full of stuff (I even found two dolls belonging to my niece and she’s 27 now....), so it took several days to get through it all. It was well worth it though as I now have space. Yippee!!!!

On the sewing front there’s still an awful lot of fabric left from Mr Gertie’s work shirts so I looked around for ideas to use them in another quilt (or several....). There was a lot of blue fabric in the work shirt collection so one pattern really stood out. The lighter shades came from Mr Gertie’s shirts, the darker colours were bits of fabric I had lying around.

It’s not quite finished. I’ve still got the backing fabric and the actual quilting to, but at least it gives you an idea of what it’ll look like completed.

For Christmas Mr Gertie got some new photography equipment, and as he needed to test them out, I suggest my bags would be perfect for this. It was a win-win situation as he got to play with his Christmas toys and I got some updated photos for eBay and Etsy.

Speaking of eBay, I’ve had another sale!!!!! A large make up bag. That really put the nail in the coffin for the Folksy shop as it’s hardly getting any viewings.  So, I’ve moved all that stock over to my new Etsy shop. It’s only been up and running two days but has had more viewings in that short time than Folksy had since it opened.

I’m still ploughing my way thought various books about selling online, and in particular, promoting via social network, as that seems to be the way forward. As I’ve mentioned before I’m a total social network phobic so might have to employ a teenager to do my marketing for me!!!!!

When I mentioned to my sister that I was setting up ‘Gertie’s Bags’, she asked if I was going to give away any freebies with every order.  I can see where she was coming from as I’ve often received little gifts (key rings, sweets etc) when I’ve bought things online and it does seem good PR. 

I ran the idea past Mr Gertie but he thought it was a waste of time and effort. He can’t see why I make little matching fabric key ring purses that are attached to the zips of all the larger bags. What do you think? Do you give your customers little freebies, and if so what? If I did go down the freebie route it would be only something simple, like a fabric bookmark, which would take no time at all to make.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

We’re going to need a bigger boat

One of the things I was looking forward to when Mr Gertie retired last April was getting my hands on his work shirts.

It’s amazing how much fabric you can get from deconstructing them. 

I’d promised Mr Gertie I’d make him a blanket to keep in his new car – I’m a believer that every car should carry a blanket of some kind in case of emergency. To tide him over until I’ve finished knitting it I gave him the lap quilt I kept in my work room (to keep my legs and feet warm when I’m sewing).

Not wanting to have cold feet I decided to make another lap quilt using Mr Gertie’s work shirts. The pattern and fabric were duly chosen and I set about making it. It was only after I’d finished the first block did I realise it was going to be little bigger than I was expecting. I’d inadvertently chosen a king size quilt pattern. Opps!!!!!

I didn’t want the hassle of re-scaling the blocks so just continued making them as planned and would figure a way of making it smaller, be it making it into two quilts instead.

Instead of splitting it into two quilts (I had no need for two anyway) I simply didn’t bother with the 12 inch border that was supposed to go around it.

As my free motion quilting skills are still very much in their infancy (or in other words, I’m rubbish at it!!!!) I just quilted around the edges.

Mr Gertie would like me to point out that the blue floral fabric was NOT one of his work shirts....

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Three little maids

Update: I was doing a little housekeeping on some of my blog posts and instead of updating this entry blogger has republish it as today's date.  Opps.!!!

After my attempt at making a cosmetic bag I decided to try again.

The first one turned out fine so I made another, only slightly bigger.

Why stop at two when you can have three!!! Unfortunately I didn’t have enough fabric left so gathered up all the scrap bits and made a patchwork version instead.

The fabric belonged to an old pair of shorts which used to trousers, bought in 1988... The lining for the two smaller bags came from cream bed linen my mam was getting rid of. The lining for the large bag was a white shower curtain.

Gertie xx

PS pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Deck the halls

Last week I showed you 'Rudolph'. This week I thought I'd show you a couple of other Christmas decorations in the Gertie household.

This is the fireplace in the living room. There used to be a gas fire in the centre. We inherited it when we bought the house but it got condemned several years ago !!!! Normally the large vase, which you can just make out on the right of the picture, sits in the centre, but during the festive season it gets replaces with a cross stitch wall hanger.

I bought the kit from a sewing shop in a beautiful place called Solvang in California. At the time (1991) it was the largest cross stitch project I'd ever done.

  

We go from the largest to the smallest project I've ever made. These are 'the 12 days of Christmas' cross stitched on 27 count fabric - that's 27 holes to the inch. Ouch !!!! I seem to remember setting myself a challenge to make one 'day' per month. I think I did it with one month to spare.

These cute little fella's are Waverly the snowman and Iggy and Mo the snowballs. They're all hand knitted and Waverly's sack contains twelve little knitted bags, each with a knitted present inside.... 

On either side of the mantelpiece are two cross stitch Christmas cards and above that is the 'jingle bells' bunting I made a couple of weeks ago. We had some baubles spare from the Christmas tree so I just put them in a glass vase, which is at the bottom of the main picture.

I decorated the dresser in the kitchen with paper snowflakes (so easy to make and surprisingly very therapeutic too). The 'falling' snowflakes are simply made by attaching them to a length of white sewing cotton.

Have a great week.

Love

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Christmas buntings

Here at last are my Christmas buntings. Last weekend was one of those where time just disappeared so we weren’t able to take some photos.  I was determined to get them done this weekend so there would be no lunch on Saturday until they were photographed....

I wanted to put a Christmas motif on the flags but not something that wasn’t too intricate, given that the maximum width of the flag is six inches, and it had to be instantly recognisable. I never make things easy for myself !!!

Having looked at all things Christmassy I decided on a snowman.  Why, I have no idea, but I somehow convinced myself that drawing the snowman using ‘Word’ would be better than using ‘Corel Draw’. The result was Mr Snowman ended up being a little misshapen....

There were lots of beautiful Christmas fabrics to choose from, however I wanted something that was festive, but not too shouty so the applique images would be drowned out. I eventually went for red and green fabric which had tiny stars printed on it.

 

I knew what kind of lettering I wanted for the flags - sort of rounded, bubble, kind of thing - so thought 'Word' or 'Open Office' would have a font suitable. Sadly they didn't so I did a search on the internet and found just what I was looking for.

As each letter was A4 size (they were meant for children's school posters) I printed the letters I needed, scanned each one, then using Coral Draw, I re-sized them to make the templates.

Both the letters and snowmen were cut from felt and attached using a machine blanket stitch. Normally I would have just stitched them by hand but as there were so many to do I thought it would be quicker to do it by machine.

For the top ribbon I simply used some red spotty dressmaking fabric.
 

Have a great week.

Love

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Bits and bobs

I'm pleased to say that the quilts (and teddies) have gone to a new home. Sadly I didn't have any contact details for the women's shelter where my mam's quilts were originally intended so just thought I'd try and find someone who would take make use of them.

I'd found a place and was about to email them when I thought I'd try one more time on the internet to see if I could find the shelter. Still no joy, but I wasn't giving up, so rang a women's shelter here in Sunderland to see if they could help.

I briefly explained about the quilts and was totally expecting the woman on the other end of the phone to say she'd never heard of such a thing. However she replied that she knew all about them and could remember receiving quilts from my mam.

They would love to have them, and the comfort teddies as they give every child who comes into the shelter a gift, and gave me the address of the shelter where my mam's quilts would have been sent, so we could drop them off.

Whilst I would have happy for the quilts to have gone to another charity, I'm delighted to have been able to donate them to the place where they were meant to go.

Following my last post I was asked what new project I was going to do now that the quilts were finished. Being me I wasn't going to settle for just one !!!! So here's what I'm working on at the moment and what I've got planned for the coming weeks.

A laptop bag. There's still the wadding, linings and the handles to attach.

Next on the project list is some Christmas bunting. I'm making two - one with large and small snowmen and the other spelling out 'let it snow'. While I was waiting for the fabric I'd bought online to arrive I made a start on cutting out the felt snowmen and 'let it snow' letters.

Once the bunting is finished I'm planning using the left over fabric from my laptop bag and the other Scotty dog fabric to start building up a stock of bags ready for when my new business venture goes live next Autumn.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Finished !!

I've done it !! I've finally completed all of my late mam's unfinished projects.

Out of all of her projects this one was the easiest to finish as she'd done most of the work already. All I had to do was finish outlying a couple of squares and do the binding.

I'd like to think that she would be pleased with how they've all turned out. If you want to have a look at them just click on the various links: comfort teddies,  little girls quilt, little boys and baby quilt.

I certainly really enjoyed finishing them. They kept me busy during the summer whilst I was immobile from my hip op, though hand stitching a quilt on one of the hottest days of the year probably wasn't one of my brightest ideas !!

Once I've washed the quilts I'll then find a good home for them and the teddies.Whilst they may not go to the original destination that my mam had intended them to go (I don't have any contact details for the lady who was organising them) I'm sure whoever gets them will be most grateful.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Another two down, only one to go

I've been busy with my mam's quilts all week. I just want them finished so I can start on my ever growing list of things to make.

When I asked my sister what mam had planned for the back of the quilts she told me that the baby quit just needed a plain backing fabric. She also gave me a tip about the binding - cut the fabric slightly bigger all round,  fold it over then stitch it down.

 

That was the theory anyway. Putting it into practice was a little different..... It would have been so much easier if I could have put the fabric and the quilt on the floor and measured it there. Unfortunately my new hip isn't agile enough at the moment to let me creep around the floor so that method was out. As my workroom table isn't big enough to lay it out flat I had to measure everything with a tape measure. Big mistake !!!!!

I measured everything twice (like the old saying measure twice, cut once) and got the same figure each time so cut out the backing fabric. However when I came to put the two bits together there wasn't enough fabric to make the folded binding. URRRRRR !!!!

When I told Mr Gertie he replied that this some times happens to him too. Has this ever happened to you? We suspect we have phantom tape measures which take great delight in moving their numbers around when we're not looking.....

 

Like the little girls quilt I made a reversible backing for the little boys one. Looking through my mam's stash of fabric I found something which would be perfect for a little boy, though it would have to be pieced like the girls quilts.

This time I decided to piece it in long strips, alternating between pattern and plain fabric.

Three quilts down only one to go.....

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

One down, three to go

My sewing machine has been busy this week stitching one of the quilts that my late mam had made a start on.

I wasn't sure what my mam had planned for the back of the quilt so rang my sister to see if she had any ideas.

'Just use what ever fabric you think goes', she suggested, 'that was what mam was going to do'.

Looking through the stash of fabric I inherited from my mam I found some pink butterfly print, which although there wasn't enough to cover the back completely, there was enough for five large squares. I teamed that up with some cream and used what was left of the main fabric to make some binding.

So, one quilt down, only another three to go !!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Another one I made earlier

When my mam died in March I decided to finish the comfort teddies and quilts she had started or was planning to make.

The teddies are all done. Well I thought they were, until I mentioned them to my sister. Have you given them any underwear? she asked. Er, no. Mam was very insistent that they all had knickers, she said. Do I get the knitting needles out and make some or leave them as they are? I don't think the little recipients of the teddies will mind them having no undies so I've decided not to bother.

I finally finished hand stitching the last of the three quilts that my mam was going to make for homeless families. I'll put the backing fabric on them when I can get back into my sewing room.

They're not very photogenic at the moment so instead here's a picture of a lap quilt I made at the beginning of the year.

It was made using two block patterns and some scrap fabric. The cream stripping came from old bed sheets.

I made my own bias binding by stitching pieces of scrap fabric together.

For the back of the quilt I wanted to use fleecing as I thought it would be warmer than fabric. As luck would have it I found a fleece blanket in IKEA for less than a fiver.

I've quite pleased with how it came out as it was the first quilt I've made. Maybe next I make a quilt though I won't do any machine stitching when I'm suffering from the flu !!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Lifting the ban

Thank you for all your lovely comments on last weeks blog, and Natalie, thank you for my award. I'll be posting my answers later in the week.

Yesterday Mr Gertie temporary lifted the ban on my workroom being a no-go area so it was good to be back even if it was just for an hour or two. I know it's just a room but I have missed it so much - ridiculous I know !!!!!

I've been busy this week reading up on how to set up a craft business and also coming up with various bag and accessories designs. That was why Mr Gertie let me into my workroom as I needed the space to convert my rough sketches into something more workable.

For the moment though that's as far as I can get as the next stage is making mock-ups and that's definitely banned !!!!!

I'm making good progress with my mam's quilts. Both the boy and baby ones have been hand quilted. There's just the girls to finish stitching.

To give my fingers a rest from quilting I'm making a start on another cable jumper. I had thought about knitting a simple lace jumper but I wanted something bit more challenging. Here's a photo of what I'm doing.

 

Whether it'll turn out like this is another matter!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Feeling hot, hot, hot !!!

If it hadn't been hot enough last week. Who had the bright idea to have a quilt on their lap and start hand stitching it?

The answer. Me !!!!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

A lovely Wizz out

Seeing as it was a beautiful day yesterday Mr Gertie suggested we took a stroll in Wizzy* down to the seafront. I jumped (figuratively, not actually....) at the chance as ever since I became hipless four years ago, I've been pretty much housebound.  

There are two beaches here in Sunderland, Roker and Seaburn. During the Victorian times Roker was a huge tourist destination whilst Seaburn had yet to be developed so was just beach and fields. Today Seaburn is the more popular of the two.

Both beaches are next to each other and as we live pretty much in the middle it's easy to get to either of them.Yesterday we decided to give Roker a visit.

One of the nicest ways to get there is by going through Roker Park. It's set in over 35 acres and has everything from tennis courts, bowling greens, a miniature railway to a two acre boating lake.

The end of the park brings you straight to the sea front.....

where they even have their very own version of Baywatch.....

Last week was the first time I'd been left 'home alone' following my hip op as Mr Gertie went back to work. I'm pleased to say that everything well and I remembered to behave myself and do as I was told (so unlike me !!!!!!).

To keep myself myself amused on the sewing front I made a start on a little boy's quilt that my Mam had been planning to hand quilt. Sadly there's not much to show you at the moment.

Why not though pop over to Wendy's blog Handmade Monday to see what other crafters have been up to.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

* For those of you who don't know Wizzy is the name of my wheelchair.

Scrappy bag

 

I had hoped today’s blog would be a jumper I’ve been knitting. However as I haven’t quite finished stitching the pieces together that will have to wait until next week.

So instead I thought I’d show you a rucksack I made last year. The design comes from Susan Briscoe ‘21 sensational patchwork bags’ book. If you love making bags, check out her books as they’re brilliant.

It was only after I’d stitched the length of strips together did I realise that I had forgotten to add the seam allowance. Opps!!!! They should have been 1 ½ inch wide, instead of 1 inch wide.

Thankfully all I needed to do was add a couple more extra strips to each panel. Note to one’s self – remember to double check seam allowances in future…..

I then made patchwork blocks for the front and side pockets.

   

 

For the front of the flap I hand stitched a fabric star to the quilted strip panel.

 

As I’m not very good with a hammer I asked Mr Gertie to insert the eyelets around the top of the band. To neaten the ends of the cord I stitched little ‘bells’ to them.

After giving the rucksack its first outing I felt it needed a zipped pocket inside the bag. I cut into the lining (that was the scary part in case I’d made a mistake!!!!) then added the pocket.

With the exception of the eyelets, the rucksack was made using recycled material. The strips and patchwork blocks came from old shirts or scrap bits of fabric. The base, eyelet band, cord, binding and straps came from a trouser suit I’d made many moons ago, and the lining came from an old pair of light blue trousers. 

I'm really pleased with how it came out and it just goes to show what can be made simply by using scraps...

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Gerry the Kitchen Aid

Gerry's cover

I’ve always dreamed of having Kitchen Aid.  To me they’re not just food mixers; they are a work of art. However they are also very expensive...

My dream came true, as following a bonus at work, Mr Gertie very kindly bought me one.

The first thing I did was to name it. We like to give things names – our plants are called Eric, Ernie and Ethel; we have a 12 year old Christmas tree called Bruce; the dishwasher is called the Sweetie Monster. Yes I know we are really sad!!!!!

At first I was going to called it Hilda (after Hilda Baker. Baker, food mixer – see the connection). However it just didn’t fit because the Kitchen Aid is blue and blue is traditionally a boy’s colour.

Gerry the Kitchen Aid

So Mr Gertie suggested I called it Gerry (after Gerry Raffity who wrote Baker Street).

For the first couple of weeks Gerry stood proudly on the kitchen worktop. However I knew he’d get dusty so decided to make him a cover.

Instead of making the cover out of scrap material, like I did with my sewing machine cover, I actually wanted to buy some fabric!!!!!

I wanted the fabric pattern to be either something to do with baking/the kitchen or food of some kind. After looking through several websites I finally managed to get the choice down to two – chocolate sweets or baking paraphernalia. I couldn’t make my mind up so asked Mr Gertie. He chose the baking fabric.

The pattern design was perfect for hand quilting so I had fun outlining the various shapes.  The only problem was when to stop as hand quilting can be very therapeutic.

Quilted gingerbread men & a cookie duck!!

It’s loosely fitting over the mixer as I wanted room to hide the cable and plug at the back. The real reason is I measured it wrong!!!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.