Archie The Wonder Dog

While I was waiting to get wadding for the fairy quilt (more on that later) and then waiting again for thread to be delivered, I managed to get a few projects from my current Finish-Along list finished.  The first was the Bargello cushion from my last post  and today I'm going to introduce you to Mr Fancy Pants Pouch (or Mr FPP, if you're feeling familiar). Back in March last year (so it's only taken just over a year to finish - I call that good going!), I won a giveaway (sponsored by The Village Haberdashery) on Katy's blog  for the fabric and notions to make a chevron clutch , which designed by her for The Village Haberdashery . Mr Fancy Pants Pouch (my name for him, not Katy's or Annie's!) was supposed to look like this: Image taken, with permission, from  The Daily Stitch (The Village Haberdashery's blog) . Photo credit: Annie Barker, The Village Haberdashery but I knew I'd rarely use a clutch bag (I don't really go out on an e...

In June last year I went on a Bargello workshop run by my talented friend Beryl at her teaching studio and a month later I added the resulting project to my Finish-Along list.  It's been on every list since, including my current one , and I'm thrilled to be able to say that it's finished! This is how it started: Four FQs and half a metre of Kaffe shot cotton (tip: if you're using this, starch it well - it likes to move and stretch!) After quite a bit of sewing and cutting, I had sets of strips of varying widths (Daddy (wide), Mammy (medium) and Baby (narrow)!): Dreadful photo, sorry!  Still, at least you won't have to see it again after this! Once I got started again (it sat in a bag from July 2014 until last week!), it didn't take me long to get the panel complete, even though I had to unpick three strips (two because I hadn't double-checked my seam allowance when I started and one because I made a daft mistake). The grey pieces towards t...

Another item on my FAL Q3 list  was to turn these fabrics (half a metre of each) and this trim (all brought back from France by a friend) into a simple tote bag: I used this as another distraction activity while Archie was poorly but again I couldn't be away from him for long as the whines were really quite mournful and he kept getting distressed.  I'd like to blame this for a certain 'design feature' inside the bag...you'll see what I mean in a moment! I decided to keep the bag as simple as possible, just a straightforward tote bag for carrying parcels to the post office, etc. and so I kept nipping upstairs to cut fabric or sew a seam, in between sitting in front of Archie's cage and reassuring him that everything was okay.  After an afternoon of nipping, stitching and unpicking (that sounds like a sewing class in an infant class, doesn't it?!) I had a bag! And now it's time to reveal my 'design feature'.  I made the outsi...

After saying, in my last post , that I don't often get to say "I've finished!", I'm now saying it again!  You can tell it's the end of the FAL quarter, can't you?! When I put this quilt on my list  back in March, I'd done about a third of the quilting.  I managed to finish the rest of the quilting by the end of April, mainly by doing a line or two a day; it's amazing how quickly you can get something done if you do it little and often.  It stayed like this for another five weeks, though, until I finally trimmed it and stitched the binding to the front. It then took me almost three weeks to stitch the binding to the back, mainly because most of my hand sewing time has been taken up with the secret sewing (I've finally finished it so if you come back on Friday you'll get to see a finished item, rather than one with tacking all round the edge, which is what I feared may happen!).  I managed to do little bits here and there and y...