rubykittyruby

  Today's been a mainly-indoors day.  Partly because of heavy rain, but mainly because I want to try and organise all my crafty works-in-progress.  A constant complaint of mine is that I've got loads of things halfway finished or three-quarters done.  Yet I still rush headlong into new projects, having seen something inspiring on Instagram or watched a YouTube video.  Why can't I start making something, complete it, then move on to the next thing?   .... sighs, rolls eyes, accepts that logic isn't my strong point ...    Anyway, I'm browsing the Ikea website, looking at storage options.  In the meantime, as you can see in the picture above, I've sewn these pieces of handpainted material together and stitched the whole thing on to a rectangle of calico.  I'll turn it into a fabric roll, so need to decide on backing material.  A lively pink print?  Plain peppermint green cotton?  Or a fat quarter that's got a fifties fe...

This was the state of my dining table yesterday morning.  I'd dug out the gell plate and acrylics, and I'll show you the results later on in this post.  First of all, a quick round-up of recent charity shop buys.   A good book for 50p, jeans for a quid and a Next dress - with pockets! - for £2.00.  I mean, why shop anywhere else?  The dress is ideal to wear as a tunic over leggings.   I also splashed out just under £4.00 for this massive men's shirt.  It's cotton, and the colour's more vivid than the photo above shows.   Mens shirts, and in particular oversized ones, are great for harvesting the fabric.  A rectangle or square can be cut from the front, perfect for a cushion back complete with button and buttonhole fastenings.  Meaning no need for a zip to be inserted when you make a cushion cover.  I'm saving cuffs and collars from the shirts I chop up, and they'll be used for a patchwork project at some point. ...

Over the last couple of days I've been sewing a fabric roll, using as a base this painted fabric.  These were scraps of mainly cotton that I painted and stenciled with acrylic paint, then machine sewed together.  It took me a while to figure out what I could make with this fabric rectangle, but I liked the idea of slow-stitching into it.  Because the paint had stiffened up the material I didn't need any interfacing, but just added a backing fabric and began sewing lines of running stitch up and down to give the quilted effect I wanted.   The only drawback was that, as I noted earlier, the painted fabric had stiffened due to the painted effects, so pushing a needle into it was harder than it'd be with fabric in its natural state.  I've never got to grips to using a thimble, so ended up with sore fingertips and some nicely developing callouses.  However, after a few muttered curses, I eventually quilted the entire piece.  Next I folded over roughly ...