My Machine And I

My sewing machine and I became reacquainted this weekend. It’s not like an old-friends-reunited kind of thing, nor do we have a love-hate relationship. My sewing machine and I have at times through my life merely tolerated one another for long enough for me to run off some simple crafty thing, or even try my hand at sewing my own clothes – sometimes with wearable results, sometimes notsomuch. I’ve given up on the clothes thing, at least for myself, though I do fully plan to try sewing up some children’s clothes when I have more time (ha!). But my latest little venture was into the world of patchwork. I give you… my first block:

See, my mother has decided recently she’s going to take up another hobby… I’m quite sure it’s just another excuse to spend money like there’s no tomorrow :giggle: As luck would have it, we have a nice little quilting store not 5 minutes from here (actually, it’s awfully lucky there isn’t a different kind of needlework store 5 minutes from here, or my budget would be in serious danger). Anyway, while we were browsing in there the other day, I forget how it came about, but the proprietor of the store announced that, as a cross stitcher, I would never make a quilt. Hmmm. Odd way of drumming up business, that. Anyway, I decided to scramble up some various fabrics to make up a block or four, basically just to prove I could. And I can. And no, quilting is definitely not for me. Too much messing about with measurements, too much precision, definitely too much ironing (ick, ack, ptuey!) But hey, I can do it, so there, lady! I made four blocks – one more identical to this, one the same in pinks, and a random-ish block made up of leftover half-square triangles and whatnot. I doubt they’ll ever find a home in a quilt, so perhaps she was right after all. Though I did rather take a liking to these imperfect squares that I found – they seem more my style 😉

I decided while the machine was out (since it is a fair ordeal to haul it out of the top shelf in my wardrobe), I would run up the drawstring bag Finn needs for borrowing books when he starts 3-year-old Kinder in a week’s time. Much less precision, much more fun, and I love this harlequin-y fabric?! This is 30x45cm as requested by Kinder – can’t wait to see the giant books he must be going to bring back with him!
Apart from that, the closest I got to stitching this weekend was also hauling out the overlocker to edge some various pieces of fabric for upcoming projects. I’ve finally decided on the fabric for my planned Lilly Conversion – Sapphire Sky from Silkweaver. Whether it will be my next new start though, I can’t say. Lots of my stash is screaming at me to be stitched, and I Just. Can’t. Decide!