I signed up to Carla Sonheims new sewing class, Rags to Stitches, which started today. What a great name for a sewing class!

I have been wanting to do something practical for a while, this should be fun.

It was so good to get my sewing machine out. It has just had a service and is flying, don’t you just love it when things work?
The supply list for today was just fabric scraps, needle & thread or sewing machine and a pair of scissors.

Day 1. Make a rag quilt to use later as fabric.

I love to do this and sometimes do it with paper, re-purposing at it’s best.
You start with a bottom layer of plain cotton and stitch squares or rectangles of fabric to the cotton, now the backing. Try to vary the sizes of fabric and mix up the colours.
You can vary the type of stitches as much or as little as you like. I have made ‘fabric’ from fine cotton and scraps of paper either glued or machine stitched the scraps to the cotton.

We will be cutting the ‘new piece’ of fabric later.
I tried not to over think the quilt, it is supposed to be intuitive (!) I will be able to machine stitch, hand stitch or bead later, as much as I was tempted, any finishing stitches or beads won’t work as soon as I put the scissors near to it.

I tied off all my threads whilst watching a lovely programme called The Great Bear Stakeout on the iPlayer. Have you seen it? I think it is worth a watch, I kept Oooing and Awwing and saying “no, no” and “Oh wow!” It’s a good thing no-one was listening…

Tomorrow, in class, we are making an owl.

My raggy quilt

I have just finished my Ripped and Stitched on-line class with Roben Marie.
I had such fun making this journal. I thought you might like to see it.

We ripped fabric and painted then folded envelopes to make pages. We stitched fabric strips together to make a cover for the book. We made tags with paper fabric and glue. They hold two pages and a pocket together with a magnet.
We bound and stitched the whole thing together and now it’s ready.

Part Two

Until I read Rinda’s post I didn’t know about Cairns. I also had never thought about taking a picture of the stones that live on my desk.
Then Helena made some rather splendid Cairns that put my little pile to shame so to thank Rinda & Helena these are the stones that have been living on my desk for years and now, for the purposes of art, are making like they are a Cairn 🙂

I was searching for something on ‘tinternet (like you do) and saw some embroidery hoops not framing finished pieces of embroidery as they usually do and thought they looked beautiful. I had a play. They were quick and easy and once I started I only stopped because I ran out of hoops!
I wish I could remember where I was inspired to make them.
Oh …and I never did find what I was looking for.
Silk and buttons

Jute, buttons and beads.

Black felt, purple bugle and seed beads and a needle felted heart.

Silk with seed beads.

Blue felt, buttons and beads.

And then I saw an article in a Cloth Paper Scissors e-mag about Upcycled Art. I fell in love with RecyclaBabes.
They are such fun to make and keep me busy while watching a film on the iPlayer.

These are my RecyclaBabes Peggy & Jane with some Topaz watercolour love.

Is it too personal to ask what your latest obsession is?

My first confession to an obsession is here.