Why I don't get so much sewing done and a bag for Larissa.

Our house has 'inside outside' windows because the big room used to be a veranda, and the rooms off it looked onto it.  By the front door the windows collect pictures done by Potspie and Chops, and I also keep my plastic bag holder thing there.  For ages there were just bags stuck behind the bars on the windows.  Not very attractive!

Potspie and Chops are the reason I don't get so much sewing done - but I wouldn't change that for anything.   :-) 

I have, however, been trying to make a little bag.

Old stuff (again!)

So Matt has the camera with him - and he is in the Nuba Mountains (about 11hrs south of here) - so here's  more old stuff....

This is about the size of a placemat (I made it about a year ago)- and I'm not sure what i'll do with it  - I think the plan is to put it into the centre of a quilt - so to just keep building up around it. Except I think I used up most of that fabric....we'll see.

These are two blocks of what will hopefully in the (probably very) distant future be part of a big quilt for our bed.

Before I owned a sewing machine....

Before I owned a sewing machine, I made this.

It hangs on the wall above my sewing machine, in our sitting room.

(The colours don't look quite right in the photo)

1,2,3.....

1 table top  - new and bigger - (thanks to my skilfull husband)
   The old top supports the new one!

2 loaves of homemade bread  (er.. one got eaten before i could photograph it!)

3 neighbours (who are very smiley but not in photos!)

4 very old pyramids

5 days and this chair WILL be finished (and will be used as a chair instead of dump everything place!)

6 guys on the back of a pickup truck

7 flowers (made into a lavender bag)

8 legs

9 patch (disappearing) made a while ago

10 cookies

More stuff I made a while ago so it's getting lumped together in one post :-)

Quilt for Potspie - the first quilt  I finished. There was another one unfinished at this time.  It doesn't have batting, just a double layer of sheet in the middle - (too hot here for batting!)

Quilt for Chops - it looks a bit too 'Christmasy', but he likes it and that's what matters - the Snoopy footballers are some fabric my Mum gave me. This quilt confirmed that I don't like sewing in straight lines so much. (And yes, there's that bed in the background again!)

And this I did when I was about 8.  We made them at school.  :-)

Somewhen, about the same time, my Mum gave me a sewing basket.

I still have it.

I used to love making dolls clothes.

If only cloth could talk ...

Before we were married (or even dating) my husband bought a wall hanging in Kenya.
I think it is made of old saris/scarves or something like that, and is from somewhere like India or Bangladesh -  but I'm not sure...
I think it is made from whatever colours they have and is then dyed (in this case red).

At first I didn't like it but more recently I've been looking at it more closely, wondering who wore these different pieces of cloth and what the story of the fabrics in it is. Now I really like it!
If only cloth could talk...

Things I haven't quite finished...

Well, I like making stuff but sometimes it doesn't quite get finished...
I'm not very good at following patterns and I think half the fun is making it up as you go along.
In fact often when I try to do straight lines, follow patterns etc it ends up looking pretty er..well rubbish would be a good description.  Here are some things that I am enjoying and have enjoyed doing....

This crochet I started about a week ago and I'm doing pretty good at keeping going with it.  I think my plan is just to keep going and see how big I can make it...

I learnt to crochet when I was about 10 for a school project, but haven't done any since then, so I sort of had to reteach myself.  I think I need to work out what the stiches I do are 'officially' called so then I can follow some of the free patterns online.  The hook is a size 'n'.  So it grows quite easily!

This is going to be a big cushion. I started it ages ago (well 4yrs ago) when i was visiting my parents in the UK. My mum let me use some of her many coloured embroidery threads so I just started sewing flowers. It's a bad photo (needs ironing etc), but hopefully you get the idea.

For a few years it stayed in England and then about 2 yrs ago it made the trip to the US and then a year ago to here!  The fabric is fake suede stuff. And I will just keep on sewing flowers on until it's all filled up.

This I also did a few years ago.  I once went to Liberty (in London) and ogled over their fabrics and bought 2 bits of Kaffe Fasset stripey fabric.  I kind of like how it looks on the stripey sheet thing (kikoy) underneath.

The trees are 3D with thread and beads. I think it will be a cushion. But it would get destroyed very quickly here, so I'm not sure what to do with it.  Anyone have any ideas?