Slapton Ley (glass panel)

Slapton Ley is a large, freshwater lake in Devon with amazing wildlife which includes many rare species.  It lies right next to Start Bay, separated from it by a fragile shingle spit.

This glass panel was designed and made for someone who has a lifelong connection with the Ley.  As I've never been there, I had to make sure I got it to "feel" right!  I did a lot of internet searching, and talked about how the place looked with people who know it well.  This is the final design:



Starting from the bottom, we have the sea (Start Bay), the shingle spit, the freshwater lake with two grebes, and a sky with giant hogweed silhouetted.  Although it's possible to see rare species such as Cetti's warbler and bitterns at Slapton I didn't include them as they tend to stay hidden.

Here are two pieces of the panel ready to be fired in my kiln:



I really enjoyed making this one, starting from no knowledge and learning a lot about the Ley in the process.  And here's a close-up of the 'shingle' and 'sea' pieces:



After lots of hours spent scratching paint, two firings of 12 hours each, then cutting and soldering the lead (plus polishing!), it was done.  As I couldn't find the right pink for the sky, I went with blue - and now I prefer it.



One more for luck:



Next, I'm doing some glass paint tests to see if I can improve the firing results.  There'll be lots of little mini-glass-pictures!
Vicky xx

The wild bird

Quick post today, back to glass briefly.

This mini window has a bird, perched on a branch over wild garlic flowers - perhaps it's in a woodland near here, where the wild garlic will soon be in flower and filling the air with it's amazing smell!  I can't tell you the exact species of the bird - top secret - so apologies if you are 'good' at birds and are wondering what it might be.



As before, I have painted the glass, scratched the design in it (very like using scraperboard), and then it's fired at 600 degrees C and becomes a permanent part of the glass.  Each piece is then fitted together with the lead strips, which are soldered together and polished with grate-black.



More glass pictures on Flickr!

Vicky xx

Spool birds

I'm a bit late to this party, but better late than never.  The spool bird pattern has apparently been all over the internet for ages; well I only just discovered it, and I love it!  You can find the pattern here, but this is only one place you can download it from.

It's a very straightforward gusset pattern - cut out the two shapes (the body on a fold), stitch together (three seams), stuff and sew the tail closed.  I glued on eyes too, and quilted the tails.



I made lots of different colour birds and as soon as Kitty spotted them she informed me that she needed some for her room.  So here they are, perched on a twig I picked up outside



and here are all the others, looking a very bright and cheerful flock!  Most of them are brightening up my desk now.



This picture shows off their lovely tails...



Back soon with more sewing (or possibly knitting, as I have some socks on the go).
Vicky xx

Second trail tote

Following my birdy trail tote, here's one with a leather flower - a commission in orange spotty linen.  The pattern is by Noodlehead (and it's free! here)



This one's the same size as my blue birdy one (that's medium, which isn't in the pattern).  It has grey piping, and a grey strap, and leather details - an applique flower and tabs for the magnetic snap.

Inside, the lining is an Ikea furnishing fabric.



As before I used the suede-y back of the leather for the flower.  I tried to machine stitch it on but got lots of skipped stitches, so went back to hand sewing - need to work on this as machine stitching would be so much quicker.

The recipient was very pleased with her bag, so a success all round.  I've made lots of things lately that haven't got blogged, so there will be more posts very soon!

Vicky xx

Trail tote

Yesterday I finished making a bag using Noodlehead's Trail Tote pattern (this pattern is free - download it here).  The download has small and large sizes - so I made my own medium size.

 This bag was nearly finished a week ago, until I decided what it really needed was a bird on the front, and the bird was going to be leather.  Don't ask me where that came from!  I bought a bag of leather scraps and did some experimental sewing.

I hand-stitched the bird on, but next time I think I would machine sew (as long as the leather wasn't too thick) as it's hard to get the stitches neat by hand.  I used the reverse, suede-like side of the leather for this.

Once the bird was done, I thought a finishing touch with a bit more leather was in order.  I chose a slightly thicker scrap from the bag and cut two strips to fold over the top edge, where the magnetic catch goes.  Although these look like they're stitched on, they're glued.  I stitched around the edges (by machine), then put the magnetic snap through the leather and through the complete thickness of the bag.  Then I glued each tab down on the outside.

I highly recommend this pattern (and Noodlehead in general!).  My fabric was thick cotton, with thick interfacing.  The lining is quilting cotton.

Happy summer! x

Zippy trippy three

This one was a Christmas present, which worked out really well.  Slightly smaller than Zippy Trippy and Zippy Trippy Two, to make it easier to get through the machine when stitching the central piece once the cardboard has been placed inside.



On the front is a bird which may (or may not) be a peacock, on a red background with quilted straight lines.



Inside, the usual clear pocket on one side, and on the other a whole load of pencil slots and a small pocket.  I was particularly pleased with my colour choices for this one, especially the red edge on the pencil slots!





Also, for this one I covered a small notebook to match, giving it a red spine.

Although there's a lot of work in these pencil cases, they are very satisfying to make.  As before, this is a modification of Anna Graham (Noodlehead)'s Road Trip pattern.  Love your pattern Anna!

Zippy trippy

If you've seen Noodlehead's road trip case, I bet you like it - I did. So I made one, and here it is!



Anna's pattern is for a case that will store craft bits, but I wanted mine (well, my daughter's, let's be honest I'm a bit old to be see with cute things like this!) to hold pens, pencils, scissors and notebook etc. So it needed a zip all the way round, so that when it's closed the notebook is enclosed in the middle and doesn't fall out.



To apply the zip (it was a VERY long one, about 80cm) I stitched it all the way around the edge with a small seam before I applied the binding to the edge. Then I stitched the binding on top, pressed, turned to the outside and hand-stitched down. To cover the ends of the zip in the centre of the case I machine stitched a rectanlge of linen along the centre fold (you can see it in grey in some of these photos).



I love the big vinyl pocket, I'd never sewn vinyl before but it was fine. I think I did use the walking foot for some bits to make sure it moved smoothly under the presser foot. This is such a great idea for a pencil case, to be able to see what's lurking in there! If you're in the UK, I got my vinyl from Dunelm, but I expect there are other places selling it too.



At the bottom I sewed eight slots for pens or pencils, and a larger pocket for a calculator or small cards etc! And on the front, I couldn't resist adding my current favourite birdy! (Originally seen on this mat I made).



Next on my list is a boy version, for Thomas (well, after I've finished a few other urgent jobs like a summer dress in denim, a Sew Together bag, etc). He wants to use some rather funky circuit board fabric I found him a while ago....

Second kitchen mat

I love my fish kitchen mat so much, I made another one this time with a bird on. The bird motif came from an IKEA print that I love - hoping IKEA won't mind me hacking this!



As I didn't have thick red machine thread to make the outline of the bird, I used my sashiko thread and needle to make the outline in running stitch. Then I used fusible web and machine applique/embroidery to add the neck stripe, eye, spots and legs.



The front is some pale grey linen, and the back is Kona aqua. Inside are two layers of natural batting, with heavy quilting onto the back fabric.



And I'm so excited that my runner beans are growing (and the slugs haven't got to feast on them yet!!) that I'm sticking a picture of them in too!

Happy 2014!

Wishing you lots of luck for 2014!

Just before Christmas I finished a present for some friends who adopted a baby girl in December.


 This is an applique made with machine embroidery, a small picture to frame for the wall. I sewed onto ordinary white quilting fabric which I starched multiple times to make it stiff. Another way would be to use fusible stiffener such as Vilene, but I didn't have any nearby.


(Apologies for the dark-ish photos, it's midwinter!)
Each piece of coloured fabric was stuck down with Bondaweb and sewn into place, then beads and buttons added last.


I was really happy with how this looked when I'd finished, and the new parents were delighted with it too. I'm planning ways to adapt the design for different occasions, so there may be a bespoke option available in my Etsy shop soon.

What's your first sewing project of 2014?

Birdy book

Had an hour or two spare today, so I had a play with machine embroidery. I've made notebook covers before, but only with patchwork, but I see more covers with pictures coming soon!



I make my covers using pretty much the same method as Rachel at Stitched In Colour - a link to her tutorial is here.

The colours in these photos aren't great (summer's over!) - this blue cover is a deep turquoise, and the bird's wing deep pinky-purple. These notebooks are about A5 size. I've added a ribbon bookmark with a felt ball on the end. In fact seeing the bag of felt balls, which I've had for months but haven't got round to using (but they're lovely to play with - get yours from Blooming Felt), inspired me back into notebook-covering.



Next time I'm going to use Bondaweb to make sure there's not so much fraying on the bird shape - this time I used my standby Pritt stick. Well, it works!



Watch this space for more notebooks soon x