This is ... My Favourite Craft Supplier

It's a shop called Masons in Abingdon which is near where I live. I only recently discovered that they have a website, and I see that it is just as crowded as their shop! Actually, there are 3 shops. One which sells any kind and colour of yarn you can think of, and upholstery fabrics, one which sells craft items including bead crafts and paper crafts, and the main one which sells dress and quilt fabric with haberdashery.

The fabric shop is so jam packed with the most rolls of fabric you're ever likely to see packed into a limited space that it is a job to move in there and consequently it's always crowded!! I'm sure there must be some fire regulation being broken, but nobody cares because it's such an alladin's cave of wonderous things. They don't sell things like jelly rolls or charm packs, or even any of the decent Moda fabric, but that's because they concentrate mainly on dressmaking fabrics and accessories. I quite regularly get lost in there for hours on end and never ever escape empty handed. One of my favourite things to buy there, is ribbons. They have a tall stack of baskets full of ribbon bunches at 20p each. Each bunch is probably a good 4 or 5 meters long and there are lots of different types and colours.

With thanks to Three Buttons as usual, and to Handmaiden for this week's theme.

Sew Easy!

I thought i'd have a go at making this Amy Butler card holder - a free pattern from her website. I'm quite pleased with it but her instructions were over complicated and quite flawed so this is my third attempt! The first ended up in the bin, the second is passable if you look through half closed eyes in the dark.

If you decide to make one, the adjustments I made were as follows:

1) Cut out all sections of fabric, but do not cut out ANY interfacing. (I don't understand the difference between American brand interfacings, so I just used heavy iron on).

2) Sew the fabric sections together as described in the instructions.

3) When you have your two sections - fabric and lining each sewn together, then cut out ONE piece of heavy iron on interfacing to fit the fabric side MINUS whatever your seam allowance is around the edge (mine is 3/8). So instead of three bits of interfacing you just have one big one which you iron onto the wrong side of the fabric.

4) Cut out an extra bit of iron-on interfacing for the middle section of the wallet minus the seam allowances and apply ontop of the original layer. This will give extra body without bulk and saves you having to insert another piece (as per instructions) later on.

5) Proceed to sew together as per the instructions, except step 7a.

The reason for the interfacing change is that if you use sew-in as Amy suggests, you would never be able to fold the finished product because the edges and seam joins would be far too bulky. Also, the card holder doesn't need thick sew-in.

The key is to keep the edges as light as possible whilst adding body to the main section so that the whole thing isn't "floppy".

I have received two awards, one each from Dragonfly and SummerFete. Thank you lovely ladies! I am running short of time today (thanks to aforementioned cardholder obsession) and would like to spend some proper time blogging about these awards in the next couple of days.

A Rockin' Good Time

Mr MK was away this weekend. Getting cold, dirty, muddy, drunk, tired and hungry at Reading. He thoroughly enjoyed himself but I am now suffering the consequences as he seems to have picked up a cold and is now languishing pathetically on the sofa. Jimmy spent most of his time at the skate park, and so I spent my entire weekend alone in the workroom recycling. BLISS!

I made some bags from old pairs of jeans:

This one is lined with an old sheet!

I tried some applique - I don't think i'm very good at it, but this umpteenth attempt is passable.

This bag is lined with vintage Liberty Print. It is an entire fluke that all the lines match up. I didn't notice until I took the picture! The Liberty prints came from a friends mother who used to make her own clothes and had a wardrobe clearout. There's nothing quite like the feel of a Liberty print and I would never use a new length to line a bag with, so this has been a treat!

I made covered buttons with the scraps:


I cut out loads of purses. There are a few Liberty designs, and I used vintage buttons too.

Then onto the button stash. I thought this would make a nice choker with some black velvet ribbon.

A ring - unfinished ...


A pendant


The obligatory hair clips with some more in the making


A key ring


A brooch


Hmm.. not sure ..


And then onto beads... I love hat pins. I made 2. I think I might order some more parts.


I haven't had this much fun on my own for ages!

This is My Favourite Children's Book

When I was very small, my favourite book was The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. I loved that cat's naughty antics! It was the first book I bought for my son when he was small. * see edit below

When I was a little older I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton.

I read all 21 of the Famous Five books


I adored the Malory Towers series. I didn't realise at the time that it was based on a girls boarding school very near my home in Scotland, and where a number of my friends at the time were destined to go!

But my very very favourite read at that time was, The Naughtiest Girl series. I probably liked it a bit too much actually, as anyone who remembers my 6 random facts will realise ..


With thanks again to Three Buttons for hosting This Is and PottymouthMama for this week's theme.

*(edit: Dr Seuss' forte was his ability to rhyme. The Cat in the Hat was written as a "beginners book" because he thought that learning to read books should be more fun and didn't like the Janet and John type books. Dr S' cleverness with words meant that in this book there are 1626 words in total but a vocabulary of only 223 words, of which 54 occur exactly once and 33 twice. Only one word in the entire book – "another" – has three syllables, while 14 have two and the remaining 221 are monosyllabic. The longest words are "something" and "playthings"! The Cat in The Hat was one of the first children's books which proved that you could make early reading books exciting and interesting but still use simple words and repetitive phrases.)

Alien Nation ...

Last year was our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend at a posh hotel in Bath. And for dinner we went to a vegetarian restaurant. DeMuth's. OH! what a fantastic treat it was to be able to choose ANYTHING at all on the menu. I was almost delirious with joy!

What an absolute thrill it was to consider properly every single dish described and be stuck for choice at all the deliciousness leaping up into my mind at the thought of each and every dish presented for consideration.

There was no searching for the little green "v" signs. No disappointment at the lack of said "v's". No frustration at the banality of the "v's".

Once, upon finding no "v's" at all on one menu, we were offered "parsnip bake" and another time, on expressing disappointment at yet another goats cheese salad on yet another menu, we were offered lamb or chicken as a suitable "v" option.

When will caterer's realise that Stuffed Aubergine and Mediterranean Vegetable Tart is BORING???

Why why oh WHY, when there is so much delicious food and so much choice available to us (for good or for bad), can carnivores never reach past their meaty imaginations into veggie wonder? Why do people think that "Sunday roast without the pork" is a suitable option when frankly, it's just lazy and unkind.

Surely delicious food is delicious food whether or not it contains flesh? My grandfather was a top chef, my parents were hoteliers. My mother - after her father - is the best cook I know, but give her the challenge of cooking "vegetarian" food and what does she come up with? Frozen pizza!

It's all to do with labels.

So many every day dishes are meat free, but give them the "v" label, and they become "difficult".

Gordon Ramsay says that "vegetarians have no palate". Curses to that man! Especially as many of his "delicious recipes using the freshest, most vibrant ingredients" do not include meat!!

So tonight I am sharing with you, a recipe inspired by that wonderful restaurant in Bath.

It's a Quinoa and Halloumi Salad with Raw Vegetables and Pea Shoots:

Ingredients

1 cup Quinoa (or cous cous if you prefer but I find Quinoa more tasty and it's better for you)
1 red pepper sliced finely
50g sunblush tomatoes
chives
raw salad: finely shredded cabbage, carrot, beetroot and (raw) sweetcorn kernals
2 or 3 little gem hearts
bag Pea Shoots (from waitrose - or grow your own)
1 pack halloumi cheese
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

How to:

1) Cook the quinoa in twice it's volume of water and add a stock cube or a tsp marigold bouillion to taste. Fluff up when it's done (when all the water is absorbed) and leave to cool. Add chopped chives and black pepper to taste.

2) Chop red pepper and tomatoes very finely and add to warm quinoa. Dress with 1-2 tbsp olive oil and 1sp Balsamic vinegar. Set aside


3) Wash your little Gems and chop into 1 inch slices. Set aside

4) Slice your halloumi thickly (about 1cm), brush with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and griddle until the cheese is soft. Set aside to cool a little.

5) Assemble the salad: pile pea shoots, raw salad and little gem onto a plate, with some quinoa salad on top, and the halloumi on top of that.


6) Dress with a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of tamari.

Et Voila! Deliciousness on a plate ...


Additional ideas:

1) Add sprouts (sunflower or lentil for me) for extra crunch.
2) Leftovers can be stuffed into a mini pita with garlic mayo for the most delicious taste sensation ever!

You Couldn't Make it Up

While I was writing about Mr Mk getting crafty, with his onion strings today

and his beetroot wine production ..

And my latest project, trying to make a bag from entirely recycled materials ..



While lamenting once again the winter weather - so wintery that my soup supplier at work is bringing back his winter soups early due to customer demand.

I received a comment from JennyFlower on my last post. It made me quite forget the weather and I almost fell off my chair laughing! Mr Mk jumped! She said "Who would have thought a Gimp could make two of your boobs disappear!". Jenny often makes me laugh and smile with her witty, funny and sweet comments so I decided to make a badge in her honour. Jenny, if you would like to, pass this on to whomever made you laugh longest and loudest today, or any other rainy day! Oh and do make some rules up as you go along!

The Invisible Woman

I've got another new toy. It's called Gimp. No, it's not something I made with the use of my "making latex clothes" book which some of you eagle eyed people spotted in a post of mine back in May. No. It's a FREE photo-editing download which does most of what Adobe Photoshop does and can be downloaded to Windows easily, and Mac with a little help.

It means that I can at last "model" my corsets for sale without modelling them, if you see what I mean. I was wearing this when the picture was taken. Beleive me, it looks better without! Clever don't you think?

It's quite difficult to operate until you get the knack - I had to have a tutorial from a friend of mine. Do you think the odd tip here would be handy?

And now for an Overlocker update: NEVER, and I mean NEVER EVER do what you do with a sewing machine, that is, leave your pins in while you sew. You will end up with one of these ...

I Think I Might be Able to Fly an Aeroplane Now

Guess what? it's raining again! Infact, we have yet another severe weather warning here in Oxfordshire. Storms they say. But Am I Bovvered? NO! Because today has been my first chance to be alone with my lovely new overlocker. It's been like pilot training I tell you. I haven't written this many notes since I did my science O-Levels back in the 80's.

After a few false, but not unenthusiastic starts, I decided to go through the manual page by page, ticking each item as I went. This is rather methodical for me, but it seems to be the only way to make sure all functions are embedded into the brain properly. Thank you to Florence for assuring me that endurance is the best policy here because there were many times this afternoon, when I thought I might have received a faulty machine and would have to send it back.
The model of Overlocker that I chose has colour coded tension dials and threading holes. So the thread which goes through dial 1 which is green, follows through all the green coded holes and loops and so on. Easy peasy (easier if you are an elf with elf sized fingers!).

Actually, despite being thoroughly intimidated at first, threading this overlocker is not difficult. Fiddly yes. Hard no. Even then, after a bit of practice, it's no less bother than threading your sewing machine.

Each step took quite a long time to master. I started off with 4 thread overlocking, then progressed to three threads with left or right needle, then two threads, then rolled hems. Each setting is different and produces a different result. As with most instruction manuals , it was sometimes hard to follow. So working left to right in the picture above, you can see my progress during each step as I worked out the bits the manual didn't cover! Like, HOW to insert the "spreader" for 2 thread sewing, amongst other things.

Following advice from Marmadaisy (who's review and pictures I was firmly glued to for the whole afternoon) , I decided that the best policy is to make lots of samples with notes on.

There was a lorralorra tea drinking going on, followed by a lorralorra mess!

But FINALLY, with the basics mastered, it was time to sew something for real.

A top I made a few weeks ago and never hemmed. This is the edge my sewing machine made with it's fake overlock stitch.

And THIS, is the finished result with overlocker, complete with automatically sawn off rough edge. It took a death defying 10 seconds to do, as opposed to the many more minutes, possibly even hours, it would have taken to press, sew, press in the traditional way.

The difference perhaps, between Concorde and a Jumbo Jet.

Sew you think your Sewing Machine is Complicated?

Apologies for the break in service. I have been looking for a university degree course in "how to use your new overlocker" because i've never had such a headache trying to work something out in my life! I think an AstroPhysics course might do the trick. The manufacturers very helpfully enclosed an instructional video in the package but can anybody please tell me why?? Who has a video machine these days? You can't even buy them anymore - or at least not for a price cheaper than an overlocker! (oh! perhaps there is a slot IN the overlocker - it seems to do everything else?)!!

Along with all the freebies - 5 boxes of thread, scissors, needles, tape measure, seam ripper ..

And the "standard" accessories - tweezers, needle holder (!), spool cones, spool nets, spanner, 2 screwdrivers and other "un-identified as yet" equipment ..

I ordered extra feet because they were on offer - and it seemed a good idea at the time ...

hmmmm...

But I also have "the Italian connection" visiting, which has, very pleasurably, held up investigations.

"At least in Italy when it rains, it's still warm" She said gloomily ...

Lead me not into Temptation

But deliver me from ... Sewing Machines Direct!!

It all started with Joleo when a friend loaned her one. Then Lisa bought a super snazzy one. Then Florence got one from her dad, and Anna's already made more stuff that you can shake a needle at with hers which only arrived last week! Call me weak, but I couldn't resist any more! Largely because if I'm going to make lots of stock for craft fairs and festivals, then what I really need is speed. And an overlocker machine = speed!

Oh lordy .. it looks very complicated. Lucky this little chap has turned up to help me.