Craft Supplies and Dangly Charms

Today is a snow day, the second of this winter.  I wouldn't mind but it should really be called an ice storm day and I'm not much keen on them.

Over the weekend Tom and I have been putting the basement back together.  All the stuff that was temporarily stored in boxes in the office and family room is now back down there, mostly in the right place.  While we were unpacking I went through all the kids craft supplies, games and Halloween stuff and filled 3 bags with bits and bobs for donation.

Craft supplies are something we have a quite a few of and I find it difficult to keep them tidy, it's not easy to make opened bags of feathers, sequins and pompoms look attractive but I've done my best and got it all to fit in this storage unit.

I found a lot of Rose's unfinished craft kits so this morning in the newly cleaned and tidied basement we made dangly charms.  Here they are and that's 1 kit down.  Only 4 to go.  And yes, that is a crop top, before you ask I just don't know.

That's what I do on snow days, how do you spend yours?
Kirstin

Whoo Hoo

I really actually feel like I need a whoop whoop for this one.  At the beginning of this month I discovered the great One Monthly Goal linky party at Elm Street Quilts.  The timing was apt because I'd just got my dreaded box of UFOs out of the basement, sorted through them and decided to make myself accountable for actually finishing a few.

I chose to set the goal of finishing a scrap quilt top that I began making for my nephews around 4 years ago and despite having been super busy clearing out the basement and the garage and fitting sewing sessions in between child minding and trips to the thrift store and garbage dump I have done it.  Here it is, I am really pleased with how it's looking.

Anyone who saw the previous post will notice that the design has undergone a bit of a change, before there were puffs of smoke where now there are trees.  Basically I decided that the smoke was too hard (sad I know) but also I remembered another UFO lurking at the bottom of the box and decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I deconstructed this even older project

I made these trees around six years ago, I think they were inspired by this Anna Maria Horner 'Feather Bed' pattern.  I'm very happy with how they turned out as background, I like the feeling of the deep, dark woods that they give, maybe there's a Gruffalo in there.  Also the train has changed direction!  This is because when I looked at the pictures of the design my kids originally came up with it was this way around.

I used lots of fairly haphazard techniques for the different blocks.  The train is appliqued with blanket stitch, mostly by machine with a bit of handwork.  The sleepers are strips that were sewn together then sliced length ways and flipped with the background inserted to represent the tracks.

So what of the smoke puffs?  Never fear, I think I will use them on the back for a stepping stone type effect.  I'm thinking something like this.

I'm really hoping to get the back finished over the weekend and the whole thing quilted and bound by next Friday.  If I do I can get it in the mail and with a lot of luck it may reach England in time for Christmas.  Fingers and toes crossed for that one.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts.

Notions

This week I've been a bit under the weather so I decided to tackle an easy one and went through my collection of notions.  They live in a set of plastic drawers with labels on the front, for easy organisation and access (theoretically), and contain mostly useful items such as zippers, elastics, snap fasteners, pinking shears and grommets (the round fixings not the dog).

It would seem that my worst hoarding problem in this section is tiny pieces of pretty ribbon.  I had (notice the past tense there) loads and loads collected from all sorts of places but most notably:

1. Little tiny pieces from the cinched in bits of Christmas crackers
2. Long skinny bits that are sewn into the underarms of tops to stop them falling off coat hangers

They have not proved to be useful so they have now gone.

This is a list of items that I have kept and I think I will give myself a time frame (lets call it 6 months from now, 16 May 2019) in which to use them up or bin them.

1. Assorted bias tape
2. Spare snap fastenings from old clothes
3. Rick rack trimming
4. Pom pom trimming

I might use the bias tape to make some festive scrappy bunting but need ideas for the rest of the stuff please.

These are the best 2 Items I found.  The first I inherited, it made me laugh back then and I marvelled at why anyone would keep a collection of these.  Guess what? 6 years later I've still got them.

In case anyone's wondering they are free sewing kits from hotels, and you know what? I still can't bring myself to get rid of them.

Next are these name tags, they must be 40 years old, I've not had to sew a label into anything since I left high school and my name hasn't been Kirstin Miller for the past 14 years so I'm sorry labels, you're out!

Beginning the Basement

I was considering not putting pen to paper today, I've been slowly getting on with all the sorting and throwing out but none of it has been either monumental or exciting.  Still, I committed to posting on Tuesdays and Fridays so I shall note down briefly what has been done.

I finished sorting through my magazines and after much deliberation and typing out of vital recipes I have thrown 43 out.  All I have left are...

• 5 Christmas issues with lots of great recipes that I will definitely make, honest
• 1 Vogue knitting magazine
• 2 gardening magazines
• 1 Halloween edition with good pumpkin carvings
• 8 Vogue patterns magazines
• 1 quilting magazine with some really good scrappy patterns

I've not actually got rid of the rest yet, they are far too heavy to put out in the recycling all at once, also Rose and I have been using them as a step for her to practice kick overs off.

Yesterday I sorted out the non-sewing/knitting craft stuff in the basement.  I have rid the house of a large bag full of...

• Unfinished craft kits
• Multicoloured feathers
• Opened bags of sequins
• Dried up glue
• Hundred year old fabric paint
• Miniature pompoms
• Tiny bits of paper
• Pencils whose lead snaps when you sharpen them
• Dried up markers
• Tiny, grubby used erasers

And much more stuff too numerous to mention.  In order to quantify it and get it into Tally Ho! I decided to weigh it, 2.247 kg of rubbish plus some recycled paper and card and a box of wooden beads far to 'childish' (her word) for Rose now she has reached the grand old age of 10.

I found a couple of little gems while I was looking through stuff, here is a tiny piece of art that my sister sent me when I was at University.  It is about the size of my hand.

And here is a postcard my Dad sent me from Norway.  I wonder what happened to his favourite green cord cap?  I do hope it had a happy second life out there.