Custard Walk

As a Non-Newtonian fluid, the more force exerted on the custard powder+water mixture, the more the particles of the fluid huddle together to become a solid! Basically you can do a pretty good Jesus impression - or cartwheel through it as one of my crazy Scouts did!

I think we had a good 80 kilos or more of custard powder/cornflour!

Making the custard mixture

Lining up our troop ready to walk on the custard

It was great fun. Not as messy as I thought it would be! We definitely needed 3 leaders to run it. We just kept adding custard powder to water and mixing it. I think the space there is about 8' x 2' x 5". We just put a tarp over some benches which worked really well. The kids lined up and ran across it and had a right laugh. I'm not sure who had more fun, the Scout leaders of the Scouts!

Tabletop success

Great Tabletop Sale today!

It seems a long time in the making but it's finally here! Idea to fruition in 3 months. I've really enjoyed organising and being part of the local community through Scouts and I think we'll do this event again! There was really positive feedback and lots to evaluate and improve on!

I had some brilliant helpers and everyone made it such a success by donating prizes, helping to put up tables, being so friendly, being able to promote their businesses, buying raffle tickets and serving drinks. This all adds up and means that we can maintain our building and get more inventive with Scouts activities like the one we put on last night!

Brilliant Tabletop Sale today and it was so much fun to organise and be part of! #Scouts #fundraising #events #projects #community #WythallPark #venue #eventplanner #eventsplanner #outdoors #raffleprizes #TransformingU #DaviesTimber #BahHumbugEarlswood

A photo posted by Alex Laight (@bodicea25) on Jan 31, 2015 at 8:50am PST

A big shout out to everyone who had tables, helped out + visited our Tabletop Sale @WythallPark today #1stTidburyGreen #Scouts #fundraising
— Alex Laight (@AlexandraLaight) January 31, 2015

PART FOUR: Chevron style St. Clements quilt

///I'm back from the land of Bedfordshire and up for another afternoon's quilting. I had planned meeting people for an afternoon of French chat and Galette des Rois eating but I got snowed in. Oh well, good excuse to do some more quilting///

PINNING THE COLUMNS TOGETHER

Put the columns together (right sides together). Make sure that the horizontal seams are lined up because it will look better later on, but you also need to make sure that the points of the triangles match as well.

Matching horizontal seams and triangle points

 

I used a ruler to make a straight edge which gives me an idea of what the sewing will look like when I'm done. It then means that I can immediately pin the fabric and draw a line, which I will sew along.

I am double-checking that tacked seam in this picture. It didn't seem (fighting the urge to pun here) right so I drew a line a bit nearer the edge to make a better finish.

Pinned, tacked and the guideline has been drawn. 

  

TACKING AND SEWING COLUMNS TOGETHER

I tacked (left image: in white) and drew a line, in biro, to indicate more clearly where I should machine sew.

N.B. better to tack in a different colour thread if you has it as it's easier to unpick later! (see right image)

 

When you sew, sometimes the flappy triangle bits will get in the way. (I haven't cut them off as yet as, earlier, they helped me to see what the triangles should be in line with). 

To make the flappy bits flat, make sure your needle is down, then click the foot up and just flatten the flappy bits the right way, then click the foot back down.

Needle down, foot goes up

Organise flappy bits

Foot down, continue sewing

EXAMPLES OF SEWING CHEVRONS

Here are some examples of the fact that it doesn't always turn out right first time and that sometimes you need to check and check again to get a good result. Instagram is testament to this - just look up #unpicking if you ever feel overwhelmed about the whole thing!

This tacking seemed to work well but I knew I needed to make the seam allowance a bit bigger so I got a nice point on the inside of the chevron

This one went completely wonky so I undid the bottom, jiggled it about a bit and retacked and stitched it so it looked better.

STOP! In the name of Quilts! What on Earth is that hole doing there?!

Random unsewn line of sewing within the quilt

TIP: Make sure that the bobbin is full of cotton. When quilting, you can sew a whole line and not realise quarter of the way through that your bobbin thread has gone. To me, it looked as though the sewing was done because the top thread was there, but actually, it hadn't been sewn because the bobbin thread wasn't there. Hence, I had a hole in my quilt which was tricky - but not impossible - to correct. 

See my later blog post on WHIP STITCH

So you've sewn two columns together, and another two columns together. Now you want to put each set of two columns together. Easy peasy. Just do the same as before! Right sides facing and just make sure it's the right way up and that the correct patterns are matching.

Almost finished. A last double-check before I sew on my last column. I just checked the size of my quilt against the last one I made. It's a wee bit too small so I'm going to add a border of orange fabric to make it bigger with minimal work, and then I'll sew some yellow bias binding around the edges. This also gives a nice finish to the quilt and brings all those lovely colours together. 

 It's the final quilt seam... Doodle oo doo doodle ooh doo doo doodle ooh doo doo, nearly the final quilt seam!

THEEEEEN - Iron your seams! 

I always feel like when you finally get to iron the seams you must've done a load of work and need a reward. I had a cup of tea and a biscuit after this one. It's snowing too so just making quilts made me feel that little bit warmer and cosier. My chickens didn't think so, though. "Sorry Phyllis! I don't control the weather."

HAPPY QUILTING!

The things I do for my Scouts

Friday night and I'm getting completely covered in flour so that I have some cupcakes to sell at tomorrow's Tabletop Sale!

I used 5 small, very yellow free range eggs (from my chickens), lemon zest and 3 dessertspoons of lemon juice. 

As per Delia's Lemon Butterfly Cake recipe (which I doubled and used butter instead of soft marg for), I put the oven on 190 degrees c and mixed all the ingredients together with my handmixer. My mixture made 23 cupcakes but they are random sizes so yours may stretch to 25.

I finally get to use my cute cupcake cases!

I've just popped them in the oven for 15 mins and then I'll check them to see if they spring back up when I poke them. As my oven is a bit tricky I did them in 2 batches on the middle shelf.

I've just checked on them and I'll give them 4 more minutes. Right, now they're perfect. They sprang back up.

Very messy but never mind!

Completely covered in flour!

I'm off to eat tea whilst I wait for the other cupcakes to bake and then I've got Scouts in a bit and we're doing an epic Custard Walk and some sort of safe explosion so super-excited for that! Sure the Scouts will enjoy it too :)

Right. They're baked. I'll leave them to cool and I'll ice them in the morning.

Crafting boxes for my Crafters

As I am doing some craft workshops and was finding that I was developing a bit of a storage issue, I decided to make some craft boxes so that I could keep certain tools & materials prepped and ready to go, for my workshops. I thought I'd show you how to make one because it is so simple and they look quite pretty in the end. 

It's also a good promotional tool because it is something tangible, aesthetically pleasing, practical (it carries their "make") and it has my details on it so the craft workshopper or their friends might share it online or contact me, having seen my details.  

These boxes also work as yarn boxes if you make a big hole in one end (although you might as well just use a square tissue box if you are going to do that!). 

What you'll need to make one

Cardboard boxes (size - 6" x 4" x 4") at 25p each

Sellotape

Scissors

PVA glue (not essential)

2 x Loom band elastic (I think I own a gazillion!)

Funky self-adhesive fabric tape (dependent on size of box)

2 x split pins

A small piece of paper with your logo or name on (this is where you'll use the PVA)

Cardboard boxes from the internet - I sellotaped the bottom to keep it enclosed

We're basically wrapping sticky fabric tape around a box. To start, I made up the flatpack box and sellotaped the bottom so it would be sturdy.

I then measured the cardboard boxes, making sure that where the fabric would be, on the top of the box, would match and be level all along. So, I measured to the middle of the box and drew a pencil line so I would know where to put the fabric tape to make it look good. 

I started by matching up the fabric tape on the top of the box, wrapping it all along the pencil line and then cutting it off so that it went over the end about 1cm, so that the edge looked clean.

I love the look of the top. I will put split pins either side of the flaps and attach a loom band elastic across them to secure the flaps and keep the crafty things in.  

Beautiful floral self-adhesive tape (1.5mm)

Right, once I did all this to 10 boxes I got out the PVA and a paintbrush, having printed off my logo and details, and stuck them to the end of the box. 

///I am waiting on an order of split pins so that I can do the finishing touches. I still have until next weekend though so I've got a bit of time until then///

Quilt Soundtrack

You definitely need a good soundtrack for crafting, whether it's 

This: 
What's Love Got to do With It by Tina Turner 

This: 
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench 

This, to stop me falling asleep late night quilting:
Pharrell - Happy

Or this, to really stop me working:
Let it Go

This...

Aladdin - Friend Like me - (English) 

or, definitely waking me uppp..., just anything by The D.
Tenacious D - The last in line


Makes me want to go and sort out my iPod playlists...

PART THREE: Chevron style St. Clements quilt

So, woo hoo! I've sewn up 3 columns. 3 down, 2 to go! 

Then life happened and I think I left it on the side in my sewing room whilst I pottered about with other projects and more admin-y type things - the joys of making spreadsheets so that I can actually make my crazy craft workshops work for me financially: slowly but surely. I also talked to an Artist about exchanging French lessons for Batik classes and I am quite excited about that! We also discussed "Man Sheds" which I may blog about later on :)

Right, so what was I saying? Oh yes, once you have your 5 quilt columns sitting on your desk looking fab, but a bit floopy, ... well, what do you think?! You iron your seams! :) Yay! 

Ok, I promise no more waxing lyrical about ironing....

...Still... they look pretty ace all ironed and flat, right?

 ///GOES OFF TO MAKE A CUP OF TEA; EAT A NUTELLA SPOON AND SEE WHAT STAGE HER COLUMNS ARE AT, THEN DOES A BIT OF IRONING OF SEAMS (OH YEAH!) THEN COMES BACK TO WRITE BLOG///

The Call

The Call:    When the call comes, 
                  sometimes you just have to stop the car + write.
                  Sometimes it helps if the 
                  place you stop at has a loo
                  as well - Thanks MAC Birmingham!

My Artsy week!

As someone who sees The Arts as somewhat of a guilty pleasure, I feel like I've been snaffling cookies all this week!

Saturday 
Creative Producing Masterclass with Alex McCorkindale & IdeasTap

Sunday
Budgeting my new craft workshops
Marketing/designing flyers for my craft workshops

Monday
Babysitting (AKA climbing up + downstairs together, giggling A LOT, feeding the chickens - she's a pro, watching Peppa Pig and attempting to draw quilt patterns whilst showing my niece how to scribble)

Tuesday
Met up with Tiger Skins of Sunlight to chat about their Summer plans at Martineau Gardens. Promoted my craft workshops by putting up flyers around Moseley
Popped into Transition Arts Gallery by The Dark Horse in Moseley (follow this link!)

Wednesday
After tutoring French (my first lesson and it went really well!) I went to an immense workshop run by Chris Cooper and put on by The Gap Arts project - Who knew enacting reading a newspaper could be that tricky? The stuff discussed developed rich content and more interesting discussions!

So, yes, I had a very exciting week. Tudor sewing club on Friday and I'm really looking forward to meeting and planning my friend's birthday with her soon, too - It's going to be funky and exotic! Feeling a little bit sleepy but very content. It'll definitely be well-earnt sleep!

Knit your own Blanket Square workshop

Knit your own Blanket Square is a great introduction to knitting on a small scale. You'll learn to knit a small square and learn how to attach different sample squares together! 
Meet a group of lovely people at Cherry Reds cafe and bar (89-90 John Bright St, Birmingham, UK) for a friendly and accessible workshop.

Do book your tickets in advance as only 10 places are available.

Follow this link for ticket options
For more info see the Monster Eyes Events Facebook page

PART TWO: Chevron style St. Clement's quilt

It has taken a little while to get this blog up, although I had the pictures up! My diary has been full of exciting projects and ideas that I'm developing this year. 

TRIANGLE ARRANGEMENT

N.B.TAKE A PHOTO OF YOUR TRIANGLE ARRANGEMENT AS A REFERENCE POINT!

Here's a photo of my triangles all arranged - Is what I would say if I had taken such a picture! (see note)

Note: MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A PHOTO OF THE OVERALL QUILT YOU WILL BE MAKING ONCE YOU HAVE ARRANGED THE TRIANGLES!

It is really annoying if, say, you knock the pile of triangles over and can't remember the order - I can testify to this. Although, I did figure out what happened eventually it is an hour of my life I cannot get back!! So, pin a note to say which column it is and if it is top/bottom.

Having laid out all the triangles together to see how they will go together, I pinned them and made sure it was marked where I needed to sew, so that the right yellow/orange triangles were attached to the right part of the orange/yellow triangles. 

Image of most of my triangles nicely pinned in the correct order. 

MAKING SQUARES

Part 1: I pinned each set of 2 triangles together

Part 2: I sewed each set of 2 triangles together, with a double stitch at either end. This makes a square.

N.B. Yay! It's time to iron those brilliant seams!

You've made a square! - now to make rectangles... 

MAKING RECTANGLES

Having checked that the triangles are oriented as I want them I pinned the right-hand, vertical edge (which at the moment is the horizontal top edge). Turn your head left a bit - that's it! This secures my fabric for sewing. 

 

After you've sewn the 2 squares together they become a nice rectangle. 

Note: The thinner fabric (yellow, stripey polycotton) was a bit resistant to my sewing machine whereas the 100% was quite sturdy. I decided, therefore, not to doublestitch the yellow stripey+yellow stripey triangles at the ends because then I could stretch out the stitches where it bunched up a bit. In the end the horizontal sewing will reinforce it, when I sew all the rectangles together so it doesn't matter so much that I didn't double-stitch.

BEFORE YOU DO THE NEXT BIT 

Lay out all your rectangles and double-check the overall design. Are the yellows where they should be?, the orange triangles too?

Go on, iron all those seams as well. You know you want to! It'll all look so flat and perfect once you're done ironing!

SEWING DOWN THE COLUMNS 

You must now match up the vertical seam down the middle of the first top rectangle to the vertical seam of the rectangle below. 

- Pin the 2 top fabric squares together 

- When you do this, pin the 2 right sides (the side you want people to see), together.

- Check that when you flip the rectangles open (to see how great your sewing looks) you get the chevron as it looked in your arrangement - or at least as on the line as you can (check that beautiful picture of all the wonderfully arranged triangles from before!). 

n.b. You may want to tack the seam first to make sure depending on how confident you are.  

Close up of the seams all pinned up and good to go. Hello there seams!

Full view - I pinned all my squares ready to be sewn up. I also pinned
them together so that I didn't knock them all apart by accident! 

Then do the same for the next 5 seams.
If the chevron-matching is up to your standards, continue with the next 4 columns. 

If not, maybe have a little sit down, a cuppa and watch an episode of Supernatural, New Girl or Family Guy - whatever makes you feel happier or better off than the characters in it.
Then go back to your quilting when you are more chilled out and it's not 1 in the morning. (Yes, you guessed it! I sometimes melodramatise sewing)

IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF CHEVRON STYLE ST. CLEMENTS QUILT: 

Our heroine sews together the columns so that they match perfectly. She then cuts the fleece and polyester wadding to the size of the quiltwork, as well as sewing the edges! She may even quilt it depending on how much coffee she has had at that point! Wow!

Plus - I coded that text to be dark green myself ... baby steps! 

The Knitter's Bible - A short review

Hands down, this is my favourite stitch directory. Really clear pictures. Some great stitches which are fun and, if not easy to do, at least the instructions guide you through the process well! Well worth a read. Easy to flick through as a reference guide.

The Knitter's Bible
by Claire Crompton

The Knitter's Bible - in full PDF

The Knitter's Bible to buy on Amazon

Make do & Mend event

On Wednesday 11 February I'm running an informal workshop called Make do & Mend at Cherry Reds in Birmingham City Centre. It will be a fun introduction to improving your wardrobe with simple techniques like sewing buttons on, hemming and threading a sewing machine.

Follow this Facebook link for more details!! Make do & Mend with Monster Eyes Events

Learn to sew on buttons, thread a sewing machine, hem trousers and have a bit of fun!

Don't know how to use a sewing machine?

Can't sew on buttons?

Haven't quite got around to hemming those trousers?Learn some skills that'll keep your clothes in good nick for a little while yet.