Blinding Flash Of Inspiration

I was at the local market in the village yesterday when I was struck by an amazing coincidence, that the exact type of fabric that I was vaguely thinking I would need to make some blinds that I’d seen in one of the multitude of magazines that I’ve been catching up on beside the pool, was there right in front of me on a stall, and at a bargain price no less!  You may be able to see that this gauzy type fabric, which I got in a selection of colours with some prints or other fabrics woven through, shimmers slightly too, which was just a bonus...

Alongside that, I spied this lovely home dec weight printed linen – I think it will make a great bag:

Qu’est-ce que c’est?

This is part of what I’m using to work on my Project Handmade contribution.  Can you guess what it’s going to be?  I’ve also got perle cotton and glass beads to go with it...

PS, Jack’s at it again...

Diamonds Are Forever...

Well those carbon-based ones may be forever, but it turns out that the fabric ones aren't so much, or at least remember how to sew them isn't so much, for me anyway.  At Sewing Summit last year I took Faith and Kati's shapes class, but while we were able to practice the partial seams and triangles that Faith was teaching, we didn't have time to do the diamonds and hexies that Kati was teaching, just watch some demonstrations.  If I had been a good, and obedient student, I would have used that evening's sewing time to practice this, but my luggage still hadn't arrived, containing my fabric, and I had a party to attend ;o)

Fast forward 9 months, and I was determined to give birth to a finished project using all these techniques, so it was time to work out those diamonds.  Ugh!

To start with I laid my 60 degree diamonds out (althoguh I forgot to take an initial pic, so imagine these are all separate, 'k? ;o) )

Next I had to work out how to join them.

First I tried a 1/4" overlap, but that didn't work

Then it came to me, it wasn't the overlap that had to be 1/4", it was the distance from the edge of one to the other.  Measure from the edge that will join until you get a 1/4" line drawn between it and the opposite side:

Then line them up using the marks and the other diamond:

Et voila, perfectly in line:

To join my strips together, if the ends had been full diamonds I could have done the same thing, but as I'd chopped the ends off some, I drew a dot 1/4" in at each seam and used a pin through both points to line the 2 sets of seams up:

All done!

The Boot Tidy

The stash guard is on duty (although he's usually open to bribes of a bottle of Jack Daniels) and if that fails, the guard kitty from across the hall is on high alert.  I, meanwhile, have packed my car and am somewhere in the middle of France now.

Anywho, before I left, I felt a sudden urge to gather up all the detritus that regularly hurls itself round my boot, kamikaze style, and stick it in the one place (not least because I have a fear that one day I'm going to open the boot and find the bottle of screen wash weeing on my foot).  May I present to you, therefore, the boot tidy, in situ (sorry, should probably have taken a pic of it empty!):

The fabrics are home dec weight, that I can get at discount prices at my local Remnant Kings warehouse.  You do kind of have to heft around enormously unwieldy rolls of fabric to get it to the cutting table, but it's worth it!  I had bought this fabric for another project entirely, but I've forgotten for what exactly, and I think it works rather well here...

So there you go, no more free range wellies for moi!

Is Your Sat Nav Cosy?

'Cos mine is!  I finally bought myself a sat nav last week, dragging myself into this century by moving past those paper map things once and for all.  To be fair, I have used one previously, on the Grand Road Trip, where the one we hired with the camper was invaluable in finding the nearest Walmart, Target and Joann's (what else?!), and since I'm about to embark on a long car journey by myself through a country that drives on the wrong side of the road, I figured the last thing I needed was to be trying to clutch a Google maps print out while attempting to navigate round Lyon.

Given that this isn't a toy I'm going to be using all the time, I thought I'd better make it a little cosy to protect its screen for when I'm not gazing deep into its eyes...

This is a super simple flat drawstring pouch, which is just slightly bigger all round in the body than the sat nav, and has fusible fleece added to the outer fabric to protect it.  I used about half of the remaining part of my Heather Ross, so it matches my first aid kit :oD

The most genius part I thought, was my choice of tie - I recently pulled out all my ribbons and tied them to two large embroidery hoops which I hung on the wall so I could see better what I had and actually use a bit more!  I got this printed twill tape when I scrapbooked, isn't it perfect?

I bet you're all going to tell me your sat nav is naked, or you went and bought one of them there cases that they sell alongside them, right?

Random Thursday

Time for the weekly dose of randomness...

1. It was a sad week this week, with the death of Iain Banks, the author of my absolutely favourite 'adult' book (that is to say the first book as a teen that I loved more than any kid or teen centred book), The Crow Road.  I mean really, who couldn't love a book that starts with the line 'It was the day my grandmother  exploded'?  I don't know why, but no other book that he wrote gripped me in the same way, however I think it might be time to dig out my copy again, it's been a couple of years...  RIP Mr Banks.

2. Thanks to the Open University, this week I discovered who my design alter ego was, want to see?

I had to go and google him, I have to admit, and now I'm off to find my flat cap ;o)  You can find out your alter ego here.

3. I always suspected that people shopping in Tesco in the middle of the night were a bit weird, but really, who leaves a deer head behind at a self service checkout?  Actually, who takes one in, entirely un-noticed?!!!

4. Did you know that there are sharks without teeth, such as the smooth-hound shark?  I wonder if they ever feel slightly inferior or unfulfilled when next to their more toothy cousins?

5. Did you know a 16th Century accountant wrote the first known 'fashion' book?  It turns out that for 40 years, a German number cruncher wrote about what he wore, while commissioning watercolour paintings of himself in different outfits, kind of makes the small effort required to get a 'selfie' of our latest outfits for our blogs rather insignificant!

Linking up to our ever genial host:

Work In Progress Wednesday

It's been a busy little week, not least because I've been obsessively packing things for, err, about 2 weeks!  Being dyslexic, I know I have the short term memory of your average flea...  ooooh, shiny!  (Sorry, couldn't resist ;o) )  Anywho, over the years I've tried everything, from writing huge lists, to e-mailing myself reminders of things, to post its, to massive piles of crap really useful stuff in the hall.  These days if I'm at home, I start gathering stuff as far in advance as possible, so that should something else pop into my mind, I just add it to the pile.  It does make living here something of an assault course, but hey, I figure I'm keeping us fit too :oD  So anyway, in amongst the gathering of the luggage, I've knocked out a few projects.

Finishes This Week:

Secret Project #1, which started off as:

Secret Project #2, which, I'm afraid, is a complete secret for another couple of months

Boxy pouch first aid kit, with the gorgeous Heather Ross camper vans from Spoonflower:

In Progress This Week:

Sat nav cosy - from the same Heather Ross

Boot tidy, from this little lot (what, you didn't think my boot tidy would have boots? :oD ):

To Be Worked On This Week:

Sat nav cosy
Boot tidy
Whatever hand project leaps into my hand when I'm lounging in the sun :oD

Hope you all had a great week, linking up, as ever, to: