Kitty Bag revisited

You might remember a couple of weeks ago I decided as well as working on the cross stitch UFOs I should really dig out a few of my own forgotten projects and get to work on them too.

Well yesterday, thanks to dh over indulging on the amber nectar on Saturday night, I had a nice quiet at home day with time for stitching thrown in too! The perfect excuse to get to work on the bag.

First off I had to repair that hole. Not as easy as it looked as as soon as I sat down, needle in hand, I had cats clambering to get on my lap.Next it was time to set up the machine for free motion to work some stitching on these little straps.

I came a bit unstuck on the next part as I realised that these straps should have been stitched on before the bag was joined together, how I managed to make this glaring error I will never know! Anyway I decided to cheat a bit here and with the aid of my trusty friend (below) the straps were attached.

Finally with this aptly named paint I decorated a couple of pieces of dowel for the handles.

Voila, Angelcat's UFO number one complete.

I really like this little pattern, my bag isn't the best made in the world. I think this must be one of my oldest ufos and I definitely remember doing the stitching on the main part of the bag on my old sewing machine so it must be well over two years old which would make it around about the time that my stitching journey was just beginning. When I find the time I will definitely try this bag pattern again.

Bags of fun

It suddenly occurred to me today that as I am so motivated to finish Mum's UFOs at the moment, I should take a bit of that enthusiasm and work on some of my own too.

I have this tote box full of half finished projects, blocks and quilts. So I went rummaging today and found myself one of my own UFOs to work on. A couple of years ago when I first started getting into all things fabric I fell in love with the bag on the front of this book. So started one of my own this is as far as I gotActually as I simplified mine quite a lot it's not that far off being done. I'm not sure why I never got round to finishing it at the time. I think it might have been because as I didn't have any specialist feet for the basic model sewing machine I had and wasn't too pleased with the free motion work, but actually although it's certainly no masterpiece of stitching on closer inspection it's not as bad as I remembered it to be.

You might be able to see from the first picture that being in the box it's gotten somewhat squashed so is in need of a little bit of rescuing. My first task will be to try and get it back in shape and then I will be repairing this holeI'll let you know how I get on.

Ready to Burn

So after waiting for my camera battery to charge and attempting unsuccessfully to get a good picture of my bag in progress I figured out that the piece is just about the right size to fit under the scanner.
I'm now at the stage where I'm supposed to burn holes to create some void spaces in the design. After all time it took to stitch the darn thing I've decided not to dive in and burn straight away without some practise. So today I will be stitching up a basic grid pattern using the same techniques to practise my burning on. Wish me luck!

Stitching again

It's been another tough couple of weeks in Angelcat land. MIL still hasn't made much progress and after a few days at home is back in hospital, so the long days of work and hospital visits continue.

Last week I was knocked out with the flu and a horrible cough which was none too pleasant (and I missed the November GWE meet because of it which I am thoroughly annoyed about), but thankfully the worst of that seems to be gone now.

I really need a break from all the madness and as luck would have it I had signed up for a workshop with the Swindon Embroiderers Guild this last Saturday. The aim of the day was to learn the techniques to make a filigree bag. Everyone seemed to have a really enjoyable day. Here are some of the group hard at work, just look at the concentration, they look totally engrossed don't ya think?
Sadly I didn't get very far with my bag, I was a little disappointed but I think I didn't really get a good grasp on the concept at the beginning and chose a stitching pattern that was way too intricate for my meagre skills. The only picture I have to share of my work in progress is the piece all layered, pinned and ready to stitch. By the end of the day I still hadn't finished stitching, let alone started the burning process. I am happy to say that I spent half hour at my machine this evening and the stitching is almost done, who knows if I get of the computer and back to the machine I may even have a picture of the stitched piece to share tomorrow!