British Quilt and Stitch Village

Yesterday was spent at Uttoxeter Racecourse, but instead of looking at the runners and riders and checking the starting prices, I was looking at quilts and embroidery and checking the fabric prices.  I had been fortunate to win tickets for the British Quilt and Stitch Village from Traplet Exhibitions and so I went with a sewing friend from Liverpool Sewing Club to see what this new show had to offer.

The first pleasant surprise was the free parking, definitely a bonus compared to the prices charged by the NEC. Then we found that instead of the cavernous halls of shows in the NEC or Event City, the British Quilt and Stitch Village was spread out amongst various buildings around the parade ring and in the main grandstand of the racecourse. Moving between the different locations caused us to get slightly windswept and had the weather been wet we could have ended up slightly soggy, but it was nice to be able to get some fresh air and see daylight, unlike at the larger shows.

Sewing supplies from surprise sources

I have a limited selection of shops that I can visit in my lunch hour if I need sewing supplies. Luckily (or unluckily for my purse) one is Abakhan, but the others are discount shops, however, I’ve found a range of bargain items that are useful for sewing in the two discount shops .

In the gardening section of B&M I found some items ideal for quilting.  I went looking for large bulldog clips (to secure a quilt sandwich to a table when pin tacking) but couldn’t find any in the stationery department. As I needed the clips to use at Liverpool Sewing Club that evening, a little bit of improvisation was needed and I found plant clips at a bargain price of 89p.  The large clips open 1” wide and were ideal to hold the quilt layers taut while pinning. The smaller clips open ½” wide and will come in useful for bag making when the fabric is too thick or tough for pins.  I also spotted in the gardening section a three-pair pack of thin gloves with a grip finish on the fingers and palms. I’ve seen similar gloves sold for in sewing shops to use when doing free motion quilting.

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Easter sewing (part 2) – pattern testing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I used the Easter long weekend to catch up on some sewing projects. I’ve already posted about the case I made for my iPad mini, but the other project was to finish off a bag that I was pattern testing for Jodi at Sewfearless. Her latest pattern is the Mommy’s Poppins bag -  a carpet bag with an internal frame and is customisable for any size of frame.

Apples and Sprouts - instructions to make a mini iPad case

This tutorial has been updated - please use the iPadded tutorial in the Projects/Tutorials section.

When I made my iPad mini case, I didn't think on to take lots of photos which would have made it easier to write a tutorial. However, I've put together a basic set of instructions for making this project.

The instructions and patterns are available as pdf files and have been designed to print on A4 paper. Please check that the pattern file prints to the correct size, especially if using a different paper size.

Click here for the instructions
Click here for the pattern
Click here for instructions to make a zipped pocket (from U-Handbag)

I've also created a new "Project" section on the blog where you will find this project, and hopefully a few others in the months to come.

Easter sewing (part 1) - apples and sprouts!

During the Easter holiday I was able to catch up on a couple of sewing projects. The main project was finishing off pattern testing a carpet bag (more about that to come in another post), but a quick project I needed to do was to make a case for my iPad mini.