You might remember my shopping trip to Plush Addict the other week, and the extra purchases I made apart from the foxy cotton for my Margot PJ's (I haven't done anything with the rainbow stripes yet). Well, it begins as a slightly long story, but I acquired all my Nan's knitting needles a few weeks ago, and then Mum and I decided to pool our resources too, in an effort to see which sizes (if any) we were missing. This then led to the dilemma of how to store all the needles without getting them all completely muddled up and having to rummage through the whole lot when you needed a different pair. So I thought I'd better have a go at making a storage roll for them.
As well as the tortoise fabric and gingham (half a metre of each), I liberated an old bed sheet from my stash, and bought some wadding to give it a bit of padding. I'm actually quite proud that I made this up as I went along, no pattern to refer to, just repeated measuring and checking that nothing was being sewn together inside out!
I've not really done any quilting before but have read enough tutorials in various places to figure out how I needed to layer my fabric sandwich, and to work from the outside in when sewing the quilting lines, and I think it turned out OK, I didn't end up with a big wodge of wadding in one end anyway!
Working out the spacing for the pockets took a little while and some very careful pinning - fortunately the gingham pattern gave me a hand with straight lines to stitch along, and I didn't go too wonky on the plain bits I don't think...
The only slight mishap was that I started by placing the ribbons at each end of the roll, then realising after I'd sewed them in that one would get rolled up into the middle and be no use at all, so I had to unpick a bit and move the two ribbons together to one end. Disaster averted!
In the end the final piece was a bit tall once the knitting needles were in the pockets, but actually that gave me a bit of spare to play with so I sewed a line across so that the top would fold down, and added a couple of little poppers. Now the knitting needles won't all fall out if I pick the roll up the wrong way!
The poor old sewing machine struggled a bit with this one, I think there were a few too many layers to go through at a couple of places, and the tension went all wonky again. Really might be time to go and try out a few new machines with a view to upgrading...
Oh, we did manage a BBQ on Sunday afternoon, during a break in the weather for some sunshine, and Mum and I pulled up our first crop of potatoes. They are Duke of York first earlies and were planted in the middle of March. There were a few tiddlers and they could have probably gone another week or two, but I get impatient to pull them up and see how they're growing! Anyway, they were delicious, gently steamed and with a bit of butter melted on top. Mmmmmm...
I am still knitting too, I'm working on a jumper from a pattern in Knitting magazine, and have nearly finished the sleeves. I've been working them two at a time on a circular needle, the first time I've tried it, and I've managed not to get in too much of a muddle. I've saved the front to do last, as it's got a slightly complicated cable and lace panel up the middle - I probably should have done it first and got the hard bit out of the way! Never mind, it hopefully shouldn't take me more than a week to do and then I can show you how it turns out. I really must try and remember to take more 'work in progress' photos of my projects too.
Oh, one more thing, I went fabric shopping again (sorry bank balance...) and got this GORGEOUS Liberty print cotton drill that I'm planning to make a Delphine skirt (from Love at First Stitch) with, in fact I might sort out the pattern pieces this afternoon...
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