A day late

I know now that the klosjes are stitched during the week and shown on a Saturday. Oops, I'm a day late but I think it must still be Saturday somewhere in the world.

Here's the week's worth, all 18 of them.  I do believe my hand stitching is getting a little faster.

I'm waving out to Annemieke she is one of the latest to join in.

I didn't show you the last two applique blocks for Stars and Sprigs. I'd love to move a bit faster on these but I've been distracted, in the nicest possible way of course.

I had some lovely comments on the bread I made and have been asked for the recipe. I don't want to do a whole post as I think there are already some great bread sites and videos on U Tube.

I am using sourdough but I'm making it hybrid using commercial yeast and it's just a basic recipe I made up. We don't like sour, sour bread so this gives a nice flavour and keeps for more than one day.

Here are my amounts in case you're interested.

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

2 1/2 cups flour ( I use 1/2 cup wholemeal and 2 cups white flour)

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 tsp butter

1tsp salt

If you don't know about this book, where have you been hiding! It's awesome for people with little time and produces a loaf that resmbles that holey, crispy chewy artisan bread. You can find it in most libraries or the basic  technique is on video here. Click here to go to the website.

Simple pleasures

I've been racing around this week and the only sewing I was in the mood for was some playful small projects. I get the urge to make small stuff from time to time, beacuse I need to have the satisfaction of having something finished, you know how it is when all your projects are ufo's.

I've had this book by Chuck Nahora for years and found the directions, which are all done in drawing form, hard to follow. I've wanted to make some pouches so used the photos as my starting point, ignored the directions which just confused me and worked out some easier templates and measurements.

Sneek peek revealed.  I played around with different sizes and come up with one that's the perfect size for me.

Then I decided to play with a different shape and a bigger size.

Lots of space inside this one

I just love the bottom. I was thinking of trying this one in a smaller size. I am thinking a tutorial would be a good idea. Which pouch do you fancy? The zippers are hand sewn in and not difficult to do, so you zipperphobics could even manage this.

My other pet project has been the sourdough, Bubbles. I've worked out a hybrid recipe using sourdough and fresh yeast that suits our tastes, it's delicious. I've been making bread for thirty years and used to teach it in a community high school, I'm still not tired of it. One of life's simple pleasures, you can't beat the smell of homemade bread. This one's about to go in the oven.

I need to get on with cleaning house and then I get to play with my Klosjes. Have a wonderful weekend.

From the sewing room

Don't you just love those free tutorials that bloggers are kind enough to share? I found one last year that I wanted to try but it was an english translation from a German blog. I couldn't quite understand all the instructions. It was for a cosmetic bag that was made in fabric.

 I asked a good friend who is a whiz at sewing all sorts of things if she would kindly try to figure the instructions out. I'm happy to say she did and here is my finished bag.

It was very frustrating trying to figure out, especially the part where the zip ends go and it nearly got trashed. That's the time to walk away and come back later. Well I decided, it wasn't great but it wasn't worth chucking so I did the best I could to get it together and now I'm glad I didn't bin it. I won't be making another one I don't think.

The tutorial is here if you are interested and  there is a link for the english translation.

Other things I'm working on are not blogworthy at the moment so you'll have to put up with some sneak peeks.

What a tease, see you soon with what I'm playing with.

Klosjes week 1

Here it is, my first klosjes Saturday. These are being stitched all around the world, the virus started at Supergoof and she has a list on her side bar of participants. Nadine has listed some new people who have joined in and Valentina has explained how to pronounce the word. Shirley has just joined in too, waving to you all.
How exciting is that!
After making 25 of them, I've been thinking about changing my pattern for the block. What! There's been too much thinking going on while I've been sitting and stitching, could you smell the wood burning? If I'm going to change anything, I had better do it now before I go on.

The one on the left is  3" finished, the one in the middle is 2.5", the one on the right is also 2.5" but has a bigger middle. I redrafted the block, the middle is still 1" finished in size but it now looks more like a spool than a bow tie shape. Which one shall I carry on with?

Of course I've been travelling around blogs, looking, comparing, getting more indecisive, how unlike me!  Which one do you prefer?

Edit: I did a paste up of options without seam allowances and have decided to stick with what I've been doing. Spools are all different so there is no right or wrong, just personal preference.

I had an impulse buy yesterday, again, so unlike me. It's true. I was on my way to the pharmacy and passed a shop that had a closing down sale.  Look what I found and bought home in the boot of the car. It fits lots of little bits and pieces and now I've got rid of a couple of those plastic drawer sets and made room in my bookcase for more books.

Until next time, happy stitching.

Decisions, klosjes part II

I've had these fabrics for awhile with the idea that they would play together really well  in a quilt one day  To me, they look a bit "oldy worldy English" They seem to be mostly muted tones and this collection is what I've decided on to make the klosjes, little spools blocks.

Sometimes choosing fabrics and colours is a hard decision to make, I could just as easily have gone reproduction, reds and creams, scrappy anything goes or with some other theme or colour scheme.

I like to make quilts that you wouldn't necessarily be able to put my name to. I like variety and flexibility and a bit of a change now and again, but in the end, colours and fabrics have to be decided upon. That's not to say that minds can't be changed down the track.

I've had some queries about finding a tutorial or print out of templates so here it is in my finished size. Just remember to add seam allowances. It is based on a nine patch and I think the drawing is self explanatory. If you wanted, you could elongate  the size of the center square to make it look more like a spool. You don't even need graph paper to draw this, you just need to start with an accurate square.

I should add here that a lot of these little blocks are being made by others to finish at 2 1/2"

Usually there isn't just one given name for a patchwork block, there can be many and some would call the spools a bow tie or visa versa. That's not wrong but here's a drawing of what I understood a bow tie block to be. It's drawn in a four patch grid rather than a nine patch. I guess both could be called spools or bow ties.

The other question I got asked is how to arrange the block for easy machine piecing without set in or Y seams so I drew that out too and made a practice block. You would of course add seam allowances to the drawing as before.

Adding the half inch all around for seams, these are the measurements for a 3" block if you were to rotary cut it. Easy peasy!

Sewing the corners. I do trim off the excess behind the patch.

I really don't know if this is quicker than hand piecing, there are more patches to cut but hey, we like choices.

Roll on Saturday, klosjes day.