Trial and Error

In the last couple of weeks I have decided to join a couple of swaps. I'm in need of some small scale fun projects at the moment, seeing as how the bigger quilts are posing a little more of a challenge to me and my sore back. Plus, I love doing swaps, its great to push yourself out of your comfort zone a little and make for someone else's taste.

First up, myself and Geraldine decided to do a little private swap between us, but I am still mulling over the design element here so piccies on this one yet.

I also joined Round 5 of the Pretty {little} pouch swap. I've never taken part in this swap before, but have seen lots of the lovely things made for it and can't wait to get started. When picking the pouches for my mosaic, frame purses featured heavily so I decided I needed to learn to make them myself.

 I duly ordered some supplies last week (thank you to those of you who gave me lots of tips on where to go over on Facebook - you know who you are!) and they arrived today. So I picked out some pretty fabrics and got started.

I started with the smaller frame, thinking it would be more straightforward and used a combination of Kristie's tutorial and Lisa's to make it. Unfortunately I didn't quite get the pattern template right - I left too small a seam allowance which mean that the top of the purse was not quite full enough for the frame. Annoying because the rest of the purse looked fine and was really quick and easy to make up. I also found the glue a bit fiddly to apply but think that's because I my fabric didn't fit quite right.

In this picture, it looks ok, but its really not! Have a look in the next picture and you can see how the fabric is sliding out - and all the glue I got on the lining!

After leaving this to start drying for a few minutes, I decided that I really wasn't happy with it and couldn't  see myself using it, - mostly because I didn't think the fabric would be secure in the frame with the weight of coins. So I pulled the fabric out of the frame and decided to try another practice run with it in the next couple of days. I think the next attempt will be with the square frame to see how it works by comparison!

I am posting progress pics of what I am working on more often on Instagram (where I am sewfairyface) and Facebook - where I also do a lot of chatting and find it a little easier to respond to people more quickly so I'd love if you joined me over there on either of them. I'm also seriously considering making some changes to the commenting settings here due to the insane amount of spam landing in my email - unfortunately while its filtered out from appearing on the blog, its still being emailed to me - hundreds of them per week! Any suggestions?

Craft Fail: When at first you don't succeed.....

Listen to your body and your tired little mind and STOP!!

I kinda wish I had read that sentence a few hours ago to be honest. Let's just call this a cautionary tale in which a viable idea got destroyed because I couldn't just leave the sewing alone and go sit on the sofa!! Want to see my craft fail?

Well, it starts with this pretty little layout for my scrappy mug rug swap. Perfect little hexies thanks to the Go! Baby.



I'm pretty sure my partner likes this whole vibe, so decided to get sewing up the hexies last night. I machine pieced them, but didn't feel I did a great job - some of the seams are a little bulky and because I found turning on the corners a little tricky, I think some of my hexie shapes are not as perfect as I would like...eeek. That's without even mentioning the number of times I had to rip back the hexies.... I debated just starting over, but I hate giving up on a project.



I decided that the quilting might even out some of those problems so decided to press on tonight with the backing. See this nice, simple little backing?


Looks very straightforward, right? You would think so...but no. This was the 3rd attempt at making a backing on this tiny little mug rug. My brain was so tired after a rotten day at work that I couldn't figure out my measurements on the first. And the second. Then I messed up the cutting. I really should have thrown in the towel at that stage. But remeber that sentence back up there - you know, hating giving up on a project, you see, I just couldn't let it go. So I got this done at last and was happy with it...and got a rush of blood to the head, deciding (foolishly) to keep going.

I FMQ'd it (obviously, without pinning because it was so small, and you know, things were going so well for me at that stage ...) and I knew when I turned it over it wasn't good. So I decided to trim...to make it look better... and fell foul of the classic cutting-your-kids-hair trap (you've never done that? really? ) trimming off little bit after little bit to even it up and realising too late that I'd gone too far. Except here, there is no hairdressing equivalent of a quilter to fix my stupid mistake. The top hexie is too close to the edge for me to do a proper binding.......


And the back is crooked...but not crooked enough to make it look properly, intentionally wonky......


So its a bit fat fail for me... and back to the drawing board on the mug rug.

So, my wise friends, other than your virtual sympathy, could I have your opinions please. I have plenty of fabric to recut the hexies and start over. What do you think, will I give it another go? Should I handsew the hexies this time? Any other advice?

And is there anything I could do to retrieve this one? (Remember the whole never giving up business I mentioned? Lol!!) I do think its quite cute and if I could fix it a little bit I would happily keep and use myself despite its imperfections.

On another happier note....next Monday is my 1st year blogiversary and I have a really exciting project to announce that day!! It involves a good friend and lovely fabric and I hope you'll be as excited as I will be about it.... Plus I'll have a little follower giveaway later on in the week!