Oh My God!

I used a ruler and a rotary cutter and a mat to cut up some actual quilting cotton today. Granted, it was two rectangles to make a pencil case for Maddy, that I said I was gunna make 3 days ago, but whatever. This is a massive achievement.

Tablet sleeve test

Mum, Dad and Maddy are off to Bali on holiday in a few days, and Mum bought herself a tablet to take with her, which arrived a couple of days ago. Tonight, I had a go at making it a sleeve, and I'd have a go at an idea I had a while back for a zip down handle, which could make it be a bag too.

The zip curves around the entire top of the bag, and only the bottom side of the zipper is sewn for the whole length, while the top zipper is attached at either edge.

I like the idea. But I've realised that the top curve in particular warps the body of the sleeve a bit too much fr me to be satisfied with, so next time I'll do it with two short zips so they only curve one way, and only in the middle of the bag as opposed to on the corners, where it's more noticeable.

Also, as usually when I make a sleeve for a piece of technology, it's ever so slightly too small. It fits, but barely, and it makes the edges where the closure zip is (I could only find one pink zip) stick out weirdly.

And now I'm off to play the moustache drinking game. Happy Thirsty Thursday everyone

:{P

How dull.

Today, because it was on special, and there was only one there, and I am a sucker for either of those and both was making my nearly wet myself, I bought a new keyboard and mouse combo.

The new ones are the untethered ones.

No-one in the house knows though, and Casey has expressed a preference toward the corded kind (they're harder to lose) so naturally, I'm gunna wait till she's on the computer next and start moving the mouse counter to what she is. I'm mean like that sometimes.

I really only mention it because, despite a couple of hours hard work, this is all I have to show tonight.

One day, hopefully soon, it will become 8 satchel bags. The flaps are, for the most part, quilting fabrics, and I've already picked the one that I will either be keeping for myself or re-making. The body of the bag is cotton ripstop, which was $3 a metre at spotlight, and I still have to decide whether or not to add a zip - I want to, since I like zips, and they aren't even that much extra effort really, but I'm torn between the idea of having them be library bags (which is what they're really meant to be, for little kids who might not be able to handle a zip) or actual grown-up satchel bags (except that, even though they're fully lined, they don't have any interfacing, so the shape and stability of a proper bag just isn't there)

I think that instead of doing every step of all of them in unison, I might have to make one in it's entirety tomorrow night to get a better idea of the finished weight of one before I decide to add a zip.

I'm also using belts that I bought at op-shops around town as the straps on half of them, so we'll need to see how that turns out too.

Home.

It's so nice to be home, in my own bed, under my own quilts, with my electric blanket. That 5 hour drive, after getting about the same amount of sleep last night, wasn't particularly fun. But loud music helped, and I only nearly died once. And even then, it wasn't that nearly.

Before that though, I spent a lovely afternoon at Shay's house, walking her through sewing a couple of zip pouches with really no swearing at all, trying to understand a tutorial that was missing about half the steps on a site which I had assumed would have higher standards, and getting there eventually, and then making a little pouch with a recessed zip, just to prove how easy it was. We also spent a lot of time playing with the dogs, being ignored by the cats, and watching my team thrash hers in the footy. Good times, and I can't wait till the end of July when we get to do it all again.

I've put all the new fabrics into their respective bundles, but there's still the other quilts in the finishathon to get through first - I think I have one more to quilt and then it's all bindings.

Ergh. I might have to run away again.

Now with 67% less angst...

Spotlight didn't have any white. I threw my politest tantrum (breathing in and out through my nose a couple of times so my nostrils flare like an angry rhino's) and went home to sulk for a bit before work.

I spent a while tonight trying to work out something I liked with the half metre of white I have left, and gave up. Then I felt bad about not doing anything, so I made a bag.

 Even though it looks similar in design to the Angst bag, the construction is totally different. I'd say it was easier, but really, that's probably just because of the quilting (or lack thereof). The zip is set differently too, it's higher up and you need to thread the pull after it's been sewn, whereas for the the Angst bag the two sides of the zip never get separated. I could have recessed it, but I didn't cut the setting strips for the zip wide enough. Nevermind.

I used 2 rectangle rings to make an adjustable strap too. It's about 1m long at full length, but the bag is pretty floppy (I used a layer of quilt batting instead of any actual interfacing) so it curves around and makes it feel longer. The bag itself is about 30x40cm, and about 8cm thick.

Helen wanted me to have a go at some bookbags for kids, and I think this would be pretty okay.

Everyone bow...

Long day.

Long night.

But it's nice to know that yes, I am still the queen of zips.

I like zips.

Size 7 (standard chunky) zipper from Spotlight is available in black, white, navy and cream for (I think) $1.99p/m.

If you buy a zip around pencil case from Neds it costs you $4 and you have to do a bit of unpicking (but they use a very long stitch length, so it's very quick) but you get 2.5metres AND it's in pretty colours.

From this:

To this:

You only get 2 zipper pulls per pencil case, but they have rainbow ones with lots of short zips for $3 and you get about a dozen pulls from each of them.

Be not afraid of the zips, people. They can be your friends. 

Except the ones with the metal teeth. They chip your fingernails.

Aww, pretty...

Packages from fabricshack are great just becasue there's so much in them. They squish in 9 yards for you, so there'll usually be a couple of quilts worth in each package. Mine today had: This bundle of gender neutral solids for Meagan's baby.

Four of the solids in this pile (supplemented with a couple of stash - It seems that the pink/orange/yellow combo is something I'm really feeling right now)

A half yard each of these Spirit fabrics.

And a few randoms. I got 2 yards of the wonky check, but I wish I'd bought more than just 1 yard of the blue tye-dye. It was clearance and they don't have any more :(

Anyway, after I'd pawed over them for a bit, I decided I'd try a new zipper pouch design, just because my brain was quite insistent that it would work and I wanted to check. It did, but of course I made the turning hole a bit small and trying to get it right side out was like it was giving birth to itself. And when it was out, the doctor said "congratulations... it's...

...an ipad cover..." and everyone was like, well, this is awkward, since we don't own an ipad. So we don't know if it actually fits an ipad, only that it's 26cm tall and 19cm wide, and that's how big wikipedia says an ipad is.

More importantly, the opening is 19cm wide, because I used one bit of zipper looped around instead of two sides, and I curved down the other ends (this was the bit I wasn't sure about but it's come up great) so it doesn't have the tabs at the ends that so many tutorials insist on. Which stop the ipad from getting in, even if the rest does fit perfectly.

On tomorrow's to-do-list: hunt down an ipad, ask if I can borrow it for about 35 seconds.

In my honest opinion

There should be a sign at the show, something along the lines of "If your bruised coccyx is finally starting to heal, don't go on the rides. You'll be hurting as much tomorrow as you did Sunday last week"

I'm just saying, a bit of warning would have been nice.

In sewing news, today I sewed a total of 24 metres. I know this because I sewed the zippers to 6 bags, and they're each 50cm long and are sewn 4 times a side. And for the record, setting zippers is not hard, but it is mind numbingly boring.