A complete disaaaaaster

I'm sure you all realise that not everything works out as planned with sewing projects, as with anything else.  Well, let me tell you that that was definitely the case for me last weekend (not the one just gone - I had to wait a week to blog about it as I was too worked up and upset by it all!).

My curtain-making had been on hold for almost a fortnight thanks to a late delivery of an online order for extra header tape, so I was already frustrated and behind on things.  DH kindly went to John Lewis late night shopping on his way home one evening to get me some more so that I could carry on properly the following day - but they'd run out of stock!  So I went into town myself on Friday morning to track it down elsewhere - and finally got it at the third shop after a 'magical mystery tour' of the West End.  And when I got home, there was the online order waiting patiently on the doormat!

So, Friday afternoon was spent putting all three layers of the HUGE curtain together - pinning, tacking, sewing side seams, hemming ...  Saturday afternoon was more of the same followed by pinning the sections for the pinch pleats (my least favourite part of the process).  I hadn't been happy with how the pleats had turned out in the first curtain (currently hanging at our bedroom window), so I'd decided to try to use the fabric pattern when planning the pleats on the second one.  However, the pattern had other ideas.  So at supper time, I'd had enough and was feeling pretty miserable and frustrated - and gave up.

Sunday afternoon, despite feeling groggy and headachey, I persevered.  If it was the last thing I was going to do, I was going to get BOTH curtains up by the end of the day!  I decided I was asking too much of myself to get the pleats to work with the pattern.  This was only my second attempt at pinch pleats and my first with patterned fabric, after all.  So, how many pleats did I want - 9 on the first curtain weren't enough and it was all a bit baggy.  So I did some maths for 10, 11 or 12 pleats and decided I'd give 12 a go.  All pinned, I marked the sewing line on my machine to help keep things straight and away I went.  Hooray - 12 pleats ready to pinch!

DH was out for the afternoon, so I waited to hang it once he got back.  And all was looking pretty good .... until we drew them closed ... or not as it turned out.  The second curtain wasn't wide enough to cover the whole window!!!!   AAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!  And it was puckering at the bottom, so there I was tugging gently as the leading edge .....  when I realised that the leading edge WASN'T MEANT TO BE THE LEADING EDGE.  Not only wasn't it wide enough - I'd pleated the bottom (ie it was also upside down!).

After a couple of tears for frustration (understatement), I decided that the sooner I unpicked the whole thing, the quicker I'd get onto resewing it.

Isn't it weird - it had taken me a number of afternoons to get the blasted curtain put together, but it only took me about an hour to unpick it completely.

And then it hit me - the pattern wasn't going to match across the window!  Somehow, the second curtain had been cut out about 3 inches lower down the pattern than the first so the only way that I'll get the pattern to match across the window is to unpick the curtain that is already hanging as well!!!!

Please, will someone pass me the valium?!  NOW!!!

From Bedroom to Zenana*

After we moved into our house, we were ridiculously organised and went fabric hunting for our kitchen, bedroom and living room curtains WAY before there was any hope (or money and time) to make them.  At least we managed to save up and make the kitchen blinds, and after a considerable amount of huffing and puffing the living and dining rooms also have curtains.  So it is finally the turn of our bedroom.

When we were initially having work done on the house, there was so much to think of that I couldn't face deciding on specific colour schemes until we knew what would go where (we didn't move in until the work was done).  As a result the house is mainly painted cream with white woodwork.  Excellent as a base, but not much help when you're trying to decide on a colour scheme!

We were given a deep purple throw and coordinating cushion with allium on it as a wedding present and we used them in our bedroom on and off for a while, but for some reason, DH wasn't all that enthusiastic about having lilac/purple as the colour scheme for our bedroom.

We were wandering rather aimlessly through the fabric department of John Lewis trying to find something we both liked when DH found an Osborne & Little fabric that gave us an idea.  We had two problems with the fabric in question - a) we couldn't afford it and b) even if we could afford it, neither of us can stand George Osborne who is part of the O&L family!  BUT it did inspire us.

We went to India on our honeymoon and loved Jaipur and the Moghul stamp (aka paisley) and I had a kameez made while we were there out of local hand-blocked silk with the paisley pattern on it.  So, clever DH suggested we use India/our honeymoon/paisley as our theme.

As usual (see Curtain up), I was trawling the web for fabrics that fitted the bill and found the Harlequin Lalika collection and fell in love with the Azara fabric in particular.  We ordered samples of all colours and narrowed it down to either red or blue and despite being torn, we've decided to go for the blue.

In 2013 we spent a lovely relaxing week in Turkey and brought some nice souvenirs back with us to adorn our home.  Along with two Kilim rugs for the hallway, we bought two lovely ceramic plaques/plates in the Iznik style and a lovely lamp for our bedroom (that had a bit of an adventure getting to Britain - but that is another story).  So, our bedroom has become more of an Islamic art theme than just Indian now, but so far we're loving the change.

* Not sure DH would be all that pleased, but this is the definition of Zenana, but ironically I'm a baptist too, so it is quite apt.

New year's sewing resolutions

As ever, with the new year, new leaves are turned over, fresh starts are made, blah-di-blah.....

Well, that is all good and well if you've finished everything off before the new year starts! Unfortunately, I didn't.  So my new year is starting by trying to finish off last year's UFOs.  There are two that I'm concentrating on - one for the evenings vegging in front of the TV fire and the other for the weekends so I've more time to give to it.

My 'evening' UFO is my snowdrop sampler (see Commissions - updates) and the end is now in sight.

The 'weekend' UFO is our bedroom curtains.  One is up (goodness knows what people across the road make of our 'odd socks' look at the moment), the other is in three parts awaiting 'construction'.

Maybe after that I can start to look at new new year projects.  Or maybe not - sad face.  I'm loath to list what I'd like to make this year as the list I drafted last January has very little crossed off it now.  Last year was a bit of a toughie though with lots of family stuff going on, and now that we're getting settled into the new situation this year may be more creative/productive.

However, our next project is to clear my sewing room - very sad face.  I'm sad to have to pack it up and move after waiting so long to get it, but there is a good reason (more of which will be revealed eventually).  But I'm going to try and 'decamp' rather than 'pack up' by moving my stuff to the laundry room.  It will be cosy there, so some will probably have to go in the attic, but there is quite a bit of storage there that hasn't been used efficiently and the ironing kit is already there, after all.  Hopefully the non-sewing/craft stuff will find a new home in other parts of the house too (enter DF with his DIY knowledge and toolbag!).

The trouble is, with sorting through the stuff in the sewing room, I'm coming across fabrics and garments that are giving me ideas and I know that I just won't find the time to bring those projects to fruition.  Oh well, at least Great British Sewing Bee has restarted to cheer us all up and get us dreaming ;-D

Commissions update - Snowdrops 2

The best travelled sampler!

Well, so much for being determined in March 2014 to get back on track this commission.

To be honest, progress was more or less non-existent until the Christmas break, but it must be in the running for the 'most travelled embroidery project' by now with numerous trips to Cardiff and Norfolk, not to mention Brussells, north Wales and Provence in 2014.  I'm really pleased (and hugely relieved) with how it is going now. There was a mild (understatement of the week!) panic over the weekend when I got to the last corner and realised that the two 'ends' were one thread out of line.  Yes ONE thread!!!  Aaargh!

But, I found where I'd gone wrong and thankfully it isn't as big a 'repair' job as I'd feared. So, last lap here I come.  Just one more repeat of the V shaped motif and it is on to the text of the poem for the central space.  I still have the white flowers to catch up on (daylight is an absolute MUST for these at this time of year), which I may still outline (watch this space).

I'd love to find a suitable font for the poem though.  The border is 'art nouveau' influenced and all the backstitch ones I've found so far don't really 'match'.  There are plenty of lovely cross-stitch ones around on-line, but I'm constrained now by the border, so it can't be too large.  I've found some nice 'print' fonts, which I may attempt to convert to backstitch (or at most, cross-stitch over one thread).  We'll see how much time I have.  I don't really want to 'spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar' this close to the finishing line though!

Nice colours

Ages ago, during my quest to design a sampler for my friend's little girl, I came across these gorgeous websites (thanks to Wild Olive's suggestions - I hope she won't mind me repeating them).  I came across them again whilst tidying up my draft blog posts the other day and got distracted by them all over again.

They have some scrumptious colour palette suggestions and I'm tempted to get lost in them again looking for some interior colour scheme inspiration.  This one could almost be the inspiration for the colours in our living room carpet.

They're a really good way of learning about colour too I think, especially if you're not that confident with mixing colours together (either in what you wear or things around your home).  Using an image you like - either one you've taken yourself, or one you've seen in a book, magazine, blog (!) etc - as the basis for a colour scheme is a great and simple idea.  All you need to look at is the blocks of colour and 'separate' them out (as these websites do for you) and, hey presto, you have your colour palette.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

Design Seeds
Color Collective blog
Creature Comforts Blog - color crush posts

Stringing along

Just a short post today, to say that I'm rather pleased with myself for having recently learned how to knot beads.  It is fantastic what you can learn using t'internet!

This was a coral necklace that my DF bought for me on a work trip to Hawaii (I think), but it was threaded on wire and had somehow acquired a 'kink' and never lay flat.

Not perfect, but I'm chuffed how well it has worked.  And I've already have more use out of the necklace than I'd had before rethreading.

More reading

Well, hello and welcome back!  And a happy new year to you all.  Once again, my apologies for my absence from the blogosphere.  I'm afraid that other pressures haven't given me much time or material to write to you.  So, going 'off piste' a little to get myself back in the mood, here goes.  In true SewandSiw fashion, it is almost a year since I've given you and update on my reading projects.

I have managed to catch up on two of my partly-read book that I mentioned last time, namely:
From the Holy Mountain - William Dalrymple (a bit of an epic journey to read about, but fascinating and an eye-opener in places)
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (It took me a while to get going with this, probably why I 'flaked out' last time, but really worth persevering.)

In addition I've also read:
Fall of Giants - Ken Follett (his books are always favourites and this was particularly timely as it is set during WW1)
Sieben Tage Ohne - Monika Peetz (some German chick lit about a group of friends going on a detox holiday (an oxymoron if ever I heard one))
The Lady of the Rivers - Phillipa Gregory (really the first in her Cousins' War series, but the last one for me to read.  As fascinating and gripping as all the others)
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies - alexander McCall Smith (one of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Very entertaining and fun)
Mother tongue: a history of the English language - Bill Bryson (fascinating for a language geek like me!)
Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel (after reading Wolf Hall, I just HAD to read the second in the series.  I couldn't put it down - just like Wolf Hall)
One Step Behind - Henning Mankel (the start of a crime-fest after some history)
The shape of water - andrea Camilleri (the first of the Inspector Montalbano books - although they're crime books, they are quite funny and you really get a feel for Sicilly, especially with Salvo's obsession with food!)
The terracotta dog - andrea Camilleri
The snack thief - Andrea Camilerri
The voice of the violin - Andrea Camilleri (I'd bought a boxed set of 10 of his books!!)
Enigma - Robert Harris (having bought this for Dad after our visit to Bletchley Park and before going to see The Imitation Game, I wanted to 'get into the mood'.  A brilliant read - but don't watch the film with Dougray Scott and Kate Winslett within a few days of finishing the book or you'll be spotting all the errors and omissions for much of the film and annoying anyone else in the room!)
Labyrinth - Kate Mosse (I started this on a 7-hour return train journey from Provence and to DH's amusement I kept saying 'I'm not sure what to make of this', to which he replied, 'Well, you seem to be getting through it despite not being sure!'.  I think it was the sinister undertones that were putting me off, but well worth a read)
Treason's Daughter - Antonia Senior (the author was at uni with my BIL and the book was given to DH by his brother and as I like history novels I decided to give it a go.  It is set during the Civil War, which isn't a common period for history novels, and on the whole I enjoyed it.  I was a little disappointed that the title and the blurb gave the impression that the main protagonist is a woman, but it really follows her story AND her two brothers through the Civil War.  I can't decide what I think about the ending either)
The constant Princess - Phillipa Gregory (the first in her Tudors series. Looks like I'm on a bit of a history-fest again!)
The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory (guess what!  I'm going to try to read the whole series now, although I may take a break 'en route' for some more crime!).