The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

I've not had the photos for this sitting on my computer for about a month, honest. I really hate writing blog posts sometimes, but I've got nothing better to do at work today. These are the finished bits I made for my #seamonsterswap partner over on instagram. And a needle cosy I made because I had some scraps. After this there'll be a vague "this is how I made it" post that isn't really a tutorial, but some pictures and some swearing. Also apparently I didn't take a photo of the back of the miniquilt when it was finished. It wasn't very interesting so you're not really missing out much there. Portholes, tentacles and seahorses were the aims here, which I think this hits. Nothing massively "sea monster" but definitely deep sea and a bit weird. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do, and then had to work out if I had the skills to match! Thankfully, the issue of Quilt Now that came out around the time I was pl...

These were originally on the FAL Q2 list, but unfortunately got done in that weird period between linking up my finishes and linking up the new quarter, so they didn't count for Q2 and they're not on the Q3 list. Hey ho. I don't appear to have photos of all of them either, which is a wee bit irksome. There's another fox with a darker blue background, and a Starfleet symbol on blue. The pi and the fox patterns are by Stars and Sunshine  and are both free patterns on her craftsy store. I love foxes, and I'm a math nerd, so of course I'm going to use them. I might put these up for sale, I'm not sure. They're quilted and stuffed with polyfil, which I'm not too fond of for pincushions, but is at least light, and easy to get hold of. They're a fun way to use up odd blocks I make here and there, so I suspect there will be more of them in the future.

Hi, my name's Beth and I have a very slightly ridiculous crush on Adam Driver. That's mostly irrelevant, because despite this yarn being called 'kylo ren' it is about as kylo ren-ish as a pumpkin. Mostly, it's pink. I mean it's black and pink, but that is very definitely pink, and not red. Who cares? Not me. Black and pink is an excellent combo, and it means when I turn up to the next fandom meet up I bother to show my face at, I'll have a silly hat.

Quarter 2 turned into a bit of a fail. I made progress on stuff, but I got caught up in new projects that weren't on the list, and let things slip. I also let my sewing room fall into a hideous state of chaos that I'm now (with the help of finally having more storage space) trying to fix. The sewing machine is away until there is permanent floor and surface space. I'm going to add photos later, because everything is in boxes, and I'm writing this at work while I try to convince my body to stop trying to kill me.

This err, wasn't on the Finish Along list. Actually, a lot of what I'm working on at the moment wasn't. Oops?

This is one of those projects that I don't have a huge amount to say about, because it was a pretty simple make, but it was one of those ones where I had zero enthusiasm to actually work on it, probably because it was simple. This was made for my swap partner's son, and I was told he liked Chewbacca, the Light Side and Stormtroopers. All the patterns she posted in her mosaic were from Quiet Play , and she didn't give a lot of info about fabric or anything else really, so I was working pretty blind. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out though, and it seemed to be fairly well received, which is always nice to know. (here modeled by R, who made the fatal mistake of being at my house when I needed to take some photos)

In my vague attempt to keep up with this whole blogging thing, and because I'm currently bored at work, here's a blog post. My Star Wars maythe4thsquiltswap package went off to it's new home on Saturday, although thanks to traffic and the bank holiday, it's not going to get there until tomorrow. I'm pleased with it, and when my partner has received it, I'll post it up here. In the mean time, this is my first attempt at the Zip Up Tray Pouch by Aneela Hoey. It's a great, clever pattern, and I think it would be perfect for tabletop gaming, as well as the obvious craft uses. It would be even better if I could read instructions properly.

There is no nudity in this post! Just sea slug awesomeness :D My first finish for the second quarter of the 2017 Finish-A-Long is my Nudibranch March Mini Madness shawl. Found here on Ravelry , this was an excellently quick and brainless knit, which I've managed to make obscenely colourful thanks to Mothy and the Squid's excellent nudibranch colourways. I'm trying to make an effort to have a bit more colour in my outfits, and this will brighten up anything I wear! It has a slight curvature where I bodged the tension adding the second mini skein of yarn, which I also added too early, but otherwise, a pleasing, lazy knit for lunchbreaks and evenings watching TV. I've been knitting a lot more recently; my sewing room is a mess and getting home in the evenings I just want to flake in front of trashy tv and not think too hard, rather than work around the piles of stuff lying around upstairs. I've spent a chunk of this bank holiday weekend trying to tidy up, ...

Life, being what it is, I never signed up for Quarter 1. I didn't have a huge number of projects on the go, and I was not in a great place. But things are looking up now. And up, and up, if you're looking at the stack of unfinished projects, so without further ago, I present the list of stuff I would like to finish this quarter...

I'm lazy. I just started writing a blog post and then realised that I'm going to have to check a couple of books for references. And work out how to reference IG posts without insulting people. And then realise that I don't think anyone actually cares about my opinions on the gender constructs in quilting... I'm sewing for gifts and swaps at the moment. And knitting a hat on my lunches. Wordy post to come when I can find the book I need.

I really don't know. As you will have realised, I'm shite at this. I only really blog at work, because that's the only time I'm usually at a computer and not being distracted by other stuff, and it can be a pain because it makes photo uploading difficult and I lose my train of thought halfway through a post when I have to go and deal with something. But, sometimes it's useful to have a place to vent. Or scream about Y-seams *shudder* or why I was consistently using the wrong type of interfacing for about 18 months (just... don't) I'm starting this year with no money, a massive list of stuff that needs doing to the house, and a lot of makes I want to make. And a job that is making me progressively more and more miserable as the weeks go on. I'm currently trying to avoid having to make curtains, but I have a massive window/door thing going on in my living room that makes it absolutely freezing. Dad and R have both said they might have stuff I can use...

But life got a bit weird. One of the things I was not planning on doing this year was having to find a buy a house in the space of a couple of months. But because I'm me, I fucking managed it, and am now settled in a little 2 bed house that I own 25% of. Because the housing market sucks, I don't earn a massive amount, and this was thrown at me at the start of the period I'd allocated for saving for a deposit, I didn't have a huge deposit, so shared ownership was all I could afford. Hey ho. It means I'm not renting off my dad anymore, and most importantly, I have my very own craft room. Same table, mostly the same set up, but it's not in the dining room anymore :D All through this, I have definitely been sewing. If you follow my Instagram , you'll have seen my headlong fumble into foundation paper piecing, and another Simplicity 1347 for Odyssey LARP. I also made a Simplicity S1008 for a one off event. It's not perfect, and needs the zipper fixing, b...

I'm still reeling at this week. It's sucked. First David Bowie and now Alan Rickman. Words can't express the loss. Work is driving me into the ground as well; we're just starting to deliver on a project 2 years overdue and it's all going mad. I've not got a lot of words, but I want to try and blog the backlog of christmas presents I made. This is a Falling Water scarf I made for my step-mum.

I hope everyone had an excellent festive season! I'm a dirty atheist with pagan leanings, so christmas is about spoiling my friends and family and eating too much food, which is basically what I did. New Year was quiet due to everyone else being off doing stuff, but I spent it with a pile of pizza, a pile of books and a pot of tea (I was sadly asleep before midnight due to food allergies, but c'est la vie) Anyway, you're here for me making stuff, so Christmas present posts! I made most of my gifts this year, and am absolutely not still trying to finish the quilt I started for one friend. It will be a christmas/birthday/house moving gift and all will be well. But let's start with something small... ties! I do wear ties occasionally. Once I'd got over the horror of wearing them to school, I used to wear them to the goth club I used to frequent at university, and now I do wear them, very occasionally, at work. It confuses people so I don't do it too often....

I've got a bunch of stuff that I keep meaning to post, but work is manic and when I'm at home I'm trying to get all of my Christmas making done (lots of making, the obviously I can't blog about yet) A few weeks ago I finally bit the bullet, cleared off the living room floor and cut out the Sewaholic Hollyburn that has been sat, pattern cut, on my living room table for months. There was an issue with the fabric I was originally going to use, which turned out to have a directional print, which would have been fine but I didn't quite have enough of it, so the pattern languished, as did the fabric I'd bought as a replacement. The photos are pretty awful, because err, there's me, and I need some kind of tripod like thing for my phone so I can take decent photos (asking my dad to take pictures never ends well; he sulks and they end up with oil tanks or lorries in the background thanks to the work yard)

I'm hoarding posts at the moment. There;s been plenty of making, but I'm not feeling the enthusiasm to write them up.  Plus some of them aren't finished, some of them aren't photographed and some are xmas presents that have to stay hidden. This post is a mishmash of quilting experiments, all set in motion by me recklessly signing up for the Schnitzelandboo Mini Quilt Swap on instagram. I've barely been quilting 6 months, and I've never done any kind of craft swap, but the opportunity was there so I went for it, and it was a blast. I made myself learn so much, and while I haven't received my package yet, the one I sent out has been gladly received. So without further ado... stuff I have made in preparation, and to send with my mini-quilt swap.

  Another overdue blog post. Oops. My first foray into mini-quilt making which didn't quite go as planned when it ended up being larger than intended. This was a gift for a couple I know who were celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary, and the 10th anniversary of their meeting (which is terrifying as we were at university together, it can't have been that long ago!) I didn't have a clue what to get them, as their interests diverge quite a bit from mine, but they both love cats, so I thought a wall hanging quilt with some personality would be a nice thing. I chose the Kittens Quilt pattern from Elizabeth Hartman, because it was a reasonable sized block, and I might be planning to make myself a kitten quilt with some of the many fat quarters I have stashed :D

Am I comic book nerd? Not so much these days. I still love comics, don't get me wrong, but my money tends to go on household shit and fabric and novels these days, so when I do buy comics, it's because I really love them. I haven't actually bought anything by DC in several years, since they launched their New 52 and mutilated a bunch of my favourite characters (John Constantine, the Midnighter, Apollo, the list goes on). I'm not even that much of a Batman fan; too much ego and wangsting, and one of my exes was VERY into Batman, which was always a bit creepy. That said, I do love the hangers on of the Bat-family; Tim Drake was my Robin, I guess, but I love Stephanie Brown, Dick Grayson should always lead with the crotch, and his love for Barbara Gordon is the best thing ever. Actually, Barbara Gordon is the best thing ever. I love her as Batgirl, but really she's at her best when she's Oracle, snarking and controlling all the chess pieces. It's a shame th...

*the Purple Marauder does no such thing, nyarrr This is mostly a very boring post about a skirt I have made WAY too many times now. This is my 3rd Imagine Gnats Alder skirt (previous ones here and here ). It's a quick easy make that doesn't use up masses of fabric, and most importantly for me, has excellent pockets that can hold tissues, both my phones (work handset and mobile), random bits of stuff I have to lug around the workshop and my kindle *not all at the same time, but that's a test I haven't quite put any of these through. This was part of my MadeUp pledge (the other half being the banner that I plan to spend the evening embroidering), which was to make a skirt that was actually suitable and sensible for work. I wear my other two Alders fairly regularly, but they're both quilting cotton and so quite stiff. They're also garish as fuck, and while my workplace is pretty lax, I sometimes feel like they're humouring me (to say nothing of the...

This is where I confess I'm terrible at blogging. I get bored, I forget, I think what I'm saying isn't very interesting (it's not) and forget that what I'm actually doing here is mostly for my benefit. And then I get distracted by work being a pile of shit. Anyway, I've got WAY too many projects on the go, and my pledge for didyoumakethat's Made Up Initiative is way behind where it should be (sodding hand embroidery) but both the banner and the skirt are getting there. I've also got a present to finish by the end of September, and xmas presents are looming. I also have a load of patterns that I want to make for me. But before all of that, what was taking up space on the sewing table was a quilt. I know, I know, I said I'd never get into quilting, but then there were pretty fabrics and a couple of clothing failures and straight lines and not too much thought seemed like a good idea.