Trying to get fit, I have continued to find small patches of the garden to tackle. I have studiously ignored the large veg beds that need digging over. Yesterday I stole my husbands builder's line from his shed site and remarked the edges of the asparagus/strawberry bed. Monty Don once said if your garden felt a mess the easiest way to make it look like you were on top of things was to re cut the bed edges. It is true, a nice sharp edge to a flower bed does make for a smart look.
Trouble was by the time I had cleared the grass edges of the first 5 feet of the asparagus bed I was knackered and had to go in to make lunch. Staggered back later to empty the wheelbarrow. Hopefully I can carry on nibbling away re vamping this bed in the next week when we are predicted to get up to 10C. When I am done with the strawberry end I think I will put down some black weed suppressing cloth round them as the weeding never got done last year. I will put more mulch on the asparagus.
Indoors I am playing around with one of Christmas presents - 3 packs of fat quarters! There was a pattern inside the packs for a patchwork tote which I have made straight away.
My husband immediately said I should sell it on my Folksy site but I have to admit I made a mistake on the other side. I find concentrating very hard these days and when I got to cutting out square 18 I got it all wrong and had to make up 5 cms on the last 2 squares. Besides it was such a lot of work that I could never charge the hours it took and I could do with a new bag for the Spring myself..
My next target for learning new skills is to work with stiffening/interfacing in bags and to work with D rings etc. I started with this bag by adding a purse attached by a clip to a sewn in D ring.
I soon found that to sew the D ring in I needed to change the machine foot to the zipper foot so I could stitch close in. I should have also chosen the setting that automatically over stitches at the start and end.
I have got hold of two types of interfacing both labelled as "stiff" but so far I am not sure they are hard enough. One is labelled "foam" but is hardly that. I am trying to make a fabric box as shown on the blog Shecansew. Again it is stretching my concentration and accuracy.
Good on you making an early start to the garden. I must admit that grassing over our back garden plot could be a great idea and save an awful lot of work for me. Maybe one more year for crops and I think I'll call it quits, get the lounger out and sit out the summer sunbathing.
ReplyDeletexx
I think my husband is of the same mind....
DeleteYou are dedicated getting out in the garden early. My lawn mower needs a service and the grass keeps growing!!! Looking forward to spring and seeds....lots if seeds. Love the bag. Thank you for the link, I really like those fabric boxes.
ReplyDeleteI will post my first box - it is very complex so far!
DeleteYou sound a bit like me, the spirit is willing but the body is weak. I have so many plans in my head but these days there is only so much energy to go round. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
For bags, I tend to use either Vilene Style Vil or Bosal In R form both go through the sewing machine nicely but the Vilene tends to keep the best shape. I think Debbie Shore has some u tube videos where she uses the foam to make foam boxes - I think one box she made was for pet toys (if that helps). Your bag looks lovely - it would be such a shame to not use it yourself after putting all those hours into it - hope the above is helpful xx
ReplyDeleteI will check those out, thanks. I found the offers on Amazon lacking in information perhaps I should go straight to Vilene!
DeleteAmazon isn't very helpful, I brought the Vilene from a site called Sixpenny Memories, they used to be on a crafting TV channel, which I never brought from (far too expensive) but always went straight to their own Web site (far cheaper) - I think it cost about ten pounds for a metre, but a metre went a good way - sorry to rabbit on, hope it helps xx
Delete