Crop Day to Craft Day: an evolution

Back when I was doing papercrafts, my friends and I got together once per month to do scrapbooks, cards, art journals, etc. The group started a year or two before I joined, which was in 2007. So I've been with this wonderful group of women for NINE years now! We lost one member who moved away and another member moved but not so far, so still joins us very occasionally. We're down now to six, which is really a manageable number since we meet in each others' homes.

The change however is that we no longer do papercrafts. We're all into sewing now: bags, placemats, fabric boxes, mug rugs, wall hangings, or other sewing projects. A couple of us are eager to start sewing clothes, but for now are content to just do our "projects". We're no longer meeting for "crops" (a papercraft term) but now meet for "Craft Day"!

Someone asked what we take for our Craft Day. I can show you what I take:

First, of course, is my sewing machine. Currently, it's a Brother Innovis 600, which they don't even make anymore. As far as I can tell, it's almost identical to the Brother Innovis 350SE. I have no plans to upgrade at the moment as I really love my 600.

The husband of one of my crafter buddies said we look like the sewing room in the show "Mr. Selfridge" when we all start sewing on our machines! That or some kind of backstreet sweatshop, I suppose.  And we all use different machines!

Then of course, we all bring our various "tools of the trade". Some of us use an assortment of bags, but I have a plastic storage caddy. I leave my supplies in it all the time, even when working at home. That way I know where everything is and don't have to go rifling through drawers and boxes to find something.... just pick it up and go.  The photos are in reverse order: bottom layer to top layer.

The contents of the bottom tray change, depending on the project at hand. For example, for the last craft day I made something out of Debbie Shore's "Sew Inspired" magazine. I cut the fabric out before I went, so that saved time and space.

The second (middle) tray always holds my scissors, rotary cutters, bobbin case,

fabric clips, and various other odds and ends. These are too large or too odd-shaped to go into the top tray. It may look a little chaotic, but I know exactly what I have.

The top tray has movable compartments. I keep small items in here, sorted by the type of item. For example, all machine needles are together, tape measures, etc.
It really is a very workable system.

The only problem with the plastic caddy is that the little snaps break very easily. Mine have broken in a couple of places, so I have to be very careful when all three trays are snapped together and I need to carry it. I can replace or add to the trays, although they aren't particularly cheap!

It looks like this when it's all ready to transport:

I usually have to also carry a tote bag for large items, such as a very long ruler, a bag of poly stuffing, magazines/books, and my lunch. I think everyone ought to have some friends to craft with. We learn so much from each other and get so much help from each other, too. To see what kinds of projects we do, you can scroll back through this blog. I haven't put everything here but a good sample.

I would love to hear how you craft: where, when, with whom, and with what kinds of tools. Please leave some comments if you want to share. Thanks.

Owl's Things with You?

Our craft group met on Saturday. We can't really say "crop" anymore, because we're all into sewing now! Blame it on the Great British Sewing Bee, I guess! Whatever the reason, we're all thoroughly enjoying this new twist. On Saturday, each of us brought a sewing machine, so there were six of us going! What fun!

It did get a bit noisy but we didn't mind. We've gone from scrapbooking to cardmaking to Project Life to beading to knitting and now sewing.
Sometimes change is good.

That's my machine in the foreground, or rather its case. I'd already finished at this point and Barbara had moved her machine temporarily. Andrea's and Hazel's machines aren't in this picture.






Everyone said they're having lots of fun rediscovering the joy of sewing. I highly recommend it!  Our group has been meeting for the last eight years (!!) and we really look forward to getting together once each month to catch up on news, encourage each other's craft efforts, share patterns and tools and expertise, and of course share the all important cups of tea/coffee and pieces of cake or something similar. 
 

Barbara was making a round cushion. Diane was working on a pincushion which would be similar in style to Barbara's cushion, but on a smaller scale of course. Andrea was making a patchwork jewelry (yes, that's the American spelling of "jewelry") case and Hazel was working on a small quilt. Hazel had some stunning hexagons that she'd embellished with scraps of lace, ribbon, and doo-dads.

Hazel's Hexagons

How beautiful are these?! I'm afraid I don't have the time or patience for these, although Hazel says they're really quite quick to do. She used some beautiful dark blue silk.

She really did a beautiful job on these and used all sorts of odds and ends from her left overs.

And what did I make? A precious little owl pincushion from the book, Simple Patchwork Gifts by Christa Rolf. I have a couple of her other books, too, and love them. She provides the patterns and easy-to-follow instructions for each project.

The lighting on this owl makes it look very yellow in the photo. It's actually got no yellow at all, however. The felt piece on the eye area is actually off-white.


 





We just returned from a short break to Bournemouth and I found a shop called Fabricland. Oh my.... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Hundreds of rolls of fabric - all sorts - and inexpensive. I bought several pieces for clothes and for more "projects" like bags, aprons, etc. So now I'm off and running!

So much fabric, so little time!

Still crafting…..

Even though I’m not posting much lately, I really AM still crafting. We have had just the WORST weather in December, plus I’ve been suffering an arthritis flare-up in my knee, so have been kind of lying low. Not being able to get out to shop and crop is now killing me!

My first project was to be an advent calendar. In November, I bought a sheet or panel to  use, with instructions:

I think they call this the Makower Advent Calendar. I have seen a couple made up and they’re beautiful. I bought a solid blue cotton with gold stars to use as the back of the panel:

Yeah, well…. it “could have been” beautiful, but it’s still all folded up for “someday” in 2014! Just no time. And frankly, with my knee I have not had the motivation. Pain, especially the constant, excruciating kind like mine, is distracting, depressing, and just plain diabolical. It’s been well over a month with no relief and I can’t even sleep at night because of it.

Nevertheless, it was my turn to host our little craft group and I was eager to show off my new cabin, so in December I had my craft mates over for our Christmas craft party.

I pushed two tables together to give us nearly 12 feet of crafting room. I only have four chairs, but added a computer chair and one of our six members couldn’t make it at the last minute, so it worked out fine. This (above) is the way it looked before we started and the picture below is in full swing:

As you can see, we used ALL the space. The table in the left that barely shows is full of cake, cookies (or biscuits, as they’re called here), an electric kettle for making tea and coffee, and a few other things. We really had a good time and I think (and hope) everyone was very comfortable. When I don’t have crafters in, one of the tables folds up out of the way. I’m considering leaving one table (about 6 x 3 feet) in the middle of the room with four chairs permanently as it’s such a nice space to work. I’ll use the small table (here on the left) as a desk for my laptop, etc.

Now that my craft cabin is organized, I’m trying to get myself organized as well. I’ve got a list of craft project to do (birthday cards, etc.) and some almost-finished scrapbook layouts ready to work on. It’s a great feeling to sit out there in the garden with a cup of coffee and just create, read, or putter around generally. My little sanctuary!  I even have an easy chair for just chilling out:

And almost all the mod cons: phone, kettle for making coffee, radio/CD player, laptop, printer, and lots of books. What else could a girl ask for? Well, maybe a toilet would be nice, but then I’d never come into the house!