Getting Shirty!

Welcome to this month's New to Me link party, your chance to share the highs and lows of a new experience.

This month my New to Me's are all gorgeous grandson related :)

I have been wanting to try my hand at making a shirt for the gorgeous grandson for a while but hadn't come across a pattern that I liked (and that looked doable for my limited dressmaking skills!). Recently, though, I came across the website YouCanMakeThis which sounded pretty encouraging, and found this shirt pattern by Pox Couture which seemed to fit the bill. One download later and I was all set.

I had some sale fabric in my stash that was perfect for my first attempt at a shirt, so set to work.

There were a couple of moments where I was a bit confused by the instructions but I suspect that a seasoned dressmaker would have had no problems. I was feeling very proud of myself -  until I was sewing on the last button....... when I realised that I had managed to put the buttons and buttonholes on the "wrong" side!

Still, it is at least recognisably a shirt :)

Spurred on by this success I pulled out more sale fabric to create a second holiday shirt for the boy. Second time around all of the confusion felt in the first attempt was gone and it was a really straightforward process.

Until I got to the buttons and buttonholes!

For some reason the automatic buttonhole function on my sewing machine refused to co-operate on one of the buttonholes. Every time I tried it on a spare piece of fabric it was perfect and then it stopped in the middle of the process every single time on the actual shirt! The only thing that I could think of was that the pocket was somehow stopping the foot from moving properly to create the stitch, but even when I turned it around it wasn't any better. The solution in the end was to turn the shirt inside out and work the buttonhole from the back instead of the front. Not ideal I know but by this time I was ready to throw the machine and the shirt in the pool!! I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the finished shirt but I am sure that you get the picture :)

Of course, during all that angst what I had also failed to notice was that despite checking several times I yet again managed to place the button and buttonholes on the "wrong" side again !!!!!!

Fortunately, my other New to Me for this month was a happier experience :)

I am listed in a catalogue for the first time!

The organisers of the Embroiderers Guild Page 17 exhibition decided to create a catalogue for the exhibition as a lasting reminder of the range and style of the exhibits, so I was asked if I wanted to include the details of my piece in the catalogue (Yes!!) and to purchase a copy (Yes again!!). It arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago so I have something to show our son and daughter-in-law when they wonder when they are ever going to see the embroidery based on Hairy MacLary that has been promised for several months now for the grandson's wall!

So those are my New to Me's now it is over to you to link up and share your experiences good or bad (!) when trying our anything new this month. As ever the link up will remain open until the end of the month so there is still time to try out that new technique and let your fellow bloggers know how it went. As always too check out the linkers and give them some plaudits for moving out of their comfort zone even if it wasn't entirely successful! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Spiralling through time

It is time for the next reveal for the Endeavourers and this time the theme is "Spirals",  yet again this has been both inspiring and challenging.
My initial thoughts on the theme were mostly nature related and Mother Nature definitely loves a spiral :)

I struggled to think of a way to interpret these amazing ferns in a quilt form, so started to cast around for another form of spiral to use as inspiration.



As you might have guessed from my blog name I have always had a love of Celtic Art forms and when I realised that the spiral was an important element in Celtic Design, I knew that I had my inspiration!



We recently visited Islay, an island off the West Coast of Scotland, renowned for both its whisky and as the home of one of the finest, if not the finest, surviving Celtic Cross in Europe.

Kildalton Cross, above, was probably carved in the second half of the 8th Century A.D. It is pretty amazing to be able to stand in front of and touch something that has been around for so long! Celtic spirals, though, predate this Celtic Cross by several centuries.

The spiral imagery used by this whisky distillery not far from the Kildalton Cross first began to develop in the later part of the 5th Century B.C. Who would have thought that it would still be in use so many hundreds of years later to sell whisky??



I knew that I wanted to combine these two aspects of Celtic imagery for this challenge (not the whisky although it was delicious!) but couldn't quite pin down what to do with them.

 Then I came across a project in this book and it all became clear!

I have called this quilt "Echoes of times past" and if you want to find out how it was constructed head on over to the Endeavourers blog to read all about it and to see how my fellow Endeavourers have met this challenge.

Painted Cloth

It's the 25th of the month, so time to take stock and reflect on those New to Me experiences and encourage my fellow bloggers to share their trials and tribulations too!

This month I have been messing about with paints!

Acrylic paint

and thanks to a workshop a couple of months ago with Moira McLennaghan, of the Guild of Silk Painters, silk paints.

After the workshop Moira encouraged us to take away small squares of silk that she had traced a design on with Gutta, to enable us to have a go at home. I picked a design of fish swimming amongst coral with the intention that once painted it would be more wall art for the gorgeous grandson's bedroom.

The silk paints flowed easily on to the silk and filled the areas confined by the Gutta, so I was very pleased with myself.

Then this happened!!

The colour washed over the line of the Gutta and flowed into the next space. I tried diluting the space with water in an attempt to remove the colour but as you can see it wasn't especially successful.

I am debating whether to fill the frame with colour but worry that it will bleed in the other direction into the fish. I haven't set the paint with the iron yet (mainly because the iron blew up the last time I used it!) so don't know if that would help or hinder. If you know the answer I would be delighted to hear :)

I used the Acrylic paint to transform this lace from this

to this

and also this. They don't look so attractive now but trust me they will make more sense when the project I am working on is finished!

Next up is a play with these Metallic Wax Crayons! First though I need to replace that iron :)

So, that is my New to Me attempts this month, now it is your turn to link up and share anything that you have tried out for the first time in July. As you can see we keep it real here, so whether it was a success or not don't be shy, it is always a learning experience. Well that is what I am currently telling myself!

As always the New to Me link party will remain open until the end of the month, so you have time to try that technique or write that post! I look forward to seeing what you have been up to and, hopefully, coming across some helpful tips or techniques too :)

An InLinkz Link-up