The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners is a programme that has just started its third series.
It is a Bafta award winning British Sitcom about a group of teenage boys struggling through sixth form at school. ( 17 and 18 year olds). It is set in an outer London suburb, and follows Will who left a private school to go to a Comprehensuive following his mums divorce. I guess I shouldn't watch it as I have 2 boys and they might well end up acting as these hormone driven boys, but it's funny so I do.
It was the first episode last week. One of the boys had to wear a skimpy thong in a school fashion show and in his haste he didn't check all was well before strutting his stuff , I howled with laughed and had to explain to explain to my boys what I was laughing at.
"He had his left testicle hanging out of his pants" I said.
To which my 7 year old said "Was he an Octopus?"

He's at that truly delightful age.
He was reading joke from a tube of yogurt.
Q. "Why did the Lion cross the road?
A. "To get to the other pride"
He howled with laughter, but when questioned didn't know what a pride was,
"So you don't get the joke then" I said.
"No" he said.
I love him so much.

Ikat scraps bag.

I have started sewing the Ikat pieces onto this Indigo fabric.

This is possibly the most expensive fabric I have ever bought.

When we were in Kyoto we went to visit an Indigo dyer -the Aizen Kobo Indigo workshop - that Andrew had heard about.

http://www.akasamedia.com/arts-culture/AizenKoboANA.htm

Kenichi does Indigo dyeing, as does my husband who is an artist.

So somehow Andrew had some sort of conversation, despite the language barrier.

I bought several pieces of fabric, this plain hand dyed Indigo, a piece of Shibori fabric, and some smaller pieces. It all came to about £90.
Anyway, here is how far I have got - about a third of the way. I stitch along one edge, then unpick my tackings and remove the papers from behind, and then stitch down the other side.

Here is a bag that I use on a daily basis. It's a good size and I want to make a bag like it.
Some thing like -

I have a pair of handles I took off another woven bag that finally fell to pieces. I loved that bag, it was red.

I am not in a hurry to finish the bag - I am going to Saturday Stitchers this coming Saturday so may get quite a bit done, but no promises.

Multi tasking!

Yes, typing this whilst trying to watch Dexter in another window, whilst trying to block out the noise from Josephs room - the boy is catapult mad. Just told him how annoying it is to hear his shots smacking against the wardrobe ? wall? so fingers crossed I can continue in peace.

It's the sewing group tomorrow night and I'm not actually sure if I have anything in a state to sew! I have pieced my Ikat strips, I do actually have a piece of authentic expensive Indigo fabric I bought whilst in Japan - hey I may as well use it instead of keeping it in the wardrobe, but I need to be sure I know what I'm doing when I cut into it!

I have had 2 very busy weeks at work, and I had a good time away at the weekend but I was very tired and had ended up having 14 hours sleep on Saturday night. I told the boys several times that they were not to wake me up in the morning, and bless them they didn't.

Liam is particularly bad at coming in and waking us up to ask if he can go on the computer or watch TV. He is guaranteed to get a "No" and it amazes me that he hasn't learnt that yet!

OK - I have enough of the expensive Indigo to use for the sides of the bag - I may have to use some other Ikat fabric I bought in Japan for the base so tomorrow I will start to stitch the Ikat strips to the Indigo.

Here are 2 of the wholecloth quilts in the exhibition in Llanidloes.

A Quilt Exhibition

Tomorrow is the last day of the Quilt Associations exhibition at the Minerva Arts Centre at Llanidloes.
My mum is picking my boys up from school and taking them back to hers so I can pick them up pronto after work tonight and zoom down the motorway. We are staying at a friends in Hereford tonight, then tomorrow we will do the last hour and a half drive into Wales.
http://www.quilt.org.uk/event-34-Minerva+Quilts+10.html
I love the big outdoors and I'm sure I'll wish I was away for longer, but at least I'll finally make it to the Minerva Arts Centre which I've been wanting to do for ages.

Joseph ( 12) asked me "Are we all going to the Quilt Exhibition" and "How long will we be there".
As long as it takes Joseph, take a book to read!

I have done quite a bit of the handsewing I started. All the strips are sewn together so now I need to buy some Indigo fabric for the main body of the bag.
I'll try to post a few photos on sunday when we are back.

Japanese Ikat scraps

OK, I have very little functioning brain at the moment - and what I do have is pretty much fully used up at work!

So I have packed away all of my sewing projects in the cupboard, I'm trying to have a bit of a tidy up to feel more on top of things. I can't seem to find enough space in my head to think about the projects I've got on the go.
So here's a little hand sewing to keep me ticking over.

When we went to Japan 6 years ago I bought a pack of scraps - and since then I have had a copy of Quilts Japan that has a few "scrap" projects in it.

I am cutting strips of freezer paper to best fit the scraps I have, I will sew them together in some sort of arrangement then applique to a background, to make a bag.
Here's what I've done so far, they are just pinned onto my board. I have a bit of Plain Indigo, but I will probably have to buy a piece - perhaps from Euro Japan Links-http://www.eurojapanlinks.com/Cottons_with_blue_green_terra_and_cream.html

But enough of planning for now. I'll just sew. Most unlike me.