Tuesday 13 September 2011

Going Bananas!

This is what my sewing room looks like right now (8.25pm)!


What a shocker!

After finishing up yet another handbag this morning (can't show you pics yet), I needed an injection of creative fun, and this is what it looks like after several hours!  

Mess, mess, mess! You should see the floor - I get so into 'The Zone', I no longer even try to aim all those thread & fabric ends into the bin, they get absent mindedly dropped onto the floor!

I'm beginning to think that sewing brings out one's alter-ego, 'cos in real life I'm a tidy freak (I know, you'd never know it looking at that horror!).

Still, I had fun, and if untidyness is the price to pay, then it was well worth it.

I've discovered 2 things about myself lately.  

1. That despite falling in love with fabric all over again because of these wonderful new designers, prints, fabrics and colours that abound, I can still return to my first love, recycled fabrics, with the same amount of zeal and passion. 

I don't know why I get such a kick out of reusing clothes that are now too small or out of fashion, or breathing new life into old, forgotten about curtains.  But I do!  Most of what you see on that table there is corduroy clothes and some curtains I've gathered up over the years.

2.  I love making cushions (pillows).  Again I don't know why exactly - I seem to be able to experiment more with ideas and creativity with a cushion.

So as a complete indulgent treat to myself (no not Ben & Jerry's & Baileys on ice!!) I started on a design for a recycled cushion.

This is what it looks like so far:


Sorry pics are dark but it's almost my bedtime!!
I probably would have finished it by now, but a certain teenager needed help making her proto-type GSCE textile project for art (it just happens to be a handbag and she just happens to have a mummy who knows how to make them! Win, Win!).

 Oh, and I made these last night to use up spotty bananas the kids wouldn't eat:

Banana muffins!  There are 15 altogether - but not for long!
Now those of you who know me well know that I hate cooking, so this is something for me!  

The fact that after I put them in the oven I completely forgot about them until I started smelling them from 2 rooms away, is neither here nor there!  This morning they got plastered with a not so healthy dose of cream cheese frosting and down the hatch they went!  I've already had 2 today, might just sneak in another one for supper!

Hope you've had a great Tuesday.  

Huge hugs and kisses to a special friend who had surgery today. xoxo

16 comments:

  1. I love choc chip banana muffins - they are my fave to make. Not tried making banana muffins with frosting, they look yummy though! Cushion is looking good - Like the flowers :)

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  2. My mum used to make banana loaf with the bananas that had gone brown. Banana loaf (or bread as we called it) would disappear within days! Love the flowers.

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  3. Love the prototype cushion cover and your muffins look great - not like they have been over cooked at all. Enjoy!

    My sewing room (aka the dining room) looks like that all the time and himself has given up. I never knew you were supposed to aim for the bin with the thread ends. The floor is so much closer. ;-)

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  4. lol I'm so glad I'm not alone in throwing threads and trimmings on the floor. Needless to say, my wooden floor makes clean up easier! Gotta love creative energy! Love banana muffins too! Love the cushion prototype, hope your teenager does well with her bag :) (mine wouldn't take textiles - can't imagine why not!)

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  5. Ha! Another threads-on-the-floor girl here! I've a wooden floor, too, but they get stuck to my feet and the staircase (almost the only carpet in our house) gets covered in threads as they get stuck and come off! I'm also a massive cushion lover. I DO think it's the experimenting without commitment thing. Just big enough for a good play, not so big as to get sickening if it's a fiddly/complicated/bloody nightmarish technique! *g* Your is fantastic! I love the bold colour blocking and then we soft wee flowers.

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  6. Oh gosh you certainly have a creative space. I have recently 'pinched' a corner of the den as my sewing area.The drum set was pushed over to make space for my machine. During the day, whilst my boys are at school, I use the pool table as a cutting table and enjoy spreading out my sewing stuff. Before the boys return home i have to pack it away as it reverts to a teenagers den.
    Once those boys leave home I too will have a glorious messy space like yours! Enjoy.....

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  7. lol I'm right there with you - the cupboard was used for 3 hours today and it looks like a bombs gone off in there... And I love your cushion! I hoard old clothes to use for bags and cushions - cord is my favourite!

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  8. It looks like you have had a fun time and are coming up with a lovely cushion in the process. My threads seldom make it to the floor, they just all stick to my sweater, my family sometimes picks them off before I go out the door....

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  9. oh my sewing area is all nice and tidy after a clean up on saturday and not using it since:-( I don't consider that to be a good thing, I'd much rather it was trashed and I was sewing.
    I have started saving ice cream tubs etc and have a few of those around when I am sewing and just chuck my scraps straight in those, it seems to work quite well.
    love the cushio and the cakes look very tasty

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  10. I love your mess and totally understand it! I am unlike you, not all that tidy in my non craft life but share my life with a Virgo, so we have some balance!!

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  11. I get threads everywhere. I've even considered putting a solid flooring in the living room as hoovering them up is a nightmare. I LOVE making cushions and bags because like you say you can try out new techinques etc without a big committment and have a finished goodie without weeks of work. I am totally with you on the recycling front. There is something hugely satisfying about getting new out of the old. Although my other half is cottoning on that sometimes when I stroke something he's wearing I'm not being affectionate I'm checking it's 'hand' ;-)

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  12. Oh I daren't show a photo of my area, especially the floor. I figure stepping over stuff is great exercise ;o)

    Love those cushions! I'm on a cord kick with some skirts at the moment, maybe with the leftovers... :o)

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  13. I love your creative 'mess' - I hope you didn't tidy it up before bedtime?! The banana muffins look delicious - detest bananas (ugh!) but love banana muffins and bread!

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  14. I really love that you spend time creating new beautiful things from pre-used "unwanted" fabric. You must get such happiness from it! Breathing new life into old things.

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  15. Threads everywhere? guilty! love that cushion and the little flowers.

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  16. That cushion is looking fantastic. Hey, don't be ashamed of the state of your working area - mine looks like that all the time!

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