August 2019

ctmidd
Sep 4, 2019
3 min read

This month me and mum went to the festival of quilts, I go more for the stalls than the exhibition but we always look at the quilts. The selection of stalls was really good this year, I had a very specific list and a budget. I needed more of a beige fabric I bought ages ago, some turquoise fabrics, things from the bag fitting stall and a treat. We went round all the shopping stalls first it took me a good while to find the right beige fabric then I was able to relax and properly mooch. I found the turquoises I wanted and bought a selection of interesting bag fittings including a lovely bee catch. I always get a few things on the bag fitting stall, they are from Germany so you avoid the postage, and they have really good quality stuff. I had already spent my allowance when I came across some lovely ceramic willow pattern buttons, but I decided to get a set to put on my blue coat, the buttons cost more than the coat did, they look cool though.

We looked at the quilts, there were not so many interesting ones this year and I was massively disturbed by some creepy quilted babies. But I saw a few that I really liked, I should have really noted the titles and makers names but I'm afraid I didn't.

I went on a trip to London, to got to a couple of exhibitions and a comedy night. I used to go to the summer exhibition quite often but I went one year and was massively unimpressed so I didn't go for a few years. I'm so glad I went this year, the mixture of artworks was really diverse and interesting. I spent the most time in the architecture room, I love the scale models. I also went to the Manga exhibition at the British Museum, I'm so pleased I bought an advanced ticket, skipping the massive queue was very pleasing. I was unsure if I'd be that into it as I'm more a fan of Anime, but I do tend to gravitate to all things Japanese. I actually loved it, I didn't read everything, but I really enjoyed the progression from ancient scrolls to modern animation and the influence of western media. I took a few pics of my favourite pieces but my camera was sulking so they were not the best, and I did get a cool bag in the gift shop.

I have done some more to my other project this month, which is about time as I have sadly neglected it. My main project was to make myself another raincoat. My last pac-a-mac is way too big on my now so I needed to make a new one. I really liked the octopus one but I got a different shower curtain this time. I was going to cut the fabric and realised that the pattern didn't go small enough so before I could cut out I had to draw a new smaller pattern. Once the pattern was sorted I cut the pieces out and started putting them together. I decided not to add pockets this time as I hadn't used them that much but I did add a drawstring in the hood as it's light and blows off easily. During in the sewing I managed to put a sleeve on the wrong way up, so annoying but easily remedied by unpicking and resewing, doesn't look as tidy now though.

My last trip this month was to Birmingham, I have been looking for some leather for a project and was struggling to get anything suitably distressed. I went round the markets, charity shops and vintage shops. I finally found a pair of leather trousers in a vintage shop, they were not as tattered as I wanted but the colour pleased me.