Quilt No 024: Modern Background

I have a chair in our hall that seems to have been designed specifically for the dogs to sleep on, clamber onto to see out of the hall window, and otherwise act as a dumping point for bags as one comes through the door. Thus, apparently, it needed a contemporary cover that looked smarter than the throw that routinely covers it. The suggested colour scheme matched some fabric I bought some time ago, and after a quick planning session, I set to with a quilted pattern of my own making…

Continue reading

Sewing: Miranda Day Bag

Over the last two days, I’ve had a sewing project on the go… a quilted day bag. The pattern is from our trip to Canda and is available from Lazy Girl Designs. It’s not the first bag I’ve made, but even so, it took some effort to follow the instructions properly (operator errors, the instructions were actually pretty clear…). The pattern calls for quilting cotton fabrics – I chose a heavier weight printed canvas for longevity. I’ve also learnt from previous experience and on finishing it, liberally sprayed it with Scotch Gard fabric protector. It will be washable though. Fabrics from Thimbles Fabrics & Crafts. Finished size: 12″ x 6″ x 10″. Total make time approx. 8 hrs, materials £40.

Half A Pound of Tuppenny Rice… and a few socks

IMG_2829_w

I’m still in making mode for the church Christmas Fayre… and inspired by yet another Facebook shared video, I have three snowmen families gracing my studio table, one of which has chosen this as their official Christmas card. Nobody mentioned that sports socks are now rarely just white, seemingly requiring colour splashes to be able to match them up when mixed in the gym bag. Good old George at Asda came up trumps though 🙂

And prices have gone up since rice was tuppenny… with each family weighing in at 1333g of Basics rice, that’s more like 3lbs of rice for £1. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

And the pompoms, despite a wonderful gizmo to help, still took an hour to make and sew on. I think it was worth it though for the finishing sparkling touch.

Continue reading

Scrap-Yard – Quilt No. 14

IMG_5794_wOk, coming in at 15″x20″ this quilt is no where near a yard in size, but it is certainly made from scrap pieces of fabric that every quilter has in their stash (insisting they will come in useful at some point). I sort of made up my own rules to get all the scraps in place with a minimum of pressing or planning, before backing and binding it. It’s taken about 7 hours to make from start to finish.

I’ll be teaching my method at Quorn Country Crafts on Friday, 19th June, 2015 between 10-4pm – feel free to join the waiting list as apparently the initial class is already booked up!

Continue reading

Autumn Lily Layer Cake Quilt

IMG_5766_wI finished a mammoth quilt last week, the first I have designed using a Layer Cake – Blackbird Designs ‘Autumn Lily’ by Moda. For the uninitiated, layer cakes are usually forty two 10×10″ pre-cut squares of fabric from a coordinating collection. I augmented this with a lot of calico to make a relatively inexpensive throw for the bed – it reaches over the sides, but only goes 2/3rds of the way up the bed by design (and by the fact that I would have needed more patterned fabric!). Each block in the above photo is just under 10″ square for a sense of scale, and the finished quilt size is 110″x67″ (roughly 3m by 1.5m). Each square has been quilted, and the repeating motif is my own continuous line quilting design.

I spent yesterday afternoon having my first play with Electric Quilt 7 – a quilting software package that I purchased last week to aid in production of quilt patterns, as well as designing my own quilts. As all the reviews I looked at have said, there’s a steep learning curve, but the help screens and tutorial videos do help you get to grips with what is actually an unintuitive interface (at least at first). It does have the benefit of being able to import photos of the fabric swatches, and Moda are kind enough to provide these as a download via their website.

Continue reading

Eclectic Elements Thread Catcher

IMG_5583_wI took delivery of my new Pfaff Hobbylock 2.5 yesterday, and after I managed to work out how to rethread it, I of course had to have a go. After a couple of hours yesterday, and a couple more today, I’m officially loving it! I’ve learnt what not to do on it… and that it’s best to have the sewing machine out at the same time. Me being me, I decided to work on a project I’d had in mind for a while, namely to make a thread catcher for use next to the sewing machine. I didn’t like many I’d seen on the web, so I adapted various ideas and made my own. Continue reading

Sewing Room Door Plaque (for Creative Expressions)

Sewing Room Door PlaqueAnother of my projects featuring Creative Expressions’ Antique Dressform stamp set. This one is sporting a few embellishments that I wouldn’t consider to be my normal style, but the ribbon roses (also from CE) matched the theme perfectly and made a great pin cushion for the various pins I nicked from my quilting stash. No step-by-step photos this week, but there’s still a kit list and instructions for those that want them:

Continue reading

It only seems fitting… (for Creative Expressions)

It only seems fitting...The other stamp pack I have been sent to work with this month for the Creative Expressions Design Team projects is their unmounted ‘Antique Dressforms’ set. This card features a decoupaged background which I hope is reminiscent of tissue paper dress patterns, and is a relatively quick and easy make.

Continue reading

Mandala Faux Batik (for Creative Expressions)

Faux BatikWhen I saw the contents of the latest DT goodie bag lots of ideas sprang to mind. We’ve been sent the newest set of ‘Henna’ inspired Creative Expressions ‘Singles’ stamps – rubber stamps that are pre-mounted and cut ready for slapping onto your acrylic blocks and printing with straight away. This project uses embossing powder and spray dyes to create a faux batik effect on a handkerchief – although any cotton fabric would work just as well. For more making details, read on 🙂

Continue reading

Dedication Quilt

During my ‘quiet times’ here on the blog, I’m rarely resting! Complete with a conservatory and hall refurbishment over the last couple of months, I’ve been busy on various projects I can’t share at the time. This is one of them – quilting a pre-printed topper (roughly 36×48″) for the dedication (equivalent to christening) of our friends’ newborn son. That happened earlier today, so now I can share without spoiling the surprise!

I used the free motion setting on my sewing machine to quilt round each of the letters and the main lines of each of the illustrations. As normal, I have hand bound the edging and used an 80/20 cotton-polyester wadding. Being able to wash the quilt is a pre-requisite for this age group! At points I wished I had chosen simpler quilting lines, but the finished article was worth the three days worth of man-hours. Now to move onto quilting my very large happy-accident Christmas quilt: more on that in another post 🙂