Category: Quilting

I’m Back!

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Hello! Wow, that was a very long blogging break and I have missed it big time. What’s new? I’m now talking to you from wonderfully hilly Switzerland rather than very flat Cambridgeshire, UK and my sewing machines now have their own room rather than a corner in my bedroom. There have also been changes on a more personal level which I might tell you about at a later stage. Now I’m just happy to show you around my little sewing space.

Sewing Corner

My sewing room was the first room I (almost) finished in my new flat. There are  still a few things I’d like to add such as a design wall and a few shelves but all in all it’s already pretty functional. I love the fact that I share this space with Little Miss Bossy-Boots.

Fabric Cabinet

Below is her corner of the craft room as we call it. She loves to draw, cut stick and paste and I thought it would be fun if we could do it in the same place. I can sew and supervise or help if needed.

Crafty Corner

The rest of the flat is still rather messy as I need to buy a few pieces of furniture to get rid of the last boxes: a bookshelf, a sideboard, a shoe rack and a desk. Next week I’m going to hit the charity shops to see if I can find some nice bargains. Otherwise I’ll hop on a train to Ikea to see if I can find some bargains there.

PS These pictures are from last week when the sewing room was still fairly tidy. Since then I’ve sewn a few bee blocks and started on a quilt using my hoarded Echo by Lotta Jansdotter. The sewing room is now very messy and needs a good tidy up. Hey ho, at least I’m sewing again.

 

Categories: Musings, Quilting2 Comments

Teacher Gifts

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I have had an absolutely fabulous time at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and I will get round to writing a post about it very soon but first I would like to show you some mug rugs I made as teacher gifts for Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ teachers and teaching assistants.

A little while ago I bought ‘25 Patchwork Quilt Blocks‘ by Katy Jones of Monkey Do fame. For Christmas I gave all the teachers a fabric bucket filled with chocolate, this year I decided to make them mug rugs. I was a bit too quick wrapping them all up so I only have these Instagram pictures to show you.

Mug Rugs I

Mug Rug IIThe mug rugs are all made with scraps and some Kona Snow or Sketch in Mist. As always I pieced and quilted them with my trusty Aurifil 50 wt. Because I didn’t have that much time I kept the quilting to a minimum, simply echoing some of the shapes.

I added some tea and biscuits in the bag but didn’t actually have the time to get them a mug (that’s what you get when you organise presents at the last minute because you go gallivanting in London). Hopefully they get some mugs from one of the other children.

 

Categories: Quilting3 Comments

Modern Mini Challenge

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After a long debate with myself I’ve decided to enter my ‘Starflower’ mini quilt into the Modern Mini Challenge hosted by Ellison Lane Quilts. This little quilt is 18″ x 18″ and was made for the Doll Quilt Swap Round 13.

StarflowerI found a drawing of the ‘flower’ on the internet but couldn’t find either who had designed it nor a pattern for it so I sat down and started to draw out the pieces on a big piece of paper. The flower is English paper pieced and then appliquéd onto the white linen background. I then quilted it with some Aurifil 50wt by echoing the shape on the background and the centre and some stitch in the ditch between the pink and purple shapes.

The binding is slightly wider, finishing at about half an inch. I thought a border would be too distracting but liked the idea of using all the fabrics in the scrappy binding.

This was the first EPP patten I ‘designed’ and it was quite a challenge to get all the pieces to fit together and lay flat. It was quite a steep learning curve but helped me a lot with designing my next EPP mini, Athea. You could say this was the start to my obsession with designing EPP patterns. There’s another one in the works as I’m typing this.

Edited to add: I found the pattern, Girih Tiles by Endulzar, on Craftsy. If you would like to make this beautiful mini quilt you can buy the pattern here for $1.95. Although I drew my own templates for this mini I have now bought the pattern as I do not want to cheat this talented designer.  

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Quilts3 Comments

FLiRTS

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A while ago I joined FLiRTS, a fun little swap on flickr. However, when the first round kicked off I couldn’t sign up as I had too much going on to properly concentrate on it. Round two came around and I signed up. I was so excited about it all and didn’t think life was going to be quite as busy as it got. So although I haven’t been able to comment on all the pictures as I normally do when I join a swap, I’ve been busy making a few things for my partner. I like this swap as you pick three things from a list of makes and your partner then choses one of these items to make for you.

My partner had some great things on her wish list and I decided to go for a mug rug. As I knew I wouldn’t have that much time to spend but wanted it to look good and be fun I went for foundation paper piecing two different blocks. First, the tea pot that I found in Fat Quarterly number 8. It was desigend by Kerry Green from verykerryberry and I’m sure that I will make it again. It was really fun to do and I love the colours I used.

Tea PotI hand quilted around the teapot and on the tablecloth with some Aurifil 28wt. Once I finished the piecing I thought ‘what if this girl prefers coffee?’. Around about then I won a giveaway on Kerry’s blog and the prize was the Parisienne Cafe pattern by Sew-Ichigo. So I made the coffee cups and put them on the back of the teapot mug rug.

Espresso

I also bought a blue and white mug to go with the mug rug, added some scraps and made a grocery bag (which was also on my partner’s list).

Grocery BagAll these things are now on the way to…. ha, ha, ha, it’s a secret swap so I won’t tell you until I know they’ve arrived.

Let me show you, however, what came for me all the way from the United States of America:

FLiRTS Goodies from DawnI couldn’t remember what three things I had put on my list but it seems Dawn (2mayboys on flickr) decided to make all of them! First up the greatest Kindle case ever. I love Denyse Schmidt fabrics and the colours are just so spot on. I really could not have wished for anything better. It even has a pocket on the inside for the charging cable. However, Dawn also made me the cutest coasters in my favourite colours and from some of my most favourite fabrics. To top it all off she made me a little pencil case and sent me a mini charm pack of Boho. Gosh, I really have been spoilt and I can tell you this little package has made my day, my week, my month. Thank you so much, Dawn!

 

 

 

Categories: FLiRTS, Quilting4 Comments

Wonky Princess Bee

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Hello again, I decided to seize the fact that mojo was lurking in a corner and started on my wonky stars again. Stellar is the wonderful pattern some of the Sew Solids Crew Stash Club are using for the Sew Solids Quilt-Along. You can see the posts about my first stars here and here. Because I was lagging behind I had two colours to sew stars from, pink and blue. To be honest the most difficult part of this sew-along is pairing up the colours to get enough contrast between the star and the background.

Stellar Sew-AlongDon’t look too closely please. The blocks have lots of stray threads hanging off them and my floor is…. let’s just say it needs a good clean. This quilt is definitely going to be colourful and I’m not sure how much I like it yet.

Something I love, however, is the fabric that arrived today from Simply Solids. I know a lot of people prefer prints to solids but I really enjoy working with solids.

SolidsNext month it’s my turn to be the Princess Bee of the Sew-Euro-Bee-ans. For a long time I didn’t know what to ask for but then I decided to go for colour rather than block. This means that my fellow bees are allowed to make any block they like, in any size they want to make (I’m sure I’ll regret that decision later) and with any extra scraps (solids or prints)  they want/need. I’m only asking them to stick to this colour palette. I would like the blocks to be something they enjoy making and that, I suppose, therefore represents them.  Now that the fabric has arrived I’m really excited about sending it out to everyone.

It’s good to have you back, mojo.

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Sew Euro-Bee-An, Sew Solids Crew Stash Club, Sew Solids Quilt-Along2 Comments

Stellar Update

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Hello! This week a lovely orange bundle of six fat quarters arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of the Simply Solids Crew Stash Club. I was feeling a little bit low due to missing a lovely meal in a lovely restaurant on Sunday so decided to cut into it straightaway. You might wonder what a meal has to do with sewing and the answer to that is…nothing. Sewing does cheer me up, though, so that was good enough for me to get the rotary cutter out instead of the duster and hoover.

Stellar OrangeA couple of hours later I had three bright orange stars to cheer me up. As mentioned before Stellar is a great free pattern on the Simply Solids website and although it was designed for the quilt-along I’m sure it would look just as great in patterned fabric or a combination of the two. I love making these stars and can’t wait for the March bundle.

Stellar PhotobombI think Charlie likes the stars too.

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Sew Solids Crew Stash Club, Sew Solids Quilt-Along2 Comments

Waste Not, Want Not

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When I made Little Miss Bossy-Boots Tumbler Cushion, I used two charm packs to cut out the tumblers. This was my first ‘proper’ venture into quilting and I couldn’t bear to throw away the little offcuts. Last Sunday, I dug them out and made a little doll’s blanket for Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ babies.

Doll Quilt Front

As you can see the baby also has a tiny cushion made from some small scraps from Little Miss Bossy-Boots flannel quilt. The mattress, however, still needs a cover and that job is next on my list.

For the back I used some offcuts from the offcuts, and some Kona lavender. I then bound it in some Kona snow.

Doll Quilt Back

It’s only 12,5″ square but as a couple of the dolls are small this is more than big enough to cover them at night. Because that’s what we do at the moment, every morning we dress them and bring them downstairs and every evening we bring them back upstairs, put their pyjamas on and put them to bed. For someone who doesn’t like dolls and never played with them as a child, I’m quite proud that I help with the whole process without too much protest. I just hope she gets back into the train set soon….

 

Categories: Quilting, Quilts1 Comment

A Skein of Geese

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Did you know a large group of flying geese is called a skein? Well, I didn’t I but now I can say I’ve learned something new today. The information, by the way, came from here.

Anyway, my double circle of geese cushion has been on my to-do list since last June and I’m so happy to finally be able to put a tick next to it.

Double Circle of Flying Geese

After I stopped worrying and got on with sewing the cushion came together really quickly. The fabric I used for the geese is “Good Fortune” by Kate Spain, the green solid is one I got from a friend.

I wasn’t sure how to quilt it but decided to simply follow the geese, which meant 24 stops and starts where I had to break thread. I think it took longer to knot the threads and bury the ends than to piece the whole block.

This cushion was made with someone in mind. However, I now don’t think it is right for this person so it looks like this one is up for grabs. Or it might just stay there on the sofa if I can’t find a good home for it; it goes really well with our sage green feature wall.

I didn’t have a pillow form big enough for the cover (it finishes at 20″) so I pinched the insert of Charlie’s bed so I could take pictures. He wasn’t very happy and decided to check out my photo shoot.

Charlie overseeing the photo shoot

The look on his face says it all…

Charlie photo bombing

Another finish for my FAL list. Not quite on a roll but getting there.

she can quilt

 

Categories: Finish-A-Long, Home Projects, Quilting6 Comments

First Finish

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Hurrah, I can put a tick on my Finish-A-Long list! Yes, that’s right I’ve finished my Hexie Heart Cushion.

Hexie Heart Cushion

Once I had decided to quilt the hexies in a diagonal pattern, as suggested by Leanne from She Can Quilt, it was a very quick finish. I’m happy with how it came out and hope I can raise a bit of money with it for our local cancer treatment centre.

 

she can quilt
Categories: Finish-A-Long, Quilting4 Comments