Quilt number 7

I went on another 1 day course at Hometown in Rochester, this time it was a quick trip around the world and was led by Kate Higgens. It was set so we could make the entire quilt topper in a day, it started at 10.30 and I just had mine finished by 4.30.  Given the season I thought I would do another Christmas quilt, feeling optimistic about completing it.  The quilt, excluding borders, binding and backing fabric uses 6 fat quarters - it was surprising at the end to see how large the quilt was.

It was a very quick way of piecing, cutting your quarters into strips, then stitching them together before cutting them in the opposite direction to get patchwork strips. There is no unpicking like with some quilts as you cut on the seam of stitches and then in the middle of the piece alternatively.  The cutting did require some concentration, I managed to cut one piece wrongly but thankfully the pattern allowed for 2 mistakes.  The quilt was then made in 2 halfs and then the seams matched and stiched together.

I feel this description is rather rambling but I forgot to take photo's as I was going along. Anyway I did a plain fabric for the inner border that you cut 1 inch wide and then used one of the lighter fabrics for the outer border.

I was pleasantly surprised with the neatness of the piecing, although it was not that difficult to do. In addition there was no seam matching until you pieced the 2 halves together.

Thankfully I had plenty of the light gold star fabric left for the backing and used some 30/70 polyester/cotton for the batting.  This one was a Christmas present, my MIL was very pleased to receive it.

Not so secret santa advent calendar bunting

We are having secret Santa at our work Christmas do, with a budget on what to spend I decided to make most of the present. I had been looking at lots of Christmas bunting on pinterest and used various ones as my inspiration.

I cut the flags so that they were 6 1/2 inches long when cut (the width of my ruler) and the pockets were 4 inches long.

On my first attempt I cut all the triangles out and then tried to hem the cream pocket triangles but this proved too tricky as the fabric was too small for me to feed it into the roll hem foot so I started again and hemmed my strip of fabric and then cut it. I also used the pearl pens to add the numbers, much better to do it before stitching it as I did make a bit of a bloop on one so thankfully had a spare and didn't have to do any unpicking.

It was easy to put together with layering the 3 pieces of fabric stitching, trimming and then turning the right way out. I pressed them at this point to get them flat (on the wrong side so I didn't melt the numbers). I trimmed the top and added the binding. I used shop bought bias binding that I had in my stash and ironed it in half before slipping the flags in. I used a simple running stitch to hold it together.

Back of flags, alternate green and red

With sweets inside

Apart from my numbering I was rather pleased with the way it turned out. I think I just about kept to my £10 budget, including a few sweets - let's hope the receiver likes home made pressies.

Quilt number 6

I started this quilt back in February which may sound odd for a Christmas quilt but I know what I am like trying to get my projects finished so thought this would give me the best chance. As an added bonus Christmas fabrics tend to be quite cheap at that time of year!

The pattern for this was taken from a magazine and was quite straight forward. Because I had picked lots of gorgeous prints I wanted to show them off in the simplest way possible.  I also reduced the number of blocks I was going to use with mine as I wanted a smaller lap quilt not a large bed quilt.

Due to the intensity of the colours of the fabric and the white border I did take the time to wash them first prior cutting and sewing as I did not want them to bleed when washed once pieced. I don't always do this even though I know I should so far I have been lucky and not had any disasters. I am not sure if you can tell but the white fabric has tiny white stars all over it.

The cutting and piecing was quick with this, the only thing I did was a bit of fussy cutting on the people (my first cuts cut the top of their heads off, not a good look).  Once I have pieced my top and put a border on it I was frustrated to find that the width was just slightly wider than a standard fabric width so I did a strip of quilting on the back with all the off cuts.

The batting used was a mix of recycled cotton and polyester.

When it came to quilting I tried my hand at free motion quilting for the first time. I invested in a darning foot to make it easier to do.  I had mixed success with my sewing machine, I have had the same machine for the past 10+ years and always loved it (a Janome excel 5024). When I looked into it I did find that I was able to lower the feed dogs so the fabric slid easily but what my machine is missing is a needle up/down function, not sure why but more often than not when I paused the machine seemed to finish with the needle up - not what you want when quilting :(  Oh well, I'm not about to replace the machine yet.

I kept my quilting design easy as it was my first attempt, the reality is that I should have taken the time to practise first on some off cuts.  I also got about halfway through and thought I should invest in some gloves as I was finding the gripping difficult. I found a good pair on amazon that arrived promptly for me to finish the rest of the quilt.

When I did the border I changed the pattern of the quilting to a circle design, to look a bit like snow balls. I thought it was going well until I had a bit of a disaster and got the fabric caught up in itself - twice! So out came the unpicker and I started again on it.

I finished the quilt with some dotty binding - just in time for Christmas :)

Cushions

Having finally got the lounge sorted in terms of furniture, decorating and curtains (tedious post to follow later on those!) my other half decided that we needed cushions to match. Having seen the cost of them on the high street and wanting to some to match I stupidly volunteered to make them.  The first was a straight forward stripey one that was in exactly the same fabric as the curtains and was done quickly mainly to keep my other half happy that I was actually going to do them.

The next was more ambitious and I decided to do the applique striped flower motif, being new to applique I found myself using the wrong type of bonding web and had a frustrating time with the sewing machine needle getting gummed up and the thread breaking.  To make matters worse I then tried piping round the edges - I still haven't worked out how to neatly turn the corners with the piping and they ended up a disaster. I then cheated and covered over the corners so that they wouldn't show.

The flower cushion took rather a long time to make and other half was getting more and more annoyed with the lack of progress so I went back to simpler designs for the next two to get them done.

I still have a couple more to do but this is not going to be for a little while, too many other UFO's to be finishing off.

Crochet - hat and scarf

About a year ago I went on a day course for beginners crochet, I had learnt the very basics as a child and had a couple of attempts at teaching myself from books/pc over the years but had never managed to figure out how to turn and count the stitches.  The course was run from "Hometown" in Rochester...you may notice a trend in the frequency that I mention this shop but you really should call in if you get the opportunity as it is a great place.  I learnt the basic stitches on this course as well as how to turn and go on to the next row. It also went through how to read a pattern, including pictorial ones.

Coming away with bags on confidence I attempted my first item and made a hat and scarf set for my daughter. It didn't turn out that well, I couldn't work out where my rows ended resulting in me just crocheting in a spiral, I ended up guessing when to add stitches and made it a little big so had to decrease stitches before finishing it.  I did enjoy making the flower but didn't get all the petals looking the same.  The scarf was made up as I went along, just practicing different stitches.  In hindsight pale pink is not a great colour for a lively 9 yr old and it soon got muddy, thankfully MIL was on hand to get it looking like new again.

The good news was that my daughter's teacher liked it and she made a request for a brooch of the flower, in return for a jar of homemade jam...good trade!

Think I may have made the tassels a bit long

A brooch for the teacher

Tapestry cushion

When I started this project I hadn't done a tapestry since I was a child, I think I grew out of them as I don't find them to be particularly creative, they are mainly a glorified paint by numbers. But then I saw this kit by "Cleopatra's needle" and was drawn to the colours and pattern as it complemented a bedroom we have and the stitch size was not too large so looked quite attractive.  It has taken about 2 years to complete the sewing part but I still have to stitch it all together to make the cushion.

Update - I was all ready to stitch it together but couldn't convince myself to without stretching it, even by my standards it was too far out. It is currently tacked to an old table top in hopefully the right shape drying out from the water spray

The kit itself came with some lavender to put in the cushion, I was apprehensive about having it floating around inside and getting tangled in the tapestry itself so I made a little extra pouch to go between the two layers of wadding provided to stuff it.

I was a bit lazy and just used the thread that was already on my machine as I figured it would be very hidden.

Making the cushion up was really easy, I just machine sewed the front to the back leaving a small gap for turning and stuffing. I trimmed my edges to just over a centimetre and cut off the corners, turned it the right way round, stuffed and then hand stitched up the gap. And here's the finished item:

It only took me about 3 years to complete it!

WIP....Hexi paper piecing

I have no idea when I will finish this or quite what it will look like when I am finished....it is my first attempt at paper piecing.  I have used a Clover plastic template and made all my paper inserts (I found a "Fat Face" catalogue the ideal weight for the inserts) and then have been tacking them in a method that means the paper is easily removable without needing to take the tacking out.  The fabric is a selection of random pre-cut fat quarters from my local fabric shop - Hometown, in Rochester.  I have kept to the basic rule of keeping the central hexi plain and the fabric for the surrounding ones the same, using small pattern prints. This is my on the go project where I keep some fabric and templates in my travel sewing kit so I can keep doing it when I am caught hanging about in the car, generally on school pick ups. Anyway, I will post updates in the future and give it a number when it is completed.

My trusty template and cut-outs from Fat Face

Some completed hexies

Gift tags

This was a rainy afternoon project where I fancied trying my hand at making some gift tags in preparation for Christmas.  I had picked up the washi tape in the sales last January from John Lewis and then picked up some punched the other day. I kept them simple but used metallic card.  I loved the corner punch, a simple thing that turn a square homemade looking cutout into something a bit better.  This was my first venture into paper crafting and stamping, I am sure there are several techniques that could have made these look more professional but I am happy with my first attempt.

Quilt number 5

I wasn't sure whether to class this as a quilt or not but given I did sandwich the fabric with batting and quilted it I thought I would include it.  I made this travel sewing kit the day before I was going on holiday back in August, I should have been washing clothes and packing but I thought I needed to get my priorities straight and make sure I kitted out for sewing whilst away!  I made this up by looking at various pictures on pinterest and then adapted it for what I wanted, I knew that I wanted an area to store my hexies as I  was keen to start a paper piecing project. The strip of elastic didn't quite work as I intended to hold things in as this would only work with a solid back.  I added extra ribbons so I could tie things to it so certain things would not get lost while traveling, this feature has been great for threads and my scissors.   The ribbons weren't the best coordinated but I just used what I had in my stash, no time to go out and get new ones.

My special hexi pocket

All rolled up!

Unrolled and ready to use

Quilt number 4

I love this quilt!  There wasn't much piecing as it was a play mat but I love the way it turned out. This was a birthday gift for my nephew's 4th birthday. The inspiration for it came from my mum who made me and my sister a mat when we were little and we played with it continuously. Some of this quilt was pieced (sea, sand and green), some appliqued (lake and river), and some of it stuck on after quilting  (roads and car parks). The dilemma I had was whether to applique the roads which from a sewers perspective was preferable or to have the roads relatively  flat so the cars would run along them, following consultation with my other half it was decided that a 4 year would appreciate the flat roads more..so the glue came out.

I used the sea to make waves as little pockets for his cars, figuring that it wouldn't bother him that people do not normally drive their cars into the sea.

As per normal time was a little tight to get it done so the quilting was machine done in a grid pattern to keep it simple.

Quilt number 3

This is where it went a bit wrong....friends of ours had a baby boy and I thought how nice it would be to make them up a special quilt. I used a variety of different blocks and even added some applique to personalise it with his initial 'A'.  Sadly I neglected to realise how similar some of my fabrics were and how a block might be good if used in multiple blocks without borders but on its own....well....I ended up sewing swastikas into it by accident - fabric with similar hues meant the pattern emerged without me realising! I am aware that the swastika was previously had a good meaning but the modern associations weren't really suited to a baby quilt. I did finish it off but this one is staying at home for my son to use.

No pictures this time, I would not like to attract the wrong attention to this site.

Quilt number 2

This was a very quick quilt to make. I attended a 2 day course at Hometown in Rochester under the guidance of Mavis and Marion Haslam.  The quilt was a quilt as you go technique, it is very quick to cut and piece and can use up lots of scraps. This quilt is in regular use at home on my son's bed.

What was good was I got to use my favourite fabrics from Quilt number 1. Here is a close up so you can see some.

This quilt was finished in February 2013, where I had this great idea of trying to complete a quilt a month...ha! Who was I kidding.

Quilt number 1

The first quilt I made was from following a pattern in a book, it was machine sewed but then hand quilted which took significantly longer than I expected and the sewing was not particularly neat.  This was meant to be a gift for my nephew on his third birthday in August 2012 but did not get completed until Christmas 2012.  I loved the fabric but did suffer from not including enough plain fabric, something I am still trying to adapt to.