A "woosh" quilt!

I thought I would share another one of my Christmas makes which I am really pleased with.

I started this lone star quilt back in June 2013 (so not as bad as the dog cross stitch!) with the intention of it being a Christmas gift for my Aunt (other side of the family this time).

In the run up to the 2012 London Olympics I made my Aunt some bunting to hang in her garden.  She was going to quite a lot of the games so it seemed only right that her garden was properly attired! 

I decided that it would be nice to try and make a quilt for her with some of the remaining fabric and some other bits and pieces from my stash.  Its always handy to have a blanket to throw over your legs when sitting in summer evenings when it starts to get a bit chilly!

I spotted this Scrappy Lone Star Quilt by Better off Thread and thought it would be perfect.  Especially since i was working with scraps of fabric.  I also liked how she had positioned it off center.  The piecing and the cutting of the main star went really quickly and I finished that off in a day. 

I then had to wait on the backing fabric for the quilt top arriving.  Even though it was here quick the individual pieces sat in a drawer until I picked it back up in November 2014 and decided that it was definitely going to be done for Christmas 2014!

Now I'm not going to lie.  I found piecing the triangles onto the background awful.  For some reason I just could not figure out the correct way to get it all sewn together.  This was not due to the tutorial but more just to me having a bit of a daft day!  I did eventually get it all attached.

Needless to say there was much swearing when I was unpicking!  Eventually it got to the point of squaring the star up and adding the rest of the background.  Now I normally do all my trimming on the floor so I can step back and take a look at what I am doing (and there is load of room!).  For some reason I didn't this time and we had a wee accident.......!

Thankfully it was very easy to solve and quickly mended!

My Aunt had recently purchased a 1970s VW campervan so I got this rather cool fabric for the back.  Think it works well with the colours in the front and is a bit of fun (which quilts should be!). I decided to quilt it with variegated thread rather than picking a blue or red to blend in/stand out with the front/back  and i was really pleased with the results (although don't actually have an up close shot....).

I decided to stitch in the ditch round the main seams of the pieced star (you can see that in the photo above) then mirror the outline of the piecing in the quilting.  I think it looks like the star is going "woosh" across the quilt like one of those animations you get in powerpoint(!) and that is how it got its name.

I needed to get it all wrapped up for Christmas so here are a few photos I took of the finished article, sorry for the poor light taking decent photos in December in Scotland is tricky!!  I was really pleased with how it turned out and more importantly so was my Aunt!

See you all soon x

P.S.  I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment

A (very) late New Year post!

Happy New Year!  Ok the year is not very new anymore but better late than never right?!

Like most people out there in blog land I have been doing quite a bit of reflection about 2014 and thinking about what 2015 may hold.   Last year was absolutely fab and contained a number of big events (such as getting engaged and married in the same year) along with smaller things like participating in my first OWOP and making clothes that I actually wear outside of the house!  Needless to say quite a lot of my original plans got put to one side.  I also found that I began to get myself all stressed out about rather silly things, including the overwhelming feeling of having too many projects on the go/planned/on the wish list!

This year I am determined to not get myself in a tizz about having too much on (especially for those non essential projects on the to do list)!  I know I am never going to get right to the bottom of the WIP list but (and here is the catch) I am going to make a concerted effort to rid my list of all those thing which I now feel a bit 'meh' about and not feel bad about it!  I can't be the only one with projects on the list or started which were fashionable at the time but the moment has passed.  Going to have a good old clear out of the stash and see what is there - may even share some photos!

I could also do with running down my craft/fabric supplies as well so unless it is a present or I need it to finish a project then I ain't buying till at least June! 

In the mean time I have been doing a lot of fast finishes to start clearing the decks!  Apologies if you are on Instagram as you will have already seen most of these.

More bunting for a work colleague.

A drawstring bag for my nephew to take on his holiday made using this tutorial. Its the same fabric as the drawstring bag (Michael Miller les monieurs en ville blue from the Bead and Button Company) as I bought extra - it was too cute not to!!

Napkins to go with our wedding china.  I did wish we only had 6 place settings rather than 8 when I made these.  I would also make them a bit bigger next time.  I cut out squares of 45cm before hemming this time.

A I-pad mini cover for a friend using fabric I purchased from Remnant Kings on one of my lunchtime wanders.

A helicopter cross stitch - random gift for a friend who said they 'wanted a helicopter'... don't think this is what they had in mind though!

More lavender bags.  I really wanted to finish the rest of the lavender as it was getting in the way so it had to be done. Some were gifted but most kept......!

Some more tissue holders.  How cute is the princess one?!

I have also been progressing my wedding sampler (Love Blossoms by Bothy Threads which I purchased from Sew and So) and the Sew Crafty Sampler from issue 287 of Cross Stitcher Magazine.  These have been good projects for doing while watching the TV and not wanting to create much mess (we have had a lot of guests round recently)!

You will notice from all the photos that there is a distinct lack of clothes being made at the moment.  Like most people the last few months have been heavy on the eating/drinking and light on the exercise.  This means I need to take some new measurements and not really feeling the love for that at the moment! Anyone else get that or is it just me?  Hopefully that feeling will pass soon as I miss the challenge with making clothes.

Right that is enough from me for one day.  I won't be away long this time as I have a few posts about some of my larger Christmas makes lined up.

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas Eve and I have a couple of finished projects to share before the festivities really start.

Doesn’t seem that long ago that I was hanging up the Advent Calendar and now the last sweet is about to be munched!  This was actually a present I started making for the OH while we were busy with wedding prep.

I don’t get the chance to make things for my OH much.  The only other things I have made him in the last three years are a Christmas Stocking and cover for a Kindle.  That’s it.  He is fine with that and is not spending the days claiming that I am neglecting him – although he would prefer if I made more cakes and less dressmaking/cross stitch!

It was relatively easy to put together, albeit a bit fiddly at times.  

I could not decide how to quilt it for ages and settled on stitching round three sides of the pockets again so as to not interfear with the design.  This worked fine until I realised that I now had 48 knots to bury in the quilt!  Not such a bright idea after all- thats a lot of knots! 

Quilting the top and adding the bias binding round the sides ended up taking a whole Saturday.  Had a good few goes at adding the binding as I was trying to get rid of the green border on the original panel. No idea why it took so long to get right and I ended up just cutting the green border off. 

The OH was really pleased with the result in the end though which is the main thing.

I also just managed to get my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Christmas Celebration Sampler finished in time for Christmas.  Love how cute these patterns are and it will be good to get it framed and displayed ready for next Christmas.

That's all the crafting done for Christmas now too which is a relief.  We are spending the day with family tomorrow so a nice relaxing evening with a bottle of bubbly before Santa arrives is in order!  Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

X 

More curtains

Before I start the Christmas crafting posts I just wanted to write a wee post about another pair of curtains that I made.

A couple of months ago I made a pair of bathroom curtains for my Gran which also featured in my very first blog post.  Well once I had made them my other Gran started to hint that she needed a new pair of kitchen curtains!  I should know by now that I can't make for one without the other but somehow I always forget.

I thought it would be a good idea to write down what I did to make the curtains.  Now I am not really qualified to tell other people how to make curtains, and there are lots of tutorials out there, so this is really more of a note for my own future reference!

I started by measuring the curtains she already had up to get my finished measurements and then added 12cm to the length and made sure I had 8cm on the width for the hems.   I started by checking that I had a straight edge for cutting the first curtain then lined up the pattern to ensure that I managed to match the pattern across the two curtains.

I then created a 2cm double fold hem for each of the sides.

I then stitched the sides down using the straight stitch on my machine.  Actually I was very lazy and just used a strait stitch to do all my seams - no blind hemming for me! I know I was cutting corners here but to be honest the stitches vanish into the fabric and I think it looks fine.

I then folded the top down by 2cm and created a 5cm double hem at the bottom. I then struggled for ages as to how to miter the corners properly at the bottom, before settling for a mock mitered corner as per this tutorial!  I think it looks ok.  

The last set of curtains I made both my mum and Gran mentioned that when they have had curtains made for them before there was a small pocket for the extra hemming cord to sit when they are hung.  So I pulled out a small strip of off white fabric from my stash and created this little pocket to include under the heading tape. I did this by eye and didn't take any measurements but its about 3" long and 2" wide.

I then added the header tape.  I cut it to the correct width and ziz zag stitched down the two cut ends to stop it unraveling, making sure I didn't catch the cords, before attaching to the fabric.  This went nice and quick, until I realised that I had sewn a pin in-between the tape and curtain fabric. Can you see the pink pin head? Oops!

Pinning the tape on the second curtain.

The only bit of hand sewing I did was to stitch down the mitered corners.

They then got folded up for a week until I went to visit my Gran.

In pride of place (sorry for rubbish photo - it was getting dark so the light is a bit off!)

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Time flies

Wow can’t believe how quick the last few months have gone and that it was September when I was last on here. 

Life has certainly been busy in the meantime. We got married…

….went on honeymoon….

…got ready for Christmas….

…. and to be honest just life in general has just been a bit crazy.  I have also managed to break the camera (both the camera and I got soaked by a wave on honeymoon – it didn’t survive!) and laptop (currently in the computer hospital) which has not helped.

I have, however, been managing to do some crafty stuff.  Those of you who follow me on instagram will probably be bored of seeing the updates on the Christmas Celebration Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  Fab wee pattern and I do love being involved in a stitch along but the border is taking an age and has had to be put on hold while the Christmas sewing takes place.

Stitching Christmas ornaments when I was supposed to be gift sewing (another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery project – Cozy Gingerbread Snow Globe)

Despite promising not to do many crafty projects for Christmas I seem to have been very busy making gifts!  I have a couple of posts lined up for after Christmas so I won’t share them just now.  However, I have been making loads of lavender bags and tissue holders as gifts – an idea which I have stolen from Mrs King Sews!

I have also made some more bean bag chairs as a favour for a colleague at work (they looked a lot better in real life - and were very comfy).

While I have been doing a lot of crafting, I have not touched the dressmaking in months.  The closest I have got was buying £45 dress for £8 out of Oasis as the seam had come away at the zip.

I know this seems very small but it is not something I would have even considered doing before.  A little bit of interfacing to reinforce the seam where a wee hole had occurred and away I went.

It was a bit fiddly, and the OH was a bit amused that the night before we go on honeymoon I decide to fix a dress, but I think it was worth it (photo doesn't do it justice!).

That’s enough from me for one day I think! 

Will be back soon  x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Fly me to the moon!

I have been making lots of baby bunting for friends and family lately (I am at that age where babies are appearing all over the shop!) and realised that I had not made any for the OH's nephew.  Now I met the OH around the time his nephew was born, and before I had started sewing, so I think that is a valid excuse.  I figured that it was about time I rectified this but that a two and a half year old energetic wee boy would not really want a string of bunting.

Now I had been mulling over what to make for a while and then I came across this fab tutorial  for a beanbag chair by Project Nursery - Perfect!

The hunt for nice boy upholstery fabric took a while but when I stumbled across this amazing space rocket fabric from Frumble Fabrics I knew it would be perfect. It is a Japanese fabric and slightly heavier than ordinary quilting cotton so would be able to withstand a battering! I teamed it with some blue upholstery fabric that I had found in the John Lewis remnants bin.

I didn't make any changes except to cut the fabric 43" wide rather than 45" due to the width of my fabric.  I also used more beanbag stuffing than suggested as well.

How cute is this selvage with the wee rockets?  Not one for keeping my selvages but I think this may be an exception to that rule!

The sewing went quite quickly as the instructions were really easy to follow.  It went so quick that I didn't even think to take photos.  All I have is this, rather blurry, photo of the curve I had cut for the front of the bag.

Now the tutorial says this is a 30 minute make.  Well it took me a bit longer as I managed to sew my zip on the wrong way and with a small stitch and a 22" zip a lot of swearing ensued!!!  Even with this mistake I don't think it took over an hour.  Not bad for a first attempt.

Now I was a bit too impatient to wait until my OH came home to fill it up.  This was my ingenious (!) solution.  That's what you are supposed to use airers for right?!

Going up!

Needless to say quite a few of the beads escaped but overall I was pretty happy with my contraption.   That was until I realised that the beanbag liner I had purchased to keep all the beads inside would not mold to the shape of the bag!  Not wanting to add to the 'snow' all over the kitchen floor,  I just took my scissors and cut a hole in the bottom of the liner!

I zipped it all up and sewed a few stitches just under the zipper to stop my nephew from unzipping the seat and getting the filling all over the house it was done!  Looks good I think.

Perfect for a spot of light reading

Best of all though my nephew loved it :)  Job done!!