A Big Sister Quilt

My great niece will become a big sister in July, so I asked her to look at my stash and choose some fabrics that she liked.

She has a great eye, and, luckily for me, chose four fabrics (the butterfly print, pink, purple and teal that I used for the binding) that all worked together well.

I choose a simple pattern to showcase the fabrics. This pattern, Town Square by Donna Robertson, was perfect for what I wanted.

The blocks are large - finishing at 15" - and the quilt is a perfect sized 47" x 62".

Doesn't the binding work well with these colours?

I was pleased to have plenty of this 'mad owl' fabric in my stash too - it's made a really fun backing for this quilt.  Even better, it was nice and wide, so I didn't have to piece the backing at all - what a bonus!

I'm hoping to use some of the scraps that I now have to make a couple of other bits and bobs to match the quilt.  Watch this space!

Of course, what I really need to do is to get on and make the baby quilt......!
 

My Part Five of The 100 Day Project

 Days 37 to 45 of my mini birds project - I'm making progress!

I'm still having fun with different ways of creating the birds, and wondering about other styles too.

A Bag, and Part Four

 Part Four of my 100 day project - the next nine bird blocks.  Numbers 28 to 36.

Also I decided on the spur of the moment to make this Japanese Knot bag.

I saw the pattern here, on The Happiest Camper Blog.

Using her image as a jumping off point, I made my own pattern piece, roughly 20 inches high and 15 inches across.

I cut two pieces of print and two pieces of plain fabric and sewed them together as instructed.

Popped them right sides together inside each other, and sewed the centre circle together. Turned through, pressed, top stitched the outer handle circles (slightly fiddly!) and the centre circle.

And here is the finished bag - closed by looping the longer handle through the shorter one to create a 'knot'.  A fun and fairly simple make, with a fun bag at the end of it!

Why make just one?

.....when you can make more than one?!?

I missed out on a Miniatures Group sewing evening recently, but when I saw the tricorne bowls that the other members had been making, I wanted some of that action!

So, I jumped onto Little Patch Pockets website and ordered the Tricorne Bowl pattern.

Simple to purchase, and the PDF was sent to me quite quickly.

In not much time at all I'd read through it, cut out some fabrics and made my first bowl.

Perfect for Easter treats, or at least, it would have been, if it hadn't been swiped by DD2 who liked the look of it!

So, I set to and did some more cutting and sewing, and now have four made and ready to gift at Easter, as well as the first one that disappeared so quickly!

Nicely written pattern, good and clear to use - I recommend it!

 I feel nicely prepared for Easter now!

Part Three

The next nine!

I'm really enjoying these little applique birds, as you can tell by the number of them that I've made.

The machine sewn foundation pieced one (centre right) was more difficult, and I'm not sure that it came out just how I was imagining!

Still, onwards and upwards - lots more birds still to make!
 

Part Two

 The next nine birds!

I can see that I need to get better at making ones that face right!  Funny that I didn't notice as I was going along, it's only now that they are grouped together that my bias becomes obvious!

Still, I'm pleased with days 10 to 18!

The Start of Something!

 It's the time of year for #the100dayproject again!

I'm joining in!

This year I'm making a series of 100 birds on 2.5" squares, ready to make a wall hanging with them at the end.

I'm running slightly behind in showing these on here, as today is actually day 18, but here are the first nine.  I like photographing them as a square, so you'll get 11 of these and then a single final bird to make them up to 100!

The first four of these are raptors, to represent the days that my daughter was volunteering with the Raptor Foundation as I started this project!  I should really add a burrowing owl to them, to represent Basil, her favourite of all the birds that she was involved with!   If you are ever near Huntingdon, UK, with an hour or two to spare, she'd recommend that you visit - they do fabulous work educating people about raptors, alongside their main focus, which is to rescue, rehabilitate and then, where possible, release raptors.

Last of my Christmas Scraps

Last push to get all the Christmas scraps used up, once I'd had enough of making stockings!

This is a reasonable sized 'wrap' for Christmas wrapping - about 35" square.

This side is made up of scraps, put together in blocks and then sewn together.

I backed it with something else Christmassy, which isn't really substantial enough to be used on its own.

Perfect for this project!

My final project was to complete this selvedge project.

I'd joined the Christmas selvedges together on a backing piece of wadding, and once I'd got two pieces of a reasonable size, I was able to make them into a Christmas themed zipper pouch.

Lined with the same fabric that I used to back the wrap.

I'm pleased with how it turned out, but not in a hurry to make another!  

I'm quite pleased to be done with Christmas for the moment!
 

What Else Would I be Doing?

Surely everyone deals with their Christmas scraps in February?!?  No? Just me?

There were lots and lots of scraps from DD1's fabric bag business - and it was time to deal with them all, in her effort to be as close to zero waste as possible.

So, I drew up a stocking template on paper, and mounted it on some scrap cardboard.

Roughly cut the shape out of some scrap fleece, and then added the fabric scraps / strips using the 'quilt as you go' method to the front.

Then it was time to trim it and flip it over to admire it!

Repeat that seven times, add fabric for the back and lining, sew them together (pouch construction over the years helped me be able to do this fairly competently, I'm pleased to say!), along with a hanging loop, top stitch the edge - and this is the result.

I'm really pleased with these seven stockings, that FabWraps will be able to sell next Christmas.

On to deal with the rest of the Christmas scraps now!

 

Overnight Necessities!

When a girl might spontaneously stay away overnight, her mother thinks that there are some necessities that she should travel with - and a toothbrush and clean knickers come top of the list, with antiperspirant not fair behind.

After discussion, DD1 also wanted to add in her own toothpaste and her preferred brand of shower gel, handily available in a travel size. 

So, I grabbed a fun kitty print, made some pleated pockets, and produced an overnight roll for her.

 With a hair elastic and a button to close it, it makes a neat roll to be dropped into a handbag, just in case 'plans change' and there is an overnight stay involved!

We are both happy with the outcome!

Not the whole bird....

I'm taking part in the Quilters Guild 'Imagine a Bird' - and they ask that full images aren't shared ahead of a particular post that they are going to make, so here are just some snippets.

First of all, above, is the background that I've made for my piece.  A technique that I've seen other leading quilters use, layering up different neutrals, that I enjoyed creating.

Then you can see little glimpses of my work in progress - the bird that I am going to applique onto this background.

This was my first guess at a bird breast - but the colour wasn't working!

I was much happier with my second choice!

And the eye!  I thought that it was going to work, but it really didn't!

I've reversed the colours, and it's looking better than it was.

A fun project that I'm enjoying at the moment, although I'm having some adventures with threading needles, perhaps part of the reason why I haven't been doing as much hand sewing over the last couple of years.  More on that another time.
 

Sewing and Crafting

A fun 'crafternoon' with Benta and Vicky led to me sewing these card toppers.  

I had fun assembling pieces of felt with a selection of scraps, adding stitches to hold them together, and then finishing them with simple flowers.

Have you seen flowers like this?  Mine were made with fabric circles that were about 2" diameter, then cut in half.  Then it was a simple matter of deciding how many petals to use in each flower (mostly I used six, but not always), and sewing a small running stitch across the straight edge of each petal, joining them onto the one length of thread.  Then tie a knot, fluff out the petals, and you have finished a flower!

 I'm still using up random cards from my papercrafting stash, so these were the ones that I made.  Even though they didn't photograph well, the two on the right are silver.

They didn't make much of a dent in my scraps, but were fun to make!

Crafting not Sewing

 A little side trip into crafting this week - every now and then I make a batch of cards.  This time I had a few bits and pieces that I wanted to use up - sticker sheets that were almost finished, scraps of paper and cut outs - you know how these things accumulate when you aren't looking!

So, with some of my older - again very random - cards, I made a few cards to tide me over until I next sit down with a good idea what I want to do!

Always satisfying, and it makes life easy when you have a few handmade cards on hand!

Bench covers re-done.

My kitchen benches (two storage ottamans) were needing an update on the quilts that we use to cover them.

This is how they look now, with their new finery quilted on.

This is the third time that I've used the main materials.  

I made two quilts originally (cream and blue hourglass pattern with the floral shown here on the back).  When the quilt got a little too worn, I covered the fronts with new quilt tops, made from the favourite blue and green batiks.

Now the batiks are, in turn, getting a bit too worn.  You can see them here.

This time, I'm covering over the floral back, and 'facing the new quilt top onto the old quilt, apart from one side which has been chopped off to match the new shape of the quilt top.

 You can see that  I had to lose about 5" - it's probably going to be better, as the amount that was tucked down the back of the bench was quite a lot before, so it should be more manageable now!

A simple nine patch with sashing was what I decided on, with plenty of meander quilting to keep everything together.

It's the last time that I'll give these particular quilts a 'do over' though, as the extra layers of fabric on them have made them surprisingly heavy to help through the machine when I'm quilting them!  All new wadding and backing next time.

Still, as the old ones have managed a creditable 18 years, I don't think that they owe me anything!

What a lucky thing I am!

 So, I little belated, and a little incomplete, but still much appreciated!

My Christmas munificence included a lovely stack of fat quarters, expertly chosen by DH, a small project holder, and these wonderful puffin buttons, both made by the lovely Benta!

Not shown is the Christmas 'ginger' that she also gifted me - but it's packed away with the Christmas decorations now.

Thank you!  I love my Christmas presents!

Taking a Line for a Walk

I recently took an online workshop with Bethane Nemesh - inspirational!  She had a lovely manner, and a very clear way of demonstrating her ideas both on a whiteboard and with stitch.  Amazing!  Makes me think that I should spend more time planning quilting and practicing it!

This was what I produced shortly afterwards, demonstrating different freehand feathers and fills - fairly quick to quilt, with all sorts of possibilities rolling around my mind as a result of it.

This was just a demo piece for myself on plain fabric, so I could see what I was doing.

Of course, it seemed a waste to leave it like that, so I turned it into a zippy pouch.

This is one side.

This is the other.

And here you can see the zip and the lining (which I added after the quilting was complete.

A nice result from a fun workshop.  I recommend!
 

Cute Pouch!

 A couple of weeks ago I took part in a sew along (once again with the Miniatures Group with the UK Quilters Guild - they do great work keeping us busy!).

It was to make this cute drawstring pouch, using various scraps.

It's a useful external pocket - useful size to take a phone and a chocolate bar (ideal for a winter walk?) or sunglasses and suncream in the summer!

Mine has been gifted to my osteopath (so I can show it here now!), who is always keen on extra pockets, so when I made this I was thinking of her.

Happy New Year, everyone, and happy sewing in 2024!

A Christmassy Make

I wanted to make a table runner, and had these four Christmas fabrics to hand.

I followed this pattern, which was really easy.

https://www.centerstreetquilts.com/christmas-tree-table-runner-tutorial/

You start with 2.5" strips (always popular!), cutting them in two types of ways, depending on whether you are making a full tree or two half trees.

Then it's an easy sew to make them into blocks, then add the blocks to each other in order to make the runner.

I really wish that I'd waited for some dark green saturated fabric for the other trees, or a different fabric for the border, as when it was laid out I realised that the 'white' trees bleed into the border, and just look like background.

Lessons! Lessons everyday!

I quilted the tree shapes with red thread, to try and give them a bit more punch, but I think that I need to add even more quilting to them (or some inktense pencil work!) in order to make a real difference!

Never mind, as it's only really going to be used under our Christmas themed ornaments for two weeks or so every year, I'm not going to stress about it too much!

Happy Christmas everyone!  Hope that you enjoy the festive season, however you spend it.