Pretty Bags

Slightly difficult to pick out against the cluttered background, but I made these three pretty little gift bags from scraps on my table.

Bonus! As well as wrapping gifts for my friend, it also helped with the tidying that I needed to to (you know, when your study / sewing room is also your spare room, so surfaces have to be actually cleared for a while!).

I love the look of a tumble of pretty bags like this!
 

Mini Paper Pieced Mat

 

This is the back of this little project - I had hoped that the quilting (around the star shape) would show up a little, but it's barely showing!

I did think that I might not quilt it, but once I'd finished the edges, turned them under, and stitching 'facing' style to the backing, with a layer of batting in it, I really felt that it needed the dimension that quilting would give it.  

I didn't do much, just around the star in the ditch.

This was how the star came together.

Using more jelly roll scraps

And this is how it started - using my original project pouch that Benta had given me the kit and the expertise for!

To Whit to Woo!

In February the Miniatures Group of the Quilters Guild ran a short workshop on making these fun paper pieced owls.  Many thanks to Sue Battley for the pattern and for running the workshop!

These are the two that I made, using my pink scraps as I like that better than the suggested browns!

It didn't take long to make it into a mini quilt - another one for the study wall!

 And here is the quilting shown from the reverse (before I stitched down the hanging sleeve).  I did my best to make an even spiral shape, but it's quite tricky on a small scale!

I centred it around the child - the daughter - as my world revolves around my lovely girls, and I thought that this would be a nice way to try and represent that.

Super Fast Mini Project Pouch

 Before Christmas, the ever lovely Benta brought a wonderful idea (and a kit!) to demonstrate how to make a mini project pouch.

Very simple, and quite addictive!

I ended up buying my own gadget to set these little plastic poppers - it came free with lots of different colours, which is fab!

So I made this one out of one of DD2's favourite fabrics, in a matter of minutes, just to have a play!

I may have made a few others too, but forgotten to photograph them!

I'm Back!

 

It's been a while!  I slipped over and bumped my head in the New Year (ironically on my way to see The Nutcracker!) and it left me feeling not quite the thing.

But recently I've managed some small sewing projects, so it's time to start sharing them with you.

This is a little project - a mini quilt made just for fun, with some scraps of a jelly roll.

Approximately 6.5" square

And this is what I did with the final square that I had made.  The square backed with felt as a card topper.

This was the mini quilt in its raw state, when I was checking that I was happy with the lay out.

Made from the trimmed up squares.

I always love how just a few scraps and a few squares of paper can be transformed with the help of a few stitches!

Happy New Year - and another Slouchy Pouch!

 

At the end of November I took a Kawandi workshop with Kerry from Thatssewkerry .

I thoroughly enjoyed it, but found that the hand quilting made my hand and wrist a little sore, so decided to switch and to complete it on my sewing machine.

Clearly I wasn't going to get the same lovely texture as quilting it by hand (you can really see the difference - the first four rows or so around the outside are hand quilted and you can see the lovely texture in this photo), but I could still have some fun with it!

I finished applying the fabric patches using a straight stitch on the machine, then went back and filled in with a serpentine decorative stitch, and, just occasionally, a zig zag stitch.

I was really pleased with how it looked.

After letting it sit for a few days, I decided that I didn't really have a use for this exact size (about 20" square), but that I could turn it into a slouchy pouch that would be perfect for a knitting friend.

I folded it in half (right sides together), stitched 2/3 of the way down from the open end, then squashed the final 1/3 open to make a 'T' shape and 

stitched across the top of the T on each side.

Then I turned it right side out, added two buttons and button holes, and it was done!

Another Christmas present was ticked off the list!

Off to plan a New Year project now!

Wishing you all the best for 2026!

Happy Christmas!

 Wishing you all the best wishes for the festive season!

And using my latest Christmas quilt to help me do it!

Isn't it fab?  I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but now is the time for it to be lit up and revealed.  It's the first one I've ever made with fairy lights on!

Here it is without the lights being on.  It's a cute pattern isn't it? Mine was made from a kit, so I didn't even have to rummage through my scrap drawers looking for scraps that would play together.  It made it really fast to make!

Can you see that I tried to bring in different quilting textures for the tree, compared to the tub and the background?

And different again for the linear design on the star.

I forgot to take a photo after I'd added the 20 button holes for the lights (thank goodness for a semi automatic button holer - it made the process very easy).

If you want a kit, I'd really recommend it.  It even included the lights, and came packed in a clear project or pencil case.  It's from Little Patch Pockets and they sell three different colour ways - it's called 'Spruced Up'.  Worth looking at their other patterns, kits, and bits and bobs too.

Hope that you are going to have a lovely Christmas too!

Slouchy Pouch

My Miniatures Group - part of the UK Quilters Guild - enjoyed a workshop led by Karen, on a way of using the twin needle on our sewing machines and then cutting away one layer of fabric to reveal another to complete it.

It was really good fun!

This was my finished mini quilt.

However, When I thought about it, I thought that it would be just the right size to make a zip up slouchy pouch.

So I reached behind me into the zips box, pulled out something the right length and colour (having a stash of things is such a privilege, isn't it?), and quickly sewed it into place.

Perfect for what I needed!  I'm really pleased with it!
 

Small Stuff

It feels as though these should be part of my Christmas crafting - stars are a perennial favourite, aren't they? But actually they are destined to be part of a starry group quilt.

I deliberately made them so that the points won't be chopped off if the blocks need to be trimmed (as everyone knows, not all 6" blocks finish at 6", despite everyone's best intentions and use of rulers!).

Neat enough that I've not embarrassed myself with them!

My next small things were made in a workshop with Louisa Goult of SewMotion.  She led the Miniatures Group in a fun day of sewing, starting with straight edge English Paper Piecing (EPP) before moving on to curved edge EPP.  These decorations are quite small (the smallest just over 2" across) and were a lot of fun to make!  

Nice and Christmassy, I'd recommend buying some papers from her to make things super easy to make!
 

Picking up where I left off....

 Slightly awkward to try and get a flat shot of this sampler quilt, which is 60" square, so I'm sharing this one of it on the bed in DD2's room, where I think that it will stay!

I'm really pleased with how it finished.  And I really love how my colour palette has stayed the same since I was making the 'round robin' with my quilting group back in 2015 - it hangs on the wall behind the bed, and you can see how well they go together.

Blue and white is always such a fresh looking colour scheme, isn't it?

Nice to have this project wrapped up - it felt like quite a long one, in the end, for no good reason!

Hello! I'm Back!

 

Hello!  I'm back from gallivanting and catching up with myself, with a splendid project to show you that isn't even made by me!

It's this brilliant?

My crafting (and crafty!) friends conspired to make me this wonderful friendship quilt to celebrate a recent birthday (as well as giving me some very generous presents)!.

I am thrilled beyond measure, that my group of 'gal pals' - mostly school gate friends from when my girls were little - worked together to produce such an accomplished quilt.

Thank you, all concerned.  You've made an old girl very happy!

Out of time!

 I had hoped to have this quilt finished and ready to show to you by now - but time was against me!

Family tech issues with phones mean that I haven't even got the interim photos to share with you at the moment - never mind!

And, I have to confess, that I've made a bit of a hash of the quilt backing, which is why this quilt is now only partly quilted!

Quite how I have managed to add insert strips in both directions, only to find that neither direction had allowed me quite enough room for the quilt top that I had made, baffles me.  And why I persisted in thinking that it would all be right once I'd actually basted it, I really don't understand.

I shall blame it on being a bit tired.  Sometimes life outside of quilting gets in the way of leaving time or energy for sewing!

It's going to do that for the next couple of weeks too, so don't expect to hear from me (nothing sinister - only a lovely holiday that I'm looking forward to, and then some time to catch up with myself after that!). 

Still, at least I'll have a work in progress to come back to and delight in working towards a finish on!

Using ALL the scraps!

Leave no scrap unused!

The offcuts and mini half square triangles that are the inevitable result of some methods of making are always such fun to play with!

These are the result of the 100 block sampler that I've been making - and a great distraction from actually putting that together!

They fell reasonably well into three groups, based on their size.  And yes, I decided to use them even when I could see 'errors' with the layouts!

I make columns with each size to see what happened, and with just one block having a small border added to it (second one up on the right hand side) they were pretty even in length.

Sewn together with a simple sashing added, also from my blue scraps pile.

Shown here ready for quilting.

And here is the finished item.  Simple meander quilting, binding in the same fabric as the sashing.

The backing made from two more scrap pieces joined together - and different scraps for the corner hanging pockets.  Love those giraffes!

Despite making hanging corners, though, I think that this side table might be its new home - plenty of other blues in my living room for it to sing to, and this will help the table not to get scratched, which is something that has happened recently. A win all round!

Now just a small pile of scraps left from this and the last couple of projects, which need to be cut into my 'standard' sizes and added back into my scrap drawers.
 

Something very different!

Ok, ok, it's still using some of the same blues that you've been used to seeing over the last few weeks and months, but the pink and orange really make it sing!

Ten days ago I took a workshop with my Miniature Quilt Group (part of the Quilters Guild) and we made this 12" square wall hanging.

Isn't it fun?

It was run by Abbieanne, who as well as teaching also has a shop - you can see her details here.

She helped us to design the block, talked through the method of creating it, and encouraged us along the way.  Always a great way to spend a day!

This is the back, showing the tiny blanket stitch that I used to hold down all the applique pieces.  After this I finished it with the black binding that you can see above, and a hanging sleeve.  It hasn't made it to the wall yet, but it will do soon!
 

Hurrah! The Last Blocks!

 I do believe that I've made all 100 blocks now!  There is a slight element of doubt, however, as I was bobbing about the book, and I think (hope?) that I might have made a mistake in my record keeping somewhere, as when I finished what I think is the last block of the 100, actually only got me to number 99 on my pencil note underneath the title!

I'm really hoping that somewhere along the way I made a mistake and wrote a number twice!

I will find out later when I lay the blocks out in a 10 x 10 grid whether or not I've hit the right number!

Slowly but surely.....

 I know that I'm working through these very slowly!  But at least I'm still making progress!

These ones with curved piecing (cut from templates) do look a bit wrinkled, don't they?  I struggled to get them as flat as I'd like, to be honest, but not to worry, when they are part of a whole quilt I'm sure that they won't be noticed!

This block here shows the move to English Paper Piecing which is then appliqued onto a plain background.  Quite a nice change to do a little hand work.

Still More!

On ro curved templates for the next few blocks!

Still making slow progress, but I've just broken the 90 block threshold, so I'm into the final furlong.  I think that my blue fabrics are going to hold out just long enough!
 

And another set!

Another set of four blocks!  I'm still making progress and enjoying the (slow) ride!
 

Still More Slow Progress!

Another group of four blocks - you can see that I'm in the section that is interested in flying geese!

Still enjoying making these, even if time for sewing is still limited at the moment! 

A new bag

So it looks like any other shopping bag that I might have made, loosely based on a Mors Bag design.

Do you love the sea gull fabric too?

But this one has a secret - a lovely bright yellow to match the gulls beaks.

This should help to prevent DD1 from losing items out of tote bags when we are travelling and she has overspill from her daysack!

And another secret - so that everything doesn't have to fall right to the bottom, there are two pockets that she can slip a purse or phone into.

We will wait to see if it works for her in practice - I can always refine or change the pattern if it doesn't quite tick all the boxes!