Not much sewing, but WOW!

 I've been on holiday.  Of course, I usually pack my sewing machine, but as I was two and a half years behind on my scrapbooking I decided to change crafts and concentrate on that this year.

Before we went away I couldn't help but try out a new pouch style, though.  Unfortunately it didn't quite work out as I'd planned.  I think that I'll be able to re-jig it (and add the planned magnetic snap) but at the moment I'm just leaving it to languish!

 I still love the fabrics, so I'm keen to complete it properly once I'm over my post holiday brain fog!

 More importantly, don't these photos want to make you say 'Wow!"?

I'd heard (thank you Radio 4) that we would get to see a partial eclipse in the UK last Monday, with full eclipse honours going to a band across the USA.

It was handy that I'd shared that info with DH, who happened to be facing the window at tea time and realised what he was seeing

We were super lucky that we had sufficient cloud cover to be able to see what was happening without the cloud obscuring the sun completely.

I'm very proud of DD2 who took these amazing photos!  Big thanks to her for letting me share them!

Using it Up!

 Whilst I'm trying to reduce my scraps I'm trying to go for (almost!) zero scrap generation on my projects - so the obvious thing to do is to keep using the fabrics until there aren't any scraps big enough to do anything useful with.

These are the result of the last quilt.  An A4 book cover, a tissue pack, a zippy pouch.

Oh, and the two cushion covers, of course!

It's working out well!

 I quilting this cover with straight lines to contrast it with the first one that was a grand spiral.

I'm pleased with this one too.

 Here are the pair of 22" cushions together.

 I also thought that I'd share some of the little motifs that I quilted onto the quilt, along the loop-de-loop pattern.

There are flowers....

 ....of various shapes and sizes.

And shells.....

 .... and leaves.....

.....and stars.....

 .....and bolder flowers.....

.....and leaves!

It was a whole bundle of fun to quilt!

Time to give these to my niece and move on to other projects now, but it's been lovely to play with these over the start of the summer holidays!

It's all about the Quilting!

 Quilted, binding on - just a label away from REALLY being able to call this finished!

I love how the 3D effect works on this!

 I bought more of one of the darker purple fabrics (with tiny spots on it - it's lovely!) for the binding.

 And ignoring the 'tear drop' fabric, it's backed with this lovely tiny star on turquoise fabric.

I'm so pleased with it!

Hard to see, but there was a last minute addition.  A strip of the low volume fabrics added and a quote machine sewn on to it.

It says "Let your smile change the world but don't let the world change your smile".

Quilted with a loopy line and some simple motifs.

Happy summer sewing!

Economy Scrap Quilting

 Remember last week when I said that I'd made too many light diamonds for the quilt pattern?

I knew that I wanted to make a couple of cushion covers to go with the quilt, so the diamonds provided the perfect jumping off point!

They needed to be added to with other scraps, of course, but all these pieces were cut quilt easily from what was left over.

This one is complete - with spiral quilting.

This one still needs to be quilted.  I'm planning diagonal lines a similar width apart to the spiral lines.

Funny story about the fabric that acts as a border and backing for these cushions.

I bought it online,  Was delighted by the colour match of the aqua and purple in in to the quilt top.  Stood back and wasn't sure that I could make a whole quilt back that looked like rain - it doesn't feel very huggable, somehow.  I showed the fabric to my DH, explaining my dilemma.  When he said "Rain?  I thought you were going to say tears" I knew that I couldn't use it for a quilt backing!

I'm still happy with it for small areas - or things that won't be wrapped around someone - but the quilt now has a deep aqua print instead!