Fun New Little Project

I've made a couple of notepad covers.

Fun! Quite fast!

I watched a 'Quilting Platter' recently - a set of 15 minute mini classes with a whole variety of textile artists.

This was my favourite mini project.  A notebook cover for a 3" x 5" notebook that is made from a 10" square of fabric and some wadding.

It is designed by Lisa Shepard Stewart of Cultured Expressions.

You start off by folding your 10" square into an envelope shape and using it as a template to cut your wadding.

Then it's time to quilt the item - I had fun with this!

Then the 'flap' is folded up and two lines of stitching, about 1/4" off the centre point, are sewn to make a spine (or a space for a pen - I've ordered some short pens for this purpose!).

Then, short seams up the sides in order to provide some support to the pad when you add it in - and to make a little pocket that could keep business cards or receipts in.

I thought about it, and then added an elastic to keep the notebook closed.

A line of zig zag on the back of the notebook to hold it in place.

I liked it so much that I made another, trying to use the selvedge that says 'little darling', but knowing that it would be upside down!

Still, another little gift for someone made.  I will dig out my 10" squares and see what I'll make next.

 

Delectable Mountains for Good Friends.

A striking design!

I have some very good friends who got married, so obviously, I wanted to make them a quilt.

One wanted rich, dark colours.

One wanted something brighter.

They compromised on 'New England Fall'.  My photos don't do justice to the red, but despite wondering if I should dot the colour blocks around the quilt, like different trees colouring at different times, I went with stripes, moving out from bright to dark.

The quilting - in rich yellow - was mostly a meander, but with leaves and a few flowers included.

Some simpler than others, but overall I was happy with the effect.

The bulk of the top is made of 'delectable mountains' - a 'disappearing' block that starts with half square triangles.

This was my chosen block as they live within sight of Snowdonia.

The backing was some mad owl fabric that was in my stash.

And the final blocks might just look like a counterchange block to you, but I'm hoping that they will be able to squint and see it as a D (gold) and J (brown), which are the initials of the couple.

Here it is thrown over the sofa in my craft room, just before it was packed up and sent off.

Hope that they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Approximately 60" square.
 

Disappearing 4-Patch

So, I made a mini!

I was looking through lots of 'disappearing' quilt block ideas, when I realised that I'd never actually made a two colour 4-patch disappearing quilt.

I didn't want to invest lots of time or fabric into this mini trial, so I started with 2.5" squares.

Just a 24 squares to start me off - less than two 'width of fabric' 2.5" strips.

Then I sewed them into four patches.  each 4.5" square.

Then time to slice and dice.  I wondered about cutting 3/4" each side of the centre seam, but realised that it gave me too fat a 'slice' of the centre portions, so I reduced it to 1/2" each side of the centre.

Cutting first.

Turning the centre strips to give the contrast required.

Sewing the resulting 9-patch together.

Repeat 6 times, and sew the blocks together.

I have to be honest, some were more accurate than others.

If I'd started off with 10" squares of fabric I'm sure that it wouldn't have been noticed, but it's all a bit 'on show' when you make small quilts!

Then it was time to back and baste before the quilting happened.

I started with a wiggly spine feather, then filled in all around it with 'graffiti' quilting - just some doodling with needle and thread.

 A narrow binding and a little hanging sleeve to complete it.  Finished size 6.5" x 9.5".

Gotta love diseappearing blocks!

Improv Mini

I recently took an online workshop with Brenda Gael Smith.

Called the X-factor workshop, she taught us four different cross designs in an improv style.

Great fun!

Of course, she taught us using 10" squares - I hope to have a quilt top put together to show you soon - but I love mini quilts, so decided to downsize a bit.

This was made using 10 x 2.5" squares from my scrap basket (yes, I had one block left over).  It finishes at just over 4" square, and looks great on my shelf!
 

Support

 I've made this Ukraine flag with the word 'peace' in Ukrainian.

Made from the pattern designed by Berene Campbell of @happysewlucky.  You can find it here.

The money that I didn't spend on this pattern, as it is free, I've donated to the Red Cross campaign.

Perhaps you'd like to do something similar?

Apart from donations to organisations that might be able to help, I don't know what else I can do.  I feel as though I've been catapulted back to the 80's, with a display of violence and political upheaval that I haven't seen for the lifetime of my children.

Another suggestion that I saw online was that we could support Etsy sellers in Ukraine by searching for digital items with the country set to Ukraine and purchasing them.  I haven't tried that yet.

Sending good thoughts to everyone who is suffering, however they are involved or connected.