Charity Quilt Tops

Well we had our charity quilt day at church yesterday. There were some wonderful ones made, and the two I was responsible for turned out better than I was fearing. For total scraps, not too bad!

Happy Houses

I've been asked to do a stall at a Christmas fayre - I have a vague vision of some handmade cards, and sewn things, and the other day I actually made a start... one padded heart. Hopefully I will get round to making some more things soon.

Two nights ago though, I started a new quilt. I had designed a house square for the first quilt I made, and I think it was my favourite square, so I decided to just make loads of houses and take it from there. I'll probably add lots of colourful pieced borders, bright hand quilting, buttons, appliqued trees, flowers & birds etc...
I had a wonderful evening - happily pulling out tonnes of bits of fabric and sewing willy nilly - no measuring or careful cutting whatsoever - fun!!

I just roughly cut the house elements,

Sew into sections,
Straighten edges,
Sew together and square off.
More of my Happy Houses... Harry picking out his favourite house so far.

Felt-tip roll Tutorial

Well - 'tutorial' sounds a bit grand... I was itching to just make something quick, and saw a picture in my book (this one) of a pencil/felt-tip roll, but I wanted a simpler version (and to be honest, I was lost 10 seconds into reading the instructions - I do better with pictures), so came up with this:

Cut 2 pieces of fabic & 1 piece of iron-on interfacing all to the same size. (Mine were about 25'' x 13'' - I just laid out my felt-tips and roughly guessed how big I wanted it.)
Iron interfacing onto the back of one of the fabric pieces, and put the fabric pieces right-sides together, then pin.

Sew round edges, leaving an opening at a short end. Turn right side out.

Iron the seams out flat, before pulling the whole thing into shape and ironing properly. (This just makes neater edges, and stops the seams from pulling inwards, when you iron the whole thing.)

Fold up the front, and iron. Decide how much of the pencil/felt-tip you want to have sticking out. Put 2 lengths of ribbon in the opening, for tie closes (or you might want matching fabric ties, or just one bit of fabric coming out with velcro on. I was just going for quick, here!)

Open out, pin ribbon in place, and sew all the way round the whole thing.

(This really is no work of art... I'm using up fabric I don't like much, and not sewing especially carefully! I don't think my 4 year old will mind too much. I may make some more attractive ones later on as gifts though!)

Work out roughly were you want the pockets to be, and mark them with pins. (Just try putting in your pencils etc. to see how wide. My pockets were 1.5'' wide, but that's for Berol felt-tips which are quite fat.)

Then sew up and down the rows, making pockets. Just sew across when you get to the top or the bottom of each row, so that all the pockets are made continuously.

Sew a straight line along the bottom of the pockets - sewing over the stitches already there from when you made the pockets. This will ensure all your pencils/felt-tips will sit at the same height as each other.

All done! I think my youngest will be quite happy with it when he gets in from school!

The one in the book is very pretty, and involves sewing a rainbow of fabrics into strips, for each pocket, and has a bit different construction.
I am happy though, because I got my 'making something' itch scratched!

I would love to see any that anyone else makes!

Blocks Wanted!

I've just made up a couple of Ohio star blocks, after reading on Marguerite's blog about her friend Lizzie who is making up a quilt for a friend of hers who is terminally ill. The post is {here} for anyone who would like to make a block, or has any spare blocks floating around which they would like to donate to the quilt. I think it's a lovely idea.

New Fabric!

The fabrics which I bought from Kerri at Sew Dearly Loved arrived today... hurrah!!
They are a slightly odd assortment - I have no plans whatsoever for them - just liked them!(And some more spots of course)
I've spent yesterday and today cutting out pieces for 2 quilts which I am overseeing the making of at a church activity. They are lap quilts for an old people's home, which we have been visiting. I am supposed to be using scraps & fabrics that have been donated, but am having a hard time making them look nice - I keep adding more of my own fabrics. Still not sure I will like them that much. I may or may not post pictures of them later!

Happy Birthday Nan!

It's Scott's Nan's birthday soon, and I made her this card. An unusual colour comination for me - don't think I've used it before.
The challange at Cute Card Thursday is to use fabric, so I used a wide fabric-finish (not shiny-finish) ribbon.

My Aviary Quilt making progress

I finished piecing my Aviary quilt this morning (can you tell that I have finally got round to having a play with photoshop too?!) This is what I started in France before my sewing machine needle broke. I loved the Aviary range of fabric when I first saw it, but could only get hold of a couple of packs of pre-cut triangles in this country, so I decided just to do this simple design. It is alternated with Kona Snow fabric. I'm quite pleased that all the points and corners matched up quite well. I did some careful pinning before sewing seams, and it all went together very easily. I am wondering now if I should put a border of Kona Snow round the outsides, before finishing it. I'm also not sure how I should quilt it. Any ideas? I have got hold of some of the pink fabric to make the binding with.

I also realised that I have never posted a picture of Lucy's quilt in full...

My one and only baby quilt

I just saw a picture of the baby quilt which I made earlier in the year... with it's owner, my niece Amy!

Quilting Ideas

I have just been updating my other blog, and looking at the pictures reminded me that while in France we visited Suscinio Chateau... Inside, one of the floors really caught my eye - I thought it would make a great pattern for a quilt! The floor is 13th or 14th century. Wonderful how well it has lasted.
Maybe something I shall be working on in the future, anyway.

Well we came (reluctantly) back from France a week ago, but have visited Nottingham and Yorkshire since then, so I have not had much time for crafting... I did have time for some internet fabric shopping though!!
Amongst quite a few other fabrics, I bought this selection - quite funny considering orange and purple are my least favourite colours!

Sewing in France

My daughter and I are in McDonalds in France - with internet access! Just a quick post... thought I would show you my little sewing corner in our living room over here.Something I have wanted to make for ages - bunting. Finally made some out here, and love how it turned out!

Lots of half-square triangles for my Aviary fabrics quilt. I got most of the quilt top sewn together, but then disaster... my sewing machine needle snapped! I don't have another with me and there are hardly any shops round here, never mind sewing shops!! So just been working on my hand sewn hexie quilt when I get jittery fingers now...

Off to Paris this week, then England at the weekend. This really feels like home here, and I'm not sure I want to get back! (Though I am craving that new needle...)

Bye for a bit!

I should just mention that I will be away in France now for 5 weeks - no internet access (or TV or phone for that matter!), so I won't be posting anything for a while. I'm going to take my sewing machine with me though!
A bientot!

Teachers' Presents

I wanted something we could make for the children's teachers and playgroup leaders, and that wouldn't be too expensive as we were doing 12, so bought these hardbacked note books, and decorated the fronts.

Not much quilting lately... just some mini hexies. I did go to a quilting group at a nearby village, though, for the first time this week. Lowered the average age somewhat, and had a good laugh with my new-found friends!

Grandma's Birthday

A card to my Grandma, to celebrate her 91st birthday!

And the challenge over at Caardvarks is to create a birthday card. For this one I used K&Co papers, and the Stampin' Up/Sizzix alphabet to cut a layer of chipboard and paper for each letter, to add some dimension.

A couple of cards

I needed a few cards this week...A lady from church recently gave me a really nice professional pen set that had belonged to her late husband, so I drew this with them and watercoloured pencilled it in, for her.

Bits & Bobs

I've been so busy taking up quilting that I've not made many cards for months. I saw a couple of things online that I fancied though, and bought my first stash this year... some of Hero Art's new stamps, and a couple of smaller 99p ones by Imaginisce. Also some of the new De Lovely papers by Cosmo Cricket, mini wooden alphabet stamp set, and a Hero Arts brochure. Fun!How could I resist this set?!

Desperately need cards, so went into mass production...

For my card, I watercolour painted some images stamped with Staz On ink, did some machine stitching (to go along with the challenge at Papertake Weekly), and used up some old Ikea notelets as my card blanks. (The challenge at Cute Card Thursday is to reuse, renew or recycle!)

And finally a bit of quilting. I did three more foundation pieced squares and put them together. I debated about how to lay them out, but went for a symmetrical pattern.