Vintage Holiday Quilt Along

On a whim a few months ago I decided to join in with the Vintage Holiday Quilt Along organised by Heidi at FabricMutt. I pulled all the green fat quarters from my stash, plus half a dozen red ones and began to cut, the blocks came together quickly and I think they're really cute. Because I wanted to put this on the wall at Christmas rather than snuggle under it (it's pretty warm at Christmas here in Melbourne) I decided to leave off the border and piece a scrappy sashing together instead, it's backed and bound in a solid red and even the batting was from my cupboard, the only thing I ended up buying was thread when I ran out about 3/4 of the way through quilting.

I love how the colours worked together, and that even though I didn't use any specific Christmas fabrics it still turned out Christmassy.

 I had a lot of fun with the quilting on this one, it was a bit anything goes. I recently did Angela Walters' Craftsy Course on free motion quilting so I pretty much had a go at all of the quilting patterns she went through in the course which was great practice for future projects.

Thanks Heidi for inspiring me to actually get it done, it was a great fun quilt-a-long and now I have another lovely to add to my Christmas collection. There are some lovely quilts linked up on Heidi's blog.

Groovy Rainbow Quilt

Have you been following/joining in with the Groove Quilt quilt-along at Pile o Fabric? Alyssa is doing a fantastic job hosting this quilt along and she's such a new convert to sewing but it's pretty obvious she's already addicted, here's hoping for our sake she stays that way!



The top for my Groove quilt is pieced. The concept was cloudy grey skies with a touch of sunshine and blue peeping through. I plan to quilt the greys with some kind of cloud like swirls and the rainbow sections with something to represent raindrops. I had to alter the piecing method to fit my rainbow sections so it was bit fiddly putting it together. The fantastic pattern comes from Emily Cier at Carolina Patchworks.

There are some fabulous looking quilts appearing in the Quilt Along flickr group.

A few things I discovered - improv. paperpiecing is fun, all greys are not equal, it's very difficult to buy grey fabric online, you never quite know if it's going to work out until it's done, and my husband is about 4 inches too short...

Typewriter Laptop Cover

Here's the new cover I made for my laptop to go travelling in. It's kind of like a sleeping bag for laptops. It came together in about 3/4 of a day, obviously if I hadn't decided to piece it it would have been faster. I used Elizabeth Hartmann's tutorial from SewMamaSew for the construction and pieced the sections based on her measurements. I did add in an extra layer of wadding to make sure it was super snug in there.

 The typewriter fabric is from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Shining range purchased at my real lift Local Quilt Shop Amitie and following my success on Rachel's Handstitched course I decided to try a little embroidery as well... I would highly recommend the course if you have the time to commit to working through at least a few of the projects and the class quilt.

I was really pleased with the result and now my baby can travel in style.

Handstitched Class Progress

I am doing the Handstitched class at Stitched in Color. 8 weeks of hand stitching projects from applique to paper piecing to Sashiko embroidery.

The main project for the class is the beautiful Medallion Quilt, and here is my progress so far.

It is basted and ready to go. Handquilting starts tonight.

Birthday Butterfly Cakes

I made these for Beth's 4th birthday a couple of months ago. They were seriously easy, and seriously effective, and delicious. I found them on Pinterest, but the link didn't work so I had to copy the picture, but I was very pleased with the result.

Just a straight cupcake mix, a butter icing and slices of strawberry cut in half to make butterfly wings.

This is the first photoshop edited picture I've posted on here, just playing around at the moment to see how it looks, hoping to get some better pictures coming in the next few months, if I ever have time to blog.

Here's the original

Might have slightly overdone the red...

And this was the real cake

Selfish Sewing - Cherish for me

It's been a while since I've made something for myself, and even longer since I've made something I will actually wear!

The newly released Cherish pattern from Crafty Mamas is a great quick sew. I managed these in about 2 hours on Friday night from printing and cutting the .pdf pattern, to sewing the hem. Crafty Mamas also offer a printed pattern piece if you are not in need of instant gratification or don't want to tape all those pages together.

I dug out my overlocker which has been packed away in it's box for being naughty for probably a year now (must not be afraid of the overlocker) but as soon as I started doing a test piece I snapped a needle (which reminded me why it ended up in it's box), only to discover that the spare overlocker needles I bought don't fit my machine. So I decided to sew it up on the sewing machine anyway and after checking the manual (now why didn't I do that before) I discovered the fantastic stretch stitch and it all came together very smoothly after that.

The fit isn't perfect. I think I might need to go up a size on the bust, but it's comfy, and I don't think it looks half bad. Well not as bad as most of my other t-shirts do anyway. The fabric came from Spotlight, it's a cotton knit, but I think it probably has a fair amount of viscose in it. Just trying to decide what colour to make next...

p.s. Overlocker has gone back in it's box, and will be found on ebay shortly if it doesn't behave itself...

Dortje Trousers

How cute are these! And you can see my EBNQRR quilt in the background. Should have ironed the trousers though...

and they look even cuter on. Two more pairs made since.
From Sewing Clothes Kids Love.

Sailing Boats

This sailing boat quilt was a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop, it came together beautifully, a relatively quick and easy pieced quilt and their kits are so generous I almost had enough left over fabric to make a second quilt!!! Certainly enough to make some cushions or something or a matching pillowcase if you felt like giving it a go.
It was made as a gift for my new nephew, born in the middle of April and has already travelled across the world to meet him even though I haven’t yet myself. I hope he enjoys rolling around on it in the coming months and years.

New Pram

Ok, this blog post was written a couple of years ago, I've no idea why it never got posted, the pram liners are still in use, although a lot less clean than they look in these pictures ;)...

We picked up a new pram a couple of weeks ago, the Baby Jogger City Select, and a very nice pram it is too.
I ‘whipped up’ some liners for it from some Alexander Henry home decor weight owl fabric I had stashed away to make a linen basket from which never happened. Just perfect. I just laid some woven interfacing in and cut it to shape to work out the pattern, it has a layer of quilt wadding in the middle and is backed with minky. Should help to keep the seats nice and clean for longer.

The blanket in the back seat is one of my very first quilting projects which featured right at the beginning of this blog and has been living in the old pram. Just need to make another one for the second seat now.

This is my favourite little guy.
I think I’m getting the hang of having two little people in my life, they are a delight playing together, and this pram is such fun because I can put them in facing each other and they keep each other amused for ages. I carried Hannah for the first 6 months but always planned to get a double pram as I knew Beth wouldn’t be quite ready to walk all the time, and now miss Hannah is getting heavier (much sooner than her sister did) so it’s nice being able to get around with both of them easily.

MMQG “Oh Beehave” Quilting Bee Quilt finished.

A fabulous collaborative “bee” by the ladies of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild, my block request was geometric shapes, squares, rectangles and triangles with a 6 inch centre block, then a brown and a scrappy border of varied width, and a scrap of the brown to be used in the centre and outer border for added interest.
The quilt has now whizzed back to the UK and is squatting at my parents place, last spotted on the back of the sofa when I spoke to my parents on skype.. My mum is planning on making some matching cushions, I think she is hoping it will stay ;)

In the kitchen

This morning the girls and I whipped up a couple of aprons, and then of course we had to bake.
Not quite finished in this picture, I still need to topstitch them.
 
I used the free apron pattern at www.sewliberated.com, but it looked so small when I printed it, I think the printer settings must have been wrong, and I wanted to add a sash at the waist so I slashed it through the middle, added the sash which ties at the back (rather than velcro which would have been a good idea but I didn’t have any to hand) and added a couple of inches to the length and a generous seam allowance all the way around.
The neck band has elastic so it stretches to go over the head easily. All the fabrics except the pink spot are Denyse Schmidt at Spotlight.  The girls didn’t take them off all day.
The scones were in June’s Good Taste magazine, you cut them out, then put a splodge of jam in the middle and fold them in half. We made them with wholemeal SR flour instead of white and they were delicious, all gone now of course.

Little Owls

I got an owl mobile kit from Craft Schmaft at last year’s Sew It Together and have been planning to put it together ever since…
Finally, it’s hanging above the change table for our newest addition…

It’s super cute, and she loves it.
Some of the ladies at this years Sew It Together did a sock own workshop, so you might see more of these little chappies popping up in blogland. Sadly I couldn’t go this year :( but it certainly sounds like everyone who did had a wonderful time.

Handstitched Medallion Centre

I am doing the handstitched course at Stitched in Color, and this is the first week’s contribution to the class quilt. The Dogwood Blossom is reverse appliqued using a not so blind blind stitch. Next week is embroidery to fill on the white border.

I have chosen a limited palette of aquas, blues and teals with maybe a splash of orange to be added later. Loving it so far.

Luckiest Girl

See this little darling, look what she got, delivered by Kirsty when we had a bit of a sew in at the weekend (not that we actually sewed anything much).

It’s just beautiful, put together by a special group of friends, I’m kind of overwhelmed that a group of people, many of whom I have never even met, would go to all the effort of putting together such a beautiful quilt for me (well, for my lucky little girl really).

Big sister’s approve as well.

AJ put the quilt together and she has blogged about it here http://ajsantics.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/pinky-pink-baby-quilt.html.

 

Big thanks to AJ, Anna, Milly, Rachel, Joy, Emma, Becky, Shirley, Denni, Car and Carmel, and to Kirsty the delivery boy…

P.S. the building in the background, that’s where the July quilt expo is for anyone who’s heading this way.

New addition to our family

Little Bundle, with Grandad, with big sisters, birth-day cake with Grandma. Wonderful days for us all. xxx

Hot Cross Bun Day

 

Well, I forgot to buy hot cross buns yesterday, and with all the shops shut for Good Friday, and an early morning 5am wake up call from my middle child, we had a batch of freshly homemade hot cross buns on the go before 6am. Ready in time for breakfast, hot and buttered.

Recipe from here - http://gourmettraveller.com.au/hot_cross_buns.htm

March Works In Progress

I completed three quilts in March, THREE, two were long term Works in Progress and the third was a quick baby quilt for our new little person who arrived right at the end of March.

Amy Butler, Midwest Modern, Stacked coins quilt sashed in natural linen.

Ice Cream Parlour quilt kit bought at Anam Cara Patchwork in Shepperton

And in use, isn’t she just delicious :).