Loopy quilting

It felt good to be quilting again yesterday. I know all the good advice of starting with a practise cloth first if you have been away from it for a while, but I ignored that and jumped right in, and it was OK. I've still got the hang of it. My loops and swirls may be less than perfect at places, but overall the look is quite pleasing, and that's what counts. I'm trying out a soft grey Aurifil cotton for the patterned sections and a darker grey on the blue sections. They both seem to blend in well (except in the red bits), which is just what I'm looking for. I have used a lot of shiny rayon for quilts in the past, but I really like the subtle shine of cotton in this thread. The blue fabric looks like denim, but is a chambray from a local shop. It is almost as thin and soft as the quilting fabrics so it works really well with them.

It's raining sideways today, so all plans of getting washing on the line, going for a long walk or any other outdoorsy stuff have been abandoned, the hoovering was done yesterday, so to sum it up: it is a perfect quilting day!



Behind the Scenes

Yes, there is work going on here, but somehow I haven't been able to get my head together and place words on the screen lately. As I have written about every year since I started blogging, I think, I tend to go into hibernation in February. Somehow the winter just seems too long and cold and bleak at this point, so I have a hard time getting my creative juices going. It is a time for using quilts, rather than making them for me. But now, slowly, slowly I'm getting started again. Some finishes approaching, a new project started and heaps of ironing - who's buying all this fabric? :-D

Yes, Spring is approaching, I can feel it in my bones, and at last there is evidence of it outside as well. Welcome back!

Stash building

Look at these beauties! I just couldn't resist Reunion from Sweetwater and bought a whole stack of fat quarters + yardage of the black and white check and that lovely red - great for binding and borders respectively, I think. I have a pillow in mind for some of them, but I will need to come up with some ideas for the rest, and maybe some other fabrics to play with them.
It's funny, I never used to keep fabric from one single line together, but would sort them by colour and include them in among the rest of my stash to be used randomly. But recently I have found it hard to separate such groups and have come to use them together. Maybe I need to get back to being more adventurous, but I need to do some serious sorting and organizing of my entire stash to make that happen, and February isn't the right time for that. Too cold in my bedroom where I do my sewing, I guess.
And that's also why there hasn't been too much sewing either. I was beginning to hope for spring, and actually saw some daffodils sprouting their first green leaves out on the balcony yesterday, but wouldn't you know it: today everything was covered by King Winter's white blanket. Sigh. I'm so ready for spring and warmer weather.
Ah well, I have a comfy sofa a pile of quilts to huddle under, Poirot on TV and some hand stitching to keep me occupied. Not a bad way to pass a Sunday evening, really.

A little bit better

I made a new coin purse. It is more symmetric than the first one - one needs to be careful at stitching across those bottom corners when working this small it seams (the purse frame is about 3" wide) to make sure of this. I placed the seam slightly closer to the corners this time, which gives a wider purse. The drawback is that the bottom is narrow so the purse can't stand up on its own like the polka dot one can. I think I will place those box corner seams further in on the next one, making the bottom more square. I need to experiment a bit to come up with a shape I really like.
I'm also having some problems with the area where the side seams end and the "flaps" that are to be glued into the frame start. I have had to do a bit of frogging here to get it right, but I think I have learned enough to be able to do better on the next one. Practice makes perfect, right?

Started and finished

Yes, I finally managed to start something and actually finish it the same day - it has been a while...
Winter isn't my most productive season, I guess. But a new phone needed some protection, and I winged it by cutting a piece of batting slightly wider than the phone and twice the length. Two pieces of fabric, right sides together, a seam around three sides, turn inside out, stitch opening closed adding a loop for the button, a bit of quilting, fold in half and a narrow line of stitching down each side, adding a strap for the hook, and voila - a new pouch!
I needed something for the charger, headphone and all, and decided to tackle something I have dreaded -  a snap closed purse. I bought five of these purse frames before christmas, but somehow, doubted that I could make one and make it look good. Well there's nothing like having a go. I used this tutorial, and wouldn't you know it - it wasn't too difficult! Well, it was a bit fiddly, and there's definitely room for improvement, but all in all I'm quite happy with it. I used the polka dot fabric inside the phone pouch and the text fabric for lining the purse, so they make good companions.

Hometown quilt top

Wonders never cease to happen - I have spent most of the day at the sewing machine! Apart from stitching umpteen little pieces together for a new quilt, I finally got round to joining the strips of my Hometown quilt with vertical sashing strips.You only get to see a portion of it here, draped over a chair - I need more space and light to take a proper picture. I had originally thought I might piece a backing of some of my precious Hometown yardage, but I just measured a length of IKEA door fabric I have on hand, and it's just big enough for the back, so I think the decision might be made.

Doors might be a fitting theme for a Hometown quilt, don't you think? I'm playing with the idea of quilting it from the back, following the lines of the doors, but I'm not entirely sure. I'll mull it over and get back to piecing the other quilt for now. More about that one next time.

Quiet time

 I haven't really got round to quilting again since the holidays. It is just too cold and dark in my sewing corner. I might call it something grand like "my studio" or my "sewing room", but it is really just a corner of my bedroom, and by the time I get home from work it is dark and cold and all I want to do is to snuggle up under a quilt in my living room and watch TV. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, though - a bit of winter hibernation might be just the thing I need now. And there's always handstitching. I'm working on this pillow right now, and I can't believe how far I've got since I picked it up again on Christmas Day.

I've finished with all the counting bits, so it is just a bit of mindless filling in of the background and then the border - I can't wait to see how it all comes together once the empty space is filled with that soft, buttery yellow. I'll just keep at it until the temperature rises and my quilting mojo returns. I will just take the pillow text to heart: "Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes it feels like a rodeo, the secret is to enjoy the ride"!

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Edited to add: The design is by the faboulous Emily Peacock - go have a look at her Hug and Kiss pillows as well!

Ah, let the sewing begin!

Christmas decorating creates a lot of mess elsewhere when there is little storage space. I place my christmas tree in a corner of the living room where I usually keep a small table with this lamp on. The table serves as a stand for some of my santas in the hallway and the lamp usually ends up on my sewing table along with a lot of other stuff that needs to be put out of the way during the holidays. Today the tree went back to the basement and everything else got put back where it belongs.

I much prefer the view of the sewing machine today. There's still a lot that needs sorting, but right next to the machine: a tempting pile of new fabric which arrived yesterday! I have other projects on the go, and these need a go in the washing machine before I start using them, but the image is a great inspiration to start sewing again after a couple of weeks' rest.

I couldn't resist the typewriter fabric and just had to make sure that I got me some ;-) And why waste the time, effort and postage of ordering just one fabric, so I added a few more... I'm gradually building up my stash of solids, and also found some other inspiration along the way. That pie fabric might look good on an apron perhaps. The film strips are for a special project, but the rest - who knows what they will become? Let the sewing begin!

That was 2011

There it is, most of the things I have sewn this year - I have been quite productive, I think!

Thank you for reading in 2011 and

I wish you all a Happy, Creative New Year!

Pencilcase and more

I was fascinated by this pencilcase when I spotted it in Stitch Magazine a while ago (last spring I think?), but I never got around to making it. But then my youngest nephew announced that he wanted a cool pencilcase for Christmas, and I dug the pattern out of hiding and had a go. It wasn't too difficult, but a bit fiddly, getting the bottom stitched on in particular.

 It has three zippers on the outside, but only one opens all the way down, which is good, I suppose, otherwise all your pencils would keep tumbling out. I struggled a bit with the three tips before I realized that I had to schrunch the zipperends together a bit to make the tips narrow enough to close the case completely, but I got there in the end and the gift was well received. It was not a disadvantage that it was filled with colouring pencils I suppose...

 The last of the homemade presents this year was a simple shopping bag made from some lovely Ruby Star Rising fabric and lined with a turquoise paisley. I used box corners to make a flatter bottom and some woven ribbon for  the handles. Nice and simple.

I might make more of these in 2012 - they are quite good for presents actually.

Summing up

Here I was thinking that I had bought hundreds of yards of fabric during 2011, but when I started looking through my photos, there isn't a terrifying amount of new fabric in my stash. There might be a few more purchases, but the truth is that since my local quilt shop moved away and my shopping went online, I don't buy as much fabric as I used to. Another change I see, is that instead of buying random fabric in colours that match, I now tend to buy groups of fabric from designer lines . That might influence how I plan new quilts as well: there has certainly been more quilts from single lines lately. I need to dip into my older stash and come up with new combinations to keep things exciting. Some of them might not be willing to play with others, though, but then there are always neutral solids. We'll see what 2012 brings...

Runner up

 Those silly captions - sorry, I just can't resist it... Oh, well, here is the last item to be finished before Christmas, a table runner I made for my cousin. The photo is a bit blurry, but as I have already given it away (of course, it being a xmas pressie and all...) I can't reshoot. Learning how to take better photos might probably be a good new year's resolution...

 Anyway, it's made with the disappearing nine-patch technique, but with rectangles instead of squares. I used a group of fabrics I bought to use together in a project, but had forgotten all about until I started going through my "plans" box - my fabric is basically sorted by colour, but there is this one box where I have put groups that go well together and that might be used in a special, unspecified, project one day. It turns out that it is high time I went through it and made some more spesific plans so they get to fulfill their potential - there were lots of lovelies there, and there are more coming in all the time, so I must really make sure I don't forget about those. Well, it's the end of year and time for inventories and new plans, I guess...

Another finish

 I suppose it is safe to show the pressies here by now - everybody being absorbed in last minute holiday preparations and all. These are placemats for my mother, and are based on that sew-along from sew-mama-sew, though I must admit that I didn't really pay attention to the details. I just looked at the pictures and winged it, I'm afraid. But they turned out quite well, I think.

I'm as ready for the holidays as I will ever be, the brownies and raisin foccacia have been baked, the tree is trimmed and all the decorations are in place. I was thinking this afternoon that I would never manage to finish it all today, but I did as much as need to make things Christmassy. So what of not every corner is tidy and dust free? The main areas are, and it is warm and cosy, and I have enough food to come up with  something nice to serve for unespected guests. Like when one of my friends  popped in unexpectedly earlier this evening. I was able to drop everything and enjoy a nice long chat. I'm sure it never occured to her to check for dust on the skirting boards and a great time was had by all. And that's the main point about Christmas, really, isn't it?

Oh, and did I mention that the placemats have a fun surprise on the back? IKEA's international Santas.

Curio runner

It always happens, doesn't it? You think that christmas is ages away and there is plenty of time for making stuff and preparing for the holidays. Not so. All of a sudden it is upon us and there is a mad rush to get everything done. Almost there now, though, the fridge is groaning with the weight of all the food we have bought. After all the shops will be closed for two whole days, so we need to stock up, right?

The presents are all wrapped and ready, some have been sent off to their recipients or are ready to be distributed. This runner is in one of those parcels, and I can only hope that my friend likes it. I have used some fabrics from the lovely Curio line, some black and white and one that I just have to get more of next year: Kaffe Fassett's Aboriginal Dots in teal. You know that you must, when it almost hurts to cut into it...
There is still some preparations to do, but that can wait until tomorrow, now the candles are lit, the sofa is beckoning and it's time for a nice cuppa...

Boxy but good*

-like Volvos?*

 Before starting on the Christmas presents I took time out to make something for myself. I always seem to have several knitting and stitching projects on the go. Now I might have spent some time finishing them, but instead I decided it was more fun to sew some box bags to put them in ;-)

I used this tutorial as my starting point, but couldn't resist doing my own thing. First of all I quilted them instead of adding interfacing. My handle is shorter and narrower than in the original and I added binding strips to the seams on the inside, handstitching them closed to make a nice finish and make sure yarn or needles don't get tangled up in fraying raw edges.

Once I had finished the first two, and deciding that they were a bit smaller than I wanted, I had a bit of a rethink, and came up with the solution of adding square end pieces. It was a bit fiddly to sew, but I manged, and I ended up with bags that are just the right size for a couple of balls af yarn and a half finished shawl.

Once all my bags were finished and the UFOs tucked out of the way, I set to work on the Christmas pressies. I'm not overdoing it this year: some placemats and table runners, that's all. More about them during the weekend.

*Quote from the 1990-film Crazy People, starring Dudley Moore - somehow this phrase has just stuck in my mind since way back, kind of like the British "Naughty but nice"-commercial for cream back in the 80s... Now if only I could remember some important stuff ...

Good buys

One of the dangers of not having time to sew, is that I get more time to search the net and end up shopping instead. I have been waiting for Lotta Jansdotter's fabric collection since I saw the first glimpse on a blog ages ago, and I couldn't resist buying the full fat quarter selection.

I don't know what it is about this, the retro patterns or the slightly "off " colours - I'm not sure they go with anything in my stash - but I just love them. Now I just need to find a pattern to show them off.

Some lovely Kate Spain and Sandi Henderson fabrics also found ther way into my shopping basket, and I have been sneaking in some solids with every fabric order lately, Raisin and Nightfall from Kona this time.

These three are my favourites from the latest Amy Butler collection. I don't think they will be used together, but I can't wait to play with them - the scale is quite large, and I have great ideas about how to enhance the motives with quilting - such fun!

Henna Garden and retro pillows

I have finally pulled myself together and started making stuff again. The work week is still very busy, but I set last weekend aside for sewing, and my, was that great! I let cleaning and baking plans remain just that, plans, and turned the heater on in my bedroom/sewing room and devoted myself to cutting and stitching fabric while the storm raged outside.

I have more to show for my efforts, but I begin with these two pillows. The first one is made from my lovely stash of Sandi Henderson fabric - twelve different colourways of Henna Garden. I just love this fabric, and combining them all in one pillow means that I have a sample of each colourway even if I use the rest for gifts and all. My original plan was to fussy cut the fabric so that the pattern continued from one patch to another,  and I carefully worked out the size of the patches accordingly. After making several mistakes, involving not taking into account the seam allowances (duh!) and turning fabric the wrong way, I confess that my patience got the better of me, and I ended up just cutting patches and stitching them together without taking the pattern into account. Had I stopped to think, I might have adjusted the size of the patches to make the centre square, but never mind, I like the pillow just the way it is!

The back is made from strips of Henna, and the light strip of cotton/linen fabric hides a zipper. I love this way of adding hidden zippers, making the back as interesting as the front, and it is so easy to do, see the tutorial here. 

The other pillow was much more straightforward, using the Viewmaster fabric from Ruby Star Rising for the front, and retro radios and fashion ladies for the back.

The Viewmaster strip hides the zipper on this one, maknig it blend in with the rest of the pattern.

The Henna Garden Pillow is quilted with a thin layer of batting and an old, plain fabric remnant for backing - it gets hidden inside the pillow anyway, so it doesn't matter. The retro pillow is made from sturdier fabric and didn't need any extra support.
I used down pillow inserts for both these pillows and I just love the soft squishy feel of them!

I've only just begun

Yes, admittedly I've only just begun, but I have been sewing today. And about time too, before I forget how it is done! I'm making box bags following this tutorial. Mine will be quilted, though. I spent some time wondering how to go about it, adding zippers and all. Eventually I decided to quilt the outer layer with batting and a cheater fabric that will be hidden inside the lining, and just follow the tutorial from there on. And why make one, if you can make four?

More holiday sewing

 These Laurie Wisbrun fabrics were already teamed up with some brights and a grey/black polka dot, but I'm not entirely sure what I had in mind for them. A table runner, perhaps?

 I've been thinking about making some craft bags, and I have at least four options here that will work very well. The dark navy/white Aunty Cookie fabric in the lower left hand corner is one I'll selfishly keep for my own knitting. Love it!

 My kitchen wil definitely welcome some place mats made from this lovely Hometown range by Sweetwater and there will definitely be enough left over for a table runner as well.

 I've had this honeysuckle print for ages, and found a couple of fabrics to go with it. It might need some oomph, an orange or yellow, perhaps? Another set of placemats there, I think.

This London map print is destined for a drawstring bag, and I just decided that the house print might be a good choice for the lining. I think I have a photo of London buses transferred to fabric which might become a pocket or applique.

 The yellow polka dot will become a giraffe, and the Viewmaster print from Ruby Star Rising is meant for a pillow.

Some more Ruby Star Rising fabrics for another pillow or maybe for some shopping bags, I think.
Well I seem to have my work cut out for me here - or rather, it needs cutting so I can get down to some serious sewing. Family and friends beware - there will be a lot of placemats and bags under the tree for Christmas if I get round to it!