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!

Back in the saddle...

 In spite of all good intentions, I fell straight off the blogging habit yet again. I blame lack of time to sew, and hence very little to blog about. I've still not found my way back to the sewing machine, but at least I've started sorting through the ever growing piles of fabric on my cutting table (no sewing doesn't equal no shopping...) and tried to remember what they were intended for. A visual record might be helpful, so here goes.
I managed to snag a pile of Sandy Henderson's Henna Garden in all colourways - just love that pattern! I will use some of it for a pillow. I have some fussy cutting in mind, so the pattern will continue from piece to piece. Borders will be made from a natural colored cotton/linen blend, I think.

 I couldn't resist this line, "Ca 1934" by Cosmo Cricket - placemats, I think. Possibly for my sister for Christmas?

 The christmas range from Sweetwater plays well with these black and brown fabrics with "fa la la la" all over. A table runner or placemats for Christmas, I think.

 There will be quite a few placemats this Christmas, it seems. Here's another group I have in mind. Some Kaffe Fassett, some Curio and a white with black lettering.

These will become a larger quilt, I think. Somehow they all remind me of Italy: terracotta walls and roof tiles, latin letters, doors, peaches, bees, vines, mosaic, flowers... all put me in mind of summer days. I added a blue Amy Butler fabric here, but maybe a more turquoise water or sky fabric will be better? And I need to come up with a pattern...

Well that's some of my ideas so far. I have more pictures to share, but I need to do more tidying up before I actually start making stuff. A bit of open space around the sewing machine often helps, I'm told...

Bags of inspiration

I have been sorting through old issues of Marie Claire Idees lately, trying to throw some of them out. Let me tell you: it's not easy! Each issue is so full of inspiration, but reason tells me that I will never get round to making all this stuff, so I've resorted to taking photos of the most exciting ideas to store them digitally and I just thought I'd share some of them.
I'm always tempted to buy all sorts of pretty beads, but I have resisted because I haven't had anything to use them for. This bag might just tempt me for real, though - I love the sampler-like fields of beads on this linen bag. Since they are all kept in one colour, the design doesn't become too busy, and it reminds me a bit of a Klimt-painting. Hm, maybe I need some beads after all..

This bag is from an old issue and I've had it in the back of my mind for quite some time as a technique to try, maybe not for a bag, but for a small quilt? The bag is made from two strips of solid fabric, in navy and white, and I love the combination of rows of stem stitches (I think) and negative space that make up the pattern.

 I think it would be interesting to make a small quilt with solid strips of several colours and an all over pattern of stitches in one or two colours.

 I have been eying those sweet crochet bags that seem to crop up all over the place lately, but as crochet doesn't seem to be quite my thing, I tend to give up after a square or two. Just adding my samples to a linen background along with some embroidery might be just the ticket for me.

This school bag is a fairly simple design - I have a pattern for a messenger bag that would be just right. What I love about this, is the panel of photos on the flap. One could make some kind of collage of photos with special significance to the recipient and transfer them to fabric... - good idea!

The only question now that I have filled my mind with so much inspiration: do I really need more bags???

Doing stuff...

Summer is definitely over, and life is getting back on track after lots of hard work in the wings here. Nothing serious, just  lots of stuff that has needed my attention and left little energy for making stuff and that means not a lot to blog about either. The storm outside tells me that there will be more indoor time now, and I have spent more time with my sewing machine during the last couple of days than I did during the whole month of September. I didn't realize how much I had missed it, so I'll definitely be making more time for sewing in future. And I really need to make some stuff too: the postman has been kept really busy bringing parcels to my door lately, and more is on it's way. When a quilt shop on the other side of the world informs you that you are currently one of their best customers, you know it's time to slow down with that retail therapy...

I've delved into my yarn basket as well, and came across this half finished scarf. With more storms coming, it might be a good idea to finish it soon! I'm knitting stripes in two different colourways of Noro Taiyo (found in London last summer) and just love the colourplay developing here. Hopefully it will keep my interest for long enough to actually finish it. I'm not a natural born knitter, I think - my knitting tends to alternate between energetic needle movements followed by long periods of stretching and patting and admiring what I have done so far. Not the most efficient method, I know!

Carrying on

 Remember that wooden basket from the previous post? Well, it's been completely transformed, and here it is. I used an old school atlas I rescued from the bin at work, and tore out strips and attached them with gel medium, also adding it on top as a protective coating. I have used decoupage glue for this sort of thing earlier. I didn't have any left, but the gel medium worked just as well - use what you've got, I say!

I have been looking for some kind of caddy to carry supplies for tea and coffee from kitchen to living room, and this works perfectly. There's just enough room for my milk and sugar set, some teabags, sweet-and-low and a bunch of paper napkins - saves me a lot of extra trips to the kitchen because I've forgotten something, and it looks nice too.

There's precious little sewing going on here lately, because of other comittments that need sorting out. All I manage to do is a little bit of embroidery during those evenings when I don't fall straight into bed, but I'll be back to normal in a few weeks, I'm sure!

Planning and doing

A lot of work going on in the background here, but very little blogging. I have been doing some painting, cutting, tearing, glueing and sewing in spare moments while trying to get this place in shape after the summer. It's amazing the amount of piles of stuff that can accumulate here and there while you're busy doing fun stuff, isn't it? I wonder who's building them...
Heavy skies don't make for a lot of good photos, but tomorrow's weather forecast looks promising so I might be able to document more of the goings-on.

Hometown strips

hometown strips, a photo by crafty mathea on Flickr.

OK, holiday over, time to get my a** into gear... I just couldn't wait for yardage of the gorgeous Hometown line by Sweetwater to be available, and bought a jellyroll. I've sorted the strips in groups of three and stitched them together and found a great companion fabric, so now it's time to start cutting. Oh Hometown, what fun we are going to have together!

Flat 36

This quilt is inspired by a doorbell panel on a block of flats. I saw a photo somewhere and the image just stuck in my mind. The doorbells had obviously all been identical, but over time some buttons had become stained with nicotin, scribbled on with felt tips or replaced with buttons of other colours. The diversity in the nametags also told its own story about the change the place had seen over the years.

I made a quick sketch of one doorbell in my notebook at the time, and added the information that there were 4 x 9 doorbells and I promptly forgot about it. Ages later I came across my sketch and sat down to work out the proportions of the block in EQ before leaving it to stew for a while. Earlier this summer, I decided it was time to do something about it and I started pulling fabrics from my stash. Initially I thought about writing or embroidering names, but I decided to go more abstract and just use fabrics with random text on them instead (somehow my stash seems to have oodles of chatty fabric...) after all, this quilt is only a doorbell quilt because I say so, it could just as easily be an abstract arrangement of squares, rectangles and strips.

Anyhow... Once I started, the top went together quite quickly, but the quilting took a while. I decided on an allover pattern, and quilted a wavy line across the quilt and a big dart in  from the top and from the bottom before filling in the space with echoing lines. By the time I had filled in the empty spaces I had realized that the lines were too far apart, so there was nothing for it - I just had to double the amiunt if quilting by adding new quilting lines in between the ones already there. I think it was worth the effort though, and for a wall quilt, that amount of quilting works quite well.

I used a remnant of a great IKEA house fabric for the backing. Finished size of the quilt: 39x32"

Polka dots and more

I must confess to a little retail therapy ;-) I seem to be really drawn to polka dots recently, and although I have made two red and aqua quilts already, I just couldn't resist these. Now, what do I make from them? Any suggestions? There is a length of solid Kona in Sand there as well - I'm slowly but surely adding to my stash of solids and I just got myself the colour card from Kona. There are almost too many lovely colours to choose from!

I thought I might as well start getting ready for Christmas as well. Not really, but who could resist these beauties from Sweetwater? Placemats from these, I think.

And Tula Pink's Prince Charming line in Indigo was way too tempting. An unusual colourway for me, but with the right solid to set them off they will be great, I think. I really love the one with the silhouettes on top of the pile there - I might get that in an other colourway as well...

These birdy, collage like fabrics are just so lovely, but hard to cut into - maybe pillows or totebags? And I also found some lovely yellow polkadot fabric from Sweetwater at reduced price.

I added these great buildings as well. I'm thinking that the windows on the fabric on the left also could be appliqued onto a house block of some sort - I might have fun playing with that! The black and white with sewing notions on the right is one I won at a guild meeting.
Wow, I didn't think I had bought that much fabric lately, but seen all together here, there is quite a lot of it. It's a good thing my holidays have just started - it's time to sew!

All decided - more work ahead

When in doubt, make a mug rug. That's what I did to come to a decision about my quilting lines. I stitched some of the leftover bits and pieces from the quilt top together and started making a mug rug. First I quilted it all in parallell(ish) lines using the same distance as on my quilt. Then I started stitching in between the lines. You can see the tighter quilting here, on the right hand side. Much better, I think. That means that I still have lots of work ahead of me, but I will be far happier with the outcome, I believe. And what's the rush anyway?

Anybody in?

I'm contemplating titles for my new quilt, and "Anybody in?" is one of the options. You  might have to see the whole thing to get why?  Can you see what inspired it from this glimpse?

I'm halfway through quilting it - or am I? I'm beginning to wonder if the quilting lines are too far apart - maybe I should add new ones in between? It will be very compact if I do, but it is meant to be a wall quilt, so that doesn't really matter. I've gathered some of the off-cuts to make a mug rug where I can try out the tighter quilting before I decide.

Working

I've been incredibly slack when it comes to blogging lately, but in case somebody's still out there - I'm alive and well. A blurry picture attests to the fact that I'm actually working on something as well, but more about that in my next post.
This morning has been given entirely over to housework - days and weeks of rain could have been spent doing all those chores instead of moping around wondering if this summer will ever start, but wouldn't you know it: today the sun is shining and here I am busy hoovering and washing... Well, doing the laundry makes sense on a day free of rain and with a gentle breeze to help the drying process, I suppose, and my energy levels are much higher on a bright day, which helps in getting the work done quickly.
I've still got two weeks left at work before my summer really starts, so now's the time to get everything in order so I can really enjoy it. I need to sort out some craft projects, some fabric is making it's way here through the mail and I have a pile of books to enjoy, so although I'm staying at home the entire three weeks, they will fly by in a blur once I get there, I believe. I can hardly wait! Now if I could only talk the sun into staying put for a while...

Pinned

I joined Pinterest a while ago to gather inspiration for Project Spectrum, but before I knew it I had also gathered followers, started following others and created several new boards. I have found it a good way of keeping track of quilty inspiration as well. My pinboard for quilts is eclectic, I suppose, as I have gathered some old favourites along with new ones that catch my eye on my journeys through the blogosphere (doesn't that sound like a Sci-Fi adventure? "Journeys Through the Blogosphere"? LOL). Anyway, weave your way through the different quilty boards there and there is plenty of inspiration. Just remember to save some time for the actual sewing too ;-)

And for sewing one needs fabric - did I mention that you can pin favourite fabric as well? You are hereby warned...

More pillow talk

 My old sofa pillows were looking a bit tired, so it was time for a change. I had a piece of gorgeous turquoise brocade which looked quite good next to a turquoise linen. I really like the different textures here. I also had some felt in the same colour, but decided that it was too much, so I kept it simple and used only these two. I used my largest yoyo-maker to make a brocade yoyo and found a gold button in my stash for the perfect finish.

For the back I used this great method again - it just comes together so easily that it has soon become my perfect go-to method of adding a zipper to the back of a pillow.

 The other pillow is quite different. It uses the same linen as the other one for the background, but here I added double sided strips of fabric stitched on to the backing along the middle of each strip. After finishing the pillow I tacked the strips together here and there with contrasting stitches of cotton floss. I used fabric from a pillow I made earlier and some of my precious Authentic strips, so that everything will tie in together eventually.

I used a newsprint fabric for the back of this one - nice to have something to read before taking a nap ;-)

Red and green

 No, it's not Christmas. I'm just a little late with my Project Spectrum project for May. Not a huge thing, just another mug rug. I just grabbed some scraps and stitched them together, cutting some gentle curves and slanted stitching lines. I included a green strip for interest and quilted it with green thread. The binding is from my jar of leftover binding scraps. The red one was too short, so I included a multi-coloured piece as well.

While I was in full swing, I might as well continue with June and a green mug rug as well. For this one I cut four rectangles of the light green and added strips randomly at both sides, leaving a strip of the green foundation in the middle. The rectangles were trimmed and stitched together and I quilted a spirally diamond from the middle.
I will keep looking for green inspiration throughout the month, before I start concentrating on blues for July.

Green inspiration

Some green inspiration to share today. I have been pinning green images to keep in the Project Spectrum spirit, where June is the green month. I had lots of ideas for May, but didn't actually get round to starting a red project until the very last day. I still have a bit of binding to stitch, before I disclose the result - a whole mug rug! Not much, I know, but still... And today I actually made a green one as well, so with a bit of hand stitching tonight I might just have something to show you tomorrow!