Purses

My sister had used the purse I made her a few years back so much that it was tattered and torn, so she requested a new one, using the same frame. And of course I obliged. I actually love it when people wear out the things I make - it shows that they are appreciated, doesn't it?
I used I nice floral (Pam Kitty Morning) combined with green this time.

Lined with a matching pink, it was a good choice for a keen gardener, I believe. Little did she know that I had already made her a new purse (I had noticed the state of the old one!) using an orange jelly clip frame from Lecien and a contrasting blue fabric - the colours of her favourite football team.

The pattern came with the frame, and this one was very easy to sew and glue in place. A few darts in the bottom gave it a fuller shape.

A Lecien fabric for the lining gives it a bit more interest - something to look at when all the money is gone ;-)
So with one finished purse and a request for another, what was I to do? Give her both, of course. Why not spoil her a little?

While I was in sewing mode I also made these fabric buckets for a friend's new bathroom. No pattern, I just winged it, drew a circle round an embroidery frame, calculated the width needed for the sidepiece (the diameter multiplied by 3,14 (pi)) and the height was decided by trial and error. I added some small snap-on curtain rings on opposite sides for hanging and as a decorative element. Yes, I'm quite pleased with these. The fabric is designed by Martha Negley from the Kaffe Fassett collective, I believe.

Pods

I love the organic shape of these storage pods. I found the pattern via Pinterest which led me to Love from Beth on Craftsy. The pattern was easy to understand and they came together quickly, which is all one can ask for. No doubt I'll be making more of these.

Blue and white

I made another one! The Open Wide Pouch has become my standard go-to quick present project, it seems. And no wonder, it's such a versatile little thing with many uses - a small one is perfect for make-up or all the little things we carry about in our purses, A bigger one and it will hold a little sewing or knitting project and a large one is great to use as a sponge bag. I like them because they open so wide that you find things easily in them and of course because they are quick and easy to sew.

This is a medium sized one made for my boss on her retirement. She loves blue, so I went for a safe and sweet blue and white colour scheme, but I couldn't resist adding a bit of my cheekiness with an orange zipper and a lime green tab. Why play safe when you can have a bit of fun, right?

Cowl

Knitting little dolls means paying close attention to details and concentrating on the pattern. That's all very well, but sometimes a bit of mindless knitting is called for. I found the pattern for the Ada cowl in Mollie makes. The  pattern is also available through Ravelry.

The original was knit using Quince & Co Puffin, which is a bulkier yarn than the Malabrigo Rios that I went for. I just cast on more stitches than in the pattern, to make it the right width. The pattern is an easy double moss stitch, so as long as the number of stitches was divisible by two, that didn't matter. The result is a less chunky cowl, very soft and drapey, and I am very pleased with it.

Teddy doesn't seem to mind modelling it either...
Colours used: Malabrigo Rios in Teal Feather and Lettuce. Details on Ravelry.

Little people

I found a picture of a little knitted girl like this on Pinterest and managed to locate the pattern on Etsy here. After visiting a local yarn store and finding the perfect shiny black yarn in my stash I was ready to download the pattern and start knitting my own Little Red. Isn't she sweet?

The umbrella needed some kind of support and after a bit of searching in shelves and cupboards I ended up using the domed lid from a cherry tomato container. That meant that I had to make the umbrella a bit smaller than the pattern called for, but it doesn't rain all that much indoors, so I guess Little Red will be safe and dry, LOL. She seems quite comfortable anyway, sitting there on my red shelf, making me smile every time I walk past her.

While I was at it, I also knitted this little guy from a pattern I found in an old magazine.He was put in one of the Christmas decoration boxes, so I won't see him again for a while, but no doubt he will be a nice surprise when I get the boxes out in December!
Both were fast and easy knits and very satisfying - a few evenings of waving some needles and yarn about, resulting in two little friends - you can't beat that for results!

Improv forest

I had a small piece of fabric from Auntie Cookie for ever and couldn't bear to cut into it, but it was such a shame to just leave it unused, you know? So one day I sliced it on two horizontally, added some vertical strips to each piece and stitched them together again. A strip of fabric at the top and bottom, I quilted it in vertical lines in off white and just for fun added two lines of stitching in red thread and just like that I had a little wall quilt. Much better than a lonely little fabric piece in a drawer, right?

Waaaaay after the holidays

 

Better late than never, I suppose. I have some catching up to do, and it occurs to me that I never shared any of my Christmas makes. First of all this little tree of words. I found the pattern just before Christmas and stitched the whole thing in a matter of days. I also got a witchy pattern and one of a sewing machine, all from Imaginating. that I have yet to stitch up. Despite the colour variations the tree is in fact just stitched with two different skeins of hand dyed floss. The wonderful threads from Stef Francis are really lovely and I can never resist them when I come across them at The Festival of Quilts or The Knitting and Stitching Show. My biggest problem is actually using them, because then they will all be gone. But that's just an excuse to take another trip, isn't it?

Just before Christmas I fell in love with some Christmas ornaments in the shape of cars with trees on the roof, but by the time I got around to shopping they were all gone, so I made my own.

I bought some toy cars, covered the windows with masking tape and painted and decoupaged the hell out of them before I glued some miniature trees wrapped in baker's twine on the roofs. And there you are: my very own "Driving home for Christmas"-cars.

They turned out to be too heavy for the tree, but looked rather good on a shelf in my kitchen, if I may say so myself.

More stitches

Last autumn I happened to come across an episode of Pippi Longstocking, the one with the first snow, and fell in love with Annika's pink ski sweater.

I searched everywhere for a pattern, and might have found one that was close enough, but got distracted along the way. Before I knew it I had a folder full of pictures of ski jumpers from the 50s and 60s.

Now I know that there is no way I'm going to knit all those sweaters, but I didn't want to forget all the lovely patterns, so I charted some of them and ended up with a shortlist of twelve and decided that knitting samples was out - I'd have to buy lots of yarn and I'd end up with samples that couldn't be used for anything.
I do have lots of tapestry wool, though, and found a piece of canvas that could become a small cushion. So I ended up embroidering the patterns instead, leaving a few stitches between each block of pattern.

Now I could have embroidered sashing and a border, but by the time I got to that stage I just wanted to be done with the whole thing, so I blocked it and added some polka dot ribbon as sashing and some fabric borders to make the cushion bigger. I used the same fabric as backing for the cushion, added a zipper, and there you are: my tapestry knitting sampler. The size of the canvas I had dictated that the pattern blocks would have to be small, so you can't see the whole pattern on most of them, but they will serve as a reminder of the patterns I have stored, should the urge to knit another ski sweater ever arise...

I used a stitch that looks like knitting, by the way, so you get an idea what the patterns would look like if I ever were to knit them up.

Placemats

 My best friend needed some new placemats. She is one of those people I love making things for because she really appreciates it and the set I made her a few years back are frayed at the edges from having been used so much - I love that!
Coming up with ideas for placemats is always a bit difficult for me, for some reason. Making a bed sized quilt: no problem. Making a table setting sized one: a challenge! And then you have to make at least three more...
Pinterest to the rescue, and I found some quarter log cabin ones I had pinned earlier for inspiration. The dark blue fabric with houses would do nicely as a backing fabric and I used that as a starting point for my fabric selection.

I chose some houses and trees and supporting fabrics from Sweetwater's line Road 15, added some map and landscape motifs from other series and used some blue/grey to tie it all together. Straight(ish) quilting lines and blue binding and some late night sewing and I was finished just in time. The only thing I didn't get to do was to take some daylight photos. But it is January, the days are short and I was pressed for time, so this will have to do. She loved them, though and that's the most important thing!

New year, new... calendars

Let's skip the cliches, shall we? I have been a bad blogger lately, but I'm not alone in that respect. Instagram has taken over, but sometimes a longer, reflectiv blog post is in order. And summing up the year we just stepped out of before embarking on a new one, might just be such an occasion.

2015 has not been my most productive year since I started blogging, but looking back, I did make a few things, after all. Three large quilts, two quilt tops, some bags, boxes and pouches a bit of knitting and embroidery and a giraffe. That's about it, I think. But still, this collage represents a lot of hours of work, doesn't it?
The truth is, I have felt a bit uninspired for a while, but the new year has started with an urge to create, so I might do better in 2016. Or maybe not. This isn't a competition anyway, but I'm going to roll with this new urge. First of all I have started a set of new tablemats for a friend of mine. She mentioned just before Christmas that they use the ones I made for her a few years back every day, and they have been washed so often that they are becoming frayed and faded. Such appreciation for my work must be rewarded with a new set, right?
Some recent fabric purchases have inspired me to start something new as well, so I have two new projects lined up in addition to the triangles quilt I'm working on, and which I just realized that I have forgotten to include in the collage above:

It feels good to have that urge to create again!

In progress

I have spent my spare time redecorating and organizing stuff lately - a never-ending story, it seems...

I finished this quilt top before I started, but I was all out of batting, so I had to leave it for a while. Now there's really no excuse - my batting has arrived, my living room is painted and almost everything is sorted, so it's time to start quilting.

This one is for my own bed. Yes, that's right - I have been quilting for 25 years or so, and I still haven't got my own bed quilt, so it's about time I think...
The pattern is from an old issue of Quilt Sampler. I'll follow up with close ups of the courthouse step blocks and more information when it's done.

A bit of this and that

I've almost finished summing up all the stuff I've made during the first part of the year by going through my photos. Here are a few bits and pieces. The first is a whatchamacallit to rest the sewing machine pedal on to stop it from sliding out of reach. I was in danger of disappearing under the table when sewing as the pedal kept slipping away, but I came across an idea on Pinterest that was easily copied. It's just a piece of that material you put under rugs to stop them from slipping with binding all around. At one end I added a "sausage" of fabric filled with batting to stop the pedal from skipping off the mat. A very simple idea, but I'm happy to report that it works! So there will be no more of that laid-back sewing here in future...

My teddies needed something cushy for their slidey bums, and I had just the right teddy fabric for a little throw to drape over their bench. A cushion with ruler marks and stenciled numbers (an idea from Marie Claire Idées) finishes the ensemble.

So here they are, ready to welcome visitors.

I've had some wooden letters lying around for a while, with a coat of white paint they make a positive demand on my sewing room wall.

And since there can't be enough open wide pouches in the world, I made another one for a young friend. These are fun to make, and quite addictive, it seems!

The cats in the bag

- or on the bag, actually!
I bought a medley from Keepsake Quilting som years ago, featuring some fun cat prints, but I have been at a loss as to how I could use them in something where they could be shown off in all their glory. A friend and I keep swapping interior design magazines and she tends to carry her loot home in plastic bags with handles that will cut into your hands if you carry too many mags in one go. She is also a cat lover, so I came up with an idea of making her a tote bag for her magazines, with soft padded handles that would make it a joy to carry those mags home.

I used the cat panel one one side. On the other side I cut a square of four cat images and stitched borders of the companion fabrics around it.

The panels were quilted lightly with straight lines. Boxed corners and extra padded handles makes for a sturdy bag that can carry a lot.

A light green lining with text about dreams and inspiration finishes the bag. 

I realize now that I should have taken better photos, as the colours seem a bit off, but the bag is in full use by my friend, who loves it, so these will have to do.

S'mores or mug rugs, as some call them...

In between projects I like to take some time out by grabbing some bits and pieces from my scrap bag and sew them together. I cut and stitch again building the pieces up to at least 7 x 9". I keep a bag of batting scraps and larger fabric scraps for backing at the ready, so I can start quilting right away.

The quilting is done with heavy thread in different colours and fairly close lines. Since I can't quilt a straight line to save my life, I make them deliberately wavy. I really love the texture that this gives, and the heavy thread lines also helps bring the patterns and colours of all the different fabrics together, I think.

Once a piece is quilted I cut it down to 6 x 8". Starting out with a larger piece gives me some choice for the finished look, since everything up to here has been completely random. I usually find something from my jar of leftover binding pieces to complete each mug rug.

These mug rugs are so much fun to make that once I get going I can't stop. I work on four or five pieces at a time, and once I finish them the thought is there: let's make some more... The last time I sat down with a bag of scraps I ended up with 15 of them. So maybe we should change the name - not mug rugs but call them s'mores? Very healthy s'mores even though they're addictive, right?

Flower boxes

I bought a roll of Kaffe Fassett Collective fat quarters in purple and teal at a show a while back, and thought they needed to be cut into rather large pieces to shine. I ended up with a bento box variation with small and large "boxes". I used Kona snow as a contrast. Once I started laying out the blocks, I discovered that at was all a bit meh... I loved the colours , but they needed something more to make them shine. After an audition with members from my stash, I ended up with a couple of yellows and that seemed to do the trick.

Once I had assembled the top and had a good look, I realized that one member of the cast wasn't pulling his own weight. he fabric in itself was lovely, a light blue with pink polka dots, but there was just too little contrast to the white. I ended up with making four blocks with a bright pink, unpicked the bland blocks and inserted the pink ones. Ah! Much better!

I quilted this one with wavy lines through the blocks, creating large petal shapes, using a petal shape cut from thick paper as a guide. In between the petals I used a tight meander to make the petals stand out.

The back is a lovely chrysanthemum print by Philip Jacobs that I just couldn't bring myself to cut into. Here it comes into its own and brings a smile to my face every time i look at it. A triangular label sewn into a corner an purple binding finishes the quilt.

Bali pop

I bought a roll of Bali Pops - precut 2 1/2" strips of Bali fabric from a show a couple of years ago and have had a hard time talking myself into opening it up and start cutting. Instead it has been a colourful decoration on a shelf in my sewing room for so long I was worried that the outer strip would fade away. Eventually I got started, sewed the strips together in threes and cut them into triangles, using the 45 degree line on my standard ruler.

I started sewing the triangles together in pairs, using the same colourways opposite each other, but after a while I got bored and mixed the rest up so that nothing matched in order to get a bit more variety in the quilt. I ended up with 16 blocks in a 4 by 4 layout.

The leftover bits and pieces were stitched together and combined with some purple and lime green bali fabric for the backing. I quiltedit in a swirly pattern and added orange binding to add a bit of interest. So, the bali pop roll is no longer gathering dust on my shelf, and instead I have a colourful throw and not a single scrap left over!