Two Owls Design

Stitchy Gift

The assumption that there isn't much point sewing something to give as a gift to a seasoned sewist because they are able make whatever it is for themselves is a fairly logical one. It is a gift without mystery to someone that possesses the knowledge and skills to make it and who knows the work, time, cost and agonising over fabric choices that went into it. That was what I always thought but it turns out that knowing all of those things actually means it can be appreciated all the more.

My friend Lynne made this brilliant and beautiful Sew Together Bag from the pattern by Sew Demented as a surprise, not-for-any-occasion-just-because gift and I LOVE it and use it constantly.

It's such a fantastic design and contains lots of compartments to keep everything neat, organised and untangled. It's such a great size, along with the usual sewing kit it's perfect to put all of my EPP bits and bobs in to take away on holiday too. It even fits my big scissors in!

The fabric is Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda. Lynne also added a needle keeper and badge to the outside to make it even more gooder as my 4 year old would say. I'd seen needle keepers and wondered if they were handy - turns out they're really handy, I haven't had to get up and shakes my clothes to see if a needle drops to the floor once!

Thank you, Lynne x

 

 

Sanitising...

I'm currently making a quilt for Aidan using my Big Shot Plus and have been blogging about it over on the Sizzix blog.

This particular project or more specifically the fabric I'm using for it, has thrown up an unusual (well I think it's unusual) and completely unexpected issue. I bought the fabric (A Day in the Life, Mummysam for Robert Kaufman) online and so didn't get to examine it up close before buying it but it seemed perfect, it was a great low volume print covered in lots of little pictures of everyday items and full of interest. What could the problem possibly be? Can you see it?

Once you've seen that one, it leaves no doubt as to what this is (I actually missed this one but my friend, Lynne pointed it out).

Not exactly ideal on a quilt for an almost 8 year old boy. I was really conflicted about what to do and gave it a lot of thought. On one hand they are very normal, commonplace items used by a significant portion of the population, was it weirdly repressed to object to pictures of sanitary products on a quilt? They were after all very small pictures mixed in with lots of others and why didn't the toilet roll cause the same reaction? I am determined to raise sons that are not squeamish about this sort of thing but still, sanitary towels and tampons on a boys quilt. I kept going over and over it and then I rang my sister for her opinion and she laughed. And laughed. In fact she might still be laughing about it now.

So that was it, a cover up operation was to take place. I pressed some iron-on adhesive to the reverse of some fabric scraps and then used my Big Shot Plus machine and a star die to cut a pile of little stars to mask the unwanted pictures.

Fortunately the stars work really well on the quilt top and despite being there purely to hide the towels and tampons (and a few knickers and suspenders too), they don't feel like a compromise at all.

My mum asked about the bras but bras are always hilarious so they can stay.

Issue 22, Love Patchwork and Quilting

Issue 22 of Love Patchwork and Quilting is out now featuring a really brilliant Liquorice Allsorts quilt on the front cover and on page 85, my Counting Sheep blankie and cushion.

It was my first ever proper quilting pattern for the magazine (rather than the usual softie patterns) and for that reason it was easily the most nerve-racking so far (still feel a bit jittery thinking about it now).

I love loopy quilting but must confess that the loops on the sheep bodies and cushion 'sky' were not done by free motion quilting, my FMQ skills are not up to magazine close-up photo standard. Whilst it was a small cushion front/blankie rather than a full-on quilt, I decided to use a regular walking foot setting (my machine has IDT so not an actual walking foot as such) to quilt the loops.

The blankie is now hanging (courtesy of a skirt-hanger from Tesco) on the wall in my new and not properly moved into yet sewing room, making it feel a whole lot more sewing-roomy.

 

Win A Big Shot Plus!

Just a quick post to let you know that Sizzix are running a fantastic competition to win a Big Shot Plus, but be quick it ends tomorrow - for more details click here.

I LOVE mine, it's great for any size of quilty project, saves time and labour and is fun and easy to use (this is the cushion cover I'm working on currently featuring on my Sizzix blog page).

Good luck!

Triangles Cushion

I'm over here on the Sizzix blog today talking about this cushion.

I bought a free motion quilting foot not long ago and this was my second attempt quilting an actual thing - as opposed to practising on scraps. FMQ is fun to do (much more so on practice bits than actual things) but it's so, so tricky to co-ordinate the movement of the fabric and the machine speed to produce an even result. The seam ripper saw A LOT of action before the quilting was finished.

This black and white geometric print on the back is from Ikea, I think it will be my go-to backing fabric for the forseeable future - it's neutral yet still quite striking and also only £3 per metre. I think I'll probably line it next time though if overlapping it, to prevent the print showing through.

Quick-Sew Zip Pouch

A simple tutorial to make this quick and easy pouch is over on my Sizzix blog page now.

It's ideal for holding bits of binding paraphernalia such as scissors, thread, binding clips etc for binding on the go - my quilt and pouch came away on holiday so hand binding could be done during any spare moments. The position of the zip means it can be left open without the contents rolling out.

 

Spinning

When several plates are spinning at once my blog is always the first one that grinds to a halt. Actually no, that's not true, it's the housework that stops first - we have been living in crumples in the shadow of an enormous ironing pile for a couple of months now. Either way though deadlines have eased up a little and the time has come to get (and try to keep) my blog spinning again.

Lots of sewing has been taking place and a couple of weeks ago I finished my third and largest ever quilt. We bought a new bed back in the New Year and naturally it needed a new quilt to go on it.

All of the cutting was done for the quilt top using my Big Shot (by far the quickest and easiest part!) and I blogged all about it's progress weekly over on my Sizzix blog page.

The quilt measures approximately 2m x 2m and there was no choice but to quilt it on our dining table as that's the biggest table we have. It turned out that arrangement wasn't ideal for family meal times or good sewing as mealtimes were cramped using one third of the table and when quilting one of the corners I discovered some encrusted Weetabix on it.

I was so pleased (and relieved) to finish it and finally lay it on the bed. I'm not good at having several work-in -progress projects running alongside each other and much prefer to tackle one at a time and keep going until they're done. That's why my blog often goes neglected as I wait for a chunk of unpressurised time to come free to write a post or two and that doesn't happen often enough to be practical. There lies the crux of the problem, I'm no good at multi-tasking.

 

Rambling About Targets

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a list of goals drawn up to aim at in 2014. The list was made early in the year not as a set of New Years resolutions but just work-related targets to aim at throughout the year in an effort to increase my freelance work. Out of 6, one had been fully achieved and a second very nearly - it was a bit disheartening to realise it was less than a 33% success rate (especially as two of them were pretty simple and straightforward).

  

Reflecting on 2014 though it became clear that whilst many self-imposed targets hadn't been hit, the year was a pretty good one overall. The one goal I had achieved was possibly the best one of the 6 and other opportunities arose which couldn't have been anticipated at the beginning of the year. It's very easy to get bogged down focussing on the negatives especially when you work by and for yourself (a partner or relative telling you something is great never really cuts it).

Creatively I have a fairly predictable confidence-level-cycle where every so often a confidence crisis hits and suddenly I'm not good enough, my work's not good enough, everybody else knows I'm not good enough and everyone else is so much better than me. I expect it now and so, knowing from experience it will pass, I just ride it out until I can go back to enjoying what I do again. Accepting the confidence-crashes and realising that appreciating and admiring other people's skill without feeling inferior is an art in itself has been quite liberating!

Blogging for Sizzix was one of the unanticipated opportunities that arose and one that I really enjoy. It's been tough at times to ensure a post with photographs is ready each week (taking good photographs has often been the toughest aspect during the dark, dreary winter months) but it's resulted in a lot of making and experimenting with ideas, which is always the best bit. My third ever quilt made using half-square triangles all cut using my Big Shot is almost complete - which is good as the quilt (my second ever quilt) that used to live on our bed seems to have found it's way onto Aidan's top bunk.

Another unexpected occurrence was having my bunny pattern featured in the first issue of Simply Sewing.

It's a beautifully styled magazine full of lovely projects - the Easter ideas and Lauren Guthrie's dress pattern are my highlights.

Planning and targets are all well and good but nice surprises are better.

 

 

Cushions

Is it too late to say Happy New Year? Hmm, probably a bit.

Christmas seems like an age away now, probably due in part for me to the fact that I've been doing the accounts. One week spent going through accounts feels more like three - it works in a similar way to dog years.

Before Christmas I was working on two cushions. The first was this snowball cushion (design from Love Patchwork and Quilting, Issue 2) made for my niece to give as a gift.

I love this design and it's the second time I've used it to make a cushion (first time is here). Might manage a quilt next time.

The second was this one (which also features on my Sizzix blog page) which was started before Christmas and the binding finally finished in the first couple of days of the New Year.

All of the half square triangles were cut using my Sizzix Big Shot and so the cutting and piecing took no time. When it came to quilting it, I'd seen and loved lots of quilts quilted with a spiral starting in the centre and working outwards and wanted to try something similar. A star-spiral seemed appropriate for a Christmassy cushion and an eight-point star meant that the seams helped as a guide during quilting. It took ages - four times longer than anticipated to quilt but I love the results (even though it mean a couple of days of backache). I've never tried quilting so densely before but will definitely do more.

Teachers' Presents

My grip on the Christmas reigns has been tenuous throughout December (as always) but then with just over a week to go to the big day the boys all fell ill with a nasty sickness bug and plans went into freefall. But it's ok, it's officially Christmas Day now and all is calm again (well for 6 hours or so at least).

So now to try and catch up with all of the Christmas related sewing. I've never made gifts for teachers before mainly because giving handmade presents makes me nervous - the angst about whether it will be appreciated and feeling open to criticism (I'm a bit prone to overthinking and worrying at the best of times). To minimise the anxiety, I opted for something small but to personalise each one to add more time and thought.

Here they are, some little Christmas-tree-decoration-size quilted stockings (as posted about on my Sizzix blog too in a bit more detail), to contain some cosmetics and chocolate bits and bobs. Two EPP hexagon versions made using my Sizzix Big Shot and a squares version as there just wasn't enough time to hand-piece the front of all 3.

Rowan didn't make it into pre-school at all in the last week but I dropped by with the gifts on the last day.

Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy Christmas x