Friday 26 March 2010

Spring sewing.

As spring has officially started and easter is very near I thought I'd better get on with my easter/spring makes. A few weeks ago I showed you Lucie the Goosie and Harriet Hare and I've now made them a friend each, some fabric eggs and I've nearly finished a table runner. I haven't taken any photos of the other items but here is the table runner in progress.



Despite the fact that I have other items to finish I got an idea for another project into my head, and me being me I couldn't wait to start. Any ideas what it's going to be?



I was reading Karol-Ann's blog the other day and saw the gorgeous little coin purses she's been making and couldn't resist buying one from her etsy shop. Go and take a look, I'm sure she'd love to sell some more, they even smell lovely too. Here's my new purse.



That's it for now, I've got some sewing ironing to do before school pick-up.
Bye for now, Maria.
 


Sunday 21 March 2010

Complete...

I'm pleased to say that at long last I've finished my wonky log cabin quilt. It was originally inspired by the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt along on flickr. The tutorial was by John from the Quilt Dad blog.


Ta-da.







I had loads of scaps left which I didn't want to waste so I pieced the back too.



It's constructed in rows. I started with the row of patterned squares and white rectangles in the middle and then I just worked my way outwards either side of this row until it reached the right size. The pattern but not the fabrics is a mirror image. I made the design up as I went along, working with what fabrics were left as the pile of scraps got smaller and smaller.
I'm so pleased to have finished it. I dread to think how many hours went into piecing both sides and doing all the quilting.
Now onto finishing some more projects...............

Maria.



Tuesday 16 March 2010

At long last.

I thought this time would never come. My wonky log cabin quilt is only lap size but the quilting seemed to go on forever. Today I sewed the binding on and yes I know it's not basted or pinned on first but this method works for me. Now to hand sew the binding to the back.




Bye for now, Maria.



Monday 1 March 2010

Birds in the sunshine.

Yesterday I finished my birdies wall hanging.
I thought the birdies would like to bask in the sunlight so I quilted them some sunshine.




Last year at the Knitting and Stitching show in London I noticed that many of the pieces had been mounted on board and decided to try this rather than binding the quilt. This required the purchase of a staple gun and the help of a husband but it was fairly easy and I'm pleased with the result.




I've been the lucky winner of another give-away, this one was on Trends and Traditions which is the inspirational blog of the fabric and pattern designer Heather Mulder-Peterson. I won her new book "Shams with Style" which she has written with her mother Deb Mulder. Heather very kindly included a copy of her new bag pattern "The Bella Bag". I was amazed to win as there were four books to be one and 334 entries! I'm looking forward to making some pillow covers from the book and a new bag for the summer.


At last it's a beautiful day here, it feels like spring is begining to arrive. We have perfect blue sky and as I was hanging the washing outside for the first time this year I was almost deafened by the sound of birds singing. I think they were enjoying the sunshine like the birds on my quilt.

Bye for now, Maria.