And now for some cards!

It seems to have all been about fabric here lately, but I have been making the odd card during the blog drought too, so thought I would share them today.

Can't remember who I made this bright cheerful one for, but I totally love it for all that beautiful rainbow colour!  Got a feeling it was inspired/cased by another card on my pinterest cards board. [Yep found it! You can see the original here by Lucy Abrams.]

Now I do remember who I made this next card for! Ha it was for my motorbike enthusiast Dad! He has two old bikes that he has restored and tinkers with.  I saw this digi that was free at the time and it made me giggle thinking how that might be him when he eventually grows up!

I was sorely tempted to put my Dads name in the caption but resisted.  Didn't want to rub salt in the 'ageing' wound!

And this last card was for my sister's birthday, I think, quite a while ago to match the little birdie mini quilt I made her.  It uses all the same fabrics for the bunting.

Thanks for taking a look.

A Couple of Cute Cushions and a Publication!

Today I thought I'd share a couple of cushions with you.

Originally I made the Reindeer one to go to market with me before Christmas, but I am afraid I loved him too much and so he didn't make it to market!

I had originally bought the plain cushion cover whilst visiting my good friend Martine in the Netherlands. Put it away and forgot it was there!  Happened across it in November and decided to pop an appliqué on it.  

I had been seeing lots of reindeer cushions in the shops and really liking them, so thought I'd pop a reindeer on!

Originally it was just the reindeer (as in the above picture) with no star decorations but I just thought he needed an extra little something to jazz him up!

The second cushion I made as a gift for my sister-in-law for Christmas.  She was visiting with us before Christmas and was admiring the Heart Tree cushion I made last year.  So a seed was planted in my mind!

Don't get me wrong I love my heart tree cushion but I knew my sister-in-law had just redecorated and refurnished her living room all in greens and browns, so I thought it would be nicer to make one that would suit the room well.

So having grilled my parents-in-law on the colours and been directed to the sofa company's website I went armed with a picture of the sofa printed out from the website to my local fabric shop.  Quickly matched up some fabrics and came home to sew!

Talking of cushions...I was excited to be approached last year by the Australian Homespun magazine regarding my Rainbow Pillow.  They wanted to publish it in one of their upcoming magazines! I was super excited and readily agreed! In the end they published the Rainbow one and also the Heart Tree cushion too in the December 2013 edition.

Linking up to Sew Many Ways and Quilt Story linky parties:

So, What of the Blue Fabric?

Remember I said yesterday that I siphoned off the blue fabric, from the charm packs for the charmalade quilt, to be used on another project?  

Well I knew someone who would love that blue fabric and that someone had a birthday right before Christmas.  A little birdie had told me that she loved the little birdie (!) mini quilt I made my sister last year, so I decided to make her one. 

There was just enough of the dark blue fabric to make some binding.  The fussiest binding I have ever made! Lots of 5 inch strips!

I just cut the charm squares into four squares each and positioned them around the white block, keeping some for the back.

Then got to work on the picture. Cut some leaves, flags and two little birdies out of the scraps, adding in a few pink leaves from the binding from the Charmalade quilt to make it pop a bit from all that blue!

I just machine embroider roughly the tree, and again machine applique the pieces on, sometimes using a contrasting thread and sometimes using a matching one depending on the look I'm going for.

Then for the back I pieced a strip of squares to go across the middle sandwiched between some white pieces.  I quilted the front and back separately and then popped them together with the binding.  That way I could quilt all over the back without ruining the picture on the front.  I added a bit of thermal batting so it could be used as a pot holder if so desired.

As always I must direct you to the inspiration behind all the birdie minis I have made and that would be from Erin at Why Not Sew? Quilts.

Sharing at:

Charmalade Quilt

Well I thought I better start as I mean to go! Two posts in two days isn't too shabby is it?  

About a year ago in the midst of all our renovations work my daughter picked out some really pretty fabric for me to make a quilt out of for her: Sakura Park from Moda.  Fast forward a few months and we decided upon a pattern to go with: Charmalade at Moda Bake Shop by Pamela Lincoln.  Then fast forward to November last year and I tried to get the fabric.  Note to self, when you see fabric you like: buy it! Oh boy was it hard to track down the fabric I needed.  It came in from America, Australia and the UK in the end! 

It was a bit of a tall order to make my first quilt that is bigger than a baby quilt in 3 weeks in time for Christmas but I did it! And totally love it! The quilting could be better as always and one of the rows of piecing just doesn't match up but oh well, I still love it!

The Charmalade pattern calls for Moda Snow charm squares, but as I wasn't using the Marmalade fabric line I wasn't sure how Snow would match in with the Sakura Park, so instead I decided to wait til it arrived and trot down to my local quilting shop to find a match.  It just meant cutting 65 charms! Drum roll please....enter the Sizzix Bigz 5 inch square die!  This was great for ensuring accuracy and saving my hand using the rotary cutter!  Not much wastage either which was a bonus.

Although my hand didn't escape the rotary cutter completely as there sure is a lot of trimming to do in this project, 130 squares!

I decided I would not be able to the beautiful fancy quilting that was on the one in the tutorial.  So instead I opted for mostly straight (ish) line quilting with some meandering loops around the edge.  I love the tutorial, very easy to follow and the pattern looks really striking.

The quilting wasn't totally without mishaps! This happened on a couple of occasions and there was much muttering of expletives going on in our house!!

I couldn't get as much fabric as I needed for the back to be all one colour so instead I opted to put a strip of different fabric down the middle.

Really love how on the back the quilting really stands out.

I put a label on the back with a photo of our little family.

 Here's a few more gratuitous photos!

By the way, the fabric line also contained a blue range of the fabrics but I took those out and used them on another project to be blogged later!

Thanks to Pamela for producing a really great tutorial!

Sharing this at Classy Clutter!  And at Sew Can She.  Sharing at Quilt Story too!

A Little Blog Drought and Exciting News!

Sorry about that! Seems I have been away longer than planned.  Well it hasn't been because I haven't been crafting because believe me I have!  Instead of one long post I will endeavour to catch up with lots of individual posts!

Here are a few of the latest creations.

1. Charmalade Quilt  2. Personalised Taggie Blankie  3. Birdie Mini Quilt  4. Reindeer Cushion  

5. Cupcake Purse  6. Burlap Christmas Tree Garland  7. Flavoured Vodka Chalkboard Labels     

8. Daisy Scarf  9. Personalised Christmas Stocking  10. Twins Card  11. Tree Cushion  

12. Scooter Purse  13. Old Git Card  14. Baby Quilt

The most exciting news is that I am planning to start teaching sewing classes again, here in Hampshire, UK.  I've added a tab to the top of the page with a link to where you can book your place if you are local!  The intention is to keep the classes project based so that a student can complete a finished project within the time frame of the lesson.  That being said, the projects will be kept small and depending on the speed of the student, they may need to be completed at home.  I want people to stop being afraid of their sewing machine and have a go at making something.  

So first up on the classes will be:

 If you're local please help me spread the word!

Joining in with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day: