Just a little bit of sewing.....

 These four cushion covers are at this moment making their way to a new home in North Carolina.  They were a custom order which as you may know I love to do as it means I get to find out a little bit about the person I'm sewing for. These covers are going to a rustic stone cabin and will bring a little spring into their owners lounge.

 The backs are just a simple envelope closure with a little of the spring flowers print added to the edges.

 

 The fronts are backed with a light layer of batting then quilted with random wavy lines in coloured embroidery threads.

 And this quilt top is what I've been working on this week. It's once again a custom order and will eventually be making its way to Ireland . I pretty much had creative license on this baby girls quilt except that it should be predominately blue and the fabrics should have a very modern vibe to them so I have included fabrics from Amy Butler and Heather Bailey who just happen to be 2 of my favourite fabric designers.

I have used a traditional patchwork pattern called 'tumbler' and I thankfully had the foresight to cut out enough blocks to make 2 quilts so one will be up for sale in my online shops. I am planning to hand-quilt this little quilt in simple swirly circles.

Busy, busy

 

I think I started making these to cushions a couple of weeks ago maybe but had to put them aside for a custom order of 3 cushions covers for a friend so this past weekend I finally got to finish them. I love how they both turned out but I'm particularly pleased with the union jack design. 

 I've been wanting to make a union jack cushion for a while now but wasn't quite sure how to go about it but in the end I decided to just appliqué the pieces on using Visoflex and finishing them off with a machine embroidered blanket stitch. Quite quick and easy once all the cutting out was done.

And this bright floral cushion reminds of all the colourful spring flowers blooming in my garden at the moment. This one is quilted with some wavy lines that intersect each other randomly breaking up the straight piecing and giving it a modern edge. Both these cushions have an envelope backing using a strip of a print from the cushion fronts and some fun ric-rac. These cushion covers are now listed here in my etsy shop :-)

And a bit of progress has been made with my first re-upholstery project. It now has a double layer of all new foam rubber and is so much nicer to sit on now. I felt ridiculously proud of myself when I finished stapling the foam on and made sure my girls noticed what I'd done. 

New cushion designs......

 

 For the last couple of weeks I've been working on these new cushion designs for my shop but I kept getting interrupted with 'life'. I've had these designs floating around my head for a while now then I drew them out in a sketch pad and that was as far as I got for a while until the time seemed right to actually make them. 

 I'm really pleased with how they finally turned out and how they evolved further as I made them. I like how the grey background makes the prints pop out. The addition of the little buttons on both these cushions was not in my original design but not a surprising addition since I love buttons in general, you know big, small, new or vintage or whatever....

I did my favourite pebble quilting on this one but instead of circles I did ovals to echo the oval applique's. 

Then on this design I just did random loopy squiggles.  The fabrics are a real mixture of prints but I did start off with some of Sarah Feilke's fabric line "On the Pond" she designed for Spotlight.

And my usual handmade button and loop enclosure teamed with some pretty ric-rac :-) on the reverse.

Little birdie cushion....

So here is what I've been working on this week which I actually started 2 weeks ago. Yes it's just a cushion cover not a quilt but that would be because the bird fabric that the circles have been cut from was just a very small piece. I would have loved to have had more of that fabric to make a quilt because it's so cute isn't it. Anyway I've had it for a very long time, you know waiting for that perfect project as you do :-)

I really wanted to make the most of the small amount of the bird fabric and cutting out circles seemed like the best idea although before I quilted it I wasn't quite sure whether I liked it but that pebble quilting has to be one of my favourite ways to free-motion quilt. It really makes those birds stand out don't you think...

For the quilting I used a machine embroidery thread which has a nice sheen to it which I think helps make the design stand out more.

To keep with the circle theme I chose some spotty and dotty fabrics to frame it using a traditional log cabin.

The back is my usual off centre button enclosure but this time I used the handmade buttons and loops that I've been using on these bags and these compendiums. Oh and a little bit of ric-rac too :-)

I kinda like these buttons which I think add a bit of  interest to the back. If you're interested in learning how to make them let me know and I'll do a wee tutorial. I learnt them from a blogger who no longer keeps a blog so I can't give her any credit.

My little birdie cushion cover can be found here for purchase :-)

Going in circles.....

A little sneak peak of what I'm working on this week, a project that contains lots of circles which I have very nearly finished working on tonight so you'll only have to wait till tomorrow to see what it is :-)

In the meantime here's some of my favourites that are inspiring me on flickr recently...

1. Crochet cotton afghan, 2. dqs11, 3. ...with a favourite vintage eiderdown!, 4. Liberty Love Pincushions, 5. Bird House, 6. ❀, 7. super duper spring flowers, 8. 10 | 365, 9. Fabric Bundle Springtime in Turquoise, 10. presenting the tuffet!, 11. Colorful Crochet, 12. Buttons & Thread, 13. Baby Rippe Quilt Front

Enjoy!!

More baby sewing .....

Have been busy again making more crib sized quilts and bibs in some fun bright colours. I used the same patterns as last time just because I think these fun bright fabrics need simplicity to stand out and do the talking themselves;-)

The baby boy version is made up of mostly spots, stripes and stars but has two novelty prints for added interest. The teddy bear fabric is leftover from items I made when my girls were babies so not too long ago
;-)

The other novelty print is this duck/rabbit print that is from my Aunts sewing days when her girls were small so it's genuine vintage fabric that I try to use sparingly:-)
 

I used this same cute vintage duck print as the focus fabric for a matching little bib.
 

And here's the baby girl quilt in lovely bright greens,yellows and pinks. I've had these fabrics put aside to make a girls quilt for what seems like ages. I often put groups of fabrics together for future projects but then never seem to get around to actually making anything so it feels good to have finally done something with these fabrics.

  A couple of my favourite feature fabrics in this quilt are these little yellow chicks and the green hen fabric which were both begging to be made into something sweet for a baby;-)

    I've kept the quilting simple too with just straight lines using a matching variegated thread then bound it with a solid pale pink.

    .....and a matching bib made with some leftover pieces from the quilt. Both these quilts and matching bibs are for sale here in my Etsy shop just in time for Christmas :-)

Sewing for babies......

 A couple of weeks ago I was asked by a friend of a friend to make some baby items for new babies. So I have been beavering away in my sewing attic creating baby shoes, stroller/crib quilts and bibs and I'm not finished yet. It's been a nice change to create items with these bright and modern fabrics that I've been collecting for a while now.

 This baby girl quilt is the perfect size for a stroller/pram or crib. I decided all these pretty fabrics needed to show their prettiness off was a simple patchwork of squares and some cross-hatch quilting. The fabrics are a mixture of some Bliss by Bonnie and Camille, Pop garden and bijoux by Heather Bailey and Hunky dory by Momo plus a few spotty fabrics thrown into the mix.

 It's backed with a Denyse Schmidt print (purchased on sale at Spotlight Yay!) and bound with a double layered bias binding of a Bliss print.

 For the baby boy quilt I put together some blue,green and brown prints consisting mainly of dots, spots and stripes plus the fun animal print by Michael Miller fabrics and some cute little birdie fabrics that I seemed to be collecting in my stash. Because I tend to make mostly girly things I found it a nice change to work with a different colour palate.

 It is backed with this green and brown print from Bonnie and Camille's Bliss range and bound with a aqua and white spot print just to continue with the spots and dots theme I seemed to have going on.

 Two little pairs of cute baby boy shoes which are so cute to make up...

Finally I made these bibs up with some leftover fabrics from the quilts and backed them with a fine and soft pale blue towelling. These bibs have a velcro fastening on one side of the neck which I remember being a quick and easy way to put a bib on a wriggly baby.

Crackerbox quilt finish!

I have been trying to get this quilt finished for the last week but have been lacking in focus and motivation lately. Finally this morning I put in the last hand-stitches into the back of  the binding whilst enjoying a spot in  the morning sun. Then while the sun was still hanging around I took it out into our garden for a photo shoot before the rain in the surrounding hills arrived. 

 

The pattern is called 'Crackerbox' and is quite simple to piece together as it's just made up of 1/2 square triangles (large ones) and fabric strips. I picked out some pretty floral fabrics for the top that have been hiding in my fabric stash just a bit too long :-) It feels good to finally have them in a quilt top at last. 

 

 

Some of the prints were bought back for me from Portugal when me eldest daughter was just a baby and one is a vintage fabric passed onto me from my Aunty who was a pretty good seamstress in her day.

 

For the binding I used up yet more fabrics from my stash to make up a scrappy looking binding which I think suits the scrappy look of this quilt. It is simply quilted in straight lines following the seams of the pattern.

 

And yes the back of course is made up of leftover fabrics from the front along with a "Denyse Schmidt" print purchased on sale at Spotlight. 

 

It does feel good to have this quilt finished and to now be able to start a new sewing project or two.

So many ideas swimming around my head now but which one to focus on.........

And here is my photography assistant that kept me company around the garden today. By that indignant look on her face I don't think she enjoys having the camera pointed her way though ;-)

This quilt will be added to my Etsy and Felt shops tomorrow :-)

Purple crafting and some recent purchases...

About a month ago I was contacted by Rebecca from BecIam asking whether I would be interested in taking part in a 'Purple swap' to raise awareness for Epilepsy. March the 26th is designated Purple day and we were asked to make anything purple for our partners and have it posted to reach them by this date. 

It is always hard in a swap trying to decide what your partner might like and what their tastes are but having the colour already chosen definitely made this swap easier and I enjoyed thinking up things to make. The pillow I made is pretty much the same as the green bubble cushion I made and posted about here. I'm not sure if my partner sews but I made a little birdie pincushion for her because they are nice as just a little ornament too and of course it was a great excuse to make another one :-) The little zippered pouch is loosely based on this tutorial but I boxed the bottom corners so it would sit on its own and used 2 fabrics for the outer.

I did a simple 3 button enclosure on the back using 3 different purple fabrics.  I do hope my partner is pleased with her purple parcel when it arrives!

On Tuesday I had a day out shopping in Tauranga mainly due to Spotlight having a 30% off everything in store sale. I really like going to the Tauranga Spotlight store too as it's still fairly new and tidy and just seems to have different stock to older stores. I was very pleased to spot this print in their quilting fabrics section by Andover Fabrics. Spotlight definitely seems to be stocking  better quality items recently. I have a few of  these prints from this 'Early bird' collection and have them all put aside to make a new quilt for my parents bed so finding this print at $12.95 per metre was a bonus.

A few doors up from Spotlight is a large kitchen store that had a window display of these beautiful prints made up in tea towels, aprons and oven gloves. I think they are way too pretty to be used as tea towels, don't you? They are 100% cotton and are almost decor weight.  I can't wait to create something with them and have already pulled out fabrics to coordinate!