Cushions for Mothers Day...

I made these pieced blocks a long time ago now. They were originally meant to go in this quilt but they didn't make the final cut so I put them aside and found them again a few weeks ago when I had a little tidy up in my sewing attic. I thought they would make perfect cushions for a Mother's day gift and go well in Mum's spare room. They measure 12" x 12" and 8" x 8" so they are just little decorative cushions.

I machine quilted them in the ditch, made some cushion inners and added button enclosures on the back. Not bad for an afternoon's work! I have one more to make which I will hopefully finish tomorrow. I'm adding this post to Amy's Sew'n'tell Friday. You can check out everyone else's finishes by clicking on the button over on the right side bar. Have a happy weekend!!

This guy is amazing!!!

Check out this really cool trick!!!

Working on the quilt backing....

Have finished my quilt as you go blocks and manged to get them all sewn together on Sunday. I knew I wouldn't have enough of one fabric or even two to make a quilt back so I chose about a dozen fabrics from my stash that all go together but I no longer like and needed to use them up. I was going to go for horizontal stripes but that was going to end up too 'random' looking ( to use my daughters current favourite phrase), so I cut up 14 1/2 " squares from the larger pieces to match up with the 14 1/2 " blocks on the quilt top. Then I cut smaller squares from the smaller fabric pieces that when pieced together 4x4 make up a 14 1/2 square as in the photo below. When I first cut these smaller squares I made a wee calculation error and made them too big which I guess is better than too small, so had to trim them all (128) to the correct size. I tried to get Amelia on to it yesterday but she found it all a little boring.

I know these fabrics aren't very inspiring but the colours go together nicely and it has made a nice dent in my fabric stash which I can now fill with prettier more modern looking fabrics.

Pretties in the mail!

A few weeks ago I won a giveaway on Jo's blog Bearpaw and yesterday I received this lovely package in the mail all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland. So exciting getting packages in the mail from so far away and knowing there's some pretty fabrics inside! She also included a pretty metal heart ornament that's sitting on top of the package in the above photo.

Aren't these fabrics beautiful! I love them! Thank you Jo! They are a slightly heavier weight than quilting cottons so I think would be perfect made up in a pretty cushion or one of these bags or maybe one of these.

Jo owns a lovely home wares shop that sells amongst other things these fabrics. You can check out her shop here.

A Spring Flower Wreath...

Although it is definitely Autumn here this wreath reminds me of spring. I decided a couple of months ago to make Amelia a wreath to hang in her bedroom but had originally thought of just covering it with yoyo's which if I'd stuck to that idea it would have been finished a lot quicker. Somehow along the way I decided that fabric flowers would make a pretty feminine wreath and it evolved from there. 

I added a felt butterfly studded with pink beads.

I love using  buttons on small projects and have acquired quite a collection now. Before I throw out clothes I always take the buttons off to reuse and save those extra buttons you get with some clothes. 

These little butterfly buttons were bought on a whim a while back. I have jazzed them up by adding some beaded antennae.

The ladybugs are buttons that were originally on a jumper Amelia and then Caitlin had when they were babies.

I made this wreath using a plain cane wreath bought from Spotlight and covered it by wrapping around some leftover batting then some bias binding. This provides a bit of bulk and a nice soft base to sew embellishments onto.

I ended up making more flowers than I needed. I think I used about 25 small and large flowers. I have some other ideas for the flowers I have left which I will share with you soon so watch this space.

I'm adding this to Amylouwho's sew'n'tell this week so click on the button and check out all the other finishs for this week!

Fabric flower tutorial!

This is a hopefully simple tutorial on how I make my fabric flowers. I do quite a few variations but we'll start with a basic one.

You will need :

• Small fabric scraps for 2 flower shapes
• Paper for making flower pattern
• Steam-a-seam or similar product
• Small scrap of felt
• Small fabric scrap for yo-yo
• Coordinating thread
• Needle and small scissors
• Button

Draw and cut out to paper patterns of 2 different sized flowers. Fuse your fabrics together ( 2 layers of the same fabric wrong sides together) using the steam-a-seam. Pin pattern onto fused fabric and cut out.

Thread your needle with coordinating thread and tie knot at one end. Starting at the centre of the flower push your needle in between the 2 layers to 1/8 of an inch from the outside of the flower.

Using a running stitch sew all round the edge pulling the thread and shaping the petals with your thumb and finger as you go. When you've sewn all the way around push the needle back between the two fabrics and secure the thread ends together.Once all the layers are sewn together you will not see these thread ends.  Repeat these steps with remaining flower.

Cut out a small circle of felt. Make small wedge shaped cuts all around the edge by folding in half and cutting tiny triangles at each end of fold. Continue folding and cutting until there are even wedges cut out all the way around ( about 8 wedges).

For the yo-yo cut a small circle of fabric. I used a cardboard pattern from a covered button making kit.

Sew a running stitch all the way around folding a scant 1/8 inch as you go. The bigger you stitches, the smaller you centre will be.

Pull thread to gather up into a little pouch shape, flatten out into yo-yo and secure your thread ends.

You should now have four layers to make up your flower. Place together from biggest to smallest ending with the yo-yo. I secure the layers together making sure they are centred then sew the button on top sewing through all layers. Congratulations you now have one flower to use to embellish a bag or make into a brooch and pin to a plain top. You can make this flower your own by adding beads or use felt for one of the flower shaped layers. I also like to sometimes use a covered button for the centre. Play around with different flower shapes too. You can see some of my flowers here. 

I had intended to show what I have been making with all these flowers but it was an over cast day and my photos weren't quite up to scratch. 

Autumn pickings......

We have been enjoying some beautiful clear autumn days for weeks now and this last weekend was no exception. On Sunday I took the girls out to the orchard which is a 10 to 15 minute drive north of  Whangamata to pick some autumn fruits. Even though they had a little moan about it they had a lot of fun climbing the ladder provided and picking the biggest and then the smallest apples they could find.

The trees were laden and the fallen apples left a lovely autumn coloured carpet underneath.

We picked braeburns for eating and......

......grannysmiths for cooking although these are Amelia's favourite eating apples.

An abandoned birds nest from last spring.

After picking 2 big bag fulls of apples we headed on over to the Feijoa trees. These are our favourite autumn fruits and our orchard has some really big juicy ones. When we tire from eating them I make Feijoa muffins and Feijoa cake.

We also filled the biscuit tins. The girls baked something each and even managed to bake in the kitchen at the same time without fighting. Amelia helped Caitlin out when she needed it but didn't interfere when she was wanting to be independent and do things herself. I was very impressed with their maturity and managed to put a dent in my ironing pile while they were busy. Caitlin made Anzac biscuits  (this is a great, easy recipe perfect for beginner cooks!) because Sunday was also Anzac day and Amelia made a lemon and almond slice. I made the double chocolate biscuits in the foreground of the above photo.