Amelia's quilt....

 My eldest daughter Amelia turned 18 last month and since it's been a few years since I've made a quilt for her I decided an 18th birthday was special enough to make her one. This year has been a big year for both her and I as she moved out of home and into a Halls of residence in Wellington. She is doing a Bachelor of Arts degree at Victoria University majoring in Film and Theatre. It was so very hard to leave her in Wellington once I had helped move her in but it has been so very rewarding to see her grow and mature into an independent young adult. She loves her new life down in Wellington as a student and loves what she is studying. She has a sign on her bedroom door at home that reads "Sorry out living the dream" and that is exactly what she is doing. I am so very proud of who she is becoming and what she is achieving so far. I can remember when she was just a few weeks old, pushing her along the road and commenting to someone who had stopped to admire her that I couldn't wait to see what and who she was going to grow into. I was eager to see the future her but also enjoying that first time motherhood period. 

When we were choosing items for her new room she had a definite colour scheme in mind of tuquiose, aqua, green. Once all her room was dressed with all her new things it looked fresh and modern which helped me choose a fresh, simple and modern quilt design. It had to be fairly simple as I didn't leave myself much time to complete it.

 All of the prints are from my stash of fabrics so the only purchase was some more solid grey print and the aqua and white spot for the backing.

I gave myself added pressure by being determined to hand-quilt it but I just love the look of a hand-quilted quilt.

 It should keep her nice and warm in Wellington's slightly cooler temperatures with it's inner layer of wool/polyester batting.

And of course a quilt isn't complete without a label. "Inez and James" is my new Etsy shop.

Good things take time....

So about a year ago I sold these chairs to a lady in Auckland who was redecorating her house and was hoping to have it featured in the "Your home and garden" magazine. Since I hadn't heard back from her regarding the magazine feature and it had been so long ago I had kind of given up on it ever happening let alone a picture of my chairs being included. About a month ago though I received a brief email from her asking for my business details and this month my chairs have been included as part of the feature of her redecorated home.

Sorry about the quality of the photo but here are my chairs looking very at home in their new owners house don't you think ;-) It's a very cool feeling to have something that I spent hours creating be featured in a beautiful magazine like this....

Modern baby quilts in the making....

Creativity seems to be flowing from within me this past week. I've managed to whip up 3 cot sized modern baby quilts in just 4 days and that includes pulling out the perfect groupings of fabrics together, often the part that takes me way too long. Each quilt has either one or two Valorie Wells fabrics in them which was my starting point in coordinating the perfect mix of colours and patterns. I love this improvisational style of piecing, its like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle and is a great way to make favourite prints stand out.

My inspiration fabric for this blue/green quilt top was the large scale butterfly print on a white background which started a bit of a butterfly theme happening. I've had the two smaller butterfly prints for quite some time in the "waiting for the perfect project" pile :-)

 I think this one is my favourite...I love the large scale birds from Valorie's Nest fabric line and also the line of red butterflies through the centre. 

This was the first quilt top to be put together with the large scale butterfly print in a blue colourway as the starting point. I like the fun retro feel this collection of prints has given this quilt top. Now I have a few evenings of relaxing hand-quilting in front of me....

My constant companion Leo having a little rest in between his crazy kitten antics. Thankfully he has fully recovered from a bad infestation of worms and is now his normal full of energy bouncing ball of fluff. A couple of weeks ago he was skin and bone looking very sad and helpless :-(

A quilt for Elena

 Finished this fresh, modern baby quilt yesterday with the final stage of hand-stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. 

Even though it takes a lot longer I think the soft look of hand-quilting is worth the extra time and a couple of sore fingers from pulling the needle through.

These random wavy lines around the border were harder than I thought. I ended up unpicking my first attempt as it looked too uniform and intentional but I'm glad I persevered because I love the end result.

This quilt was a custom order for a friends first grand-daughter. The overall design and choice of fabrics were left to me to decide as long as it was predominately blue and modern which I hope I've succeeded in. Tomorrow it will be on its way to Ireland...

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.

Stripped back and bare....

The next chair to be resurrected from "nannerish ugly" to fresh, bold and beautiful :-)

 The dusky pink fabric and smelly wadding and foam is gone, and after a few hours of sanding so has that  dark stain. Yes it took a bit of elbow grease and sweat to get rid of that dark stain but now its finally ready for a fresh coat of paint. 

These fabrics arrived right on Christmas eve so it felt like an early Christmas present for me. Purchased here at Hawthorne Threads which I can thoroughly recommend. The next step is to decide on the right fabric combination and a coordinating paint colour. Decisions, decisions.... any input would be greatly welcomed :-)

Journal covers in the making.....

I can't remember what my inspiration was when I started making these journal covers but I do know that I like to have pen/pencil and paper at the ready when inspiration strikes. I also know that I like to make plain, everyday items pretty and inspirational to look at. The above journal cover set was the first one I made and my good friend Darleen promptly purchased it as soon as I showed it to her so I guess that spurred me on to make more. 

Of course the best thing for me about making these journal covers or keepers is putting the fabric combinations together. Out of the 3 sets above I think my favourite would have to be the one on the right made from one of Heather Bailey's prints. I love her fresh modern retro vibe she has put into this fabric collection, the vibrant colours and the detail in the paisley motif. 

I have just added these sets to my shop this morning. The larger size fits an A5 journal and the smaller fits a A6 journal so the smaller one is perfect for on the go journalling/sketching down of ideas as they strike. The elastic bands holds everything together and the elastic pen holders ensures there is always a pen handy as well as the paper :-)

New cushion cover designs....

 I started these cushion covers a couple of weeks ago now but they had to go on the back-burner for a week while I worked on Amelia's ottoman in my last post. The blue/purple/green 'brick' design cover is just a simple pattern I have wanted to try for a wee while now. It is made up of some scraps leftover from making these memo boards for Caitlin's room. It always feels good to use up leftover scraps doesn't it. The big pink flower design is an idea that came to me while doing some design doodling one evening and I decided to make it while the inspiration was fresh in my mind. 

 The centre of the flower is made up of 3 different sized yo-yo's with button centres. I do seem to have a thing about yo-yo's I think :-) and yes they did take a little while of sitting in the sun to sew them all on.

 The blue brick design cushion cover is just simply quilted with some fairly random wavy lines to break up the straight lines of the piecing.

The backs are a simple slightly off centre envelope enclosure using some of my favourite buttons on each.

Available in my shop from tomorrow :-)

The Ottoman....

A few weeks back I posted a teaser of what I was working on....sorry about the delay in revealing exactly what it was I was making! My eldest daughter, Amelia, has just turned 16, making me wonder where all those years went so quickly :-) I have wanted to make one of these Ottoman's for a long time so I pulled out an assortment of mostly aquamarine blues to go with the predominate colour in Amelia's bedroom. As you can see from the above photo it has been given the seal of approval from Caitlin's cat who decided to rub up against it just as I was taking a photo.

I've had the large white pom-pom trim for a while now just waiting for the perfect project, and I love the element of fun it adds to this piece. 

Some aqua and white polka dot piping frames the bottom perimeter perfectly. As you may be able to tell it is quite a decent size. It took 54 5" squares to complete and an enormous amount of polyester stuffing to fill it properly. Amelia's cat in the background took no notice whatsoever in my photo shoot, seemingly more interested in taking in the view from her 'throne'.

Amelia celebrated her big birthday with a sleepover with 3 of her good friends,watching movies, chilling in the spa that I got going just for the occasion and eating lots of junk food as you do when you're 16! For her birthday cake I made her a 'red velvet cake' with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with pink coloured coconut, a recipe on my 'to do' list for a while now.
I have just this past week finished making a couple of items for my shop so hopefully I can find the time to show them here tomorrow :-)

Back to my happy place......

 This past weekend I got back into my Sewing Attic aka "my happy place" :-). Not much sewing or much at all has been happening around her for a couple of weeks due to a minor operation on the arch of my foot to remove a sunspot. Although the operation itself was minor the recovery was very unexpectedly not so minor and I have had to keep walking to a minimum even resorting to getting crutches to help get myself get around more easily. (Whilst hopping around was good for working those abdominals it was hard work and crawling up and down stairs is slightly undignified.) Thankfully my girls have been very helpful, cooking, cleaning and hanging out our washing etc... plus I have good friends and neighbours that have also helped us out. I am getting around a little bit better today and the stitches come out on Wednesday so hopefully I'll be even more mobile by the end of the week as my eldest, Amelia, turns sweet 16 on Thursday :-)

For this project that I'm currently working on I have picked out some mainly turquoise/blue prints and have even cut into some favourite 'Amy Butler' and 'Heather Bailey' prints to get the right mix of prints. These colours are so me. My bedroom has various shades of aqua/turquoise and I plan to redecorate my lounge one day soon in these colours. They are so calm and restful don't you think?

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.