Ladybird, ladybird fly away home!

 

I've had a busy week this week with 2 days out of town but I did manage to get this cute little pincushion finished which means I can once again link to Amylouwho's Sew'n'tell Friday's. It's one of Heather Bailey's latest patterns which includes an adorable butterfly and a bee which are on my list to make next. The hardest part was choosing the fabrics for it. I don't have a lot of red in my stash. I not sure why because I do like red. Both the stripes are from Heather's "Nicey Jane" fabrics which is one of my very favourite collections.

The legs are meant to be made of rolled satin cord which I didn't have so I looked for some other cording in my stash but didn't have the right colour soooo I ended up stealing some off a drawstring bag that I store my felt in. When I looked at the pattern instructions and the size of the pattern pieces I was a little daunted but Heather's instructions walks you through each step and I had absolutely no issues, it all went together fairly quickly and very easily. I'm really looking forward to making the butterfly and bee now.

Now since I've been talking about Heather Bailey I thought it was appropriate to show some Nicey Jane fabrics that I recently purchased and my husband bought back from the States for me. I bought this group of fabrics from Sheree's Alchemy on Etsy and had them shipped to friends that my husband was going to stay with in Reno. As you can see it also includes 4 prints not from Heather's line. Sheree is very good at putting different fabrics together into lovely complimentary groups and she has great customer service and good quick shipping so I'm thoroughly recommending her shop. The cute birdie prints are from the Urban Chiks line "Sweet".

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend and if you need some great sewing inspiration go check out the Friday finishes over here.

I'm off to enjoy our nice spring weather and my birthday with a bush walk to a waterfall and a picnic.

A new bag for Caitlin...

So this is what I've been sewing this week, a new bag for my youngest daughter Caitlin. She decided she needed a bag to carry around her things and it needed to be big enough for a few books and some art supplies because drawing and just being creative is what keeps Caitlin happy.  We decided to make the 'taxi tote' from Anna Maria Horner's book "Seams to me" but made it it a couple of inches longer.  I let her loose in my sewing attic to choose some fabrics and together we chose 2 batiks for the outer and inner and added some bright swirly blue for the trim and some green and aqua hand dyed cotton for the pockets.

I added an extra pocket on top of the larger pocket because extra pockets are handy in a large bag. This bag came together really easily and I found the instruction clear and easy to follow. I probably could have done it in a day if I'd had a whole day to spend on it.

A nice big button to close it! I'm feeling very proud of this button because it's the first button I've made from scratch using this tutorial. Thanks Michelle for the easy to follow instructions!

I'm linking this post up to Sew'n'tell friday . Head on over to Amy's blog to see all the other fabulous finishes this week!

Just for kicks ball!

Whipped up this baby ball today for a work colleague who is leaving today to have her first baby. Now I've got to be honest and say that it actually took me most of the day! Started  at 10am and finished at 4pm with no breaks not even for lunch although that includes going through my stash and choosing just the right combination of fabrics to hand sewing the final seam. As you can see I chose mostly brightly coloured fabrics with 3 black and white prints.

The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's book "Seams to me" and was pretty easy really, just a couple of corners needed re-doing. It's made up of  30 hexagons and 12 pentagons and is about the size of a real soccer ball although maybe a bit soft for a world cup game! 

And because it' Friday I'm linking up with Amylouwho for Sew'n'tell friday this week. Just click on the link to check out everyone else's finishes for this week!

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!!

A Friday finish!

Another cushion to lounge around on. Have been working on this all afternoon and managed to get it finished just before dinner (thankfully my DH made dinner tonight). After I machine quilted it I wasn't so sure whether I still liked it as much but now it has a nice plump pillowform inside I'm warming to it again. I did really enjoy working with the stripes for a change and just playing with the layout. I think in hindsight I would have done a simpler quilting pattern. The idea for this cushion is from Kaffe Fassetts book "Passionate patchwork" which is full of beautiful quilt patterns and just great inspiration.

The reverse side.

 It measures 24" x 24" so its big enough for a throw cushion in our lounge. I really want to keep it nice and vibrant which will be a challenge in our lounge as we have floor to ceiling windows on one wall and the sun streams in all morning (nice on winter mornings though).

I'm adding this to Amylouwho's Sew'n'tell Friday this week. Be sure to go on over and check out everyone's great finishes this week.

A string quilt top!

EIGHTY string squares ready to have their paper torn off to sew into .............

............this quilt top. I finished this late this afternoon after spending most of the day helping out my DH with Beach hop stuff.

I've got to say that I loved the process of making this quilt right from recieving the fabric from some ladies over on the ORBC flickr group to choosing groups of fabrics for each of the squares and then seeing it all come together. The worst bit was taking off the paper before sewing the squares together. That took the looongest time but hey the end result certainly made up for it. I am planning on adding a 1 1/2" border in the white but still thinking on how to quilt it. If anyone can recommend a good quality batting and where to buy it that would be great and it doesn't necessarily have to be local.

And one more photo because I like this one.

I'm linking up with Amy's 'Sew'n'tell Friday' too this week so go on over and check out some other great finishes for this week over here or click on the button over on the righthand side bar.

One sweet cushion!

This afternoon I made this cushion from a tutorial found on the Moda Bakeshop. It's designed by Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom. The original cushion is made with a honeybun but I already had some 1 1/2" strips leftover from Amelia's Frock quilt that I wanted to use up. I also added strips at both ends and omitted the button trim as I think mine is busy enough. This was a great tutorial with easy to follow instructions.

I love the ric rac trim just peeking through and the piping gives it a nice finished look. This is a great project to use up scraps and create matching cushions for your quilts.

And on the back its tied with 2 sweet bows. I havn't made an inner for it yet as I've run out of stuffing. Off to the big city of Auckland tomorrow to do some shopping and I have quite a list of sewing needs to get. This also means I won't get time to draw my giveaway till Sunday. (Sorry!)

Oh and I'm linking up with Amy's Sew 'n' tell Friday so click on the button over their on the right and check out all the other great finishes for this week.

100th post giveaway!!!

                                                                          

  Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! I can't believe I've managed to do 100 posts so soon. I'm so glad I started this blog way back in May. It motivates me everyday to do some sewing or just be creative in some way and of course it's great to get some feedback from like-minded people. One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was to share the knowledge I have gained over my years of sewing and I really enjoy helping out people when they need it. I have met some lovely people online so far who have also inspired and helped me out so this giveaway is to say thank you for visiting my blog.

As you might have guessed by now the other bunch of strips I cut up the other day was for this giveaway. I have rolled them up just like a little honey bun. There are 32 all up and they would make a lovely addition to a scrap quilt. Colours included are greens,browns,blues, purple/lilac, red , yellow and pinks. They are 1 1/2 " wide and at least 40" long.  Also included is a pear pincushion that I just finished today made from a Heather Bailey pattern plus I will add some other sewing goodies.

So this is 1 of 3 gifts I have put together.

This is gift number 2, a lovely bundle of 85  5 1/2 " charm squares that include all the fabrics from the above honey bun plus a whole lot more. You can make so much with a charm pack, sew them all together for a simple scrappy quilt or cut them up into half square triangles and the possibilities are numerous. Also included is an apple pincushion I made today from the same Heather Bailey pattern plus as before I will add some other sewing goodies.

Lastly number 3 gift is 6 fat quarters of these lovely fabrics that I purchased the other day plus a flower brooch that I made from an Amy Butler pattern. The winner of this gift will get to choose which colour(s) they would like this brooch made up in as the one in the photo belongs on a matching bag of mine.

How to enter my giveaway:

1. 
   
   Leave me a comment and tell my what sewing projects you would like to do this year. (My list is rather long!)
2. 
   
   If you are new to my blog become a follower and let me know. Any current followers will automatically gain an extra entry.
3. 
   
   I'm going to leave this giveaway open till next Friday so if you comment on any posts between now  and then you will gain a further entry. And I will give any regular commentors extra entries as well.

When you leave me a comment please make sure you have your email on your profile and have ticked the box 'show email' otherwise it makes it very difficult to contact you. There are a lot of people out there who are completely unaware that they can't be contacted. Amy of Parkcity Girl has done a great post on this that you might want to check out here.

Also I'm added this post to Amylou's Sew 'n' tell Friday because those 2 pincushions are my finishes this week. Click on the Sew'n'tell button on the righthand side bar to see some more lovely finishes for this week.

Welcome to my guest blogger Amelia!!

I have finished my 2nd quilt! It is quite bigger than my first. My first one was a doll quilt made for my little sister which you can see here. The fabrics I used were old scraps from my Mum and they were just the right size. I had been wanting to make this for quite a while. We started on Monday and finished on Thursday.  It was kinda of hard at first  because I had to get used to using the machine which I hadn't used in a while. My Mum helped me with putting the fabrics in pairs and cutting up the strips for the back.

I especially love the aboriginal fabrics on the back. I am really into fabrics from different cultures.

I did the straight line quilting and Mum did the wavy lines along the borders.

I am going to add this to this weeks Sew'n'Tell Friday!!!! Don't forget to check out all the other finishes for this week over at Amy's by clicking on the butoon over there on the right.

Thanks for reading my first blog post!!!!!! Amelia:) [ameliaroxz:)]

The frock quilt is finished!

I completed hand quilting this quilt last night while watching "The Green Mile". I can't believe I haven't seen this movie before. It's now on my top 5 movie list. It made me laugh and cry and was just such a powerful movie. If you haven't seen it you must! Anyway I'm so pleased to have finished this quilt and really love how it's turned out. I took it out into the garden for a photo shoot and our oldest and grumpiest cat decided as cats do that it would be nice to sit on. Just as well he had clean paws!

I made and attached the binding this afternoon. It took me over 2 hours to hand sew it down. It is usually a job I like to leave to do in front of the TV at night but I was keen to get it finished and photographed, plus we went out to a barbecue for dinner tonight. I have photographed each step of how I make my binding so I can do a little tutorial on it tomorrow.

For the backing I used up some of the leftover strips for a line of blocks down the centre for added interest and to make the backing fabric to go further.

And one last photo that gives a better look at the quilting. It is 90% hand quilted. I machine quilted around the inner individual blocks and handquilted all the borders with various meandering loops and hearts. This quilt now belongs to my eldest daughter Amelia who loves clothes and shopping.

This is my finish this week for Sew'n'tell Friday. You can check out some more finishes over here or click on the button on the right hand side bar.

Christmas gifts.

This is the dress I made Amelia for her to wear on Christmas day. It is a free downloadable pattern on Heather Ross's blog. I really enjoyed sewing this dress and I'm now hooked on making clothing with shirred elastic. I have allsorts of ideas floating around in my head and wish I had mastered this easy technique when the girls were smaller. For added interest I added a belt which ties around her waist twice.

There is plenty of room for growth plus I have added extra to the straps so I can let it out as she grows.

I made 2 aprons for my Mum for Christmas. This is the "Cup half full apron" from Anna Maria Horner's book "Seams to me". The beautiful floral fabric is by 'Donna Wilder' for Fabric Traditions, found at Spotlight.

This is the "Full contact cooking apron" also from the book "Seams to me". There's a lot more sewing in this apron but totally worth it. It took most of the day from cutting out to sewing on the buttons on. The fabrics are again from Spotlight which is impressing me lately with the fabrics they are now stocking.

I'm linking up with Amy's Sew'n'tell this week which has re-started after the Christmas break. Go on over and check out all the other Friday Sew'n'tell's too or link up if you have some finishes to share.

Sew 'n' tell Friday

Finished this swing top just in time for Caitlin to wear to our Christmas street party last night.

She chose the fabric and pattern from Spotlight a few weeks ago and I made some bias binding from some pink polka dot fabric I had originally bought for binding a quilt. I used some pretty pink velvet ribbon that I had already to go around the bodice where it is joined to the skirt piece.

It has a side zipper and I used this great tutorial to get some tips on sewing in a invisible zipper.

Caitlin is really pleased with it so much so that she wanted to wear it again today but I persuaded her to save it for Christmas day.

Now the cute little puppy belongs to a friend of ours. He turned up with it just as I had started to take photos of Caitlin. He turned out to be the perfect prop for our little photo shoot!
You can check out all the other Sew 'n' tell's this week over here on Amy's blog.

Fabric Mosiac Cushion

I have been slowly beavering away on this fabric mosaic for a few days now just doing a little bit when I had time. This is a great way to use up those tiny craps that I can't quite throw away but seem too small to do much with. I think I started collecting small scraps after I tried my hand at paper piecing and realized you only needed small scraps for some of the intricate patterns. I was inspired to do this fabric mosaic when I saw a quilt here on
Crazy Mom Quilts blog. I've just given it another name. I like trying out new to me patterns or techniques on the smaller scale of a cushion.

This is the cushion back with a button enclosure and using up more scraps. It really does give me a good feeling using up my scraps although my pile never seems to diminish much! This pillow is going to live with these pillows I did a while back.

And before you say "is that all she's accomplished this week?" I have been working on this quilt most evenings. I have quilted some nice swirls and girly hearts along the first border. You can visit all the other finishes for " Sew 'n' tell friday" by clicking the button on the right.

A matching set!

I whipped this chequebook cover up in a couple of hours today and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I took the measurements off the ugly fake suede one I got free from the bank and just designed it as I went. I sewed a nice decorative stitch down the middle of the outside to make it fold more easily. The tote bag that it matches was made a couple of months ago and I had just enough batik fabric leftover from it.

When I finished it I thought it looked a bit plain but then I remembered that I had bought these decorative metal corner pieces years ago and had never used them. I have no idea what I originally bought them for but they just add the perfect finishing touch.

I just need to go shopping now so I can show it off! Sew'n'tell Friday is such good motivation. Check out the other finishes over here at Amy's or just click the button on the right sidebar

The only other sewing related activity I did was cutting up some scraps to send to 8 lovely ladies that I've met through the Old Red Barn Quilt along. We are doing a scrap swap so we can make a quilt like this one. I love scrappy quilts so I didn't think twice about taking part. Sorting out my scraps made me re-think what I have in my stash and I had a good sort out and totally reorganised my fabrics. I ended up throwing out 5 supermarket sized bags full of ugly or poor quality fabrics that were taking up valuable room in my sewing attic. I seem to be in a real spring cleaning mood this week as I also re-organised my linen cupboard this morning.

My definition of satisfaction.

This week for Sew 'n' tell Friday I made another pencil case , this one is for Caitlin similar to the boxy pouch but it is round and probably large enough to be a small overnight toilet bag. It should fit all the pens and pencils etc she needs for school plus more. I also had a go at a crayon roll except for pens or pencils and thought it would be kinda cool for Amelia to put her gel pens in to take to school. I don't think Caitlin has seen it yet but I'm sure she will want one when she does. Hey even I want one! I'm thinking it would be an easy project for Amelia to tackle. I had both these items all cut out and ready to sew last Friday but ran out of time. Once they are cut out they take less than an hour to whip up. I like that quick satisfaction in a sewing project. You can find this quick and easy tutorial for the pencil/pen roll here. Don't forget to check out all the other Sew 'n' tell participants by clicking the button on the right hand side bar.

I got no sewing done over the weekend as I spent most of Saturday on my bike completing a 200km cycling event. This annual event is called the K2 and they say it is the toughest cycling race in the Southern hemisphere and yes it was pretty tough. It was a beautiful day here and perfect riding weather so that all helps. I have been training for this event for 6 months which was a big commitment but the satisfaction of completing a long ride like this was huge. You can check out the beautiful scenery that we rode past here. I spent Sunday not doing much but being kind to my body and letting it recover. I do find it hard to laze around and not do anything...I wonder if that puts me in the exercise addiction category. Maybe, because I've just signed up for another long cycle event in 3 weeks... the Lake Taupo Cycle challenge which is slightly shorter at 160kms. I know I'm a sucker for punishment !

The Boxy Pouch

There's nothing like the satisfaction of finishing a small project like this one. I promised to make my eldest daughter Amelia a pencil case for school a few weeks ago and today I finally got around to it. I found this great tutorial months ago to make a 'Boxy pouch' and decided this would be perfect for a pencil case. I increased the measurements by 2 inches and it came out about the size of a small tissue box. (Speaking of tissue boxes have you seen these ones. Too cute!) I also added ribbon tabs at each end of the zipper to make opening and closing easier.


I have also decided to participate in the "Show'n'tell Fridays" hosted by "Amy" each week. So this is my first Show'n'Tell post. I think it's going to be just the motivation I need to finish at least a small item each week and hopefully a big item every now and then. Head on over here and check out the other posts this week. Just click on the 'Show'n'tell' Button on the right sidebar.