Various crafties.....

It has been a while since I last posted and now supply teaching alongside my 2 days a week teaching French I was hoping to have lots more time to do crafty things though I'm finding myself being just as busy and working almost full time through the supply work. I'm enjoying it though and still managing to do some crafty things!

Having written about having time to do things I am reminded of a quote a saw the other day, where I can't remember but I thought it quite poignant:

“Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.”  ― Lao Tzu

So I have managed to finish my goddaughters quilt (though forgot to take a picture of it so will do and then post it another time). I was pleased with it as it was suitably girly with a vintage feel which I really liked.

I have also made my sister some wedding bunting using nice scraps I had - she got married 13th October:

I still continue to cheat with my bunting and use adhesive web instead of actually sewing the letters on. One day I'll do it the proper way but it's such a time saver! This took me about 4 hours to do.

My husband then crafted a beautiful topper for them using supersculpty, he had had practice doing ours 3 years previously:

                                                                            Ours:

                                                                            My sisters:

Our lovely cottage and recent projects

We have moved over the summer and things have been very busy - hence why I haven't posted for a while. Here's our new rented cottage in a beautiful village in the Surrey countryside. The cottage is idyllic - surrounded by fields on two sides and very remote. We love it here!

I have been doing some projects here and there. I made a purse for a friend for her 30th as an alternative to wrapping paper! - Sadly I forgot to take a picture of this however.

I also made a door hanger for my cousin's baby as a Christening present:

As we are now living in such a beautiful cottage I have lots more opportunities to set up beautiful backdrops for my pictures - my only down fall is the quality of my photo taking. Tim, my husband, is now going to teach me how to improve this!!

I have made quite a few handmade cards as well over the summer due to weddings and birthdays. I have got really into sewing nice materials and papers directly onto my cards - it's quick, easy and produces a really nice effect. 

A simple Christening card: 

I was particularly pleased with my flowery heart wedding card:

My latest project, something which I did quite quickly as I needed to - you'll see why in a moment! A blind:

Our next door neighbours cut down a row of dead trees which had been blocking off the view into our toilet so I had to make the blind quite quickly to guard our dignity!! I sewed together 5 strips of different fabrics that I thought worked well together, then added some lace and a button for added detail. I sewed into onto a backing of one of the fabric strip patterns then used - get this - sticks from the garden which I whittled down to make the baton to go on the inside of the blind (to help when rolling it up and to keep it lying straight) then sewed that by hand into place (this took AGES!!). Finally I added another whittled stick to the top, tied it in place and found some ribbon to hold it up a little. I was really pleased with the outcome and it only took a couple of hours in total.

I have lots of other projects around the house to do - in fact the list is endless but I would like to:

- make some mini bunting for the porch area

- make a large rug for the living room floor (as its a cold brick floor at present)

- make a smaller similar rug for the porch 

- make curtains for the bedrooms and for the downstairs windows

- make a name sign for the house using mosaic

- make a mosaic mirror (i have the mirror already)

Wedding bunting

After losing my original picture I managed to get another done to show the wedding bunting I made for some friends back in June.

Bunting

My latest project over the last couple of weeks has been bunting. I did my first one for my friend's wedding which she really liked. Once the fabrics were chosen and cut to size it was so quick - I did cheat due to time constraints and used fabric adhesive - 'heat-a-bond' to save time with the letters.




Once I had got to grips with it I did the next one very quickly, this time it was for my sis-in-laws baby's christening. There were again some cheats to make things quicker: iron on bear motifs for each end, printed letter templates on Word document that can be adapted to any size, triangle template from cardboard scraps, pre-prepared bias binding to use as the ribbon, raw edged letters, pinking shears for the nice outline.
My sis-in-law loved it so I was very pleased! She says she'll put it up in the nursery afterwards.

Originally I was going to double side the bunting by sewing two triangles together, this would have made it take much longer to prepare and would have given it less of a rustic feel.I liked the way that these projects allowed me to make choices about fabrics and which ones work together, a challenge that I have tended to avoid up to this point as I'm not very confident with this.  I was pleased by the outcome. 


I'm looking forward to having a break now to concentrate on finishing little Holly's long-awaited quilt. Being a teacher I have the summer holidays which will be perfect for this and for starting some new projects too! I can't wait!! :-)

Gifts for the lovely in-laws!

For my parents-in-laws I decided to hand-make a gift this year.

A door hanger for my lovely mother-in-law:

I chose two of my favourite fabrics from the brilliant Patchwork Corner shop. They seem to work so well together so I put one on each side. You may not be able to tell but I also used my new super-duper trooper sewing machine and tried out a really nice decorative swirly stitch on the front. If you look closely you might be able to see it on the front outlining the heart shape.

For my father-in-law a useful (hopefully) Ipad case:

I found a freebie pattern on the internet which was great, it fitted perfectly and I took the idea of a large button and some elastic to make a catch to secure it from another design that I had seen. There is a pouch at the front for leads etc. I originally had planned to sew along the middle of the pouch to make 2 smaller ones but it is confusing to ensure that you think ahead enough to do that at the right time. By the time I had realised that I hadn't done it, there was no going back....unless I started unpicking!

A project that went wrong!....

My cousin had a baby - Eva, in January and I was keen to make a hand-crafted gift. I decided to make an owl using some lovely fabrics that I had bought whilst in Wales last year. This was a project that went wrong although my cousin tells me that it takes pride of place in the cot! You'll see why it went wrong from the picture below......what is it??!!

The moral of the story is make sure that you have a pre-prepared template that definitely looks like the creature that you are trying to portray! On reflection owls have small pointy ears (although of course most have hidden ears) that stick out to the sides, these are too deep and rounded! Also I went for the raw edge look but left too deep a seam allowance so it doesn't work as well as it could. I still love the colours and think it would have worked brilliantly had I made these few adaptations - it's all part of the learning process though!!

Next quilting project...

Since finishing the quilt (and starting the next for my friend Becky who's little one has since arrived - I promise it's coming soon!!) I'm now at the quilting stage having completed the front piecing and border so I will take a picture and show you the progress so far. I did have a change of mind on the style and decided to go with a more Cath Kidston style flowery look rather than my original Hungry Caterpillar idea. I'm so pleased that I did this as it fits perfectly with the nursery that Becky deorated beautifully :-).

Not organised enough for this blogging malarkey!!

Hello,

As you'll have noticed, some time has passed since my last post and I've discovered that I'm just not organised enough to keep these up-to-date. Though I'm going to make a concerted effort to get better at this, it may well be that I post past projects, we'll see!!

So I finally finished my first quilt - just a week after my nephew was born so not too bad considering! The final quilt took approximately 40 hours and I started it in October. I think it's great to have a deadline because it means that it gets done, though it's very hard to fit it in around full-time work.

Here's the finished article - my sister-in-law loved it so I was really chuffed.

Update on the quilt

I'm back on the case with my quilt. I had a productive session last weekend at my class, where I managed to complete the backing and tack together the quilt, layering it together with the wadding in between. It's all ready for me to start quilting.....Only 1 problem; I haven't got a walking foot for my sewing machine so I can't start yet! My job will be to get a walking foot for the next session.

Here's the quilt - front and back, with the wadding in and the tacks in place:

It's really exciting as it's beginning to feel like a quilt now, thick and soft. I hope my sister-in-law likes it!

As I can't move on with this until I get my walking foot - and find out from my teacher how to quilt it together - I decided to move onto my next quilt. This one's for my best friend who is expecting a girl. I've had in mind that I wanted to do a more vibrant one this time, so i've decided to go for the 'Hungry Caterpillar' design. It's very popular at the moment and many people buy a kit so it's all there to put together. I want my quilts to be unique, so I've bought the butterfly and caterpillar design and some of the colourful patterned fabric but I'm planning to have a less busy, more girly twist on it with daisies appliqued on top of a plain white fabric. In all that I do I always prefer simplicity over busyness! Though I do also have in my mind that white perhaps isn't the best choice for young babies!!!

These are the images that I will be using:

And this is the border pattern I will be using:

Anyway, we'll see how it goes, I'll post my progress!

New to blogging!

I have finally decided to get involved in 21st century activities and, with the help of my super-duper technically able husband, I now have a blog, yippeee!! I can't promise that I am going to post things that regularly, nor that they will be made with any precision, but what I can promise is that they will be unique and fun to do!!


Having always had a love of crafting but never dedicating any time to it, I decided a few months ago to join a patchwork quilting class. We meet once a month on a Saturday at Patchwork Corner in Hemel Hempstead for an all-day class. It is officially the most amazing fabric shop I have EVER seen, I would recommend anyone a visit! I was prompted to start quilting when I found out my best friend and sister-in-law were pregnant. I had always wanted to make a quilt and this was the perfect opportunity to learn - starting small with a babies quilt!


Here's where I've got to after 3 sessions - 18 hours!

With Kirsty Allsopp as my inspirational figure, and having watched back-to-back several episodes of 'Kirsty's Homemade Christmas', I decided to dedicate the week before Christmas for some much needed crafting time! I decided that my crafting list would include the following projects:

- 2 x owl door hangers (as xmas presents for my 2 best friends)

- 1 x heart door hanger for another friend

- felt xmas tree decorations (4 planned but only managed 1!)

- a wreath for flat door

- salt dough xmas tree decorations (didn't manage in the end!)

- lavender drawer fillers for grandparents for xmas presents (didn't manage)

I also managed to do a xmas day table centrepiece with left over foliage from the wreath making and I made some thank you cards using my sewing machine - something I've been planning to do for ages. 

All in all I had a fun-filled week of crafting!