comfortstitching

crafty summer

With only one week left until the girls go back to school, I can very safely whisper that this summer has been a conveyour belt of crafty productivity.

It has taken us years to reach this stage, with previous summers being full of the little tykes attempting to sprint before they could crawl when it came to playing with sewing.  At last, they can sew all by themselves and I no longer get roped into practically making their projects for them after they give up frustrated by their lack of skill and practise. Yippeee!!

All of the items in this post (apart from the little apples doll and one felt rabbit) were made in their entirety by my girls with very little help from me.

Miss C summed up the general mood last night thrilled by the rush of realising she can sew fabric together and make stuff she can use.  The stuff in this case being her new invention - shoulder bags made from 3 charms squares (her own idea) - see pic top left.  She. was. elated.

What I love most about kids sewing is the character they inject in their projects, I squeal when I look at the expressions of these little figures above ( all made from projects in the book 'cute stuff').

And these made by C, who knew one eyed cats (yes that is a cat) could be so adorable?

Five weeks full of making needle books, lavender bags, knitting, cross stitching, dolls, handbags, purses and even making a knot in a drinking straw and using it to blow bubbles out of (bottom left above)..............the imagination ran riot.

This is little C's version of a ticker tape quilt, she cut, pinned and is currently stitching this together - I think she has a particular favourite fabric of choice......

So that's me right now, living the crafty dream (for just one more week).

BTW - this post was completely the idea of my daughters because they are convinced you want to see all this stuff they made.  

One of the main strategies that kept them stitching this summer was ' mummy, if I finish this will you put it on your blog?'

So if you do feel so inclined please let them know what you think - I'm sure they will log on later to see if anyone has taken a look....

mail organizer

I've been thinking lately that I really need to get more organized with everything that is going on.  For a long time I've been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl.  'I'll do it tomorrow' could quite possibly end up being my epitaph.

So you know, the best kind of way to make these BIG kind of changes is to start with small ones, which you hope might eventually snowball into the bigger plan of action.

If any of these small changes involves some kind of sewing project, of course it makes things so much easier for me.  

Cue, one such project - a mail organizer (it's a start).

There's space for mail coming in or going out and the kidlets love popping the letters into the pockets so I don't even have to pick them off the floor anymore - this is very much my kind of organization.

Cute pattern is by Jeni (which I've decided is short for genius btw).  You can find the tutorial here.

I found these two fabrics snuggled up against each other in my scrappy box the other day and realised that they were made for each other, even though they are from two different lines.  

There are lots of puppy fabric projects to come so look away now if you have an aversion. *****you have been warned*****

xxxx

 

into the woods

Down at the bottom of my teeny garden are two hugely abundant apple trees dripping with fruit.  The apples fall down to join the zillions already carpeting the crazy paving.  Along with the spiders web's and crispy looking brown plants past their heyday I am glad to say that Autumn/Fall is alive and well in my yard.  I love it down there, I can't bring myself to pick up the rotting apples as they make so dazzling a view between the glints of sunlight whispering through the branches...

And my little lady miss C is appropriately dressed for stories in this part of the garden, here she is playing as Little Red Riding Hood down in the woods (as she see's them) underneath the canopy of the trees above.

I made this little cape for her a couple of years ago for a day at her school where every child had to go in dressed as their favourite character from a book, little miss C went as little miss red.  To be perfectly truthful, this cape was such a slapdash affair, I worked without a pattern and made it in an hour.  A few days ago I caught a glimpse at how shoddy my original sewing was and got to work, making it fit a little better and finishing off the seams properly..............better late than never at all.

While I was uploading the pics for this post today, I came across this shot and the expression in it reminded me of......

this little number I stitched a couple of years ago............stitched and then promptly gave away in a swap (story of my crafty life).  I just might have to embroider this one up again and give her to a little lady I know.

a little pumpkin

I didn't think that I would get to write this post today.  It has been one of those days.  One word.  Kids.

A later posting time is perfectly fitting for today's subject matter however (in the UK at least it is getting dark).  Today's subject matter being Halloween inspired.  There are two reasons I've made/am posting this early - I always run out of time making holiday things unless I make them 2 months in advance/I won't at home for Halloween this year.

So here it is in all it's spooky glory - a cute little table runner for the scary season to come.  When Amanda showed her own version a few weeks ago, I fell in love, purchased the pattern and making it went straight to the top of the essential to do list.  (The pattern is available here).

It wasn't until I began pulling together my fabrics that I realised a slight drawback - I didn't actually have a single scrap of Halloween fabric.  Eager as I was to get started, fabrics instead were chosen by resemblence to a pumpkin-esque colour scheme.

To go with my new runner I modified the pincushion pattern from Joelle Hoverson's 'Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts' to make a pumpkin version.  

I think I love this pincushion slightly more than is healthy.

Hmmmm...  maybe I need to get W.I.P.ping on a few cushions to go with.

You know me by now...

squishy

If you are a seasoned visitor around these parts, you will be assured of the knowledge that every few weeks or so there will be a post about cushions.

I'm quite partial to a project which involves covering up something with fabric to make it look all brand new and shiny and pretty.  When that task also involves utilising quilt blocks or patterns I want to try but can't justify making another quilt (I think I have enough of those ((for the time being at least))) for me it's a win/win sitch.

Despite recent posts and this one, believe it or not there is still a way to go before I make enough cushion cover's to go round and so on the pre - assumption that your not bored already, here's another installment of 'cushion covers I have made lately'.

 

CC no.1 - Dresden plate, I came excruciatingly close to starting up a new quilt with these but stopped myself just in time to realise that my daughters are home for the holidays and this could be a bad idea right now. I managed to quell the urge (just) and kept to making the cover.

RE: dresdens - I have always made my own dresden templates from card or template plastic although I'm so addicted to this quilt block I think I will have to cave and go buy a proper ruler soon.

CC no. 2 - Gigantic pineapple, this one was tough going to begin with but I loved making such a simple, repetitive block in only two fabrics and huge proportions.  My 'technique' did waste a ton of fabric though, so I would want to do more research before attempting this again.

CC's no's 3 & 4 - Hexagons, these were started in time for my trip to Whitstable and allowed me to have a handy on the go project so that I was never far from my paper pieces and needles whatever we were up to.

I made these by starting with one hexagon and stitching six others to each side of it.  I then continued by adding more hexagons in the same way until I had a piece of hexagoned fabric big enough to make the top of my cover.

I cover making paper pieced hexagons in this tutorial if you are interested but don't know how.

Four brand new cushion covers that are making me V. happy indeed today.

As you can see, I am partial to a particular fabric to use for my binding, a definite creature of habit and pattern.

Things are getting spooky tommorow - just saying' 

does my bum look big in this?

Like most bloggers, I have a tendency to write and post about the things I make that worked out well, the stuff that goes pear shaped tends to go on a vacation to the bin with no photographic evidence of its existence ever having taken place.

And so, in the interests of balance, I wanted to show you my recent attempt to make a new cover for my bedside lamp, this was my second try and took me a whole day to get from the old shade (left) to the new one (right). 

I did begin by trying to look for a pattern but this is an odd shaped shade, so exactly zero were found.  A lot of scrutinising of the original cover took place and I drew up a template and hatched a pattern plan of my own.  Fabric was cut on the bias like the original and the bias tape added to the base was supposed to gently flip over the curved petal bits to nicely stretch the whole thing neatly into place.  Despite my best efforts, I think it's fair to say this foray was a huge flop/fail/disaster/waste of 7 odd hours.

Ah well, at least I tried (and hopefully gave you a giggle too).

And if anyone knows of any tips or tricks to help me out.....I'm listening!

a quilted house

This post could also have been called piles of quilts around my house.

It is made under the guise of a little mini tour around my home with pit stops wherever there is a quilt in sight.  The first stop on the quilting tour bus is the section of the house known as 'the toy room'.  This makes my house sound bigger and posher than it could ever dream to be but as you can perhaps make out from the weirdly angled pics, my home is pretty much titchy.  The toy room is in fact the third (smallest) bedroom and decorating the walls on this side are a couple of swap quilts I received a couple of years ago as well as my 'loopy frog prince mini'*

*If you want a closer look at any of the quilts in this post you can find the links here.

On the opposite side of the wall hangs my 'Bedtime story quilt' and just around the corner of those brown drawers we have..

a little mini quilt I made using all the colourways of the scoot print from pips. 

On the chest of drawers we have my 'scrap it up' quilt.

And to the left of the top photo are a few embroideries made by my eldest daughter (she is developing quite the stitchy habit).

In the girls room, these quilts either live on a little green stool or when the little green stool is busy they get piled up onto a bed (or most usually flung onto the floor..).

From the top - 'Dresden love story', 'Crazy scrappy quilt', 'blocky munki' and 'Geese in the middle'

This pile facing the girls beds includes (from top) 'scrappy trip around the world on a shoestring','pink sketch', 'magenta diamonds', 'liberty half hexagon' and 'scraptastic coin'

In to my bedroom, on the wall facing my bed are (from left) a mini I made with an embroidery received in a swap, 'geese in the city' and 'quilters boat' 

Facing the window is 'skipity pickledish'.

And this big huge pile now lives on table in my bedroom - two crocheted numbers, 'watercolour spiderweb', 'urban daydreams', 'true blue' and 'spring umbrella (and on the bed is my pickledish).

On the top of the bookshelf in the front room (no space or corner is safe in my house) there are a scrappy stars quilt (not finished or blogged yet), 'hoopla fancy', a little apples quilt and an unfinished christmas quilt.

I would say 'and lastly, these mini pips tree quilts hang by the front door' but even as I write this post I have remembered three four quilts I have forgotten to put include here.

Not bad for three years quilting but I do wonder what my house might look like in another three - quilted front door perhaps?????

red snowballs

I started making this table runner on Friday with the idea to use shades of just one colour.  The colour decided on was red, which was quite a good choice because there isn't much variation within the spectrum of shades of this hue! (unless you are going from orange through to purple).  

For this piece though I wanted RED red and luckily it worked out pretty well.  I was able to find lots of prints with different textures - bold and graphic through to fine detail and the contrasts are what I notice the most when I look at the finished runner.

I think this is the same way that redwork style embroidery works, red really is a colour that can stand alone.

I must be in a rouge frame of mind right now because these asters I brought home from the shops on Saturday are perfect to stand up on the runner.

The only thing tricky about asters is that they have pretty weak stems considering the hugeness of their heads and thus are prone to drooping (my neck hurts just looking at the poor things) and snapping.

I couldn't bear to throw away the poor little snapped off heads, they looked far too pretty to go live in the bin.  So I found this glass bowl which held the unusable remanants of a Christmas candle from last year, placed it in a plastic bowl of hot water for a few minutes and then managed to easily scrape out the residue wax.  After the bowl was filled with water, in popped the snapped off pretty heads to make a nifty little pond style/floaty flower table piece.

Table runner made from 4" squares, pieced into four patches and then made into snowball blocks*.  I stitched together two rows of six blocks to make the runner and then added a narrow 2" border.

Finished size of table runner - 45" x 17" 

*Edited to add - For each snowball block, I cut two 2 1/2" squares then cut each square on the diagonal to give two triangles.  Sew one triangle onto each corner.

Fabrics used are from Sherbet pips and little apples as well as Picnics & Fairgrounds and Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, Bliss by Bonnie & Camille and some Kei Honeycomb Dots.

Binding is Sweater Check in Lollipop from Little Apples. 

Hmmm I think a few red cushions may be in order??

plaits the way I like it..

This post is about two things - plaits (braids) and books, well not books exactly but knowledge - knowledge for the sheer fun of knowing stuff you never knew before!  My littlest daughter is enamoured by both of these things and her day is not complete unless she has..

plaited everything plait-able in her sight and learned several new things she never knew before............or at least told me of a few scraps of information she has recently learned and become fascinated with.

She even once taught me a scientific fact I had managed to live through 40 years of life without knowing - that glass is made out of sand and that the process is irreversible.  Yep! never knew that.

Our walks home from school are a never ending barrage of (completely initiated by miss c) spelling out words, practising number bonds and talking about connectives (a term for a word that can join two sentences together like 'also' or 'because').  My daughter can talk about connectives for hours because you see there are normal connectives and causal connectives and.....

Anyhow, all of that is just to explain to you how the bookworm and the little girl with the plaits ended up in 'little apples'.

As for my daughter, I'm just glad all that info goes into her head and dances around on a merry-go-round of delight whilst she plaits her dolls hair, singing as she goes..

Oh to have a memory that is not shaped like a sieve!

pink bubble

A while ago I finally convinced my husband that he needed to paint the girls' bedroom. 6 years of gentle persuasion is all it took.

The girls' picked their colour of choice - Sorbet, my husband got out his painting gear and I set about making them some new bedding (my idea of helping out).

Now I won't tell you that my husband has actually finished the paintwork (there are a few forgotten corners and other bits behind curtains and so on that he thinks I can't see), or that its perfect (there are a few air bubbles trapped in the wallpaper that he insisted on putting up first to get a really smooth finish) BUT it is as done as it will ever be and my girls are both happy (a rare occurence - agreement).

Yesterday we hung up a few of the pieces they each selected to hang on 'their' walls.  A picked this Heather Ross mini quilt that long time readers of my blog may remember was actually made for a swap but miss A decided that it really should belong to her instead (no point in having a mum that sews if she gives away stuff all the time).

This is miss C's side of the room, as you can see she has gone for the pips n apples look for her wall.

The Little Apples doll here is the first version of the one I made for market, her head is extremely floppy because someone didn't make her neck thick enough to support it properly.

 

I made matching patchwork pips duvet covers for the girls to go in their new room.  To make them more durable for all the washing and wear to come, I used 1/2" seams to piece the fabrics together and then topstitched them 1/4" from the seam line on the right side (seen above on the wrong side).  

I think it's curtains next for the room, red ones maybe???