comfortstitching

a scrappy pine forest quilt

One last quilt finish to show you for 2011, another wintery quilt started in April and abandoned midway through the binding stage on to the to-do-when-I-feel-like-it pile.

This is the first time I've completely improvised the piecing of an entire quilt - I began by making random free pieced tree blocks, then stitched up a few blocks and strips using squares of the same fabrics and just the one teeny star block.  To piece up the quilt, I laid out all the blocks in a composition I liked and then filled in the blank spaces with strips of white solids (leftovers from other projects).

I stopped when I ran out of white strips and this is my one regret for this quilt, I really should have gone bigger.

But I love it, love love love the randomness and playfulness of it's character.  I am someone who loves the wonky and scrappy as much as the straight and orderly.

To quilt I used a decorative stitch on my machine and stitched vertical stripes.  This is a quick and easy way to add one last dimension of pattern to the design.

Fabrics used were Flurry by Kate Spain, Fa La La La La by French General and of course those scooting Sherbet Pips.

This quilt will be covering up a little elf sized person I know this winter (although I'll be borrowing it intermittently to cosy up on the sofa).

Meanwhile I've cast on some stitches and began knitting with such earnest that I've already snapped one of my knitting needles (good job I had a few spares knocking around).  

And that dear readers brings to an end my posts for this year.  I'll be taking a short blog break for a couple of weeks-ish and should be back in the first week of January.

Have yourselves a truly merry and memorable Christmas season, may your favourite Santa kiss you under the miseltoe (and hopefully help you with the washing up too).

Until next year!

xxx

decorating with anticipation

We've been busy making a few last minute decorative touches in the anticipation of a visit from a certain someone....

Yep! the stockings have been hung.

This year, I decided to hang up a simple string along the girl's bedroom wall to hang up their stockings.  The patchwork ones are theirs and the others are there purely for jollying up the wall in the spirit of the season.

Please exuse the bubbles in the wall paper, my husband is still fine tuning the art of decorating. 

I seriously love these machine knitted stockings I bought from the pound shop several years ago and pull them out every year to decorate (but no one is allowed to put actually put anything in them - not even Santa - don't want to be a snagging those stitches).

Here are a couple of close up's of the patchwork stockings, you can find a tutorial for making up some of your own right here - there's still a little time left..

Talking of which, how are all the to do lists going?

a winner

The winner of the sewmamasew giveaway prize of your choice of any ten PDF patterns from my shop is no. 283, who is Catherine!!  Catherine said   'Oh my! This is a lovely prize package. I would love some quilting inspiration and enjoy embroidery.  Ultimate giveaway prize. How about a new vehicle? Mine's acting awful sad.  Thanks for the chance!'

Congtrats to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Please check your inbox for an email from me :)

Thank you to everyone for playing along!

the last drop of silence

You all know how busy I've been keeping myself lately, adding all those last minute handmade touches....

finding a few more must make projects.

Well, I think, I have finally run out of seasonal steam 

Because after making almost a whole village's worth of these cute handmade house decorations from this book I bought from Kajsa's shop last year, I really have no energy left to stitch on that final snippet of a finishing touch - sewing on the hanging loop.  So they will have to make do with living on the bookshelf this winter.

Meanwhile, I'm taking it slow today, drinking in that last whiff of silence before the end of term school gates open and the house is filled with singing and squabbling in equal measure.

It's funny how you only start to appreciate that kind of still ness and calm just as it's about to dwindle away into nothing.

I'm also feeling slightly under the weather on the icky side of sicky, so I'll be spending a lot of time here today, tea on the left and biscuits on the right, gingerbread house street candles on, twinkly tree lights on, covered in yarn and attempting a little bit of crochet.

Just need to decide which way to go on that.

Have yourselves a great pre-holiday weekend!!!

run reindeer run

Sometimes, you just have to cut up a load of this...

stitch it together until it looks like this,

then quilt it up into a little something like this.

All in the name of sending it to someone else.................because the gift of Christmas is in the giving.

Or so I keep telling myself, all the way down to the post office, all the way up in the queue to the cashier....

It doesn't end there, it's quite hard bundling up stuff you made and taking a deep breath as you wrap it up.

(house pouch is from this brand new book by the 'you'll want to make it right now' genius Rashida Coleman Hale).

It's hard, so, so hard.  BUT...

sometimes other people do the giving and the good ole UPS (ho ho ho) man brings YOU something :)))  Like this perfectly cute cutting mat Moda sent me. IN. LOVE. ME. WHY. YES!

Kind of Santa's karma, don't you think???

a quilt in time

Previous experience is a good thing.  Previous experience when it comes to making quilts in time for Christmas has taught me to start on the early side of early.  After two whole years of quilting, I decided early in the case of me meant that even July was too late, I needed to start in April.

This entire quilt was pieced and sashed, basted then quilted in a herringbone style (of all the quilts I've made, the quilting on this one is my most favourite ever, expect lots more herringbone quilting to come) then I machine bound the quilt on the front and started handstitching the binding to the back, went three quarters of the way around, then promptly put the quilt on a shelf and forgot all about it until last week.  Yep! it took 8 months to get around to stitching up those last 15".

These blocks were made 6" square.  Instead of making the stars wonky and uneven, I made them pretty consistent in size and then wonk-ed the blocks when I sashed them instead.

If you fancy trying out a star block, this is a great tutorial.

Fabrics used include Sherbet Pips, Flurry by Kate Spain, Bliss by Bonnie and Camille, Kei honeycomb dots, City Weekend by Oliver and S and the deer print is from Caramel Town by Lecien.  Solids used are from Flurry, Fa la la la la by French General and bella solids.  The binding is from City Weekend.

Not bad for a quilt that only took 3 years to get around to make.

winter woolies

Sometimes I need a little challenge to branch out of that comfort zone I like being all snuggled up in.  Super scary sounding paper piecing is not at home in that comfort zone, not at all.  Beautiful to look at but frightening to contemplate, or so I thought.

Cue Kerry and her Winter Woolies pattern.  Kerry does all the hard work for you, so all you have to do is cut out the pattern and sew on the lines and then you can say 'I did this all by myself' (except you know Kerry helped you really with her wise words, hint's, tips and explanations but you don't need to tell everybody that do you?)

Lots of tea was drunk, a wind up santa was played (c'mon, you know you would too) with and in the space of ONE day, I'd done this....

Made a picture, pieced from fabric and felt very clever indeedy.

Fabrics used are - For the woolies - Sweater check from my Little Apples and a Denyse Schmidt print from Picnics and Fairgrounds.  Background - Urban Grid from City Weekend by Oliver and S for Moda.  Binding - Button Stripe from Little Apples.

Remember the work corner station of my front room I showed you last week? (the one next to the mock fireplace).   I've decided this patch of wall needs a mini quilt injection (so I have something to while away the hours at staring when I really should be working).

Three quilts down, I'd say about seven more to go.

Lots more seasonal decs and sewing to come this week................stay tuned!

sewmamasew giveaway day

Welcome to my post for sewmamasew's giveaway day.

For my prize this time around I am offering the winner their choice of any TEN pdf patterns from my shop.  There are quilt patterns - see 'sugar drop', 'confetti' and 'crackle' above or 'fancy' below as well as a couple of others.

There is also an array of embroidery patterns, see above and below.

You can see further details on any of these in my shop.

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment below (if you like (just for fun) you could let me know what your ultimate giveaway prize would be....)

Giveaway closes at December 16th at 5pm PST, I'll announce the winners name soon afterwards.

Please note : The pdf patterns will be emailed to the winner's email address, you do not need to include your email in your comment unless you are commenting through your Typepad profile.

Good luck and enjoy your giveaway day week!

a little trimming

Today's post is picture heavy and laden like a feast in all its twinkly trimming glory (with bells on).  You are cordially invited to take a look around at the holiday handiwork completed so far around my gaff.

We are starting in the corner of the living room, this small cubby space is the anchor of our home and the most heavily used area.  These sofa's are falling apart from all the bottom sitting that has been done on them over the last 10 years, they need replacing but I've managed to eek a few more years of use out of them by stitching up seat and arm chair covers to cover up all the rips and tears, so still they linger on.

You can see it's a tight squeeze around here but that's how we like it, pure coziness.

Adding to the cozy feel, cushions, lots of.  All made over the last couple of years.  One day you will no longer see the sofa, it will be all cushions.

Moving around from the seating area just past the incredulous mock fireplace, you can see my work area.  I really must find a more discreet home for the cutting mat but for now it calls this wall it's home.

Hanging on the mirror above the mantel above the illustrious pretend fire area we have my crafty whim of a robin garland.

On the mantel is a little gingerbread scene candle holder (the candles light up the windows for night time), surrounded by skiing children cake decorations,

a russian doll type santa and other toys, whilst on the corner of my work desk (heavily distracting me on the hour, every hour),

crocheted snowmen!  crocheted poinsetta flowers, giant strawberry pincushions (my souvenir from my fall market booth) and treasures from crackers of years gone by!

This is my favourit-ist little box of mini seasonal treasures, full of little handmade cards, puzzles and cake decs and anything else iced with loveliness I can squeeze into it.

Off into the next corner along from the work space we go and we can see the back of...

another garland, homemade stocking style.

And lastly a little more homely trim on the bookcase.

And finally we are back to where we started (I spend a lot of time sat just here).

I hope you survived the seasonal trek around (we didn't get very far I know),  If you're not too bored all ready, there may be more to come.

Christmas to do box

This is the Christmas to do box I showed you at the bottom of yesterday's post.  It contains a selection of seasonal coloured fabrics picked from my stash to provide a quick go-to capsule collection for quicker project making/less time faffing about choosing fabric.

The contents are a few choice 'lead' prints plus lots of fun geometrics in a palette of red, green and blue.

When a project idea 'strikes', I go to the box, grab the fabric swiftly then chop it up deftly (but not too deftly) until a pile of magic fabric squares emerges before my very eyes.

A little arrangement time takes place.

Then fabrics are stitched together into one big piece of...............fabric.

I cut a piece of backing slightly bigger than the patchwork, then pin the two, right sides together.

like this,

Then stitch all around the outside edge, leaving a 10" gap at one edge. Trim the excess from the backing fabric then turn inside out, press and stitch the gap shut.

Top stitch all around the outside edge (for extra tidy looking durability).

And have a patchwork Ta Da!!! moment.

A pretty little seasonal table dressing to remind the girls what season we are in (just in case they forget whilst sleeping).

Tune in for more seasonal dressing up and trimming looks for you tomorrow :)