comfortstitching

Christmas tree corner

Today's post is a celebration of the tree of Christmas in fabric form.  Allow me to begin with exhibit no. 1 - a patchwork Christmas tree cushion in reverse applique splendour.  I made this a few weeks ago but only got around to finishing off that binding a few days ago (there is nothing like an impending celebration to bring out the finishing elf in me).

I used the pattern from the book 'Pretty in Patchwork Holidays' by John Adams (published by Lark books), this particular project was written by Angela.

In between cups of tea in mugs of holly, I also spent a jolly hour stitching up.....

This cute little placemat/mug rug/oversize coaster - again with the tree motif (see the theme going on here).  This pattern is also from the same book.

And right next to the real Christmas tree in the corner of our front room, I finally got around to digging out the girls stockings and hung them up.

The patchwork one was made earlier this year and a tutorial for it can be found here.

The pattern for the embroidered one can be found in  my book.

And with those hung up, all that's left to say to the man in the red coat is - 'Ready when you are' ;)

quilting modern televisions

During my self emposed sewing exile last week, my sole 'activity' seemed to centre around the watching of the television.  I watched lots including many episodes of Miss Marple - oohing and ahhing over the chocolate box village -y murderous glory.  I also took time out to view some of my favourite film discoveries - these include,

Love with the proper stranger - Steve Mcqueen playing neither cowboy nor thug but as romantic lead in a kind of comedy (if you've never seen this, go seek it out).

It started in naples - Sopia Loren at her nonchalent comidienne best.

Killing bono - Unreasonably optimistic yet fairly talentless musician living in the shadow of Ireland's greatest rock band.

* please forgive my scarily weak descriptions.

With all the 'activity' of the above, it was only a matter of time before I yawned my way out of my tiredness and headed back to the Pfaff to stitch....

Televisions!!!

Inspired by the marvellous Mod T.V. quilt pattern from the book Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen, I decided to dip my toe back gently into sewing waters and make a pillow version.

I used blues and a few greens from across all my fabric lines, everything was scraps including all the white fabric.  I also quilted it exactly like the quilting in the book and also borrowed the idea of using a dark medium blue for the binding.

I think this fella is my favourite fabric television.

And like all good tv programs - I'm already dreaming up the sequel.

Stay tuned ;)

pedaling along

I've been pedaling away at my sewing machine, stitching up the many whims of ideas circling around my head parts, cutting up fabric and sewing it back together again in the name of patchwork. And pillows.

The pillow above and below is my latest fancy and uses 6" square traditional quilt blocks given a fussy cut spin.

I don't think I could ever tire of using fussy cuts in patchwork, what is not to love?

When I'm not pedaling you can bet I'll be embroidering and now that my Bouquet pattern is finished and permanantly lives on my bookshelf in full view of all corners of the living room, I decided there was nothing for it but to start another flowery embroidery thingy.

This one doesn't have a name yet but it's keeping my embroidery fingers busy at those annoying moments when the sewing machine just isn't allowed out to play.

Talking of which it's time to get back to the pedal :)

busy stripping

I am feeling completely overwhelmed today.  I feel like I have a bad habit, a habit that makes it almost impossible to say the word 'no'.  I have said the opposite word to no far too many times over these last few months and as a result I feel like I am struggling to swim my way through all the commitments this week. My girls are at home on their Easter holidays and whilst they are keeping themselves busy, they also have been asking me to take them out to a few places - at the very least they want me to take them to the Damien Hirst Retrospective at the Tate Modern so that they can walk through the middle of a cow. Unfortunately bad mummy has said 'yes' to way too many things lately so finds herself saying 'no' more often than not to her daughters.  This cannot be right.

I am going to be taking a serious look at this situation and really stripping back on the number of 'yes's' from now on because it seems my priorities might be in the wrong place.

So it looks like my patchwork is mirroring my life - stripping with fabric and in reality.

This pillow was actually made a couple of weeks ago but it seemed perfect to post today.  Here it is on the sofa back then.

And here it is today in reality surrounded by fabric mess and a disorganized mind.  And if you think this looks messy you should really see the rest of the house.

take a seat

The lady chair has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!  She arrived last night with her new friend otherwise known as the new big sofa (which will mostly be for my hubby to stretch out on after a hard old day doing whatever it is he does).  They will soon be joined by a smaller version of the new big sofa - currently still under construction, which will be mostly be sat on by my daughters telling each other to get out of the way of the telly.

But let's not talk about the other sofa's, lets talk about my new lady seat - a long time longed for piece of upholstered comfort for ladies what lounge (that's me).  You can clearly see the infuence of many many hours watched of episodes of miss marple.  I have always hankered after the kinds of seats she sits on drinking tea and knitting whilst unravelling one mystery after another and that is precisely what I plan to do too, knit whilst drowning myself in tea and solving stuff I can't make sense of.

I of course had to stitch up a new cushion or two especially for my new chair (I had to pass the waiting time somehow) and tried to remember the colours of the plaid whilst picking my fabrics.  I used some far far away 3 by heather ross, pez by american jane, bliss by bonnie and camille and hope valley by denyse schmidt.

The quilt block I used was a modified version of one I put together for a new pattern of mine called 'Festive', I haven't started selling it yet but it is available at Fat Quarter Shop in both pdf and print versions already if you are interested.  In this version I have used several fabrics together instead of just two.

This one is a new pillow using my scoot print from sherbet pips I stitched up this morning using the same pattern - this one uses only two fabrics like the blocks in the pattern.

So that's it for this week - I will of course be spending a lot of time lounging this weekend but before that I plan to make some Canelloni tonight using leftover pancakes from Tuesday instead of the pasta - I've tried this before and it's scrumptious, if you've never given it a go, please do.

marshmallow

Right before I went to market, I was doing an awful lot of sewing with some of the pink and white fabrics from the new line.  I wanted to have a little bit of fun with piecing lots of fussy cut images into simple compositions.  

Cue the idea for this pillow, lots of tiny-ish pink and white squares sewn up into a checkboard pattern.  I call this my 'Marshmallow' pillow because that is what it reminds me of, those fluffy, oomphy, squishy cylindrical balls of sugary goodness.  Well maybe not goodness if you happen to be a dentist...

perfect for a squishy, oomphy pillow effect.

This is another pillow idea I was working on, a double dresden!!!  I can really see me playing with this idea and coming up with triple or quadrupal drezzies too.

Two perfectly squish-i-liscious covers to live happily ever after forever and ever with.

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'