Swap for Daylesford Craft Experience

We were given a piece of fabric and some embroidery thread to make something crafty to swap at the Daylesford craft experience this weekend. I got some strawberry fabric and some green thread. Of course I left it to the last minute. I decided to make a pin cushion cuff using the following tutorial.

It was quick and fun and I think I'll be making one for myself next.
I put some felt underneath the pin cushion to stop pins poking through.






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New Cutting Table

My new cutting table arrived on Friday. It is called 'The Pixie' and I bought it on special, with free delivery, from Horn. It is just the right height and I love the pistachio green top. It is shorter than the normal Horn cutting tables - which is really great because I've tried the other tables and they're too high for me.

Sam & I put it together Friday night and here is My Pixie checking out 'The Pixie'.

Now I just need to shuffle the rest of my sewing room around so that it is comfortable. It doesn't feel quite right at the moment but I can't put my finger on what is wrong.

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On my sewing table ...

I'm very much a gadget girl. I love all the sewing gadgets from Clover. I love my new purple Clover magnetic pin holder.

It comes with a plastic cover (to stop the kitties pulling the pins off!) and the groove makes it easy to get the pins out. I also recently got a pair of duck billed scissors. It makes trimming seam allowances so much easier!

As always Milly has to sit right where I'm trying to work.

This is my mini design wall. It sits above my sewing machine. It is great for sticking the pattern instructions up so I can refer to them while I'm sewing. The sheets are self-adhesive, reusable, leave no residue and nothing has fallen off it yet. They're by Gripping-Stuff and I got them from OfficeWorks. Very handy.

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Peggy's Bag

I made this bag last month for my mum-in-law to be. I made it using the "Pleated Beauty" pattern from Bend-The-Rules Sewing.

I was having sewing machine issues but gave it a good clean out, a jeans needle and was finally able to finish my bag for Peggy. The fabric is chocolate cord with a small floral pattern. I made the flower design on the fly.

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In Progress - Hummingbird Bag

This is my first zipper project and my first attempt at sewing in a curved gusset! The gusset was tricky! I had to unpick it 3 times - but the fourth time it all lined up. I was so excited about making this bag though because it is so different from anything else I've made. I used a pattern from "Quilted Bags and Purses".

The fabric is a mix of Junko Onishi's Hummingbird fabric and rust coloured velvet and woven material from a curtain shop's offcuts. The lining is chocolate brown cotton drill and the zip is dark chocolate too. I also used fusible pelon and woven interfacing for the first time.

The bag is designed to be carried in your hand but I like wearing bags on my shoulders. So, I'm going to make some more strap lengths and attach them to the existing straps with 'D-rings'. The bag is the most layers of fabric I've ever had to sew and my machine suprisingly went through it all. Using brand new needles really makes a difference. My new "hump jumper" also helped stitching through all the layers enormously.

Finished bag to be posted soon ...

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BTRSswap - Pleated Beauty

I finished my bag for the BTRSswap a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to take a picture. Here it is! I'm really happy with the colour combination. I even remembered to leave a gap in the lining to turn the bag inside out!
I used magnetic snaps for the first time. I'm not sure if they are too strong though. They take a little bit of effort to get them apart. Next time I might use some smaller snaps.

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BTRSswap Bag in progress

Here's the inside of my bag for the Bend-The-Rules Sewing swap. I love this fabric. My bag is to go to the US so I tried to pick Spring type colours. The ric-rac on the pocket is very 'spring' like I think. It is hard to try and pick out Spring type fabrics when it is cold and raining here.

I finished the bag last weekend so I will try and get some pictures before I send it to my swap partner.

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Can't have too many bags ...

I wasn't quite sure about this bag. But I made some adjustments and now I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The straps were way too wide (3") so I folded and sewed them in half. I also added a strip of fabric over the inside seam of the strap to cover the middle seam and make it padded a little bit. The bag looked a bit plain so I made a pocket for the front, added a cat button and put on some velvet ribbon to finish it off.
The great thing about making your own bag is that you can add lots of pockets. One for keys, one for my train ticket, one for my mobile phone etc. And of course plenty of space for a label.

Things I will adjust for next time:
a) Adjust the pattern to make the straps 1.5" wide.
b) Add an insert in the bottom of the bag so that it sits flatter.
c) Add the pocket to the pattern.
d) Sew the button to the tab and put a magnetic closure on the back of the tab and the pocket.

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Milly's Slobo Bag

Well, it's not really Milly's bag but she was hanging around when I was coming up with a name for it. Slobo is my name for a Hobo/Slouch bag combo. Poor Pixie was all tuckered out from her napping and had to have another nap.

I've got to do some hand sewing to finish it off. The straps are a little too wide for my shoulders so I might try to adjust them. I will also adjust my pattern for next time too. I got the pattern from tiny happy's tutorial and have made a few adjustments.

Here is the 'in progress' Slobo bag. The floral fabric is the inside lining with 3 pockets. The stripy fabric is a fine cord and it is the outside of the bag.
This photo is a silhouette of our new kitty (statue) at the front door - you can see the springy tail.

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Introducing Max Power

I made Max from the Wee Wonderfuls Pointy Kitty pattern. It was pretty easy to make. Although getting the head right, so that the kitty didn't fall over, took a little while.

I took a picture of our new fish Angus and Max wanted to get in on the action:

Pixie, Milly and Max all kicking back:

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BtR Sewing Swap

Yay! A Bend the Rules sewing swap. The first swap is the Pleated Beauty Bag. I've signed up and am so excited and a little nervous. Here's a link for the swap:

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High Tea

Jen & I went to the Stitches & Craft show last weekend. We booked into a stained glass applique class, with Gai from Just Patchwork, and made this. It was lots of fun. Appliquéing the binding (the 'lead' strips) was a bit tricky but it worked out well and we had a great time making it together.

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Yay - Birthday Girl!

The very talented Jenaveve gave me the best-est birthday present. She hand made me some place mats out of the cutest kitty fabric. They are so beautiful and I am scared to use them but I will!
Thx Jen!!

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More Goodies!

I'm not sure how but I always seem to be in the right place at the right time for bargains. Yesterday I went to Spotlight to get some ric rac and they had a room in the store set aside with 50% the marked price of a bunch of already reduced items. So, here is my booty to keep me occupied this winter. I got all of this for $27! 34 rolls of wool, about 12 crochet & knitting needles in various sizes, 15 rolls of ribbon and 18 bags of various embellishments.

I also got my ric rac and couldn't resist these gorgeous cat fabrics ...

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The Kitty Chronicle

I got this fabric on the weekend. The stories are great. I'm thinking of making a black & white quilt with various stories from 'the kitty chronicle' over the quilt. I'll have black & white patchwork blocks in between the stories. I have a large black & white woven square so I might incorporate that into the quilt as well as a black and white cathedral window square. Although it might be a bit busy so maybe I will just do some plainer squares and do another quilt with the weaving. I'll post draw up a design and post some ideas.

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Fi's Birthday Quilt - done!

I keep forgetting to post the finished quilt! It looks a lot like the 'in progress' picture except that the quilting and binding was added - not that you can really see it in the photos.

My sewing machine was playing up while I was quilting. :( No matter how I adjusted the tension the red bobbin thread kept showing on the front of the quilt. So, I had lines of little red dots. I pulled the sewing machine apart and gave it a clean and found a little screw on the bobbin compartment when I took it out. I tightened it and woo hoo, the tension is balanced. Pity I had already finished the quilting. But the red dots were annoying me so I put in some variegated thread and embroidery quilted a wavy pattern over the lines and it looks purrfect. I was a lot happier.

I sewed for 16 hours straight on Friday to finish the quilt so that I could give it to Fi on Saturday. Hand stitching the binding takes soooo long. But it looks great. I was really happy with the label, apart from the fact that I had stitched it on sideways. But I printed another message and attached it the right way up so that it looks like I made the label to be that way.

I probably should have ironed it before giving it to Fi but I rather like the crinkly effect that quilts get after being washed. Ironing it would have made it to crisp and new looking. If I had more time I would have quilted it a bit more in each square - it is a little saggy because it was still a little damp when I took the picture.

The top of the purple border still annoys me. I wish I had more red so that I could have extended it up a little bit. But Fi really likes the quilt and already has it on their bed so that is all that matters. As always, Milly is in the background doing her quality check before the quilt is handed over to its new owner.

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In Progress: "Me Healies" Quilt

I had a very productive weekend - sewing wise anyway. This quilt is a birthday present for my friend Fi. On Saturday I went and stood in front of fabric for about an hour picking out the colours. The shop is pretty quiet so it was nice and relaxing just pottering around. I wanted to get a colour wash type of effect but not too blended. I was really happy with the final group of fabrics. I was even happier with my new floor standing OTT lamp too! I've been wanting to get one for so long. It is really hard to sew, at night, as the light in my room is terrible. The OTT bulbs mimic natural daylight so you can see true colour and more detail. As a bonus it came with a portable OTT desk light too - woo hoo! Anyway, here is the quilt so far. I'm debating whether to applique aqua blue & green spirals (or maybe red) over the top and stipple quilt it or leave the spirals off and stitch in the ditch and in the squares. Tonight I think I will fix one little bit of the border that doesn't look quite right. The bottom right where the purple ends needs to extend up a bit further. If I have enough of the red fabric I'll put a bit of red in between. It is too much of a jump between the purple & yellow/orange at the moment. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to the unpicking. This quilt is very different to any other quilt I've made so far. I'm usually not very bold in the colour department. I don't usually pick bold colours, usually my quilts are made from safe colour combinations and introverted, like me.

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Quilt for Charlie

I made this quilt for my friend's baby, Charlie.
Charlie is having her first birthday tomorrow.
Of course Milly had to quality check it before I posted it.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

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Jen's Bag

Here's a full picture of the bag I made for Jen.

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Sneak Peak at Jen's Present

I am mailing Jenaveve's belated birthday present today. Sorry it is so late Jen! As compensation for the delay here is a sneak peak at part of the present. I will post full pics once the present has been received.
Bell

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