My creative space: Morris Minor

I have three quilts waiting to be finished and when I finished my last uni essay two days ago ... all I wanted to do was play with illustrator!

I figured I didn't have enough UFO's hanging about, I'd best create some more. I grabbed the hold of an image of my Morris Minor 1000 and thought I would "poppify" it ..

I might get this printed up onto fabric to make some cushions ...Actually there is method in the madness .. I am putting together some pillows for our school library calm reading space. We obtained a lichtenstein inspired rug and picture, and so I wanted to do some pillows with quirky library phrases on them like " Happiness is a cup of tea and a good book".

 

I have taken a picture of one of the hold Headmistresses and have "popified her". I am still not happy with "Dot", the pink and orange doens't seem to work ... what do you think she might be saying?

How are you being creative this week? Join in and see what everyone else is doinghttp://blogs.kidspot.com.au/villagevoices/my-creative-space-the-make-do-studio/!

Nine Patch Quilted Cushion and Bunting.

Ahh Easter Weekend, time to spend with family and friends and perhaps finish a few of my one thousand projects! Lovely Leanne hosts the blog, one thousand projects and I can definitely relate. I might not have 1000 projects kicking around, but ask my hubby and he will tell you that I probably have too many for my own good!

I knocked over another UFO, cushion for daughter and bunting from left overs. This project was finished before the "sarah" project, I've just posted them in reverse order!

When I started to decorate my daughters bedroom last year I wanted to make her as much handmade stuff for her room as possible. I started patching this pillow and then changed my mind about the type of sashing. I unpicked and then used the lovely Kokka linen that I found at GJ's in East Brunswick.

I quilted it with a layer of cotton batting, using calico as the backing fabric. Then I did some simple stitching around the outside of the nine patch using Perle. I used 4 different fat quarters for this plus 1/2 a meter of linen.

The cushion is made to fit a 50cm Ikea feather cushion insert.

But what about the offcuts? Well, I decided to make her some matching bunting for her bedroom wall.

In hindsight, I would swap around the bunting so that every second one is linen. I could even over-engineer it and do a matching linen love heart on every flag, but it is up on her wall now and looking lovely.

Another project done and dusted .. oh did I tell you that I am moving house on the weekend ... best pack a few boxes in between finishing those projects!

Bunting Pillow for Sarah

What started as a quick finish on an UFO last night turned into a crafty bonanza for a party Tori and I were off to today.

Tori insisted that we make something for her friend Sarah who was turning 4 even though we had bought her something for her birthday. I am sure that someone has done this type of design better than I have, but I will share anyway.

Tori went through my fat quarter collection and chose a bundle and then I "shortlisted". The bunting on the pillow is held on with some fancy stitching that my Janome does. The linen is a gorgeous Kokka blend (GJs) that is so easy to sew with and the pillow is backed with the pink butterfly pattern fabric (Spotlight).

I actually made the bunting first, the pillow was an afterthought from offcuts that I wanted to use up. A bit of freeze paper and double sided interfacing and I had a pillow cover. The pillow is made to fit an IKEA 50cm x 50cm feather pillow (I quite like feather).

Tomorrow I might post all about the UFO that I finished!

Are you doing crafty things this Easter?

Cushion for Kerri

I'd been wanting to make something from Elizabeth Hartman's book for ages, but study and house preparations have kinda got in the way.

A friend was turning 40 and said "no presents" so I decided to make her a pillow. I got a handful of fabrics from my favourite fabric store.

And I had a go of my favourite pattern of the book.

I had a go at the pattern as a "sampler". The square of fabric that I used was a little smaller than the one that she recommended, but I really enjoyed the process of placement and sewing of the leaves. I cut them in bunches of 4 so that it wouldn't take as long to cut the leaves. The applique was easy and effective to do.

On the back I cut 4 1/2 inch squares and patched them together. If I were to do this one again, I would probably make the pillow larger and sash it.

Elizabeth writes clear and concise instructions with lots of little tips and hints along the way. I also love the way in which she lists "alternative ideas" at the end of the pattern, sparking the imagination even more.

I look foward to making more from this book when I get some time.

Pillow for the new bed

My daughter moved into her "big girl bed" on Saturday. Much excitement was had in the lead up to it. Over the last few weeks we changed little things in her room such as replacing the side cot with a guard rail, replacing her small cot pillow with a "big girl one" and her old blanket with her "big girl one". When we moved her into her new bed, there wasn't much that changed. Sheets looked the same, same pillow, same blanket and same guard rail.

The bed looked a little sparse, so I whipped up this pillow from panel that I bought ages ago online. It is meant to be a cloth book about colours, but I think that it looks better as a pillow.

Basic 14" poly pillow, invisable zip and black homespun for the back. Seams are not very sexily finished off as I literally "whipped it up". I am also planning on doing the green one for her bed as well. I will be making the other colours into pillows at the Modish Makers Market in May. As part of the lead up to their first market, they also did an interview about Konstant Kaos.

Crafty Christmas Things

I managed to finish a few crafty Christmas things and was sewing right up until the last moment ...

Crafty Christmas #1: Cushion for my Mother-in-Law

I came across this gorgeous fabric by Kristen Doran, a sydney based designer. I saw the panel on Duckcloth and decided to get one. It was originally going to be part of an apron that I was planning, but when I saw it in real life .. it became a pillow. I ended up using an invisable zip and size 16 cushion insert from Spotlight.

I backed the pillow with red micro-cord to make it more tacktile and Christmas-y. Check out her panels, she really does some lovely refined work with a european feel.

Crafty Christmas #2: Tool Roll for my Dad

Knowing that my father has a van full of spanners it was quite hard to decide how many to put in this roll. So he ended up with ten spaces. I only have a metre of this fabric and I wanted to use it for something worthwhile.

The tool roll is closed with two D-rings and a strap of heading tape doubled over and sewn.

In order to keep the spanners in, a flap goes over them before rolling them up ...

I used one of those nifty clover 25mm bias makers to make the bias to use around the outside of the roll. Dad will be letting me know what improvements I need to do it it before I make a few for my market stall.

Crafty Task #3: Drink Coasters for my Mum

This started off as a table runner, and then I wasn't happy with the colours or the placement so I ripped it up and decided to do some samples in the form of drink coasteres. The middle pansy was part of panel fabric that I got at a Quilting fair last year and the blocking fabric is purple butterflies from Spotlight.

Crafty Task #4: Flame Diary for Father-in-law

My father-in-law scored a Flame Diary. He has a business "rocks on fire" and this diary fits in well with what he does.

Inside a standard A5 diary with elastic and bookmark.

My crafty Christmas didn't turn out the way it started off. Apron's became pillows and table runners became drink coasters. But that is what I like about creating Christmas gifts, you never know what you will end up with. The positive thing is that no-one got hurt making my Christmas gifts this year (Tori pulled the hot iron onto her foot ...).