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.

Kaos Hottie finally finished!

I have to zip off the post office this morning to post my Hottie Challenge to Curlypops so that Cam receives it on time ..

I really enjoyed doing this and I feel even better that the money raised from this initiative will be benefiting others.

All of the hotties will be exhibited and be for sale at the

Open Drawer Art, Textiles & Learning Centre

1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell

Melbourne

July 1st - July 24th.

Proceeds will go to the Margaret Pratt Foundation

(research for heart and lung transplants).

Luckily for me I have some felted jumper left over so that I can make a nice cover (similar design) for my heat pack ...

Upcycling old bathmats into baby changing mats

A while back Mum passed onto me some old bathmats to use as changing mats. I had some time spare on Sunday for some therapy in my sewing room ... I needed a quick project!

I pressed them, then trimmed the large hem off the bathmat and squared it up with the rotary cutter.

Next, some bias. Two strips of 2 1/2 inches of fabric, sewn together to make a long strip. You can either run this through your bias maker or fold half, sew to the bath mat and then press and sew again (like you would for a quilt).

Next some applique ...

And some more applique ..

And now the finished product. Some funky changing mats for the boy, to either grace the changing table or something to be thrown into the nappy bag.

I'm rather happy with the result!

Etsy Friday Finds

I've been doing lots of wishlists this week in my blog, mainly because I have a birthday right around the corner ...

I have a dream that my new sewing room will have something like this in it, except much bigger!! Thread holder by surveyorscorner.

I have an idea to make my daughter a "somewhere over the rainbow" pillow for her bed with the rainbow being embroidered using the same technique as her new dooner cover, inspired by this post. But first I need some rainbow colours ... this looks mighty tempting, 100 balls of rainbow coloured perele embroidery thread by cottonheart

I love Dresden Plate quilts and how they are both colourful and also traditional at the same time. Sweet little feet are destashing and have a Dresden plate quilting template up for grabs.

I've been stumbling along using my old embroidery scissors for applique .. these are definately on the wishlist as well, Pelican Applique Bill Scissors by MoonStarStore.

And of course a lovely quilt ladder by cindylouquilts to store all my creations!

What do you have on your sewing wishlist? Are there any new gadgets out there that I should know about?

Monochromatic Sampler: Block Six Tutorial

The technique used for this block could very well be used for a black star on white fabric block. Although the original design has three starts on white, when I was putting this block together I felt like I wanted a bit of Konstant Kaos in the quilt.

I wanted to play around with a different applique technique this time. I've done raw edges and reverse applique, this one uses Freeze Paper.

Cut our fabric:

• 10 1/2 inch by 10 1/2 inch square in Black
  
• One star in colour of choice
  

To get the star shape I used a Wingding in MS Word and enlarged it to 650 font size (re-adjusted the font style to outline) then printed it out.

Applique Shape

Cut some Freeze paper the size of your star or stars. We are going to use the Freeze paper to fold over and press the edges of the star so that there are as little raw edges as possible.

Another quilter at the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild showed me this technique. She used it for hexing and used a clover mini iron press to press her hexes rather than baste her them before hand sewing them together. I want to try this with the Penrose Tiles Quilt. This does mean that you have to cut freeze paper in hex shapes, but I am sure that there is a paper punch out there somewhere that does it!

Cut your freeze paper star and start to gently press the edges over with no steam. Upto you whether you trim down the corners or fold them over. For this one, I trimmed the corners out so that it wouldn't b so bulky as an applique.

The result should be an applique with nice crisp lines.

Carefully remove the star from the Freeze paper, it should hold it's shape for long enough to sew it onto your fabric.

A bit of fray lock can be used on any raw edges, alternatively, you could have folded those edges over.

Attaching the applique

I used a strip of double sided interfacing around the perimeter of the star to lock the pressed edges in place. Alternatively, you could have cut out a star from double sided interfacing.

Remove the paper backing of the double sided interfacing and press in place onto your backing fabric.

Around the edges I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine, but you could just as easily zig zag or straight stitch.

How are you going with the tutorials? I would really love some feedback on whether the instructions are clear and concise.

Punctuation patchwork experiments

Remember this baby quilt top?

Yesterday I managed to get an hour to myself in my sewing room (while the jet setters were passed out) and I started to play around with using up the scraps from my Punctuation baby quilt top to construct some more blocks either for pillows or another quilt top.

Rather than a block of 4 x4 2.5 inch squares, I played around with including a 4.5 inch square white block in the middle. Yet again, I am cutting into my Kona Solid "snow" that I have put aside for my daughers neverending Paintbox Quilt.

I am still undecided as to whether to hand embroider letters or punctuation marks onto the white insides or applique them. The appliqued letters use up a 2.5 x 2.5 inch square, but for me, hand embroidery is sometimes much easier.

Quality Control officer Anastasia

I think they would make either yet another cute baby quilt top or some cute nursery cushions.What do you think?

Sleeping Blanket for Childcare

Quite a while back my Mum gave me a cotton waffle blanket for Tori. I decided to customise the waffle blanket by unstitching the satin binding and replacing it with some striking cotton bias. In order to give the bias some more structure, I ran a few lines of stitching along the bias.

I had a meter of this yummy Michael Miller Night Owl fabric that Tori liked, so we made a matching bag for her blanket. I had a strip of green cotton left over from some of my Kona Colour Jelly Rolls that I used for the draw string.

I appliqued some owls onto the blanket and made name tags for her blanket and bag. It only dawned upon me this afternoon when I was trying to get Tori to nap that I hadn't documented what I had made ... so here it is!

Tori's Car Playmat Quilt

I am chugging along with Tori's Car Playmat Quilt. I work on it in spurts. I have been busy doing correction all weekend so I needed a moment last night, just me and my machine and this was the project I picked to work on.

I had originally picked out a backing and I started to stipple it and then I changed my mind. So I unpicked all the stippling and bought some red pure wool merino blanket for the backing at the Stitches and Craft Show. I think this will make it more snuggly.

I found some material at GJ's in East Brunswick which was essentially a whole stack of road work signs. So I cut them up, interfaced them and appliquéd them onto the quilt using straight stitch and then zig zag. I backed them in some batting to give them a raised look. The round one was a bitch to do.

I staggered the signs all over the quilt giving it a bit more of story. The test play with Tori this morning has certainly proved that the applique has been worthwhile.

I think that it gives it a nicer feel and Tori certainly got a thrill when she came across the railway crossing sign!

I am hand quilting it rather than machine stitching it. Not sure why, just want to. Simple black running stitch up each side of the roads.

I have some gorgeous multi coloured stripes from GJs for the binding. Won't be finished this weekend, but hopefully it can be done by the time Tori goes to Germany in October so that she can have a blanket for the plane.

Crime Scene Cushions

I had fun making these, they can now be found in my etsy shop.

Presents for babies

I love doing applique ... so I knocked this up as a present for friends who have an 8 week old. They had a little girl, but are not pink people and since I have a love of teal, I thought I would use it as inspiration ...

Using some Japanese Matryoshka doll print fabric, I cut out and appliquéd the doll onto a white bib and some flowers onto some face washers. Check out etsy for Matryoshka or Babushka Doll fabric, it is everywhere ...

Paired up with a toysaver, it made a nice neat little package. Material was backed with interfacing, then some double sided interfacing to stabilise the shape before sewing it around with zig zag.

Photo's taken using my new Toy from Think Geek ...

How to appliqué Baby Bibs

It has been a busy sewing week and one of the activities that has occupied me, has been my appliqué bibs. I first started to do some appliqué when I was making some rainbow pack bags earlier in the year.

I cheat, because I buy the bibs pre-made. In the beginning I was making bibs, but I wasn't getting much enjoyment out of that ... so I had a bit of a play with interfacing, pellon and the zig zag stitch.

Instructions, how I do my appliqué:

1. I generally iron the material I am using and then iron light interfacing onto the back of the material.
   
2. Then I draw my image freehand onto the back of the interfacing with pencil, be it petals, a star or love heart and then cut out the shape with sharp scissors.
   
3. I then iron on some Pellon (double sided interfacing) around the edges and then press the shape onto the bag or bib where I want it to sit. You don't have to use the pellon across the whole back, just the edges. Using double sided means that I don't have to negotiate pins when I am zig zagging around the outside of the shape. However if you don't have any pellon, use pins and sew carefully. With pins I generally sew a straight stitch around the shape to secure it and then zig zag.
   
4. Then set your machine to zig zag or blanket stitch. Sometimes I go twice around to make sure that I have all the raw edges of the material secured. But after a few bibs and adjustments I know what the settings are and I only go around once!
   

Here are some sites to check out to do with Applique. It really is easier than it looks!

• Pellon
• Halloween Applique Quilt or Wall Hanging
• Cat Applique Patterns (purchased pattern)
• All about Applique Blog
• Craftzine has a great Applique tutorial
• A gorgeous blog on Applique and Quilting (my next step)
  

Kaos Notebook

I am running out of space in my current notebook. It is blue and has an old business card stuck to the front of it ... it works well and I like the size, but I can't get another one (I have tried).

So I re-purposed a notebook that was given to me, I didn't quite like the style pastel butterfly style of it. So, introducing the Kaos Notebook!


Covered in felt appliqué and embroidered homespun with the classic Konstant Kaos symbol.


But the one thing that I am still deciding upon is ... do I do a ribbon bookmark like this one, or do I do a piece of nice elastic to keep all of my bits and pieces together?

If I stumble across some suitable quality notebooks, I might make a few with different patterns for the my Mothers Day Market stall this weekend at Thornbury Women's Centre.

What do you think? Ribbon or Elastic? Good or Bad?

Developing a Market Bag

I have been working on a 'market bag' to sell in my etsy shop. Big enough for wallet, deep enough for a water bottle and various bits and pieces that you would take to a market.

I decided to use some of the material that I used for the pinafore for Sarah as I had some left over fabric and also some left over petals. So I did a bit of quilting and applique to refine my technique and voila ...

I still have to finish it with some stiffening around the mouth of the bag, put in a magnetic snap and I think I might put in some more robust straps with some glides and rings and some plastic on the bottom to give it shape. Of course it could have a zip in it, but for the purpose of working with a new shape, I am just going to put in a snap. What do you think? Comments?

Happy Birthday Sarah

Sarah turned 1 today and keeping with the crafty tradition, I decided to make her present ... having crawled through some of the second hand stores on Sydney Road on Saturday, I found a copy of "Golden Hands" Encyclopedia of Dressmaking. In the kids section there was this cute Pinny, so Margaret decided to give it a go.



I had some gorgeous microcord in lilac and some lovely floral quilting fabric for the lining.


On the front I did an applique flower design. It originally started off as a whole flower, but then I looked and remembered what Coco Chanel said, and I took off the last thing I added! voila.

Designed to be worn with leggins and a top, I am hoping that Sarah will like her pinny. In addition to the pinny, I made her a little backpack to carry her toys in.

Yes that is hand embroidery! I contemplated doing her name on the machine embroiderer, but I thought that a simple running stitch would look better.

Inside has a pocket and here is a pic of Iggle Piggle and Dimity Duck testing the bag.

I must admit that I kinda like sewing presents. I always create something unique and it also allows me to try techniques and ideas sooner than expected!