Foxy Four Patch Baby Quilt (Part 1)

Sewing and crafting is such a rare occurrence for me at the moment.

My son was given the opportunity to go on a weekend camp through one of the NDIS providers. So out came the sewing machine, a quick visit to Lincraft on the way home and I was set for a weekend of crafty goodness.

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1 metre of the foxy fabric

2 metres of each of the greys

1 fat quarter of grey gingham

1x spool of grey thread

Here is the plan .... to make a four patch repeating block for a baby quilt.

Fussy cut the foxes out (the longest part of this process) and block each four patch with the darker grey.

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I only had one fat quarter of gingham, so I had to use it sparingly.  

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Re-covering a lamp Tutorial Part 1

For a while now I have been looking for a lamp for my daughters room. Something that fits in with the robot themed wall and paintbox quilt (yet to be finished). I thought that given that it was Christmas time, that there would be plenty to choose from in the shops. But the choices were limited and the prices ridiculous.

When I saw this lamp at Kmart, I knew that it was crying out for a "hack". The lamp is a 38cm Lotus Lamp, which cost me $11 AUD, bulbs were aout $2.

First thing that I did was trace the shape of the lamp. Laying it down and tracing and rolling it along some paper to give me the basic shape of the lamp. Allowing some space at the top and bottom to fold the fabric around the lamp. My measurements are not exact, drawn free-form.

Then we cut out the fabric for the lamp. Giving it a nice steam press and running a small 2cm strip of interfacing along the side that would be folded under to give it a bit of structure and strength. I chose not to interface the whole lot as I thought that the heat from the lamp might play havoc with it. I got the fabric from GJ's in East Brunswick. If you bought a fat quarter, it would cover this lamp shade.

Once we had cut the fabric, we sprayed it with low-tack quilters spray so that we could re-position it on the lamp face until there were no bubbles. Sewing pegs came in handy at this point.

I used adhesive glue to turn the top and bottom allowances into the lamp then held in place with pegs. The plan now is to use a hot glue gun to secure and some white bias binding to cover the raw edges of the fabric inside the lamp, however, my hot glue gun decided to kick the bucket :-(

So there will be an emergency trip to Spotlight tomorrow (dangerous I know) so that I can glue up and finish the lamp. Then I might make nice matching patchwork placemat to sit the lamp on for her bedside table.

Colouring in Books

I lamented over what to do about colouring in books for Tori on the long flight to Germany (and beyond). The $2 shop has a nice assortment, but they tend to be character based and LARGE! We tend not to give her a lot of "branded" things to play with. So I started to hunt about for images to make some for her (because there isn't enough to do already).

I came across Raising our Kids which has a great collection of colouring in pages and "how to draw" pages that are quite educational. I combined those images with some of the Waybuloo's, Thomas the Tank and some Crayola Travel Bingo pages and voila. Photocopied 2 to a page, flip on short side. There are also some blank pages as well scattered throughout the books.

I then used a leather needle and thick thread on my trusty Janome to bind them. Tied the ends down and then stuck them to the spine.

We then gaffa taped the spines down to secure the stitching.

She has a collection of these colouring in books, along with some activity packs with stickers and glitter pens that Dad can grab for various parts of the trip when she needs some extra distractions. We opted not to go for the glue, only because it is a bit messy. But she does have a glue stick and scissors that she can play with when she gets to Germany.

Moo Pin Cushion Tutorial

It has taken me long enough to put this tutorial together ...

The tutorial is designed to make use of all those white boxes you have floating around from your moo business cards. I know that they are pretty popular in the craft world ... so lets get started!

Step 1: Cut Fabric

Cut a rectangle of fabric 5" x 7". Thicker fabrics work better than thin ones, but you could put iron on interfacing on the back to stiffen it.

Step 2: Fold and Pin

Fold the shorter sides together and pin. This is the side that we are going to use to turn it inside out and stuff! So make sure you leave enough room to turn your pin cushion inside out. I generally leave about 2 inches, but if you think that 2 " is too small, just test your hand size.

Step 3: Stitch It

The stitching does not have to be symmetrical as you are not going to see it. Make sure you double back with your machine so that when you turn the pin cushion inside out the stitching does not come undone. I have left 0.5cm seam allowance, using the guide on my machine. This project doesn't thrive on exactness, so it wouldn't matter if the seam was 0.5 or 0.8cm ...

Step 4: Press open

I always like to press my seams open so that when I come to stitching it together the seams are nice and straight (even though you won't see it).

Step 5: Sew the ends together

Sew the ends of your pin cushion together.

Step 6: Create the corners

Creating the corners is a bit tricky. Fold down each corner so that they area triangle. Then we stitch the corners down. I usually use the 1.5cm guide on my machine to do these, but you can see the inch length in the picture. Stitch, pin, press and then sew each corner until you get an object that looks like this.

Step 7: Turn inside out and stuff

I generally don't bother to trim the corners, especially for a pin cushion. I use the stuffing from an old cushion, but you could use felt offcuts, or anything else that is going to make it possible to stick pins into. Stuff the stuffing in and then slip stitch the pin cushion shut.

Step 8: Mount it

Your stuffed pin cushion should fit inside your moo box. To stick down you need to score the surface of the plastic with sandpaper so that it is rough, then use some heavy duty glue to glue it into place. Place glue on the bottom of the box, around the inside of the box then insert your pin cushion.

Step 9: Embellish it

You can add some ribbon around the box so that it doesn't look like a moo box anymore!

Step: 10: Stab it with pins!

If you end up making a pin cushion using this tutorial, please leave a comment and let me know where you have blogged about it!