First try at sewing baby clothes

I made some pants for a workmate's wee girl. The pattern came from Anna Marie Horner's book 'Handmade Beginnings'

They are reversible  pants that have a main pattern and then a feature yoke on the back. I enjoyed making them - they were a good beginner project for me. I will definitely be making more. For some reason I really enjoyed making the elastic waistband and seeing the band change from flat to crinkly with the elastic - I'm weird I know!

I liked the fabric I used, I think they go well together.

Side One Front

Side one Back

Side Two Back

Side Two Front

All fabrics are from the 'Hoos in the forest' range. My favourite is the one with the little woodland creatures.

(Please excuse the terrible photos)

I'm entering this in Celebrate Color's Competition in the Wearables section

Finished! and Celebrating colour :)

I finished Mum's quilt yesterday - just in time for christmas :). Please excuse the utterly uninspiring background - this area is getting re-done and is in a bit of a mess. I can't believe it is finally finished.  The squares are from the Fandango fabric line.

Don't quilts look all pretty folded up? They look so comfortable, just waiting there for somebody to snuggle up in it.

Ahhhh, binding - how I love thee. I love the look of hand-binding on a quilt. I did most of the binding while watching Season 3 of True Blood on DVD - I really enjoyed this part (both the binding and the DVD).

The quilting was just a stitch-in-the-ditch around the squares. The backing is scrumptious flannel - it will be lovely and  warm during winter.

I'm going to enter it in the Celebrating Colour competition - you should check it out - lots of amazing crafty goodness :)

Family tree baby quilt

I made this quilt last month for a friend expecting a baby girl

All fabrics and the panel are from Sarah Jane's range 'Children at Play'.

I really enjoyed doing this one as it was a nice quick quilt. Next time though I will embroider the names as this time I wrote them with a permanent fabric pen and it ran a little in the wash.


The quilting was around the outline of the tree and also around the white squares that the names are written in.

The backing was from flannel fabric from the 'Ruby' range. for some reason the photo has made the back fabrics look wonky but they were actually straight.

Long time, no post

This break from blogger has done me good I think (as well as sorting out the rest of my life). I am enjoying my job there - it helps that most of the other people I work with are great people.

I reflected on my quilting journey the other day and looked at the parts I love and the parts I don't love so much.

What I love (in no particular order):

• Hand binding - I loved hand binding the quilts I have done, it's quite therapeutic to take it slowly and think over things as I bind (or more often watch TV or DVDs as I bind!)
• Piecing - I enjoyed this part of the process - sewing all the pieces together
• Fabric choice - both in general and also when choosing the layout of fabric in my quilt.
• Quilting - I'm going to hand quilt my next quilt and see if I enjoy that too

What I didn't love so much:

• Cutting - I think because I'm impatient and want to get on with the piecing. It takes so long and I get bored of it easily
• Basting - eurgh, I don't have much room to spread a quilt out and pinning takes soooooooo long. I think I might try a spray baste next.

I've also sewn my first clothes. Well a pair of baby pants for a little girl. I'm going to start sewing more baby clothes so I can build a stock pile of new baby gifts. I may need to change my blog title to reflect this.

Anyways  - back to binding (Apparently blogging is one of the few things you can't do while binding, ha ha)

Picture posts to come soon I promise!

Well......

I'm on holiday but have not done any quilting! Oops. I was going to bring the batting and front and backing with me to baste it together while on holiday - but once I had that in my suitcase I had no room for any of my clothes so I had to reconsider. Its been a good holiday though - good to catch up with family and friends - and also to not have to work. I could easily be a 'lady of leisure' I think.

While I haven't actually been quilting I have been buying more fabric and various notions - and have plenty more on my wishlist. It doesn't take long to build up quite a stash.

I bought a sampler quilt book so  I think I will do that next - a block at a time.

Night Shift

Yuck, I'm on night shifts again this week. I don't seem to do much quilting when I'm on night shifts. I feel to tired and 'spaced-out' during the day to concentrate and end up with wonky seams etc.

I do get a bit of knitting done though - as long as its a more simple pattern where I don't have to concentrate to hard. I'm working on a skirt with lots of ruffles. The ruffles are taking me forever - you start with 120 stitches then knit into the front and back of each stitch, knit a few more rows and then knit in the front and back again - ending up knitting 480 stitches on the row. But it really looks adorable so I'm not complaining (too much!)

Well I'm off to try sleep some more!

Batting

I'll be buying the batting for my quilts this week. I'll have to do some research before I go to the craft shop as I have no idea what type I should get.

I had a look in the shop the other day and there were so many different types.... all with very different costs as well. I want to get a good type of batting as I want my quilts to last, but I can't afford the high end batting either.

I also need to cut and sew my backing to the right size and then I will be all ready to baste. I'm quite excited about basting as it means I will be able to quilt it after! I will probably do straight line quilting for the first quilt and then see if I'm up to something more adventurous for the second one.

My Quilt

I blogged earlier about wanting to be able to create a design for my first quilt that I make for myself. I thought I would share the fabric I am going to use.

Freebird charm squares and jelly rolls.

The backing and binding. The binding is (of course) flannel.

I still have no idea what my design will look like. Most likely I will end up following a pattern.

Mum's Quilt

Here is the second quilt front that I ever made! I can see that I have been able to make improvements in this one. You won't be able to see it in the photo but the corners of the squares meet up much better!

The pieced front is Fandango, the borders are both from a craft store.


The Front

 

A close up of the borders. At first I wasn't sure that the outer border would go with the quilt but I'm glad I chose it now because I love it

 The Backing and binding. Again the backing is flannel. I have some more flannel in my Fat Quarter Shop wishlist as I think it makes lovely, soft and scrummy quilt backings. What could be better on a cold day than being wrapped up in flannel?

This is for my mum, and she will be getting it at Christmas.

Ella's quilt

This is the first quilt front that I have ever finished! I'm quite proud of it.

It may just be a simple design but I spent a lot of time on it and learnt many things about quilting while making it..

The pieced front is from 'Bliss', the inner blue border is from a craft store and the outer border is Bliss again.

Here is an overview of most of the quilt. It's miserable outside so unfortunately this is the best that I could do photo wise :(

Here's a close up of the borders.

Here is the fabric for the back and the binding. The Back is 'Bliss' Flannel so will be lovely and soft to cuddle with.

It's for my little sister (she's 10) and she will be getting it at Christmas.

So what do you think?!?

More Photos..... My Fabric.

I thought I would share my current fabric stash. Last week I took advantage of the strong New Zealand dollar and have increased my stash a bit! Also, and this is a little embarrassing, I got my conversions mixed up and thought that a yard was a foot. As 3 feet are roughly a metre I ordered 3 yards for every metre of fabric that I wanted. And since a yard is not that much smaller than a metre I got much more fabric than I thought I was ordering! Oh well I'm sure I will put it to good use ;)

Here is a quilt kit that I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Various fat quarters that I have, they have come from a variety of stores.

Lots of quilt panels - mostly for baby quilts as I'm at that age when all my friends are announcing they are pregnant. I fell in love with the 'Children at Play' panel and got carried away and bought *cough* seven *cough of them!

I also got some 'Children at Play' fabric -it's gorgeous.

Some Freebird Jelly rolls and Charm Squares.

Some flannel and a binding to match.

Some 'Giddy' Charm Squares.

Currently on my fat quarter shop wishlist is lots of flannel for quilt backings. I also have email reminders set up for a LOT of their coming soon fabrics. At this rate I will need to get a second job to pay for my fabric addiction!

Knitting Madness

Here's a quick little post about my wool. You saw my overflowing wool basket in a previous post, here's a closer look.


First is my  Patons wool - Nice and soft.

Next is my favourite yarn -  Red Riding HoodYarns also available here. Hannah does the most amazing yarns. She dyes up yarn in themes, and has a stocking on facebook. She also does custom orders and yarn clubs. My photo's really don't do it justice - there are better pictures on her facebook page. She's from New Zealand, but I believe she also ships to Aussie.

Her stockings often sell out quickly  - sometimes in less than an hour so I am lucky to have built up a good stash.

Of all my Red Riding Hood Yarn my favourite colourways are shown below. (Again my photos don't do this beautiful yarn justice at all)

Here is the 'Little Miss Pink' colourway knitted up in a W.I.P

Another W.I.P. - the cream is Patons and the Pink is Red Riding Hood Yarns. It's part of the 'Candy Drop Petite Collection' which is a scrappy set. The skirt will use the whole scrappy set by the time it is finished.

The Start of Picture Overload!

Ok, the first photo post is about my SEWING SPACE :). It's a small space crammed into the corner of my small room. I will hopefully move flats later this year and will make sure to get a double room in my next flat. i so can't wait till I can buy or rent my own place and have more space than just a tiny room.

First up is the basket where I keep all  my patterns - for knitting, sewing and quilting. I also have my knitting needles in here and a couple of W.I.P cross-stitch kits.

Next up is my overflowing wool basket, also my knitting bag for my current projects. (More Detail on my wool in the next post). Behind the wool (under the table) is my sewing box and a bag of buttons.

Next is my fabric container, it was in a smaller container but I had to move it to a bigger one after I went a little crazy at The Fat quarter shop!

Next is my sewing desk, Mum got me the touch lamp for my birthday and it's great!

And last but not least - two very important accessories - pin cushion and quick unpicks!

So that's my sewing space!

Designing a quilt

I'm thinking that for my next quilt I want to design it. I have 3 charm packs and 2 jelly rolls that I want to use in my quilt. The quilt will be for me so if it looks terrible it won't matter!

When I say designing it I don't mean anything spectacular - just something I will like. I will probably make it and then see that someone has already done it before!

Giving it another try.

I really want to give this blogging thing another try. (Of course I have chosen a time when I need to be going out to do errands!)
I have finished the front of the two quilts I started this year. I took a long gap after I stopped blogging and have just recently picked the quilts back up again, hence why I have just done the front of two quilts in all this time! I'll put up some pictures tomorrow evening. (As well as all my fabric purchases that just arrived). Oh and I'll also put up pictures of my recent wool purchases too. It will definately be picture overload tomorrow.

I think to keep me blogging I will mainly blog about quilting but also blog about other things to - like knitting, general sewing and everday stuff.

I will be basting my quilts in a couple of weeks when I go visit my mum as she has lovely floors that I can baste on - currently I'm flatting in a tiny little place with not much room at all.

Blog Closed

I have decided I'm not much of a blogger, and have to little time spread over too many activities so I am going to stop blogging.

Layout of quilts

So I did the layouts for both quilts today. It was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. Iended up with areas that were too similar in colour or pattern scale etc. I ended up with a design that I liked on both. I had a cramped space to do the layout in  - i can't wait unitl I'm no longer flatting, have a house of my own and be able to spread out :). I might start piecing one of the quilts together tomorrow

Fabric has arrived!

The fabric I ordered from this store arrived this morning. I was going to put an exclamation mark there, but have decided I use them far too much - though by my next blog post I'm sure I will have reverted back to much !!!!!!!!!. Anyway back to the fabric......

The parcel arrived - much squeals of joy on my part.

The bliss charm packs for my sisters quilt.

A few of the fabrics in the bliss charm pack

The Fandango charm packs for my mum's quilt.

A few of the fabrics in the fandango charm pack.



Tomorrow and the next days are my days off this week so i will be able to get started then. The Giddy charm packs for my quilt should arrive soon. My mum and sister both want a 'lots of squares" design (so no cutting of the charm packs. For my quilt I think I will do a disappearing nine patch. I so wish I didn't have to go to work soon for an afternoon shift so I could start looking at layouts today - oh well I'm sure tomorrow will come soon enough.

Still waiting on fabric...

But I have bought some more already from Trademe! I'm going to have to find a place to store it - and also stop looking at fabric stores..

A new obsession?

Oh dear, I think quilting may develop into an obsession.......   I bought 9 quilting magazines and a quilting book today. Too be fair to me all the magazines did come in a 3 for 1 deal - so 9 magazines for $30 instead of $90 :). The book  I got was 'Ultimate quilting bible: A complete reference with step-by-step techniques' by Marie Clayton. Over 300 pages of quilting goodness!

I guess I will be doing a lot of reading while I wait for my fabric to arrive.

Fabric for mum's quilt

I have decided on and ordered the fabric for mum's quilt. I decided on Fandango Charm pack for it. I am so excited I can't wait for the fabric to arrive so I can start making it! While I wait I'm going to think of various options for the backing and also for the borders for both quilts - that should keep me occupied until it arrives. I will also try do more of my cross-stitch and also my sisters hat that I'm knitting. I will put up photo's of my sisters hat in the next few days.

Heres's a couple of pictures of my cross-stitch. I really love the design but I need more dedication towards it, it's taken a back stitch to my knitting - I hate to think of how little of it I will do when I start quilting.

 The above is of the design.

I have done a little more since this photo was  taken

A current WIP

Just finished!