Long time no blog

It really has been too long since I posted a blog.  I've not fallen out with sewing or blogging, just time seems to be such a precious commodity at the moment and I've not had enough time for either.  As April ends and May approaches I was determined to write a post and I have some nice things to show off.

As I've been short on time small projects have been just the ticket.  I've made three zipped bags recently.  The first is for a friend who loves the colour blue.  We met up on Friday and she was pleased with her gift.

The second is for a cool and kooky friend who wears amazing clothes.  She has a dress made from this fabric with a black background.  I need to put it in the post tomorrow.  She has just started work at a new school and I think she will appreciate having a pencil case to match one of her outfits.

Next up we have another patchwork pouch made from mainly blue prints.  This was made for a Liberty fan.  She didn't get it for any particular reason other than I wanted to make it for her.  She was thrilled with it and I loved making it.

I have had a fantastic weekend in London as my husband was running the Marathon.  I enjoyed watching the race and looking for him on Sunday but Saturday was very much "my day" and I got to visit some really cool shops.  I'm a big fan of The Village Haberdashery's website and their blog.  I've had two tutorials on their blog and am about to have another on soon, but I had never visited the shop in person.  On Saturday this was put right and I feel it will be a pilgrimage whenever I go to London!  The shop is amazing - all (and I am not exaggerating here) the fabric is amazing.  It is just so cool, modern and fresh and it was just so lovely to meet Annie and Caroline.

My stashbusting went right out of the window on Saturday as I made a few purchases.  I think I showed incredible self-restraint as there was just so much temptation there.

First up are some fabrics from Lighthearted by Kokka.  I've long loved this range and was relieved that some of the food print was still left in the shop.  They had only 3 fat quarters of it so I snapped them all up.  The shop carries all the Kona Cotton Solids and I had such fun matching the colours to the prints.  I don't know what these are going to be, but I expect it will be for the dining room and I am sure to enjoy myself!

I picked out my favourite fabrics from Jessica Hogarth's Street Life, though the whole range is adorable and I might end up adding to it later.  I think being in London affected my choice here because I went for the fabrics which were so identifiably British and London.

I ummed and ahhed about these next fabrics.  I think these are the start of a rainbow style quilt, but I will add more prints and colours to them later.  I picked out three fabrics from Riley Blake's Mini Quatrefoil and three from Alison Glass' Sun Print Mercury.  I think they go wonderfully together, so bright and happy.

My favourite (and most unexpected) purchase is this corduroy Oh my darling Clementine by Rae Hoekstra.  I've never sewn with cord before and I have no idea what I will make, but there was no way I was going home without a metre of this amazing fabric.  I'll have to get looking for something but this fabric has to be for me.

I hope you approve of my purchases.  Not much really...

Two new projects

I have a couple of projects to post about today and I am excited about them both.

As I have mentioned many times previously I am trying to sew as much stash as possible this year.  My favourite fabric range in my stash is Wee Wander by Sarah Jane.  I love everything about it - the patterns, the images, the colours, the quality of the cotton.  I have had it in stash since February 2014 and my love for it over that year has never diminished.  I have used the odd small square in other projects, but I have not made much of a dent into the half yard I have of each print.

If I am serious about getting down my stash I have to stop hoarding fabrics, even my favourite ones.   I had justified holding on to it because I had not found the right project for it.  That's all changed now, though, as I am turning the mini quilt "Drawn Together" from Little Quilts into a larger quilt.

I'm having a lot of fun!  I've made three of the pink blocks so far and am about to start on the blues.  I love foundation paper piecing and this pattern creates such lovely shapes.  To make my fabric go as far as possible I am using lots of white fabric, which I think makes the shapes and colours really striking in any case.  I think these favourite fabrics are going to turn into one of my favourite quilts.

The next thing I have to show you contradicts the Sew My Stash mission because these are fabrics which have arrived this dinnertime.  How do I justify these amazing Kona Solids in such beautiful colours?  They already have a destiny and will be made into a quilt soon for Village Haberdashery's blog The Daily Stitch.  They are not going to be stash fabrics because I will be cutting into them this weekend.

This quilt will be my first pure solids quilt but I have already enjoyed playing with these fabrics and the pattern idea, so I doubt it will be the last.  When the fabrics arrived I spent a while organising them into their colour groups, which made me feel like a child again as I used to organise my Crayola wax crayons (happy memories!)  I won't be showing what I make from these fabrics until the tutorial is written and on The Daily Stitch.  Hopefully it won't be long.

Happy creating!

Ribbons Quilt: my pattern!

I seem to have been slack with my blogging recently, not because I haven't been sewing much, but because I have been doing so much sewing.  There is so much going on right now that it is going to take a few posts to explain everything.

Today's blog post is especially exciting for me because I get to show off my Ribbons Quilt and direct you to the pattern and tutorial I wrote.  I have mentioned this quilt pattern in a couple of previous blog posts but this week it was posted on The Village Haberdashery's blog The Daily Stitch.



It's called "Ribbons" because I used three colours and pieced them in such a way as to create ribbons of colour.  I was really keen to use the unicorns from Far Far Away in the blue, green and lilac colourways but the rest of the fabrics were picked out by the ladies at The Village Haberdashery and they did a great job!  The colours look fantastic together and in this pattern they all seem to shine.  This is the top pieced but not finished, but you get to see the pattern.



The Half Rectangle Triangles took some working out.  I have previously used a Bloc Loc ruler to create them but I had to work out a different technique in order that anyone could make them without expensive equipment.  I made all of the HRTs using my own tutorial so I knew it could be done.

I really am proud of this quilt - I hope you like my efforts too.  Thank you for visiting.

A busy blogger

I have a lot to share on this post.  First of all I am proud to show you a tutorial I wrote featured on The Daily Stitch blog.  I made the table runner, table mats and coasters last month and really enjoyed the challenge and experience.  Annie from The Village Haberdashery took lovely photos and I'm really pleased with how my project looks.  I got a real buzz from seeing my handiwork on a different website from this one.  I'm making a baby quilt and tutorial for her blog again soon and I'm excited about that as well.





As I try to save money for the long arm quilter, this week I have worked on a project made entirely from scraps.  The only thing I had to buy this week was the wadding because the front is pieced from scraps and the backing I had in stash.  I know that it is ridiculous but when I work with scraps I feel that I am getting something for free.  All the fabrics on the front have been used in other projects, some of them in projects on here, so it feels great to have a by-product quilt.

A friend lent me a book this week, Sunday Morning Quilts, which has been a revelation.  There is a great section on making a slab of fabric and this is the technique I've used here in this baby boy play mat.  I'm really pleased that I joined colours together and also used scraps to make the binding as well.  The binding I did on the machine and is my best so far - I feel I am getting better at this.  It wasn't planned, but this would also work well as an "i spy" quilt and there are lots of possibilities for playing pairs.  This quilt is now on sale on Etsy here.

"Scrapisfaction" is how I am feeling about this.  I've decided to set myself a challenge each month of making a "scrapisfaction" project.  I think that using scraps makes you think harder about what you are doing but also makes you more creative as a result.  I, like every quilter on the planet, have a few scraps and I would rather make them useful than leave them languishing in bags and boxes, waiting to see the light of day.  What scrapisfaction project do you recommend I try next?

Thanks for popping by!