Sew much for that

By today Christmas already feels like a while ago, but just before the start of 2015 I would like to show off some of the Christmas gifts I made and received.  I've seen a lot of blogs recently with sewn pouches which have been given as gifts.  For the first time in my life I am part of a trend as I made plenty of these for gifts as well.

First up are three of the Liberty pouches I made.  This one is a Kindle case and I love all the Liberty blues with the gingham interior.  Classy and timeless, I think.

Next up are purple make up bags.  I used some of the same fabrics in them but the different zips and inner fabrics give the bags a different feel.  The top one with the deep purple is really vibrant.  The bottom one has a lilac zip and inner and it feels a lot calmer.

 I also made a glasses case for one of my uncles, who is notorious for losing his glasses.  He is also an allotmenter, so this gardening fabric is just perfect.  This could be my all time favourite fabric.  It's by Alexander Henry and is called "Little Green".  It came out in 2011 (before I had even been on a sewing machine) and I have sought it out on many occasions, only to be told you can't get hold of any more of it.  I love it so much!  I really wish they would bring it out again; I would buy metres a bolt and make so many lovely things with it.  The fabric also has ladybirds, and I love those little critters.

I received lots of lovely presents but the sewing ones are worth sharing here.  I got a couple of notebooks, which I love for writing down my ideas and inspiration.  (Thanks Amy and Lorraine.)  I also got some sewing chocolates from Nicola (thank you!) which not only looked great but tasted yummy, too.

 Lorraine also bought me some Liberty squares and a Liberty pouch.  I was thrilled with both.  I have a lot of Liberty fabric, but I am always happy to add to it and there were loads of fabrics in this pack that I don't have and (shock horror!) there are even some I don't know the name of!

 I hope you all had a nice Christmas and have an enjoyable 2015.  I'll see you next year!

It's beginning to look...

a little like Christmas.

All I seem to show on here at the moment are Christmas projects, which probably gives you the impression that I am ready and raring for Christmas and loving the festive period.  Nothing could be further from the truth - I haven't bought a single present, I've not written even one card, and yet despite being so behind in my preparations I have found time to make a couple more Christmas projects.

First up is this table runner.  I worked on this at the weekend with some friends.  This star had originally been a cushion made from orange colours and I think it was called "Tropical Star".  (I forget from which magazine).  It was a lovely cushion but we decided to jazz it up and to turn it into a festive table runner.  I am so pleased with it.  It's definitely all about the fabric and I love the richness of the purple and red here.  I quilted some of the key shapes in gold thread to make it even more glitzy.  I already had a nice Christmas table runner which I made last year, but it has already had to be replaced with this one.  Maybe they will appear alternate Christmases.

I'm really beginning to enjoy foundation piecing and I want to have a go at designing a pattern of my own next year.  You get such lovely points and you can't really go wrong because the numbers tell you what to do.

The second project my sister-in-law has requested I make for her mother-in-law (still with me?)  In typical fashion I am helping other people with their Christmas gifts instead of my own.  She wanted an elephant iPad case and I had some lovely scraps from Christopher's baby quilt.  It was nice for me to use up these bits of fabric and create a pretty gift in the process.  I think it will make a nice gift.  If not, I'll just have to keep it for myself.

I hope your Christmas preparation is going well.

Sunday Stash #5

I have a couple of recent purchases to show off today.

The first was bought on Black Friday.  I watched people on the news getting into scuffles for a flat screen tv and wondered how people could work themselves into such a frenzy.  Then on my twitter feed I saw Eternal Maker's 15% off everything Black Friday deal and just had to join in.  This is an Aurifil Basics Collection and as many of the threads are so muted they can be used to quilt lots of different projects.  The pink you see was not in the original collection, but the lady phoned me to say they had sold out of one of the greys so she let me choose something else instead.  Baby pink is always going to be useful for me.  I've already made a start with one of the threads, but I know it will take me a while to use them all.

This rather large collection of Christmas fabrics is by Lynette Anderson and is called Candy Cane Angels.  I was pondering whether to buy these fabrics for a while and finally decided to take the plunge.  There are 25 fabrics in total and there is a fat eighth of each, which is enough to make a nice Christmas quilt, but not too much as to feel overwhelmed with Christmas fabrics.  These colours are so muted for me, but I think I can make something really cute with these and I think I am going to keep the colours in their three groups, though I have no other design ideas than that at the moment.

Enjoy Sunday!

Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum...

As it is now the end of November I feel justified in showing off some of my Christmas sewing.  I have attended two Christmas sewing workshops this month and have another one booked for mid December.  We don't go overboard at Christmas at our house but slowly we are starting to get some nice Christmas decorations together and more recently these have been made by me.  I like the idea of heirloom Christmas decorations which come out each year and then having the feeling of being reunited with an old friend.

First of all, here is my Christmas Tree wall hanging which I made with a group of friends at Patchwork Garden.  The pattern was written by Sarah Williamson and we had the privilege of her tuition as well.  The pattern is amazing and it was wonderful to see the different variations we all created.  Sarah is a super talented sewer, quilter and pattern-writer and she taught us lots of tips and tricks along the way.  We had a wonderful time and I am already keen to book onto another course with her.

This Christmas tree does not have traditional Christmas colours, but it will look perfect in our house at it matches a table runner and some bunting I made last year.  I wanted to create a "scene" so added blue fabric for a winter sky and white fabric with a silver print to create the look of snow.  I love the crispness of the look.  I then tarted it all up with plenty of ric rac and then buttons to look like baubles.  I did two "shadow" quilting lines around the tree in silver thread to give it that blinged look.  I need to put a star on to finish it, but I couldn't resist including it here today.

As if that wasn't enough, I have also attended an Advent Calendar class, again at Patchwork Garden.  A friend bought me the panel last year, but I did not get around to making it (and I also felt rather daunted as I was not as good a sewer then.)  I had so much fun making this and already want to make another one next year.  My mum loves traditional Christmas scenes (I usually spend lots of November and December hunting down nativity Christmas cards for her) so this will be going to her.  She loves Christmas decorations and will love putting gifts in for her grandchildren, especially as it tells the story of Christmas.

In typical fashion I have put quite a lot of quilting on here and could not resist gold thread to outline the stable, to include in the sand and to outline the star.  As it is a wall hanging I used a cheap man-made wadding, which was trickier to work with, but as it had greater "loft" (listen to me!) it gave the overall hanging more depth.  My mum will love this so it quickly needs to get in the post so she can start advent promptly.

I did both of these projects with sewing friends and sewing classes so it seems appropriate to link this blog post to Lorna McMahon's blog Sew Fresh Quilts who has a Wednesday "Let's Bee Social" link up.

Happy Advent!

Back to blogging

It's been a whole week since I blogged.  That's quite a while for me, but that's because I have been busy working on my pattern, which is now written and the quilt is now finished.  It shouldn't be too long until I can show you it in full.

In the meantime I have still been working on other things.  At last weekend's quilting class we began preparing for Christmas and made adorable Christmas stockings.  I like making Christmas things with untraditional colour combinations, hence the zingy blue and green in my stocking.  As ever, a good time was had by all and we all made lovely things.  I will definitely be making more of these, though I am going to wait until November (I know it's only next week) before I start thinking about Christmas in earnest.

I have finished a girly quilt in pinks and low volume fabrics.  This is very simple, but I think it works well.  The backing is from my trip to Ikea and I love how this quilt is grown-up and traditional on the back but young and frivolous on the front.  Ikea has clearly gone for the "Cath Kidston" factor with this fabric and I think it's a winner.

The other great thing about this quilt is that it has generated lovely scraps!  I loved making my scrappy star quilt recently so I am now going about making smaller scrappy stars and piecing them together.  I like how it looks so far.  This should definitely be ready for next week's Friday Finish post.

Thanks for visiting.