When in doubt...

make a zippy pouch!

I'm starting to think I must have been a marsupial in a previous life.  All of these have been gifts and the recipients have loved them because they have all been made with them in mind.

Be warned - there are lots of photos to follow!

First up, a bag for a friend who is moving to Japan.  I got to use my Drunkard's Path die for this project to create the Japanese flag.

The other side is a mixture of Japanese and British.  Last year at the Festival of Quilts I bought this sushi and tempura fabric on a whim.  It turns out it would come in very useful.  All the other fabrics are redolent of Britain (weather, food, icons etc.)  My friend loved receiving this!

 Next up we have a leaving gift for someone who loves his cats.  I have made a created patchwork images of his cats as I did for my craft room.

The ginger boy has a black growth on his mouth, which I wanted to capture.  My friend sussed this straight away (phew!)  The black and white cat is like their girl cat as well with her white splodges and white chin.  He was thrilled with this, though I suspect I enjoyed making this project even more!

More purple and more cats in these next two pouches.

It's just so nice to put together random fabrics and to have a project very quickly.  Simple patchwork and straight quilted lines are always going to be popular with me.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy scrappy projects

Whenever I buy fabric I find myself going to my existing stash and using that before touching the new fabric.  I think I must be subconsciously justifying my new purchases by using up stash.  Or maybe it's so I can make space for the new stuff.  Whichever it is, since my visit to The Village Haberdashery I have used nothing but stash and scraps.  It makes me feel angelic (yeah right!)

Guess what?  I made another zippy pouch, and this one is for me.  I love it!  Turquoise is one of my favourite colours and I put the fabrics together beautifully.  I haven't decided what to use it for yet, but in the meantime I am happy just to let it stay on my chest of drawers where I can admire it.

In last month's Love Patchwork and Quilting there were some lovely quilt as you go cushions which I wanted to have a go at.  I've seen a few people making them on Instagram which inspired me to hit my stash and make my own.

I had never tried quilt as you go before but it was a lot of fun and very satisfying.  This is a good pattern for using up scraps.  This is only the front but it won't take me long to sew the back of the cushion.  I hope to make a couple more to match this one.

You may have noticed that the two previous projects include cat fabrics.  I love cats!  But at the moment I am remembering this time last year when my beloved ginger boy, Granby, became ill and we had to say goodbye to him.  I still miss him, though I do love the new boys we have adopted since.  In homage to Granby and now Brutus and Jackson I have made some patchwork cats which are on the wall of my sewing room.  I am pleased with this project, though I wonder if I need to remake Jackson because the dark purple doesn't show up his tabby fur.  

I am especially pleased with how Brutus turned out because I think I managed to capture his look quite accurately.  Wouldn't you agree?

Thanks for visiting.

Log cabin quilt: A finished quilt

I have worked like a demon to finish a quilt in three days and I am so pleased with the result.  These are not colours I usually work with; I think yellow can be tricky and yet I am in love with the yellows here and their interaction with the pink and green.  I think there is a really vibrant look to this quilt.

Log cabin is a favourite quilt pattern of mine, but I especially like it when you are not too strict about the dark and light effect.  I like to abandon the traditional to make the pattern more modern.  I'm glad that I put the different cats from Hello Petal by Aneela Hoey in the centre of each block.  I think it makes everything join together somehow.

This week I had a trip to Ikea and bought some fabric, Britten Nummer, which I have seen backing other quilts, but I am happy to join that bandwagon; it's modern and distinctive, as well as a really good price.  I think handwritten text on fabric works really well on the back because the cats on the front also have their names handwritten.  (I may have bought a few metres of this, so I have to use it up.)

I've loved working with these fabrics and am pleased with the overall result, but I am also happy to see this quilt go.  It is going on my Etsy store and is available for sale here.  Let's hope someone likes the colours and cats and makes a purchase.

Thank you for visiting.

Give us a Clue: a finished quilt

I'm sorry in advance for the vagueness of this post.  I started this quilt after the Festival of Quilts and finally finished it this week.  I have mentioned it a couple of times but deliberately didn't post any photos because I had wanted to put together a tutorial for an online shop.  I made a pitch and earlier this week the shop owner gave me the green light to make the quilt and write a tutorial.  I am extremely excited, but I can't reveal the quilt here until it has been on her website.  I am going to show snapshots of the quilt, but I won't show it in its entirety, so please think of this quilt as a game of "Give us a Clue".

This quilt is going to a couple from work who are about to have a baby girl.  They have a couple of pet cats, so cat fabric had to make it into the quilt.  I really love this pink cat fabric, and am so pleased that I bought plenty of it in this and the other colour ways as well.  Far Far Away fabrics by Heather Ross also feature prominently.

The binding is my first effort at machine binding.  It's not perfect, but it is reasonable enough and was considerably quicker to complete.  I've seen a few blog posts and tutorials on this now, and everyone says that you get better with practice, so I will do just that.

I am so pleased with the backing fabric, which I will be buying more of because it is brilliant for baby quilts and bringing lots of colours together.  I also did a good job of keeping the edges straight.  To divert your attention from looking too closely at the quilt backing, you can see that my cat Brutus made a cameo appearance.  (Thanks Brutus!)
  

I hope you like my "Give us a Clue" quilt, despite not seeing it whole.  Trust me, it is nice.  In a while, when my second version is made and the tutorial written, no doubt I will be shouting from the rafters and showing plenty of more complete photos.

Thank you for stopping by.

Sunday Stash #2

Today I have had such a great day sewing and being with my sewing friends that it seems strange to be going further back in time to the Festival of Quilts again to share some of my fabric purchases.  But, seeing as I have taken the photos and mentioned previously that I would do a Sunday Stash post, it makes sense to stick to the plan.

It is impossible for me to go to the Festival of Quilts and not buy Liberty fabric.  I am a major fan and can boast a significant stash of Liberty fabrics.  I treated myself to some lovely bits and pieces but was then really pleased that two of my friends bought me Liberty fabrics as well.  Margaret bought me a Liberty Lucky Bag which was great because there were some amazing little gems in there, many of which I do not already own.  I am working (on and off) on two Liberty quilts and the Lucky Bag fabrics are perfect for the hexagons I am making in one of these quilts.  Amy bought me a great print which I don't even know the name of but which has really zingy greens, pinks and oranges in it and will be a real feature fabric in a future project.  Aren't I lucky to have friends with great taste?

I love fabric and I love cats, so these cat prints Tiger Stripe by Cotton and Steel were always going to be purchased by me.  I love "critter" fabrics in any case, but these are so beautifully stylised that I already count them amongst my favourite animal fabrics.  The smiling food below has to be my most random purchase.  I bought it on its own and have nothing even remotely similar to it in my stash but I just felt I wanted it.  I think I want to turn it into some oven mitts at some point, but who knows when or what its other fabric friends will be?  At this point, who cares?  I love it, that's enough to justify having it!

This little bundle was put together randomly when I got home.  Many of these were bought to join a low volume quilt I have on the go.  My friend, Lorraine, bought me the shamrock fabric in pink and orange here (which is actually tricky to see in this bundle) but when I added it to other purchases it created a little set which is possibly the start of a funky quilt.  I love the shamrocks being in unconventional colours like pink and orange and I always love these bright colours together.  I've already joined them to some red lobsters I purchased and love the craziness already.

Lorraine pointed me in the direction of a stall called The Shuttle, which sold really good fabrics at fantastic prices.  I now discover it is near to my home town (and so also my family!) so I suspect I will be visiting it again in the not so distant future.  Here are some good stash builders I bought from there:

I see so many quilts with the pearl bracelet pattern, but I think it is just so dependable.  I like the bike path fabrics for the same reason.  Later in the week you will see these fabrics in a quilt I have already pieced.

These aren't my only purchases, I also bought much of the Far Far Away range by Heather Ross, but I won't bother showing you these fabrics as they are already cut and pieced and no longer in my stash.

When I use the phrase "a good time was had by all" to describe our day at the NEC it is no exaggeration.  If anything, it is probably an understatement.  Today's sewing day was not just about making; we all shared our stories of the day and showed off our purchases.  A couple of us remarked how rubbish Friday felt because it was such a comedown from such a day of visual treats and creative inspiration.  I know I certainly felt that.  But, we're all agreed that next year it's going to be a two day affair with an overnight stay so we can be there early doors and see even more.  I'm already counting down the days.

Helping Hands Paws

Three weeks ago we adopted two cats, Jackson and Brutus.  It seems to me that for making quilts, cats are as essential as a sewing machine.  There aren't many crafty ladies out there without cats, or that certainly seems to be the case in my crafting circles.  My previous cat, Granby, used to love sitting on my quilts when I was pinning them and was finally banished from "helping" me when he boxed my face as I moved him away.  I cannot help but love these pictures of the new boys. Firstly we have Jackson; he is clearly hinting at a mention in the blogosphere because he is clutching the Mollie Makes special on Blogging.

Brutus is not one to be outdone so he is making his debut whilst I am pinning a quilt.  I am certainly encouraged that our new additions are taking such an active interest in my hobbies.  By the end of the week my aims are to read the whole of the magazine and to finish this quilt.  Let's hope the boys don't distract me too much.