Tuesday, August 30, 2011

WIP # 12 - Quilt Process Mini Quilt

Last week I received a lovely parcel in the mail from Amy at During Quiet Time. I had seen her very cute “quilt process” mini quilts a while ago and finally got around to ordering one for me. I got a pale/baby pink and dark grey printed panel which probably wouldn’t have been my first choice in colours but I think this may have been the last one available so I was very happy with it anyway. I also bought a little “Baste” pincushion from her as my homemade pincushion is not really deep enough and I keep getting pins sticking through the bottom of it.
 Amy also sent a PDF of instructions to make a mini quilt from the panel including 5 different ideas for the 3 blocks that run down the left of the quilt. So I spent this morning going through my stash for some fabrics to make up the little 4.5 inch square blocks and to use for rest of the quilt.
 I am basing the quilt on the pink and grey colours of the panel and adding in a bit of yellow and darker pink so these are what I came up with: Amy Butler, Sherbet Pips, Henna garden, AMH Good Folks, DS,and some Daiwabo elephants.
Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (button in sidebar)
Kirsten.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Another 241 bag

Travel Handmade with The Sewing Summit
I finished my mums 241 bag for her birthday in time for her visit last weekend. She really loved the fabric and said she will be able to use the bag when she goes to the local museum where she volunteers each week. My parents are also flying to Canberra for Floriade this year, and I think this is also a handy travelling bag as it can be squashed up if needed to fit into a suitcase.
 There is a good sized pocket on the inside of the bag sewn from some of the book fabric:
 
I made her a matching card too from the scraps – I really need to get myself a pair of pinking shears as I love making these banner cards and  the flags would look a lot nicer with pinked edges. 
 Simba came to "help" me take photos of the bag which I hung from the branch of our mango tree in the backyard.
 Linking to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory ( buttons in sidebar).
Kirsten.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

WIP Wednesday #11

My mum turns 70 this month and I thought I’d make something for her birthday. She has always loved books and is still an avid reader so when I saw the “Grand Tour Books” fabric which is part of the Victoria and Albert fabric collection, knew that it was the perfect fabric to use to make a 241 tote bag for her.
I chose the brown colourway of the book fabric as the cream one could get dirty too easily.
I found some olive green spot fabric in my stash to use for the pockets (it matches one of the books which has spots on it) and am also using some lovely quilters linen for the strap, with some ivory cotton for the lining.
The main body part of the bag is already sewn together and I think it is looking ok so far. I really love the shape of this bag and the pockets are very practical - I hope she likes it too!
Linking to WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.
Kirsten.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Picture Perfect: Pets



This is a little contest run by For the Love of Blogs, and this weeks theme is Pets. I saw the link on another blog and thought I'd enter a photo of my cat Simba:
Simba is a grey cat whom we have had for just over 3 years. He is a very affectionate cat and will jump up to sit on my lap when I am watching TV of an evening, and also loves to sleep on our bed at night.
Kirsten.


Monday, August 22, 2011

7 things in 7 days...

I had a few days off work last week and tried to use the time whilst my children were at school to my best advantage and get lots of sewing done! I don’t usually take time off out of school holidays but I have a long stretch of work commitments coming up so it was a good time for a short “me time” break. I had strained my neck/back the week before though and was worried I wasn’t going to be able to achieve much so the first thing I made was a rice pack that I could heat in the microwave and sit it on my shoulder (conveniently tucked under my bra strap!) as needed. For the cover, I used some of the lovely AMH Good Folks flannel that I bought from Kate at One Flew Over recently:
I also managed to finish my swap items for The Love Of Solids Swap on flickr - I think I ended up making just about everything on her list though so these are just some sneak peeks of what I made because I don't want to give too much away. Only some of these items will be sent to my secret partner and the other things donated to a local charity raffle………
So I basically got one thing finished every day for a week so I am very pleased with my efforts, especially given the dodgy start to the week:)
Linking to Sew modern Mondays at Canoe Ridge Creations and to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory (buttons in sidebar).
Kirsten.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Pinwheels -WIP # 10

I started looking at these fabrics to make a pillow quite a while ago and have finally finished it!
I used the Summer Pinwheel Pillow tutorial by Gwenny Penny - I really loved the fresh colours in her pillow but chose one to suit my loungeroom colours.
These are prints that Cosmo Cricket released a few years ago as papers for scrapbooking and I love them even more in fabric. I paired them with a Robert Kaufman Quilters linen in straw basic texture.
Linking up to Sew Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations, to Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory and also to WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced (buttons in sidebar).
Kirsten.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Denyse Schmidt Doll Quilt Swap

When the Denyse Schmidt Picnic and Fairgrounds fabrics first came out a few months ago, there was a lot of interest on Flickr for a doll quilt swap using just these fabrics and it looks like it might be finally happening! Leona has organised a flickr group and the details are as follows:
This swap is for lovers of Denyse Schmidt Picnic/ Fairgrounds fabrics. Doll quilts should be no larger than 18" X 18" This will be a secret swap. ( you will know who your partner is, but they won't know you). Sign Ups for this swap will begin Sunday August 14th...Closing date to join the swap will be September 1st...
DS DQS button by kirsten67, on Flickr



So please just copy & paste the button code above into your website/blog too if you want to join in!

Kirsten.


Monday, August 8, 2011

This week - WIP # 9

My daughter had her eye on my elephant pyramid door stop which was made for me by my lovely neighbour Lee, so I decided to make one for Gemma. She chose the fabric herself (Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 damask in plum) as she has a lot of aqua and purples in her room:
 And I am trying out a few ideas for the Love of Solids swap - I made a bunch of HST's and have stitched them together to make one of the items my secret partner listed:
Not sure if I will continue with making this for her or if I'll do something different - I always feel that whatever I decide to do will never be good enough to give to someone else......
Linking to Sew Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations, to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory and also to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (buttons in sidebar).
Kirsten.


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Sunday Stash #4

This one is all about elephants! I have been collecting elephants for about 30 years now so am always on the lookout for elephant fabrics to use in sewing projects. Firstly, these are the very sweet Daiwabo Tiny Tip Top elephants which come in a great range of colours and in both a quilting weight cotton and a canvas texture:
 Next is the Urban Circus range by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman fabrics:
 I bought these lovely new ele fabrics recently - not sure who makes them as they only have "designed exclusively for Spotlight" on the selvedge:
Evoke is a lovely local craft store called that stocks many of the Umbrella prints elephant fabrics. I first saw these fabrics used in their Trimmings competition and as they are handprinted on organic cotton/hemp they have a beautiful linen-like texture.
Elissa had the fabrics arranged in such a lovely way in the shop that I immediately wanted to use them to make a tote bag which although it was missing a green shade, is now known as my "Rainbow elephants bag" - ........
 

Umbrella Prints now have the elephants in an olive quilting weight cotton as part of the Oasis collection, and the red print below is from the Little Menagerie range by another Australian designer Melanie Hurlston.
And because I could never have too many elephant fabrics in my stash, this is a newly released fabric that is on my wish list - Pernillas Journey by Tina Givens:
Have a lovely Sunday.......

Kirsten.




Saturday, August 6, 2011

Crochet

My sister-in-law has just finished crocheting a gorgeous blanket for my niece using a tutorial from Attic 24, and has also made a tissue box cover after seeing the one by Rachel at Stiched In color.  After seeing how cute and colourful hers turned out, I thought I'd make one as well:
Then I made one for Gemma's room in aqua, purples, blues and greens: 
I also made a pillow cover for a plain grey suede cushion that I have - the crochet allows the suede cover to still be seen through the pattern:
I am finding crochet to be a very relaxing thing to do at the end of the day whilst watching my favourite shows on TV and this may be a new craft addiction........I think I need to practice a bit more but I would love to be able to make this!

Kirsten.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Fabric baskets

When I had the Henna garden fabrics out last week taking a photo of them for a Sunday Stash post, I decided to make another little fabric basket using the tutorial by Ayumi at the Pink Penguin.
 And I finished off the other one I had started with the DS Picnic and Fairground fabrics and denim for the base. It is a bit bigger as I used slightly larger squares for the patchwork.
These baskets are so much fun to make and very handy for keeping sewing supplies in, and they look so cute together!.
 Linking to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe ridge Creations, and also to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.
Kirsten.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Summer Fair

Gen X Quilters Summer Fair
Gen X quilters are having  a Summer Fair Quilt and Recipe Show this week so I thought I'd enter a favourite summery Neptune quilt from last year.
 I bought a FQ bundle of Tula Pink's Neptune from the Craft and Quilt Fair in Brisbane last October as I just loved the beautiful corals, greens and blues of the fabric. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the fabric again that I saw of the hidden sealife amongst the lovely designs.
As I had only made a couple of quilts before this one,  I then went looking for a  fairly straight forward pattern that I could use these gorgeous fabrics in and I came upon Ros Mirringtons from Blooms "Abracadabra" pattern. This pattern is written with a layer cake in mind so I was able to make both the larger single bed size (66.5” x 81.5") and also have enough for the smaller one (44" x 57") with the Neptune FQ .
I use the larger quilt on our bed as it matched our bed linen perfectly. I have used this pattern quite a few times now and made at least 6 other quilts from it, but the Neptune one is my favourite.
Kirsten.