#secretsewingproject ...

I've been dropping hints all over the place for the last couple of weeks about an exciting project I have been working on. Today, all can be revealed! Back in the summer, when I was laying about in the hammock, I got an email from Celia wondering if I'd like to make some things with a fabric collection she was putting together. My reply was immediate - I would LOVE to. How could I possibly turn down such an offer?! I have been a huge fan of Celia's designs and have cheekily framed a few of her cards to turn them into wall art in both my bedroom and kitchen.

A few weeks later, I received a very tempting parcel that was ripped open in a very exciting manner.

The fabric that it revealed set my heart aflutter. I literally couldn't wait to get stuck in.

Celia said I could do whatever I wanted with them and so I decided that I'd add some other fabrics to show them off. I've been wanting to use some Liberty tana lawn for a while and thought that the small flowery designs would compliment Celia's fabrics well. I also added some stronger greys to frame some of the blocks. With rotary cutter in hand, I was soon on my way to chopping up and recreating my own twist on things.  I emailed Celia just to say that I hoped she wouldn't be too horrified that I was having a whale of a time cutting her gorgeous fabric up!

First up (naturally!) was a cushion. The heart design was crying out for a log cabin block! And my knitting chair in the conservatory was crying out for a replacement for the rather dog-eared wooly number that has adorned it for the last five years.

I love the bold splash of red it has given that corner and so got cracking on making something for my kitchen too. Next up was a table runner. It's really tricky to photograph things on my kitchen table as the maple wood always makes everything very yellow-y. The runner is also quite long so it was hard to get a good picture.

I've decided to leave it until next month to use it on the table as it has quite a *whispers* festive feel to it. 

I have used all my scraps up by finally making a couple of little coaster sets too. One for me, and one can be found in my Etsy shop.

You can find Celia's Spoonflower shop here. I am very tempted by the Sea Hearts!

And now for the good part! 

With the remaining fabric I made a further two cushions; one is on its way to Celia to say thank you for letting me play with your fabrics, and the second is up for grabs as a giveaway.

Only the cushion cover is included, and it measures 45cm x 45cm. As with all my cushions, it is machine-pieced and -quilted and hand-finished. 

All you have to do is leave me a comment here to be in with a chance to win. For a second entry, tweet me - I'm @ttcdowling  

The giveaway will close next Friday 11 October and I will draw a winner on Saturday 12 October.

*edited to add: please try to leave an email address for me to contact you to enter the giveaway (noreplyblogger isn't very helpful!)

Learning curves …

When I posted about a quilt for spring, Sue commented that there perhaps ought to be one for summer and then autumn. I'm thinking that my latest quilt ticks the box for summer. Laid out, it is a field of flowers.

This is probably my most ambitious quilt to date, both in terms of size (it is a whopping 80" square) and in technique. Way back when, my to do list looked like this:

In between other projects, a sewing machine service that kept me and my trusty machine apart for a total of four weeks and a myriad of other excuses, I finally sussed it out.

I have used my favourite fabric collection EVER - Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt and I ordered the fat quarter collection from Fabricworm as soon as the legacy reprint collection was released, far too impatient to wait for its UK debut. I had collected pieces of the original collection over the years and have incorporated a few of them into the quilt as well as used one of them for the binding.

I felt reluctant to drag this quilt through my machine to quilt it and am so glad I opted to hand-quilt, using my perle threads, around each flower. I love the way it highlights the negative space in between.

If I could ever pick my top fabric, I think it would have to be this bouquet print in this aqua colour way. To me, it is perfect and I only wish I had more.

The finishing touch was a more elaborate than usual label to which I added a tiny bit of the selvedge plus a scrap to back the whole thing.

This quilt is now on my bed, having relegated my ripple crochet blanket to its summer home, and is adding another welcome splash of colour to my predominantly white bedroom. As ever, I can feel some pillows coming on … that's if I can drag myself out of the garden and back into my sewing room.

Revamp...

Let's talk about cushions. I love making cushions. I can never have too many cushions. When I don't have room for any more cushions, I love making new cushion covers to swap over with the ones I already have. Oh, yes. I do love cushions.

It goes with the territory of loving fabric, I suppose. They are quick and easy to make and a great way of trying out techniques or patterns on a smaller scale than a quilt.

The quilt WIP that I posted about last week is this pattern, which I'm loving, and so I thought it would be fun to upsize a block and make it cushion-sized. I cut the squares at 5½" rather than 2½" and it just about fitted a 20" cushion pad. I adore those peacocks!

I used my usual method of an envelope back, added a tiny bit of the selvedge as a label and made binding to sew the fronts and backs together.

For the two smaller cushions, I just sewed strips of the remaining fabrics together and did a bit of slicing and dicing to make the fronts.

Then I got stuck into a tutorial* that I have had bookmarked forever for inserting an invisible zip. I bought both the zips and the special foot for my sewing machine some time ago too and have been waiting for an opportunity to get stuck in. Would you believe me if I said it was simple? Really, it was.

Very neat, even if I do say so myself. There will be more of these to come. I can feel it.

They brighten up the conservatory and they hide a sofa that I'm not that keen on but happens to be very comfy and has lasted for years.

 Most importantly, they get the paws up of approval.

*the tutorial is actually part of this pattern which I purchased but I'm sure there are others out there.

In the post...

I succumbed and bought myself a Kindle. I'm very aware that my reading has dropped off to virtually non-existent because I am addicted to technology. I would rather faff around on my phone or my iPad rather than pick up a book.  This hasn't stopped me buying books, it's just that I buy them and tend not to actually read them. I am hoping this will now change.

Yesterday, a tweet came up on my stream that I couldn't ignore - one of Rebecca's beautiful Kindle covers had made an appearance in an Etsy treasury.

I had no resistance and immediately snaffled one up. It came this morning! There are plenty of other gorgeous things in Rebecca's Etsy shop if you fancy something of your own.

It has been a good day for post - I also treated myself to a little fabric stack from Alice at Backstitch.

I have been antipating this vibrant and distinctive collection for some time as I love Geninne's work and have some in my kitchen already.

Maybe I'll make something for the kitchen...

(sorry for terrible photo)

A Bee in my Bonnet...

It is no secret that I have a major fabric addiction and occasionally I get quite obsessed with a particular fabric and while away many hours dreaming up ways to use it. Melody Miller's* Bee Springtime was one such fabric.

I bought half a metre from The Eternal Maker and therefore only had one whole bee in the piece of fabric which I put to use in a mat to sit underneath the glass top of this washstand I have recently renovated and painted for my bedroom. I hand-sewed a simple running stitch hem with perle thread and some lazy daisy stitches over some of the printed details on the fabric.

Along with a roll of wallpaper by Rob Ryan that I spotted in Grand Designs magazine while I was in the hairdressers, my bedroom has a very welcome splash of colour to compliment my super-colourful ripple.

With the rest of the half metre (and part of another bee!) I made a big square cushion to sit on my bed. The coordinating fabrics are from fat quarters from the rest of the Ruby Star Spring line and some plains I had in my stash. It was always going to be a difficult to make something that wouldn't get overpowered by the ripple, but I think this bee holds its own marvellously.

I am camped out in my sewing room crafting to my heart's content this week (and last week too!) as my kitchen is being decorated and so I have been booted out of my usual haunt! It looks like this today and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished new look by the end of the week.

*This little video made me smile so much when I first saw it last year.

5 :: playing with fabric...

A progress post today. I didn't make a mad decision to make a whole load of Christmas presents this year as I knew from experience that it just stresses me out.  There are just a couple of things instead. This is what is on the wall at the moment awaiting completion:

The front of a potholder, bottom left and one block of another potholder, top left. Inspired by this pin.

The blocks on the right are for a festive table runner for my Christmas table. Now I have my final numbers (20!) I know how long I've got to make it. It all depended on whether I needed one or two additional leaves in my table, you see.

Today I have woken up full of No2's cold (yeah, I'll blame him!) and a 6 chapter attachment from my copy-editor (eeeek!) to go through. Who knew that a document with 'track changes' looked so scary? What to do? Carry on sewing or hunker down and cringe at my punctuation?

A little bird told me...

This little yellow bird.  I have finished making the blocks for Sonny's quilt and so now I need to start thinking about the backing and the binding.  I never worry about these things until I'm well on the way with the quilt top as it usually comes to me as the top is coming together.


As I was sewing, I noticed that although the quilt is predominantly red/grey/black, there were little splashes of yellow dotted throughout.  My little yellow bird is getting told off by the owl here, I think, maybe for sitting on the furniture...

The skulls are wearing dashing yellow neckerchiefs...

And there are a couple of yellow cockerels too.

I'm thinking perhaps this fabric for the binding and I have gone for a medium grey plain backing that will have the addition of some colour from the scrap that came from making the blocks (that is another post, I think).


I can't remember where, but I read recently about using monochrome photos to judge the balance of values in the blocks.  Here is my first draft layout:

I wasn't sure about the heaviness of the top two rows on the right hand side, so had a move around.  This is my second draft:

I still wasn't happy with the top left corner, so a final adjustment was made and I think it is much more balanced.  This is my final layout:

Subtle changes that make a lot of difference.  I think I need to work on taking a photo that is straight!

********

While we're on the subject of fabric, Julia is having a fabulous giveaway over on her blog.  Go check it out!

Seeing stars...

Still raining here so more sewing to catch up on.  I have written about 1000 words of my book today, so I think it is good to balance that out with some creative soul-food.

I posted here about my plans to give my two nephews a quilt each for their christening presents and I had reached a bit of standstill for one reason or another.  While I was on a roll yesterday in fabric love mode, I managed to cut out the rest of the pieces for the one I had made a start on.  That was some serious cutting out - just under 600 pieces!

I find it incredibly satisfying to see an organised pile of fabric on my worktable ready for sewing.

I am using this tutorial for July Star Blocks over at Cluck Cluck Sew, although I have made the blocks slightly bigger to achieve the size quilt I was looking for.

It has been a real challenge trying to think of what type of quilt would appeal to a 14 year old boy and I really hope it isn't too childish.  This is just a mock-up using the collage creator to give me a feel of what it will look like.  12/35 blocks completed.

For the my younger nephew I have chosen to make something with a bit of a watery feel as he is our star diver and likes to be in the water.  I pulled lots of blues and soft greys and some splashes of green from my stash and am using the Wonky Roman Stripe Block from this book.  I love the mixture of solids and prints.

This is my first mock-up block to get a feel for how it might turn out.

I really am hoping that this week's persistent rain will give way to a dryer and even warmer bank holiday weekend.  Right, I'm off to make pizza for dinner and change the pace and relax in to some hand-quilting on this quilt.  Poor neglected thing.

FWQAL week 8...

Here are my blocks for week 8 of the Farmers Wife Quilt-a-long.

It seemed wrong not to fussy cut this cute bird and nest.

I couldn't resist using both of these brown prints together either.

This mosaic shows all my sixteen blocks to date.  My other fabrics arrived today and so I am looking forward to introducing the other colours from the line.  It is looking predominantly red at the moment.

My first quilt-a-long…

I’ve been watching with interest and growing curiosity about the Farmer’s Wife QAL that is popping up all over Blogland.  You know how it is, when you’re on a finishing up marathon.  Something catches your eye and before you know it, you’re in!  I happened to spot the book in a fabric shop last week and I have to confess that judging by the cover, I wouldn’t have normally given it a second glance, but having seen some of the modern interpretations in the Flickr group I knew it didn’t have to be in any way traditional.  The following morning I went on to Amazon to buy the book and decided on a whim to download the Kindle version for instant gratification. 

I then spent a good while reading through the Flickr group discussion and I was well and truly hooked.  Two blocks a week sounds manageable and I am hoping that by doing perhaps some of the easier ones first, I could catch up.

Until this morning, I had no idea what fabrics to use but I’d seen a comment on the Fat Quarterly blog about using whatever you felt like on the day and thought that sounded like the way to go.  Looking in one of my fabric boxes, I found an unopened bag of these Momo Wonderland fat quarters and made an instant decision to use them.  Once they have gone, there is plenty in my stash that will fit in with them, I think.

 

 

Then I found myself on Carla’s blog reading her first post for the QAL and before I knew it, the first block I was making had 51 pieces to it! In a 6” block!!!

In spite of having made probably 10 quilts to date, I have never made a half square triangle!  Throwing myself in at the deep end, I set about making 24 1” square hst’s, carefully following Carla’s instructions.

 

 

Am I pleased? I’ll say! I don’t know exactly how long it took me but I do know that I ate lunch somewhere in the middle.

 

 

Before I knew it, the second one had been made as if by magic! 

 

 

Oh, and while I was busy, the postman delivered the backing and batting for my Babette quilt so it’s back to the UFO’s for the rest of the week.