February Scrappy Finishes {Put Your Scraps to Work Challenge 2014}

So, did you have a good February? Did you make any progress in reducing your scrap basket and stash?

Mine was good :-) I probably worked more from my stash than my scrap basket but that's good too.

My properly scrappy finish was this lovely little Kindle cover for a friend of mine. I used the Whipstitch tutorial for the dimensions on this one as I'm pretty sure that the model my friend has is the same one, and I just changed up a couple of minor construction aspects to suit what I wanted to do - like the quilting and the closure.

My friend loved the scrappy look of the fabric basket I made last month, and the matchstick quilting on it so I went with a similar style here. I kept the front cover colours relatively cool and make this little birdhouse the main focus. The quilting shows up nicely - I used my absolute favourite Aurifil thread which is 2600, a light, silvery grey colour. It works great with so many fabrics and I love how it looks here.

I used a covered button and some ric rac for the closure and think it finishes it off nicely.

On the other side of the panel for the cover, I used some brighter colours - just to switch it up a bit. Love how bright and cheery this is, and there are some of my favourite prints in there.

For the interior fabric, I used a Lotta Jansdotter Echo print. This cover fits my Kindle very snugly, and mine is slightly larger than my friend's, so I hope it will be a good fit. 

 
 I can't wait to see what you've been working on! Link up below :-)

A new kindle cover...

I've been incredibly drawn to a wintery cool colour palette in the last few weeks. It started when I bought a couple of quarter metres of fabric for different projects in the fabric shop on Mother's day - a minty aqua green and a deep grape purple, both with tiny dots in white - and when I stacked them on top of each other on the shelf, I realised that they belonged together in a project. I actually couldn't take my eyes off them, and there was a lot of fabric-strokery going on in my house! After a few days of mulling it over, I decided to add some greys and a few other fabrics in similar colours and hey presto, I got this lovely bundle of cool prettiness:

That was my starting point, but I needed a project for them that would be quick and easy for my time-challenged existence. When I got my Kindle last year, I had intended to make a few different covers to swap it in and out of, but it got away from me, so I decided to do another one - the bonus being that as it was all for me, I could do whatever I wanted with it and not be wondering if someone else would like it.

This was one of those projects that took shape in my head. I had a really clear idea, once I pulled the fabric bundle, what I wanted the cover to look like - randomly pieced squares and rectangles and dense straight line quilting. At first I attempted to work out a little pattern for the piecing so I would get my measurements right but it didn't flow, so I resorted to cutting out pieces and putting them together improv-style as I went along.

Here's where it started:

But the middle was too dense with colour, so I switched it around as I pieced until I got an arrangement I was happy with - no pic as it evolved kind of organically.

I moved quickly on to quilting it very densely with straight lines spaced only 1/4" apart, using my faourite Aurifil 50wt thread in a silvery grey:

I loosely followed Clover and Violet's tute, but got the idea of an elasticated strap closure from another tute (can't remember which, apologies). I also added a fabric casing over the elastic, as my elastic was strong, but not pretty at all. I like how the fabric casing looks, I wasn't sure I would as I thought it might be fussy but I don't think it is. I also added some very stiff sew-in interfacing in the panel under the Kindle to give it a bit of structure - I found it in my interfacing box, its almost cardboard like in texture.

The only thing I was a bit unhappy about was that I slightly undermeasured the height, and hence my binding and elastic were affected a bit, and not as even and crisp looking as I wanted, but I think once I am using it I won't even notice, and I'll definitely be making another cover so I can adjust it a bit then.

All in all, I'm really happy with how it turned out and even happier that I can look at this fabric combo every day!

Also - for those of you moving blog readers, you can now follow my blog easily through Bloglovin by clicking through this link:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Small is beautiful!

I have been trying to concentrate on small and easy projects in the last few weeks, seeing as my energy to sew is a little thin on the ground - the sort of projects that are not too taxing and are fun to make. In the last week, I managed 2 ( a major achievement, although it mighn't seem like one!) little projects in full, and finished off another small project too (more about that later this week) So here are the first two - both made in less than an hour each, but which made me smile.
First up - I needed a small extra to go with my pouch for the PLP5 swap. After dithering a bit about what to do (I seem to spend a lot of time dithering at the moment - which project to do, which fabric to use - its very frustrating and very unlike me! I think its because my sewing mojo is half asleep at the moment.) I decided to make a fabric basket using Ayumi's tutorial, as I have one that Kirsten made me in a swap last year and I use it all the time and love it. Even if my partner might have some already, they are something you will always have use for in my opinion!

I wanted something whimsical and I found a couple of leftover charms from the Japanese charm swap I did last year that I was saving for the right project. I fussy cut some 2" squares out of them and they worked exactly as I hoped they would.


I was pretty happy with the basket, so my package is now on the way to its destination.

I also got my fab package all the way from Australia - from the lovely Gina
 - Happy Go Lizzie on Flickr. I was so thrilled with this pouch. Gina included the jewel tones I said I was loving right now and lots of hand stitching - I just love it and the extras  - look at that cute mini pouch and the pincushion! Thanks so much Gina :-)

I also made a bit of an impulse Kindle buy over the weekend - figuring that if I couldn't sew, then I might as well get back reading again. Reading used to be my fave hobby until it took a back seat to sewing, and its pretty achieveable in bed and on the sofa! Of course, having bought it I needed a cover. I found a good tutorial by Whipstitch and loved the design.

 

This literally took about 40 minutes to run up - it was super simple. I could have taken a little more care if I wasn't in such a hurry to get it done before the new series of Downton Abbey started last night (wasn't it fab?) I actually didn't dither over the fabric for this one, believe it or not. The typewriter fabric kind of fell out of my fabric box and I knew instantly it was perfect! When I was halfway through making it, I brought in the Kindle to check for size and had a moment of serendipity when I realised that the screensaver had turned to the typewriter keys - so I just knew it was going to turn out perfectly.

 

What I love about this design is that there is room to hold the Kindle for reading.......and there is also an internal pocket to keep it safe inside when you're not using it, giving an extra layer of paddig to the screen.

 I really had fun with this one, but I also am looking forward to making a few other covers just for variety. I have lots of ideas on this one so you might see a few more covers in the coming weeks.