Giveaway winner...calling Ohio......

A huge big thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for Sew Mama Sew! giveaway day. Wow, I had 983 entries, which kind of blew me away! I couldn't possibly respond to the comments but I did read every single one of them and it was so much fund to see where you are all going to spend the holidays. I love how the blogging community is spread around the world, I had entries from so many different countries.

Thank you too to all my new followers! I hope that you come back and visit me often - please just join in the chat :-) To all my "old" followers - yes, I know you're not old, bad choice of words, lol!! - thank you for all the lovely comments.

Ok, so, on to the main event, the winner. Big drum roll please.......

Mr. Random drew:

Who is:

Congratulations Sangeetha, I will be in touch with you to get your address and will send these off to Ohio next week.

I know quite a few people were interested in the tutorial for the phone cozies - it is now up and you'll find it here.

That's all for today folks. Hope you're having fun getting ready for Christmas. Did I mention that I am finished up work till 5th January? Yipee!! I will (hopefully, all going well) have a couple of posts with finishes up before the big day but if you don't get back to visit me before then I hope you have a wonderful Christmas xx

Last minute gift idea: Phone Cozy Tutorial

Are you in need of some last minute quick, easy and fun Christmas gifts? Something you can make from your scrap basket with a minimum of fuss? Something useful, as well as pretty? Here's your answer - my phone/gadget cozy tutorial!

These little cozies are perfect for a phone or a camera - I'm sure there's lots of other uses you could think of for them too! The featured cozy fits an iPhone perfectly, including a protective cover/skin.  So, let's get to it!


Requirements:

Scraps of fabric in solid colour, feature fabric prints and lining fabric. 2 batting scraps (approx 5 x 7" each). Medium size covered or decorative button.

Cutting List:

(The measurements given are for the featured cozy. Measurements for other variations are given at the end.)

From your solid fabric cut the following:

Strip A - 1.5" x 4" - cut 3
Strip B - 2" x 4" - cut 2
Strip C - 1.25" x 3.5" - cut 2
Button loop strip - 6" x 2". (If your cover button is quite big, you might want to add another inch to the length).
 
From your print scraps, cut as follows:
Back:- Cut a variety of pieces for the back strips. They should be 1.5" high and can be a variety of widths from 1" to 2" - I varied mine to add interest. You need enough so that when pieced they make 2 strips that are 4" in length. Equally you could cut 2 single strips from a feature fabric - they should be 1.5" x 4" each.
Front:- Cut 2 pieces that are 2.25" x 1.5" (D) and 2 pieces that are 1.75" x 1.5" (E).

From your lining fabric, cut 2 pieces measuring 6" x 4" and 1 strip for the handle strap measuring 9" x 2".

Making the front and back:

Use a 1/4" seam throughout.

Firstly, take the small pieces you cut for your back strips, and piece together 2 strips using a quarter inch seam. Press the seams open, and trim both back to 1.5" x 4". 

Next, take the print fabric pieces for the front panel. Piece the 2 (E) pieces together along the long edge, and the 2 (D) pieces together along the long edge. Press seams, and then piece them together, with the (E) pieces on top. You should now have the following:

Now you're ready to piece the front and back.

Front:

Take the 2 strips C and piece to the sides of the 4 patch front panel. Press your seams towards the print fabric. Then piece a strip B to the top, and a strip A to the bottom. Press those seams to the print fabric also. This will help the print fabrics to pop off the solid even more, once you have quilted it.

For the back, start at the top and piece together your strips as follows:

Strip A
1st print fabric strip
Strip A
2nd print fabric strip
Strip B

Press your seams carefully to the print fabric on all seams.

Your front and back should now look like this, and are ready to be quilted.

Place on top of your batting strips and quilt in the solid fabric as you wish, then trim each piece to 6" x 4". I quilted in straight lines 1/4" apart like this:

Make Button Loop and Handle Strap:

First, make the handle strap. Take the 9" strip you cut from the lining fabric and fold in the middle lengthwise, wrong sides together. Press the fold. Next, open out the fold, and fold both raw edges inwards on either side, so that they meet in the middle, along the crease you just pressed:

These should now be folded back over each other along the original fold line, and press again. You should then top stitch along both edges, approx 1/8" in to secure.

Next, do exactly the same with the solid fabric strip you cut for the button loop. Once it is done, you need to create the loop. First, curve the strip around as follows:

Then, keeping the edges as close to each other as possible, press the little triangle this forms down:

Lastly, sew a line across, following the top stitch line, to secure the loop:

You're ready now to sew the cozy together!

Assembling the cozy:

Take the back piece, the button loop and one of the lining pieces and prepare to sew across the top edge. First, place the button loop in the centre - it should be 1.5" in from both edges. Make sure the back of the button loop is facing up, as in the picture below:

Then, place your lining piece on top of this so that the right sides are together and pin the button loop in place through all the layers. I have let the loop ends extend past the top edge so you can see in the photo more easily, but you should line them up with the edges when you are making.

Sew along the top edge using a 1/4" seam. When you get over the button loop strips, reverse and sew back and forward over them again to strengthen the seam here, then continue to the end.  Using a small, sharp embroidery scissors, very carefully trim the batting in the seam to reduce the bulk. Be careful not to cut your fabric or your stitches. You can also trim back any little bit of the loop ends that extend over the edge.

Take your front piece and your other lining piece and place right sides together and sew along the top edge. Trim front batting as above.

Now its time to sew these two pieces together to assemble your cozy. You will be matching the linings and the front and back of the cozy right sides together, lining up your raw edges and the seams you have already sewn.

First, place the handle strap and pin in place. I put it on the right side of the front piece, about 3/4" down from the top seam as shown below. The strap will need to be inside the 2 pieces when sewing your seam, so make sure to place it carefully in the middle and not stray out to the edges so as not to get caught in any of the edge seams.

 

 Next, place the front and back pieces right sides together, and the lining pieces right sides together and pin around all the edges. Make sure your top seams are matched carefully.

Again using a 1/4" seam, start sewing along the bottom edge of the lining, about 1" in from the corner. Make sure to backstitch to secure. Sew all the way around the edges of the cozy, including reversing back and forward over the handle strap a few times to strengthen it. Finish up approx 1" in from the opposite corner of the bottom edge of the lining. This should leave you a gap of about 2" along the bottom of the lining for turning the cozy right side out.

As with the top seam, trim the batting in the side and bottom seams back very carefully

 

 Lastly, cut off the corners taking care not to cut your stitches, and then pull the right side of the cozy out through the gap in the lining.

Push your corners out carefully using an old knitting needle or a point turner.  Lastly, you need to sew up the gap in your lining. Fold the seam allowance inside and press together. Then you can either hand stitch the gap closed, or, because it won't be seen, you could also edge stitch it closed as I did:

Push your lining back into the cozy and give it all a little press to neaten it up. The last thing you need to do is add a button for the closure. I think cover buttons really work on this cozy and would highly recommend that you cover one using a coordinating scrap. If you need a tute on doing this, you will find one here. You could also use a pretty decorative button. All you need to do is hand stitch it on in the middle of the front - you want it placed so that the bottom of the button is just sitting along the seam joining the print fabric panel to the top solid piece.

 And now all that's left is to decide who you are going to give it to :-)

And don't forget that little handle - perfect to hang on your bag so you can always find your phone!

I have run up a few of these cozies trying to get the tute just right and get decent photos for you in the last week, in slightly different styles and sizes.

Variations:

The Letters Cozy: 

The Letters Cozy is made using a natural coloured linen/cotton fabric and instead of doing the tiny piecing for the feature fabric panel and strips, I cut them from one piece of fabric each.

Measurements as follows:

Front panel - cut 1 measuring 3.5" x 2.5"
Back strips - cut 2 measuring 4" x 1.5"

All other measurements are the same.

The Rainbow Cozy:

 

The Rainbow Cozy is a slightly smaller size, suitable for a narrower phone.

Measurements as follows:


The width of strips A and B is 3.5" instead of 4".
Strip C measures 1" x 3.5"
The print fabric strips on the back are also 3.5" wide instead of 4"

Lining pieces measure 6" x 3.5" each.

All other measurements the same.

Aren't they pretty? I hope you had fun making this cozy.

If you have any questions on the tute, please let me know in a comment or pop me an email to fairyfacedesigns@gmail.com. I would love to see any you do make - so please upload them in my Flickr group. 

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Day

 

Another week, another giveaway! It's December after all! I have put together a little package from my own stash for you today and I hope you like it.

To everyone who is visiting for Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway day - céad míle fáilte (or, to translate, a huge Irish welcome!) to my little corner of blogland. I hope that you stay and have a look around. This has been the year of quilting for me. I finished my very first quilt on 25th January this year and quickly became obsessed with the whole quilting process. So much so that I have made an average of 1 large quilt a month and lots of minis, table runners, mug rugs and other projects along the way, including jointly hosting the Across the Sea quiltalong with my friend Jennifer. Plus, of course, the 3 quilts that are in my sewing basket waiting to be finished by year end! I love to make colourful, modern quilts - big and small - with gorgeous fabrics and simple, clean design. Here are some of my favourite makes this year:

You'll find more about my finished quilts here. Next year, my plan involves lots of tutes and some quilt patterns so I would love if you came back and visited again when all the madness of the giveaways is over!

Later this week I will be posting a tute for these cute phone/gadget cozies - one for smaller gadgets, one for iPhones. They are super fast, and super easy and you can make them with scraps - perfect, last minute Christmas presents! So do pop back and check it out if you need some gift inspiration!

To all my loyal friends, well, you know how much I love you all :-) But I'll say it again, just so you're sure - you're the BEST!! I love how I have become friends with so  many of you though commenting and chatting via email, and I really, really hope I get to meet lots of you in London in June at the Fat Quarterly retreat, funds and flights permitting (lets talk about that more in the New Year, will we?).

So, let's get to the important parts!  Today's giveaway is all of my own fabric, from my (overflowing) stash baskets. In case you are wondering, my home is smoke free and pet free!

First up, I am giving a way a Fairy Tale Friends honeybun.

 

Nice, right? This honeybun consists of 45 1.5" strips, approx 44" wide. Have a look here for more info.


But that's not all, I'm also including 6 stashbuilding fat quarters. The fabrics are perfect mixer fabrics in a nice range of colours. 

They are, from left to right: Freebird by Momo for Moda, Hideaway by Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda,  Grand Revival by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit, Pinfeathers by Carina Gardner for Northcott, Midsummer Magic by Laurie Godin for Northcott, and 1001 Peeps by Lizzy House for Andover.

What do you need to do? I'm keeping this simple... you can have 2 entries. Please leave your email address in your comment in the following format: fairyfacedesigns (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you.

1. Leave a comment telling me where in the world you are spending Christmas/your holidays this year. Mine will be here, at home, just outside Cork city in the very south of Ireland.  (Everyone can enter on this comment, follower or not!)
2. For a bonus entry, let me know if you are a follower, new or old.

Important stuff: I will close the giveaway at 9pm Irish time (GMT) on Friday 16th December. The winner will be drawn using Random Number Generator. Giveaway is open internationally. I will delete duplicate entries. If I cannot get in contact with the winner by Sunday 18th December, I will redraw.

**This giveaway is now closed**

WIP Wednesday

Well its been a super busy week round here, how about everyone else? Isn't the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway just the best? I've had so much fun entering giveaways and discovering new blogs. If you want to enter mine, there's still time, you'll find the post here.

Completed this week:

Last week I was struggling a little with energy and ideas. I had a day off work on Thursday and just grabbed some fabric I liked, took out my notebook and tried to make up one of the ideas I had in it. It worked out great and I ended up putting it in my giveaway! I'm really happy with this little iPhone cozy, I'm definitely going to make more and even write up a little tutorial when I have a few things tweaked.

I had fun with some scrappy pincushions - they always leave me in a good mood!

I also made a pillow (or cushion as we would say here) with some leftover blocks from my Pips quilt:

This was another impulse make and my daugher is delighted with it, she loves the dogs on the fabric. I lightly quilted it on the diagonal lines using a leftover bit of cotton batting, and then backed it with some lovely soft red polar fleece for a really snuggly feel.

In Progress:

Well, I'm really excited to have finished my Pinwheel Pips quilt top. (Sorry the photo is so bad, it was taken in the evening and the light was really poor.) I decided on this layout because I love how it gives an optical illusion and you have to really look to see where the blocks are. I kind of wish I'd maybe had some more fabric to get a better balance of colours (I had half a layer cake) but I like how it turned out. I added the sashing to bring it up to a slightly better size for a child's throw, and really like the girls on the swings fabric I used, I think its my favourite print in this collection. E is very excited about it being nearly done. My lovely hubbie really wants me to quilt it with batting and backing rather than fleece as I was planning (he loves the texture of quilts and wants her first quilt to have that) and I picked up a pink flat sheet in Heatons on sale for only €5 for the backing - result! Maybe, if I'm very lucky and get some time at the weekend, I might just get it finished as I'm planning on light quilting similar to the pillow for this one.

Started:

I got most of the pieces cut for the next quilt I'm making which is a commission for a quilt similar to the one I made for Sophie a couple of months ago. It is a simple pattern of big squares intespersed with some 4 patch blocks. I'm sticking with red and green as the dominant colours but have some different fabrics and prints this time and I'm looking forward to laying these out, I love mixing up the colours and patterns to make the quilt really work.

Well, that's it for this week, its been a good one. Hope you are all enjoying the giveaway and welcome to all my new followers - please jump in and comment so I can get to know you!

I'm linking this up to Freshly Pieced as always, as well as some other great blogs.

Sewing Fun..and a sneak giveaway preview!

This week I just couldn't get into anything big I was working on. I didn't have the mental energy and had lost a little bit of creative spark. But I was panicking slightly, needing to have something ready for my Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway post on Sunday. So, Wednesday night I sat down with some scraps and an idea I had from my little notebook and decided to just have a bit of fun. By yesterday afternoon, this is what I ended up with:

A cute little cozy for an iPhone!

Now, I'm going to shamelessly post lots of pics of this, not because I love it so much (although I do!) but because my friend Helen is staying with me for a few days, and she's an amazing photographer, and I just love the photos she took. She also gave me a crash course for dummies in how cameras work, light, shutter speed etc, and, even better, where to find all these things on my little camera. She wandered around adjusting things, muttering about depth of field and light and I ended up with about a million fab photos, not just of my stuff, but also, as always, of my kids!

Its made from a natural coloured cotton/linen mix, paired with some tiny red scraps from my basket. I quilted the main fabric using some scraps of cotton backing. This is the front:

It's made to fit a phone with a fitted protective cover as I hate when I have to take mine off, the phone inevitably gets dropped when I remove if for 5 mins! I added a little tab so it can be hung from a handbag or a belt. This is the back:

I debated what to do closure wise but ended up covering a button with one of my last Bliss scraps, and made a fastening loop from the main fabric:

And I lined it with one of my favourite fabrics, Ta Dot in Berry. I think its the most versatile yet striking fabric I've used, works great on its own or blended, can be background or the main feature. It really brings life to anything you put it with, I just love it!

By the time I finished it, I was back to my normal addicted-to-the-sewing-machine self and full of energy again!

This is my handmade item for the giveaway, which I'll post on Sunday {link is here}. I'll be adding some fabric and notions to it too, so be sure to check back in then! I'm also thinking of writing a tute on this one, if you're interested let me know!

Helen and myself had a little bit of a crafty evening yesterday and I showed her how to make a scrappy pincushion:

Of course, she's taking it away with her. I also had this little mini pincushion that I made with some hexies a while ago and kept for her:

Of course, I'm not sure what she's going to do with them...her being a knitter!

I'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday, Todays Creative Blog and a bunch of other great blogs, check out my sidebar for the links!