Big Stitch Swap Package (gone in the post)

Today, I put my Big Stitch Swap package in the post. I hope my partner will like it.

I used a LiliPopo embroidery pattern on the front. I enlarged it a little so I could have a bigger finished pouch, suitable for hand sewing or knitting projects. This girl is very sweet, and though the pattern was straightforward, it took a little bit of work to get the look I wanted for her. I tried to make her sweet but a little quirky.

I was trying to figure out how to set her in a background, and I wanted something to give it a tiny bit of an edge, so as not to be too super sweet. From somewhere, I had the image of her standing on a rocky, pebbly beach. Happily, Trudi's class at the FQ Retreat covered pebble quilting, and despite my previous pre-FQR attempts at the technique leaving me ready to cry, after practising a little, I felt up to tackling it on this. It took quite a while, and a surprising amount of thread, but I was really pleased with how it turned out. The texture of the thread against the Essex linen is just so lovely, it feels great.

For the back, I spent quite a while thinking through various blocks before I landed on this one. I wanted something I could add handquilting detail to, something with clean lines and that would be striking against the linen. I was inspired by Camille Roskelley's Puddle Jumping pattern, but I drew this block out on Touchdraw so I could customise it to the size I wanted myself.

My colour palette was inspired by something I saw my partner say, and when I went digging around, I was delighted to find a scrap of Nordika that was perfect for fussy cutting for the centre.

I did dither about the hand quilting on this, initially when I finished it I thought it was a bit boxy looking where the corners of the blocks crossed over, it didn't look quite as I imagined. But when I came back to it the next day, I was happy, and I got a lot of positive feedback on IG and FB about it, so I relaxed a little :-)

I added a hot pink zipper for a pop of colour and I used a Vintage Happy print for the lining. I bought this print a good while ago, specifically for use as lining,and I love how it works. I did a divider pocket about half way down. The pouch measures just under 12" x 12", so it's a good size.

So my pouch was all done, and I just needed to pull out some scraps to include to finish off my package. It's gone in today's post and I really, really hope that my partner likes it.

If you like hand stitching, or embroidery, or just want to see what loveliness can be created with a simple needle and thread, pop over to the Flickr group and have a look as some of the gorgeous finished projects. Maybe we will see you in Round 2?

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.

Time to make something just for me!

Lately it feels like everything I've made has been leaving my house as quickly as I make it. This is probably a good thing, as otherwise I would have even more "stuff" than I have already - which is far more than I need. But sometimes I feel a little sad that some of the beautiful things I make don't stay here with my family. (That is my New Year's resolution, I know it already!!)

So tonight, despite the fact that I really *should* be working on a quilt, or, even more importantly, an angel costume for E for the weekend, I decided to take a break from that and make something for me. Yay!

A couple of weeks ago, I pinned this lovely little pouch on Pinterest. I was thinking about it for a pressie for my hubbie and he seemed pretty keen although he did insist it would have to be in plain old navy fabric. BORING!

 

                                                                              Source: erinerickson.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Pretty, isn't it? Plus practical.I use headphones quite a bit with my iPhone and they are always loose in my bag, driving me nuts to find. (Hubbie loses his at least once a week which is why he is getting one of these!)

So, tonight, I decided to make some for myself. The tute is great - pity I didn't follow it exactly!! I managed to commit the cardinal sin of pouch making - leaving my zip closed and spent quite a lot of time ripping back my stitching. I also wasn't careful enough in stitching my circle so its not a perfect circle. But, it's for me, so who cares, right?

I used Tilda fabric both outside and inside and all in all, I love it!

No more searching for headphones :-) Now to make a plain one for Himself. Oh - and I might just need to make another for me using this gorgeous Circa 1934 Garbo fabric I got in the post last week from River Fabrics. Just need to buy a matching zipper.

                                                                                          (Image from River Fabrics)

More goodie swap sewing!

This week has not been good for sewing. I feel like I managed to get hardly anything done, a combination of work, kids and still feeling under the weather. Plus feeling quite lethargic about it all! But yesterday evening I decided I had had enough of feeling uninspired, sewing-wise, and knew that the only way to "cure" myself was to go and do a small, fun project. I've been mulling over my mug rug for Partner no 1 in the Goodie Swap for a few weeks now and after seeing Judith and Fi both turn Lee's great block tute into a mug rug, I decided that was the way to go. I really really love Lee's tute and this block is a strong contender for my month in Sew Bee Blissful. My partner's colour are a little different from the sort of palette I normally like but I just love how they go together.  I mixed in some solids as I had them in the right shades, and I used lots of fabrics in this one - Kate Spain (Fandango and Central Park) more Aviary II, Loulouthi and more! I felt it needed a neutral border so added on a strip of Kona Ash and think it finishes it off nicely although this is measuring up as a very,very big mug rug!! Oh well, I don't think my partner will mind.

After finishing binding it, I decided to break out my new Perle Cotton which I had in an Iris/purple variegated colourway and did a little hand quilting in the Ash border - a line of small stitches on the inside and longer stitches on the outside. I like the effect although I wish my stitches were more even!

So, partner no 1 is now done. I think and hope she will be pleased with her package when it arrives!

I moved on then to Partner No 2. Now, I feel I know partner no 2's taste reasonably well and she has been very active commenting in the Flickr group which is always a help. I I know exactly what I am doing for her mug rug although I won't get to it till later in the week. I've been mulling over her goodies and I know that she would probably like the needle case I made for partner no 1 too. But one of the things I love about this swap is the opportunity to do different things for different people and work with separate colour schemes. So I have been looking for an opportunity to use Ayumi's patchwork wristlet tutorial for a while and decided Partner 2 would like this.

I used Kona Ash to make my feature fabrics stand out more and I think it has a fresh clean look that I love! This is the back - don't you love those seahorses?

And this is part of the front - I'm afraid that one of the feature fabrics will just make it too obvious to my partner so I'm not showing the whole thing!

This is a really practical little pouch. It has a wrist strap (matching the interior lining) and would be perfect to hold a few small things if you don't want or need to bring your handbag out with you. Its lined with some Modern Meadow fabric, with a pocket made from Kona Ochre. The pocket is divided and easily holds some cards, notes and a lipstick. Plus your phone and keys would fit easily in there too.

So partner no 2 - I hope you like it! More on the way for you - I have another (little) goodie in mind for you as well as your mug rug. Keep watching :-)

PS. If you're looking for my Kona solid giveaway for 5 half metres of Kona cottons, pop over here to enter! It closes tomorrow evening so don't miss out!

Linking up to:

Operation {Stash} Transformation....and a possible giveaway!

I made this cute little zipped bag last night. I used two squares of fabric (trimmed back) that I had to swap out of a blanket I was making (thanks E for scribbling all over the top bits!) and a great little tute I found for making the zipper ends really neat. I was really pleased with how it turned out. I always have issues with getting my zip ends as neat as I would like and this tutorial was really good, I have a couple of things I need to improve on but this is a massive improvement on what I've done previously. It's now residing happily in my sewing basket!

However, searching around for fabric scraps big enough to use as lining completely wrecked my head because my scraps were all jammed into a big hat box in no order and all scrunched up. I know that in blogland most of what is seen is the finished product and pretty perfect. This nice minky-backed pram blanket I made for my friend for her new baby girl, which, with the little pouch above, are my little projects for Fabric Tuesday this week, for example:

But (like everything) few things in my world are perfect. Here's my non perfect little scrap box:

Between not being able to find scraps for lining my little pouch, and dreading the thought of getting started on my Bottled Rainbow mini-blocks because I couldn't actually find any scraps I actually wanted, I decided today it was time to do something about it all. (In fact, this looks a lot better than it actually was, because this photo was taken half way through the sorting when the fabric had a chance to breathe and was no longer completely crushed in there!)

After sorting out my yardage and FQs a few days ago, I decided today to do something about the scrap stash today. I spent the afternoon on Operation Transformation - scrap style! I ironed and sorted, and ironed and sorted some more and this is what I ended up with. Three lovely neat little baskets, divided broadly into warms, cools and neutrals/multi-coloureds.

Now, this doesn't look like a lot of scraps, does it?

Actually, it is.

Here's the warms:

And the cools:

And the multi-coloureds and neutrals:

And these are only my small scraps! I have another big box of FQs, fat eigthts & large scraps. Plus a huge box of yardage.

So why am I telling you all this?

Well, despite all that stash sorting this week, I am waiting for another delivery (Central Park half yards - 6 of them in the blue and purple colourways. Yum yum!) and my wonderful friend H brought a beautiful little gift of Tanya Whelan FQs with her when she came to visit on Thursday:

So I thought maybe, just maybe, I might do a little giveaway from my stash - in the spirit of keeping it under control. And as a little belated Easter gift to one of my lovely readers!

I'm thinking, a scrappy giveaway. Maybe a zipper bag of varied scraps from my lovely stash and a few FQs? And one of my little scrappy pincushions if you're really really nice to me?

What do you think? Are you interested? Let me know!

If you are I'll start putting the scraps together and will post the giveaway & how to enter towards the weekend.