April Scrappy Finishes - Rainbow Star Cushion & Link Up

How was April for your scrap busting? Mine was not so good, but I did manage one small project this week so not a total loss.

Going back a few years ago, I used a few rainbow charms to make this scrappy star using the diamond die on my Accuquilt Go! Baby. But I didn't really think it through and once it was made I realised doing anything with it required y seams, which I wasn't in the humour to tackle at that stage. It went in my scrap basket and remained there until the start of this year when I found it again.

I pieced the y seams the other night - not perfect, but fine for a cushion where it is going to be squished and squashed and no one will notice.

 

Then I echo quilted it using rainbow coloured thread. And hey presto, I have a lovely little cushion. This is a small little cushion - only 15" square, and I have it ear marked for my office chair which has been killing my back lately, whatever way it is set up.

I made an envelope back for it with some large leftover scraps from my Made to Measure quilt back - Ikeas nummer fabric.

 

All done and ready to bring to work tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to seeing what scrappy projects you've been working on this month - link up below!

Feeling inspired...

Today I took a little trip (by myself, a rare treat) to a fabric shop near my mums. One of those shops I'd heard lots about but never visited. Bricks and mortar fabric stores tend to be a bit disappointing in Ireland (with a couple of exceptions) in my experience - the fabric selection is not always to my taste and they tend to be very expensive. But I was pleasantly surprised in The Crafty Fox (in Drogheda) - beautiful fabrics, good selection of quilting rulers, lovely ribbons and other bits and all laid out so prettily. I could have browsed for a long time.

In the end I was restrained. I picked some lovely Tilda reds, a LV Aneela Hoey grey, and a lovely Northcott black and grey that will be perfect for binding.
Then on the way back to mums, I stopped off in the local convenience store looking for a comic for the small girl and to my utter surprise found this on the shelf:

I've been unable to get this in the big "national" newsagent chain so to turn up in a little village shop was unexpected to say the least.

I had a leaf through it and saw some lovely projects. I'm not a big fan of craft magazines in general but was glad I picked this up - lots of inspiration here that ties into my new thing for garment making. I see trying my hand at some dress making in my near future. Where would you recommend for easy patterns for myself?

Stretching {Baby Leggings}

Today I decided to try a project I've been meaning to do for a long time. I have had the cutest Patty Young knit fabric in my stash for - oh - about 5 years now and it was time to use it.

Baby leggings were what I had in mind. I'd read a few tutes for them and they seemed like they should be ok.

I tried to get a twin needle for my machine but the local craft shop where I know they stock them was closed today, and the other fabric shop had an assistant who did not know what a twin needle was. (She offered me knitting needles first, then size 16 machine needles, then, unsurprisingly, I left.)

So I just jumped in with what I had on my machine. Turns out my machine has a lot of fancy stitches well capable of dealing with stretch fabric. (Not that I knew what any of them were.)

I used a pair of leggings Rachel already owned to make the pattern following this tutorial. Then I tried out some of the overcast stitches on my machine. I still don't really know the difference between some of them, they seem pretty similar, but I used one for stretch knit fabric and it seemed to work ok. (It was number 21 on the picture below)

 

The machine told me to use this fancyblind hem foot when I picked the stitch (no idea why though). I like how it looks and it seems nicely finished though.

These were really straightforward to make. I liked the finish I got using this stitch on the main leg and front and back seams. However, I didn't really finish the raw edges on the hem turn-under as nicely as I would like - I was trying to overlock them before sewing the hems on the bottom of the legs and it stretched the fabric a little. I know they won't fray and it won't be noticed, so it's not a big deal but I'd like to figure out how to finish them a bit more professionally. I also was a little messy sewing up the casing for the elastic at the top. But overall, they're details only I would notice.

Miss Rachel tried them on and seemed very comfortable in them. I think I'd go a couple of inches longer next time but they fit pretty well now. I had fun making these and I'll definitely be trying some more dress making in future, I haven't done it for a long time and forgot how nice it is to make something for someone to wear.

Pillow Popping....

Yesterday I decided it time that my tired, old, grubby sofa cushions got a makeover. For the most part prompted by how tired and old they look beside the lovely new cushion I made with my blogger bundle. So I got cutting and sewing. Love how quick making cushion covers is.

I really love the plus pillow....much more than I thought I would. The pattern was by Katy and in the notes she suggested a monochromatic version with different values and I immediately knew what I wanted to try. Monochromatic is not totally me, but the pop of aqua works so well to lift all the red.

This pattern is called Crimson Stones by Joan. The original in the book was made with Innocent Crush against Kona Coal and was a bit more dramatic than this version as you can imagine. But I made this with my blogger bundle fabrics and added some red centre squares, as my living room has a lot of red and I'm pretty sure it is going to work really nicely on my sofa alongside this cushion:

Both patterns are from the Pillow Pop book which is one of the few quilting books I own that I would like to make more than 2 or 3 items from. I really love this little book. There'll be a few more patterns made from it before I'm done.

Now to decide how to quilt them.

I am pretty sure I am going to machine quilt the plus pillow cross-hatch style.

But I'm not sure about the other one. I could do dense machine quilting. Or I could hand quilt it. My other blogger bundle pillow is hand quilted so the two would work well together if I did that. Opinions anyone?

And have a lovely, chocolatey Easter :-)

Stitching the Made to Measure

The last few evenings have been spent very pleasantly on the sofa stitching up a storm.

I table basted this massive quilt top on Saturday and am glad to have that part behind me. I have a few weeks of hand quilting to look forward to now - I love having a big project to work on in bits and pieces. This is the first proper big quilt that I will have entirely hand quilted - usually I do a little bit of machine stitching in the ditch to secure the layers. But I could not face wrestling it through the machine, and I'm interested to see how it turns out done entirely by hand.

It is slow, but very enjoyable.

I outlined all the seams in the central star block with pink perle cotton. I didn't mark any quilt lines at this stage, but may need to for some of the other borders...will wait and decide when I get to that point.  Need to pick another thread now for the next border.

On the home front, only more day at work and I'm off for a whole 11 days....cannot wait!!

Sweet Baby Burp Cloths

During the week, one of my small girl's best friends, who lives a few doors down from us, got a new baby brother. This was cause for a LOT of excitement on my daughter's part - not least because, being in possession of a 15 month old sister, she sees herself as something of an authority on babies.

So I wanted to make a little present for her to give to her friend for the new baby, somethng that she could help me make. I had some cute little boy fabrics, but not in huge quantities and I decided that a set of burp cloths might fit the bill. I made some of these for myself last year before I had baby R and I used them loads. I made some with towelling backing, and some with flannel backing, and I much preferred the flannel, their shape held up much better to frequent washing and they were light and easy to use.

So I got cutting and then I had a small girl help me sew them together.

Aren't they cute? I used blue dotty flannel on the back, and topstitched 3 rows around the edges to give them a nice finish. They measure 17" x 10", a great size for mopping up after baby. They're all ready for the small girl to give to her friend tomorrow.

Finish Along Quarter 2 (Wildly Ambitious) Plans

I totally missed the first quarter of this year's Finish Along and am determined not to let it slip by me again this quarter. It's such a great way of keeping track and I have lots and lots of UFOs stashed in various places around my house. Even getting ready to write this post I found UFOs I'd totally forgotten about.


I debated whether to do a long or a short list. A short list obviously has the advantages of being actually achieveable. But sometimes if you do a long list, you push yourself more than you thought you would. So I'm going to put more on my list than I think is really achieveable in the hope that somehow, somewhere, I will find the energy to move some of these projects on. (This is slightly outside my control in that it involves my sweet baby girl remembering that once upon a time, for quite a long number of months, she knew how to sleep all night, every night. Bloody teething. Grrr.)

Anyway, moving swifly on. Here is the list. It's ambitious. But it's also exciting. Bring it on.

1. Baste, quilt and bind my Made to Measure quilt. This labour of love is going to be hand quilted, and I love the process and I can't wait to start stitching. I'm just dreading basting because of its monstrous 80" x 80" size. ( And I just realised, unbelieveably, that I never blogged this quilt top when I finished it. Doh. See what sleepless nights, 3 kids and a mental work schedule does to your brain.)

2. Spiderweb Quilt.

I have about half my bee blocks back now. Can't wait to get the rest back and get this quilt top pieced and finished. I absolutely love how it's shaping up.

3. Carol Singers Embroidery Hoop

Yes, I know it is April, and I know this is a Christmas embroidery hoop. Obviously, I'm 4 months behind, or 8 months ahead, whatever way you want to look at it. But it is on the list :-)

 

4. Cardigan for Rachel

I was making great progress on this till I realised I had made a couple of errors and my rows aren't lining up properly. So I need to rip it back a bit and redo it. But if I don't do it soon, she'll be grown out of the size.

5. Teeny tiny hexies

Need to move this on and get a panel done to make either a cushion cover or bag from. Possibly a supertote. Or a messenger bag. A bag. Definitely a bag.

6. Kona precut Hexies.

Half of these are basted, but I have no idea where it's going. (Am I allowed to say that? Maybe not) I'm just determined that wherever it is going, it's going to reach it before the end of June. Ideas on a postcard please.....

7. Tumbling blocks quilt top. This is a UFO for coming up on 2 years now. So high time it was finished. I want to add some lettering in the top left corner first. (I am willing to personalise this with a baby name, and sell it if anyone is interested.)

8. Another cushion for my sofa, using my blogger bundle fabrics. I have a few patterns in mind for this, but haven't made a final decision. But I'll definitely be using these fabrics again for whichever one I choose. All the better if I can work in some handquilting with the matching threads.

9. Sunburst crochet blanket.

This has been sitting around for far too long Will get moving on it.

Ok - yes, like a couple of others, I am now officially exhausted after just typing out that list. So not sure what the chances are of actually getting it done, but if I can push myself a bit I might achieve more than I expect. Off now to lie down for a little rest from brain overload.

Linking up to Katy :-)