Quilted Cushions for Christmas

I love alliterations. I also love how these cushions for The Boy's sister, D, turned out. I made the cushions to match the ZigZag quilt that I meant to give her for her birthday but which didn't get done until Christmas. 

D's presents: ZigZag Quilt with matching cushions

Cushion 1: Pop Art Cushion

Pop Art Cushion

Finished size: 30 x 30 cm

D loves pop art, especially Roy Lichtenstein. I ordered a screen printed sample panel on ebay. The original plan was a folded log cabin in black and white to frame the image but I forgot to take into account that the folds wouldn't stay folded when the cushion was inserted. So, in the end, I hand quilted the edges of the white frames. Both the black and the white fabrics were 100% cotton from my stash. My mum helped a LOT with this one, mainly because we were at my grandparents' house and had to use a very retro sewing machine that I was pretty incapable of sewing with. To be honest, she did all of the sewing for this one because I couldn't get the machine to behave at all. It's her old one from a long long time ago so she knows all its tricks.

Cushion 2: ZigZag cushion

ZigZag Cushion

Finished size: 50 x 50 cm

The second cushion cover I made for D matches the design of the ZigZag quilt that I made her. I used some of the remaining Bella Solids from the charm pack that I used to make her quilt (Bella Solids in bleached white) and black quilter's cotton from my stash. I didn't have time to quilt the cushion cover but the half square triangles are quite small so it's not really necessary in my opinion. I backed the pieced panel with some spare white fabric and zigzag stitched around the edges.

ZigZag cushion: getting better at half square triangles!

Cushion back & closure

Both cushion envelopes are finished with Tula Pink's Salt Water Sea Debris in aqua to match D's ZigZag quilt. I enclosed the edge of the envelope with a double folded strip of white and sewed on some snaps to keep the cushions closed. I found these great duck feather cushion inserts at John Lewis. They were less pricey than I was expecting, too!

Zigzag stitching the inside edges

The next time I make cushion covers I want to try to enclose the inner seams. Those zigzag-seamed edges really don't agree with my OCDness. Everything must be neat and tidy and perfectly straight. Everything! Luckily I'm moving into a new flat very soon so I have an excuse to make all of the pretty cushions for myself.

Xx me.

Fabric shopping

I am currently in Philadelphia visiting my friend Z. Apart from being my best friend in whole wide world, Z also moonlights as my post room for anything that can't be posted to places outside the USA. I pay her in boost bars and assorted ridiculous things in the post. 

When I turned up in Philadelphia last week Z had a frankly embarrassing horde of boxes for me to open. Among other things, this included some fabrics that I couldn't wait to get my hands on.

1. Silks

In Britain, fabric shopping is a very expensive pastime. To be honest, if you, like me, refuse to use synthetic fabrics and much prefer wools and silks, making a piece of clothing yourself is often significantly more expensive than buying it on the high street. Fabric is much more affordable in the USA and with the Mecca that is Mood Fabrics now selling online there is also significantly more choice. I ordered five different silks and silk blends to make blouses for work and perhaps a pretty summer dress. Here they are: 

Left to right: 
infinity silk crepe de chine, 
grey mini diamond stretch charmeuse, 
Anna Sui sapphire silk jacquard

Black paisley crepe de chine, 
 Italian cherry blossom cotton-silk voile

2. Quilting cottons

I also ordered some pretty quilting cottons, which I plan to use to make this stunning quilt from this great new book, Classic Modern Quilts. 

Top to bottom: Salt Air - Sea Garden (coral), La Belle Fleur - French General, Nature's Christmas (berry), Chateau Rouge - French General, Christmas Countdown (tonal red), Blitzen - Grunge Solid (red). All by MODA.

Chez Moi - Mimi - Prism Floral (aqua, MODA)

3. Ralph Lauren Los Cabos sheets

I also got this Ralph Lauren sheet set (king sized flat and fitted sheets and two pillowcases). The pattern is called Los Cabos and I. Real life it is a much richer shade of blue. I used this to back Samuel's quilt (check it out here) and love how soft and silky it is. I find it very difficult to find wide backing fabrics that I like and using pretty patterned queen or king sized sheets makes things much easier. I'm planning to use the pillow cases to make some pretty pillow case dresses for my friend C's little girls. 

Ralph Lauren Los Cabos

I am very excited about my stack of fabric loot and can't wait to get started. I've promised myself that I will finish both the hidden stars quilt and the quilt I'm making for C's older daughter before I start anything new though. 

Love,

Me x

WIP: Hexagon Quilt February 2014

I've been on holiday for the past two weeks and, annoyingly, was rather ill for some of it. This did, however, in combination with rather a lot of time spent in aeroplanes, give me a fair bit of time to spend on the hexagon quilt.

Here is February's progress report:

Progress: February 2014

Flowers: 6 pink flowers, 1 partial pink flower

Sections: two sections of 3 pink flowers each

Loose basted hexagons: 7 white, 41 print

Very pleased with myself, especially given that I'm currently still in the US and have a 6 hour flight back to London tomorrow and a trip to Germany coming up next week. Yay for sewing on the plane!

Love,

Me x

2014 Sewing To Do List

This is my sewing to do list for 2014. I am a little bit obsessed with making lists of things. It helps motivate me and keep me on track, which is necessary as I have a rather short attention span and become distracted easily.

Sewing To Do List 2014

Learn to make piping

Learn to sew a work blouse/shirt

Learn to make button holes

Hidden Stars quilt

Alexander McQueen tweed skirt

Wool work shift dress (and jacket?)

At least two work blouses

Alter shirts for work

Forest friends quilt for A

Forest friends quilt for M

Finish Snowflake wall hanging for TQQ 

Cream ruby silk slip

Green chiffon slip

All of these projects are things for which I already have the fabrics so, hopefully, all I will have to buy is things like buttons, lining and interfacing. Unfortunately, my obsession with textures and silky things will probably result in me buying all sorts of things that aren't on the list. Luckily, my new job means that I'll be working a lot so hopefully the lack of time will curb my spending.

Love, 

Me x

ZigZag Quilt

ZigZag Quilt for D

D's ZigZag Quilt - Leo loves photo bombing

The boy's sister, D, got this quilt for Christmas. It was originally meant to be a birthday present. Her birthday is in August. Do you think there might be a pattern here? Whoops. Unfortunately, a small detail known as the PhD submission deadline got in the way of the birthday present completion deadline. Anyway, all's well that ends well and she loved her birthday/Christmas present when she finally got it.

I decided on a black, white, and grey zigzag pattern because D recently bought some grey and white zigzag patterned sheets that she loves and also because her room is decorated in black and white, with light blue walls. She is frighteningly stylish and generally looks too cool for school. I really wanted the design to complement her personality and style.

Started: December 2013 (I sewed exactly one seam in August)
Finished: December 2013
Size: lap sized 130 x ??? cm
Quilt top: Bella solids 5" charm pack in black (9900PP-99), silver (9900PP-183), and bleached white (9900PP-98). I used 20 silver charms, 40 black, and 60 white.
Backing: Tula Pink's Salt Water Sea Debris in aqua because D loves kite surfing and the sea.
Binding: Tula Pink's Salt Water Sea Stripes in aqua The grey/blue progression really tied in well with the grey chevrons on the quilt top and the blue backing fabric.
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom wool batting. SO much better than everything else I've ever tried
Quilting: Machine quilted on my mother's Singer Samba 60 with some random white thread she gave me from her sewing cabinet.

Back of D's ZigZag Quilt: Tula Pink backing and binding

I pieced the top using half square triangles, which was a new technique for me. As it turns out, neither my rotary cutting skills nor my quarter inch seam allowance skills were consistent enough to be able to finish this quilt without the help of The Quilt Queen (a.k.a. my mother, who has nothing to do with the quilting queen of interweb fame). As demonstrated by the reject block below, things just weren't matching up to my exacting bordering on OCD standards. Luckily TQQ was around to save the day! I learned so much just from her going through and correcting my blocks so that they were up to scratch. My half square triangles aren't half bad now. Just keep practising!

Rogue block - so much for consistent seam allowances.

I embroidered a quilt label and whip stitched it to the back of the quilt. This is one of my favourite steps of quilt making. I keep promising myself that one of these days I will finish a quilt with enough time left to get really creative with the quilt label instead of just stitching the recipient's name and the date.

D's ZigZag quilt: quilt label

Here are some photos of the quilt in progress. I need to get better at taking photos as I go along. Isn't that what I started this blog for in the first place?

Quilt in progess: pin basting

Quilt in progress: quilting

I'm really happy with the colour combinations in this quilt. I generally find choosing colours and prints that complement each other quite difficult so this is a big thing for me. I really like the contrasting binding and the way the colours in the binding tie together the front and the back of the quilt.

I learned SO much, both on my own and from the TQQ while making this quilt. All of the half square triangles from now on!

Love, me xx

Completed: hexagon travel sewing kit

Finished hexagon travel sewing kit - pattern by thezenofmaking

I finished my hexagon travel sewing kit today. Yay! I used this wonderful tutorial from Haley at thezenofmaking. It was really very quick to make- Haley's tutorial is really straightforward, well illustrated, and clearly described. Also, I liked the fact that there was a significant bit of hand sewing involved because I like hand sewing. It is small enough to fit in most of my handbags, while also fitting my YLI thread spools and enough hexagon sewing bits and bobs to carry around and keep me occupied. My next plan is to make some of Haley's altoid tin sewing kits- I have a lot of altoids to get through first though!

Sewing kit with altoid tins and hexagons

The other great thing about this bag is that I didn't have to buy anything except a magnetic handbag snap for it. Making things that don't require spending money on new materials always makes me feel like I'm winning. The hexagon flowers are made from my favourite Liberty of London tana lawn: Lodden in green. This fabric is simply a joy to work with. I could go on and on about the amazing properties of Liberty's tana lawns.

The main green solid is from Kaufmann I think and it's pretty close to my favourite shade of green. The lining fabric is a blue and white polka dot which is, in my opinion, the perfect blue. Now, if only I could remember where I got it from (Kaufmann perhaps?). It's been in my stash since this quilt and just waiting for the perfect little project as there was only a tiny bit of it left. Now there are only a few scraps left but I can't bear to throw them away. I have so many fabrics that I wish I had bought more of!

                      Supplies                            

WIP bag goes travelling (on the train)

I embroidered my initials on the centre hexagons with some embroidery floss that I inherited from my great grandmother (yes, my initials are ET). Using her things always makes projects more special and, generally, I only ever use them on things that I make for myself or my mother. I like remembering my grandmother and great-grandmother by wearing their jewellery and using their crafty things. I'm currently debating whether to attach this doily which my great-grandmother crocheted to the back of the bag, which is currently just plain green. Hmmm.... Choices, choices. Oh, I also embroidered a needle and thread on the inside hexagon flower.

Embroidered hexagon flowers. Bottom right now has a needle & thread on it.

I'm so pleased to have replaced my ubiquitous hexagon transportation system, a plastic zip lock bag, with something so much better thanks to the lovely zenofmaking. Now back to the monster hexagon quilt and the five other projects that I've started but not yet finished!

Old and new hexagon paper piecing travel solutions

Love, me x

Ellie's Quilt

My friend S recently had an adorable little girl named Elizabeth Eleni (Ellie) in October. This is the quilt I made for S's baby shower.

Ellie's Quilt

Ellie's Quilt in progress

Started: 10th September 2013
Finished: 5th October 2013
Size: crib size 102 x 142 cm = 40" x 56"
Quilt top: I roughly followed this pattern:  Bricks in Bloom by Tracey Jacobsen of traceyjay quilts. I used Heather Bailey Fresh Cut fabrics from a couple of fat quarters. Machine pieced on my little Singer.
Backing: pieced from Jungle Babies panel and print by Patty Reid designs, which I picked up from a bargain bin at a quilt shop in Pennsylvania for about $3 back in 2009. It's been sitting around waiting for a baby quilt ever since and there was only *just* enough of it.
Binding: 2.25" double fold binding, hand stitched to front.
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 poly/cotton blend.
Quilting: Horizontal lines in the ditch and at a 45° angle with Guterman 100% cotton thread.

Quilt back: some puckers

This is the very first quilt I've made all by myself without any help from anyone, whatsoever. As you can see in the photo above, I'm not very good at basting all by myself yet. I ended up with some serious folds in the backing fabric; they were simply too big to be called puckers!

Embroidered label

Quilted and trimmed and ready to bind

I had a bit of a near fail getting the quilt done in time for S's baby shower and was doing some desperate last minute applique-ing in the train, only to realise that I'd forgotten some of the bits- namely, the trunks for my stylised trees and the big E for Ellie that was meant to go next to them. This resulted in me dashing to John Lewis, buying some ribbon and actually finishing the quilt right there in the shop. Luckily, JL has a sewing corner in its haberdashery department and the ladies that work there were absolutely lovely and more than happy to lend me some scissors.

The tree trunks did get sewn on in the end or rather at the very last minute (see below) but the E for Ellie didn't make it onto the quilt, unfortunately. Here's the finished product. Unfortunately, I only have photos taken with my crappy blackberry so they're not very good.

Ellie's Quilt: finished

I also made S some fleece backed burp cloths and a swaddling blanket, which I used to figure out how to bind a quilt before ruining the actual quilt. This was super easy and made a great present for the baby shower. I'm sure I'll be making them again for the next new baby. I bought this pack of 6 muslin squares from John Lewis, cut each square into thirds, layered them on top of each other with Heather Bailey's super soft Freshcut paisley dot fleece fabric and self bound them. After doing two I got bored and really needed to get a move on with the actual quilt so I didn't bother backing the remaining 4 squares.

Burp cloths and a fleecy swaddling blanket

The swaddling blanket is made from two layers of Aqua Rose Bud flannel from ladysewandsew, bound with Heather Bailey's Freshcut Crest in red. Making this took less than an hour. I meant to embroider Ellie's name on one of the corners but I forgot. Whoops.

Quilting love,
me x