Christmas sewing

Hi, I haven't posted for a while as I've been pretty busy, you know how it is at this time of year.

I've been making cushions for my cousin's three girls for Christmas. They have purple bedrooms and luckily I had some fabrics in purples. I decided to put some applique felt flowers on them. I've never used felt before and was pleased that it was easy to work with. The cushion I've shown here is the first to be completed, the others are nearly done. I think this is my favourite one, the others have a different type of flower. I'll show you them when they're finished.

I'm begining to panic slightly as I'm going to make my Mum a bag as a christmas gift and I've not started it yet!

I better get on.

I've just remembered, thanks to Marie at Marie Quilts for the blog award in my side bar that she so kindly gave me.

Bye for now, Maria.

On the wall at last.

I started this wall hanging about 18 months ago at a workshop at my local quilt shop. The design is taken from a Rikky Tims DVD called "Quilting Caveman Style". No rulers are used, the cutting is done free hand which makes a change from what I'm used to. I've done some free motion quilting on it which I'm pleased with and embellished it with beads.

The colours are more true to life in this picture. I played around with the photos in Photo Shop and altered the first picture too much although I think I prefer the colours of the altered one.

I'm pleased with the quilt but it doesn't lay flat, I guess this is because it has not been measured but I suppose that the whole idea of quilting caveman style!

I finished it a few months ago and have been waiting for it to be hung on the wall. It was going in the hall but I changed my mind and it's now in my sewing room. Despite saying that it's probably not supposed to lay flat I can't bring myself to hang a wobbly quilt where other people will see it. I suppose I'll just have to make another quilt for the hall - eventually.

Bye for now, Maria.

Lots of Lovely Fabric.

Isn't it strange when you think about something and then it happens? Last week I ordered some fabric (more about that later) and this morning I was driving back from the gym (!) wondering when it would arrive. I drove up to the house and there on the doorstep was the parcel.

I ordered the fabric from Karen Gray's etsy shop. She also has a lovely blog that you can find here. The fabric was beautifully packaged and the delivery was very fast. Would you like to see what I ordered?

These are six yummy fat quaters called "Olive Rose" by Valori Wells for Freespirit. I plan to make my Mum a bag for christmas with them. I'll show you it when it's finished.

I love these fabrics from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern range.

I'm planning to make place mats for the dinning room from it with this pattern which the lovely Marie, my bag swap partner sent me.

Finally another look at the christmas quilt I'm making that I showed in my last post. I was planning for it to be a lap quilt/throw but I think it would take too long to make and as there's lots of hand work on it I thought it would be better displayed as a wall hanging.

This isn't the final layout, I've just layed them out like this for the picture (and there are more to make).

Bye for now, Maria.

Christmas quilt.

I mentioned in my last post that I was planning to make a christmas lap quilt/throw with some christmas fabric I have. The fabric is the classic reds, greens and gold colourway, now I do love these colours but I saw this christmas stocking in the christmas edition of Country Living magazine and loved the red, white and blue country style. Ah ha, I thought, that's the look I want to go for.

Luckily I found some fabrics in my stash that will be fine, I dont' have to go and buy more. Using up fabrics I have was one of the excuses for making the quilt in the first place! I have included some christmasy holly fabric given to me by my bag swap partner Marie. I think it's got the country style, non glitzy look I'm going for.

I am planning to make blocks of about 8 inches, each block will be different, I will use applique, embroidery and patchwork such as pieced stars. I'm going to make it up as I go along!

Here is an appliqued star I made last night. It is bond-a-webbed with blanket stitch edging using the aqua thread Jemma gave me in the Red and Aqua swap. Tonight I embroidered "Merry Christmas" on cream fabric using the red thread from Jemma, it's coming in useful already.

I'll post more pictures as I go along.

Bye for now, Maria.

Red and Aqua Swap

This blog post comes with a health warning: You may wish to wear sunglasses before looking at the pictures!

I seem to have done most of my posts about swaps recently as most of my sewing time seems to have been taken up with them. The Red and Aqua swap posted by Apron Thrift Girl and Peas and Bees has been great fun. I was partnered with Jemma from monkey make do, also from the UK. It was a direct swap which I enjoyed as it was fun to be in contact with your partner throughout the swap and you knew you could trust them to fulfill their side of the deal.

I returned home in the dark from taking my son swimming on Thursday afternoon and there waiting for me was my parcel. I had left a note taped to the front door asking the post man to put the parcel round the side of the house as I couldn't have beared for it to have been taken back to the depot!

Jemma made a beautiful job of wrapping the goodies in the colour theme of the swap.
She enclosed a note saying that the small parcel was something pretty for me to wear. In this parcel I found a gorgeous silver and aqua bracelet.

The note said that the middle-sized parcel was something to keep me warm. In this package I found a beautiful soft scarf. It is in a twisted design and has a sweet, red velvet ribbon woven down the middle. Sorry about the picture.

The large package was a fabulous selection of sewing goodies as Jemma said she new I love to sew. The little boxes have been painted and contain some funky buttons.

Thanks Jemma. I was thrilled to receive your gifts.

We were asked by the organisers if we have any particular preferences. Jemma said she likes 1950's style and polka dots so I kept this in mind when collecting my items for the swap.

I won't go through eveything but here is what I sent her.

I managed to find some fabric with a 1950's kitchen theme as I learned from looking at Jemma's blog that she likes cooking.

Below is a bag I made for her. I couldn't find any polka dot fabric but managed to find some with little red dots. When I was making the bag I kept thinking that it looked rather bright but as I kept telling myself this was the theme of the swap!

Jemma has written a lovely account of the swap on her blog.

Thanks to those ladies who left quilting suggestions for my quilt on the last post. My machine didn't want to play the game with free motion quilting so I've gone for a rather boring grid pattern.

I am feeling the urge to make a christmas lap quilt/throw as I have some christmas fabric to use up so I may start that as well.

Bye for now, Maria.

A poor, forgotten quilt.

I started this quilt at a workshop a few years ago and it has been folded up in the bottom of the cupboard waiting to be quilted. Tastes change over the years and I'm not that keen on it anymore. I now prefer brighter, more patterned fabrics.

A quilting friend came over today and reminded me about the quilt. She knows I hate tacking the layers together and helped me do it a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how to quilt it. I did start doing some freemotion quilting in a variegated thread which really was the wrong colour so I have started unpicking it.

Despite saying that I'm not keen on it I feel quite inspired to finish it and am in the mood to have another go at the quilting.

This picture shows the back (looking somewhat creased). I made too many blocks so used them as a centre for the backing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to quilt it?

Another Swap.

Hi, there. It's been a month since my last post. Oh dear, I don't know what happened there. Not much to say I suppose. I have been reading other fabulous blogs though.

The picture shows the items I have made for the Stitching Angels swap. They should be winging their way to their new owner at the moment, or more likely sitting in a pile of other parcels waiting to be sent. I always feel nervous when I hand over a parcel that it won't arrive. The fluffy thing is a scarf, not a pink cat trying to stow away in the parcel.

I received a lovely pin cushion, a cute little tin and a charm from my partner but I still don't know who she is, can't wait to find out. I'll post pictures soon.

I have recently been tagged by Julia at primrose corner, I will do a post soon stating 7 fact about myself but I'm still thinking about what to write.

Well I better go as I've noticed that our stairs are in desperate need of a vacuum - or shall I go and do some more to my quilt........................?

Bye for now Maria.