It's been a while

 I have been silly busy. There have been carol concerts, school fetes, a craft evening and a two Christmas parties and several birthday parties.
Some small projects were completed. The weather tissue holder for my Dad

 Makeup bag for friend E.

 Makeup bag for friend A. She has a thing for moustaches…. well this Riley blake fabric is just perfect.

Teacher presents were mug rugs this year. The children chose the fabrics. I am not sure I would have gone with the red Christmas tree. 

I have also done some sewing for a couple of commissions. I will post pictures of those when they are finished. 

Hope you are all having fab Sunday. 

Monday Making

I am making this little table topper for Christmas. Not sure we can get much more Christmassy than  stars and Pine trees.

Husband has a day of today and I promised to help move wood into the wood store. Hopefully more sewing soon.

Sunday Sewing and small blog meet.

 I have been stupidly busy this week. There has been an Advent Assembly to attend, then the traffic on the A34 was so bad one day that I might as well not have bothered trying to go anywhere. (the diversions were the route I take to pick up the daughters). I volunteered to help at the Christmas Fayre, so that was three days of not seeing my beloved Pfaff.

 Today however I found my sewing machine. The daughters did their homework on the table I was sewing at. Not always the easiest way to sew. I used my cute Japanese fabrics to make some purses for a Craft evening I am attending.

 I love this super cute box corner pouch. You can get so much in them. I thought it would make a great little first aid pack.

 I think you need to be cold hearted to not love these little girls in Kimono.

 I just need to find a popper stud for the purse on the right.

Daughter 2 "needs" one of the kimono girl purses. I don't see her need as much as she does. But they are lovely.

I am linking to Lily's Small blog meet. Hope you all have a great first Advent Sunday.

Busy getting ready for Christmas.

 It's been a busy week. I made a skirt for myself and the oldest daughter (sorry no pictures yet). I sewed a load of little purses (all presents, so again no pictures) and these gorgeous placemats. You can't really tell on the photo but the blue is sparkly and glittery.

 This is what my table looked like today. My mother would like a Christmas table topper, so I am sewing up some stars and pine trees. Well that is the plan. 

I have also managed to make husband his wash bag. I hope he realises how much I love him. Not only was he allowed free reign over the stash but when he chose the lovely Heaven and Helsinki print I didn't object. He will have to show it off at every opportunity though and praise my skills.  Well there has to be something in this for me.

I am waiting for the Domino's man to come. Daughter 2 has asked for it as a birthday treat. They don't get fast food very often, so this is exciting. The fact that it is being delivered possibly more than the food itself. 

Linking to WIP wednesday over at Freshly pieced.

Sunday sewing.

 This morning I used some child free time to make a little cushion. This lovely Elephant print by Valorie Wells from her Karavan range was just screaming out to be a cushion.

It would have been so cruel to cut into the elephants. I left the fat quarters in tact as much as I could.

One more item to cross off my to do list. Mind you Husband has just asked me to make him a wash bag, so the list has not gotten any shorter.

Christmas placemats Scrappy trip

 I like these. I am pleased with how they turned out. They are a maybe a little busy but for Christmas that cab be fun right?

 And then when taking pictures I noticed that this one is missing some cross hatching.

Bother! better fix that.

Taking pictures isn't as easy as it seems

 This morning I decided to finally sew these disappearing nine patches together. It wasn't raining, so quick let's take pictures.

 Now I tried indoors but the colours didn't look right, so outdoors I went. Hmmm well it would seem that the ground is muddy. No idea how that could have happened in the UK in Autumn. This then means that my favourite place to photograph (the outside furniture) is out of bounds.

 Not because this little quilt top would drape over floor but because the Schipperke will sit on it. Being a rather white quilt this would not be a good plan.

 On the washing line it went. So still not the right colours, as the washing line is in the shade after 12pm. Also it was windy, so lots of flapping to deal with.

Anyway; one quilt top. I think I will add a border. I looks like it needs one.

Small blog meet October round up.

Well I have managed to make a mosaic of the things I have made this month. First time ever. This is a big deal for a techno numpty.

I didn't think I had made that much this month but looks like I did all right. I finished two quilts and finished a quilt top. I also started another scrappy quilt but he needs to wait for now because I need to make Christmas things.

I had hopped to have the Christmas placemats finished but due to half term holidays and halloween that did not happen.

Fingers crossed November will be as productive.

Work in Progress Wednesday - Christmas

 I have been working on a set of four Christmas scrappy trip placemats. I have foolishly decided to quilt them with gold thread. That stuff is a bother to work with. It keeps splitting.

 Anyway all four are now quilted. I didn't get to sew the binding on though because I had to supervise pumpkin carving. The girls want to do it on their own but I have slight issues with them and knives and hard skinned fruits.

 Both pumpkins are successfully carved and in place to scare people.

They are mighty proud of their handy work.

Maybe I'll manage to sew on the binding later.
I am linking to Freshly pieced WIP Wednesday.

More Scrappy Trip up cycling

 Turns out that shirts have way more fabric in them then I thought. Also my mother dug up some more old shirts.

 I have decided to make another scrappy trip quilt. Again for my dad. I hope he likes it.

Looking at it on the "design floor" I think this looks great. I do however have to put this one on ice for now. I need to get on and make Christmas presents. The daughters' school is have a Christmas raffle and I thought I would make some Christmas placemats for that.
I hope to have some Christmas things to show you next week.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Finish Scrappy Trip in soft colours

 It's officially finished! It is quilted and bound. One item to strike of the to do list.

 I am really please how it turned out. I chose to use five rows rather than six. I used the same lay out as Quilt Taffy. They have made a useful addition to the original tutorial. My quilt measures 60" by 80", just right for a 10year old or so she tells me.

 Husband should be pleased with this quilt. The only new fabric I bought was for the back; even the wadding is from the stash. I fankensteined two large pieces of wadding together for this quilt. Not pretty but it's on the inside, so no one will know.

It's not all "up cycled". Most of the fabrics were left over from dress making, some however were bought previously on a whim because they were cute and were never used.

 A close up of my not so fab quilting. Again, no new thread was bought. I have done more quilting on this than on any other quilt.

Daughter wanted it every row quilted. I felt every other was more than enough. I like the pale butterflies she chose for the back. Very in keeping with the rest of the quilt.

Now that I have used up so much fabric I have made room for some more. I think I know what it will be too. ;-)

Picnic rug

Starry Night

I have finished my starry night quilt top. There are those who say it is not my best work but I decided to put my fingers in my ears and go Lalala. I like it because it is mostly "up cycled". The stars are all made with left overs from dresses or other quilt projects. I confess that the sashing is not up cycled. I had to go out and buy that. Turns out I had less dark blue in my stash than I thought.

Now here in the UK a picnic rug, and that is after all what this quilt top is destined to be, needs a waterproof back. I have worked with waterproof fabric before and find it rather slippery. Any ideas? Should I use spray baste?
Husband is worried that if I quilt waterproof fabric it will no longer be waterproof (water will be able to come in through the stitching).

It's been a while since I had a Friday Finish. Hope you all have a good Friday and weekend.

Fabric shopping

 I have been a bad girl. I have been fabric shopping, I am supposed to be a fabric diet but I did use up lots and it is almost Christmas and I need to make presents. Anyway. I bought these lovely little Geisha girls at beautifulwork on Etsy. As I was paying for postage anyway I bought the owls as well.

  Owls are in, my daughter tells me. They are a need to have item.

I also bought these cute little flamingoes, zebras and molecules on ebay. They will be made into little things for my nieces and nephew.
There is a little sneaky moustache fabric peeking out. That is for one of my friends. She likes moustaches.

Need to get back to my sewing machine. The weather is chilly but sunny. I hope to get something, so I have a Friday Finish.

Buttercup bag.

 I have finally gotten round to making one of these little beauties. I found the pattern last year on Rae's blog. I knew it was cute and I wanted one. Cute bags need cute fabric, so I chose these little rabbits. Not too cute I think but cute enough to satisfy my girlish side. 

It has taken me almost a year to make one. Well I needed a reason for a small bag and I am going out on Friday. Without children or husband. Nothing terribly wild. One of the mothers at the daughters' school has organised a meal out. Still exciting though. I don't get out much. Well people don't understand that I want to take my sewing with me.

Not the biggest bag ever as you can see from the size of the phone but should be big enough.
Rae's pattern is easy to follow and the make was quick too.

Upcycling

 I am not sure if this quilt would be considered up cycling. The shirts had pretty much had it as shirts. Well That is what my mother and I thought. My father and husband don't seem to mind fraying collars and cuffs.
The back of this quilt (sorry no photos the weather is a bit grey today) is vintage but has never been used as such. The bolt of fabric has just been sitting in a wardrobe for a good 50 years. Not up cycled really.

The quilt is lovely a warm though and has been dog approved. I used quilter's dream white polyester wadding. This is lovely wadding to use. No fluff, easy to quilt and is warm and light. It has to be light this quilt is 2.2m long, so would weigh a fair bit if I had used cotton wadding.
My father is coming to collect it tomorrow. He wanted to come over today but I haven't quite finished stitching down the binding. Not my favourite job. Fingers crossed there is some good TV tonight.

Overcoming my fear of buttonholes

Yes, I don't like them. They are mean and go wonky and are never aligned as well as I would like.

 This bag needs 4 of them on the handle according to the pattern. I made the bag way back in May. It came as kit with the Sew book and was a birthday present from the husband. And then it was left for five month.

 I couldn't face the buttonholes. I don't like the little beasts. It was made a lot easier by my sewing machine having a sensor foot. However even a sensor foot does not cancel out human operator error. My bag only has two buttonholes. Mainly because I couldn't get them to line up.

However my bag has a lining and the pattern doesn't call for that, so all in all I don't feel too bad about the lack of buttonholes. Daughter 2 has claimed this one as hers, so I need to make one for daughter one. Christmas present maybe? I call that a plan.