Quilts Away!

Now that the evenings are drawing in and the weather outside is getting colder, there is nothing I like more than sitting in front of the fire designing new quilts.  At our last craft fair we were asked for a boys quilt, although we have a lovely elephant one and a few playmats, I decided to get a few boyish - unisex fat quarters to add to my stash of materials and fat quarters, (like I needed an excuse!), and I decided to make a quilt based around a boats theme.

The boating fat quarter is the middle with white panels around and blue squares with spots and wheels to break up the white.  And I used a new skill, binding the edges to give them a really professional finish.

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  The corners were a bit of an issue but I quite pleased with the end product and hopefully it will be going to a new home soon to keep someones new bundle of joy warm.

Been Away For A While!

So, it's been a while since I last updated this blog.  We've had a full on summer - an uncle over to visit from Australia which was brilliant, a 60th wedding anniversary to plan and throw, and my husband went in hospital to have a hernia op which turned into a double hernia op and an appendix removal!

I've also been updating the shop - I've migrated from the previous site onto Etsy, so we'll see what happens there!  It's a massive community and some really special items are there.

So now we are back on the making trail!  A friend at work asked me to knit a little dress for her friends new baby, and as I've been thinking about making a few comforters I added one for the new baby, with her name appliquéd onto it.

 I made a small 6" x 6" comforter using teddy material for the front and pink spotty material for the back with an assortment of ribbons and materials for the edging pieces. I'm going to make a few more for our next craft fair at The Old Chapel Upminster in October, I'm thinking of making some 6"x 6" and 12"x 12" and 18" x 24" play mat size. These will all be made experimenting with my large (!!) selection of fat quarters, ribbons, assorted materials and either fleece or towelling for the backing.

It's raining. Let's make summer dresses!

While the weather has been wild outside, it's been a perfect excuse to hide indoors with my sewing machine!

This is a lovely light cotton fabric that I really enjoyed working with.  I picked it up while I was on holiday in Cornwall last year.  It's sized for a 6 - 9 month old baby, and it has a couple of features I haven't tried before.  The gathering for the skirt was a lot harder than I expected!  I also used top stitch around the bodice and I'm really pleased with it!

I was so pleased with it, I made it in this fabric too! 

I need to finish them both, they need a good press, and also some buttons and button holes.  Any excuse to shop for buttons!  Before I do that, I'm going to make the same dress in this fabric

I think the fabric is so cute!

We've also been making really brightly coloured suntops and coordinating shorts ready for summer - when it arrives!

These are in larger sizes, this particular one is for a two year old.

Never Sew Distracted!

Even though it's damp and windy, I've been thinking about summer.  I'm starting to look at dresses and to try to design some myself.  I'm actually half way through making one, but I had a bit of a disaster yesterday - I got distracted and didn't position the material properly and finished up sewing through all layers - front and back! I need to unpick it today and see if I can redo it neatly.  If not, it will become another practice run!

This is my finished rectangle doily from before christmas.  I started off in a circle, and then squared it off as I went round.  One finished, I blocked it out, and here it is!