Baby Florence Quilt

I watched a tutorial video on how to sew a disappearing nine patch. Now I'd never heard of this method before and I wish I had! It is so easy, I've even taught this method to my newly established sewing club. My mum has made a table cloth, I have made plenty of cushions and this quilt, Val made a cushion too, and Patricia made a quilted nine patch cushion, with fantastic results. One method created so many variations in the finished products.

This jungle quilt started with a jolly jungle panel (no longer available to buy!) and jolly jungle orange coordinating fabric. Hey presto the quilt. I used yellow spot fabric to border and back it, though its polycotton and not as nice as 100% cotton. I also used bamboo wadding as its really soft.

Instead of binding it instead I used a tab method on the border, then stitched a double hem around the border.

Baby Autumn Quilt

This is the earliest project I have made. With lots of support from my sewing mentor - Elaine - we created this gorgeous quilt for baby Autumn's (my niece) cot. I found this lovely rubber duck pattern fabric which sprung from the baby's sister and brother's love for ducks!

It was a bit tricky as it had 45 degree angles and trying to figure out the fabric cuts was time consuming but I eventually finished it. Using the same fabric for the binding as the backing is a technique I rather like. We didn't know Autumn was going to be a girl or boy, therefore the colours are gender neutral. It was tied together using embroidery thread.

Sewing Club

My mum and a couple of friends wanted to learn some of the tricks to patchwork and sewing crafts. So we made arrangements for an evening and we began by learning the basics of our machines, and ironing fabric and seams.

First project - pot stand. Using a basic four square, and using contrasting stitching. All appeared to enjoy it!

Baby Items

After hearing of a friend making her own bibs for her baby, I thought I would give it a go. Friends are expecting a baby girl shortly so I whizzed up some bibs of various sizes - simply because I have no idea how big or small bibs are! - using bamboo terry towelling for the backs and using pink snaps. This required a special tool, which wasn't the cheapest. Overall I'm pleased with the results and they are very cute!

I also made a baby comforter blanket, using the same material as the bibs, as well as adding ribbons of varying textures.

Angus show Results

Well, it's over a month since the Angus Show and my submissions for the Ladies tent. I was disappointed at not getting awards for my foodstuff so it clearly means cooking isn't for me :) However I won 3rd prize for my patchwork quilt (see April post), also a 3rd for my handbag! So I was really pleased with that and the winners were worthy of awards as their work was incredible. Definitely a standard to aim for. Programme for next year's show is out in October, plenty of time to hone my skills at quilting.

Aonghas Iain Quilt

This is my patchwork item submission for the Angus Show
(taking place 7/8th June 2012).
Its patchwork, it includes kitties, trains, sheep and birdies. I tried creating a more boyish quilt with yellows, blacks and blues rather than pinks. I like the quirky outcome of it being a rather wonky log cabin design. I also improved my stitch in the ditch technique!

Baby Cot Quilt

I tried my hand at applique for this design. It is a great way to use up scraps of fabric and I had a few blues and pinks left over from other quilts. The Broderie Anglaise is quite thin so its backed it with pink sheeting fabric. In hindsight, blue would have been more appropriate to recreate a sky scene. But I do like the finished quilt and the addition of yellow is a new colour for me! Again it came from the odd bits of yellow ribbon I had lying around. I used cheats binding tape from the shop, but to be honest its pretty rubbish and not as thick as binding I would have made myself. Its a quilt of experiments and You always learn from experience! I really loved the applique part of the project and I found out how to satin stitch on my machine too! I will definitely use that skill again. It creates a professional finish for sure.

The Handbag

Every girl needs a good handbag, sometimes we even need a new one just because we get bored of the bag we have already! So I tried to make my own. I found an easy PATTERN  to design and sew a handbag. I gave it a go and hey presto here is the outcome! Rather pleased with myself. I have been watching Kirstie's Homemade Home on channel 4. I've got the urge to enter something for the next Angus Show, "a handbag" is one of the catergories. I'll practise with a few more bags I think and decide which one to enter. The show is in June. Plenty of time to perfect the bag.

Laptop Sleeve

My laptop cover. I made this one first with some rather bright colours! i loved the chocolates on the fabric and i've tied it in with colours on other fabrics. It's padded and lined inside with another chocolate fabric.

The SofaBed

 The sofa is finally complete! Oh this was a total nightmare project from start to finish. I kept running out of thread, material and patience! We got the sofabed free, its a Marks and Spencer metal action sofabed but the design on the fabric cover was typical Marks - floral! So I made new cushion covers and a removeable sofa cover, complete with box pleat skirt! I'm proud of the finished result, I don't think its too bad for a first attempt. Plus it matches my cushions perfectly!

Star Burst

This quilt came into creation just by chance. I had surplus fabric squares left over from all the baby quilts I had made for friends, so I decided to put them all together to make a bright larger quilt. I love the owls in the middle and on the reverse of the quilt I used up the last owl square. Using contrasting pink and green tapestry thread all around the square to finish it off. While the patterns are a random mix, all the colours are matched. Blues, greens, yellows pinks and whites can be seen throughout the design. I also enjoyed creating the Star design which are originally from America's traditional patchwork quilts.

Crazy Tablecloth

I bought a jelly roll of blue and green fabric strips. To my surprise they were rather busily patterned. Not my own personal taste but I made them into a table cloth. It took quite a lot of thinking after making the strips into a piece and then figuring out the triangles. I actually cut it wrong so ended up with a completely different design than I started out with! The old addage goes, measure once cut twice! its very true.

Laptop Cover

I designed a laptop cover for my laptop about a year ago, (photos of that to follow soon!) My brother recently purchased a laptop and didn't like the covers you could buy retail. So I asked him to chose the colours he wanted and I made this cover bespoke for his laptop size. Its padded with wadding and lined inside too in complimentary manly colors. Ths zip was a bit tricky so took a few attempts to finish. But persistence paid off and I like making these now!

Placemats & Coasters

There was no stopping me once my mum and dad presented me with a new sewing machine! I created coasters and placemats following a pattern from the book entitled "The Little Patchwork Book". It has lots of quick and easy ideas to create. I chose green as its the colour theme for our kitchen. I used scrap material of birds for the borders too.

Cushions and Footstool

I designed and sewed these cushions using English Lamb's wool tweed. It's lovely and soft and stretches well when snuggling into them whilst watching TV!

I saw a pattern for the footstool in a quilting book. I used the same two shades of purple lamb's wool tweed as well as a third purple cord fabric. This gave some structure to the footstool. Inside is filled with Lamb's wool and polysterene balls. The lilac and heather shades were chosen as the colours remind me of the heather covered hills and even some of the beautiful sunsets on Skye.

I was experimenting with sewing triangles to understand how to make perfect triangle designs for quilts. Good practise and Each cushion proved to be a learning curve. Sewing them created a fair bit of dust though and the sewing machine required a good clean afterwards.

First Project

This idea sprang from the sewing club with my friends. I wanted a big bag to put all my fabrics and tools in. I also wanted to learn how to applique and use complimentary colours for the thread work. I really enjoyed making this bag and Elaine my sewing friend just created the pattern from scratch. We made it up really! But its a huge bag and I love the strawberry lined carry handles with matching inside pocket.

Baby Peigi Quilt

A friend told me the news of her first baby last year, She was due in October 2010. I was very excited, mainly because I could design and sew a new quilt. The mum to be was quite experienced with quilt making, I was a little nervous at presenting her with one of mine! But it turned out well and it fit perfectly in the pram! I stayed with gender neutral colours as we were all in the dark to the baby's sex.

It has bamboo cotton wadding, it is really soft and kind on baby's skin. I also used invisible thread to tie it together. This was the third quilt I had created. Photos of others to follow soon!