Some birthday love for Aunty Lib Lib

After my recent mammoth effort on this quilt and still looking for a distraction from the pain of shingles, it was nice to whip up a quick project for a very dear friend. Having met in our teens on a dance floor on London, Liberty and I have worked together in tv, lived together and shared life's ups and downs (thankfully mostly ups!). She is now married to a fabulous fella and studying midwifery in New Zealand. She is going to make an AMAZING midwife. An all round inspiring gal, Aunty Lib Lib is well and truly part of our family.

So it was great timing with her being in Oz to be able to show her a bit of love and make her something bewdiful for her birthday (albeit belatedly - anyone sensing a theme here?!). I used the Ruthie Clutch pattern by the talented Anna Maria Horner:



Fortune from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line from Brusselsprouts and some gifted purple fabric for the lining (thank you Sheryn & Bec!) matched perfectly with a vintage leather covered button from my stash.





Love ya Lib, happy birfday!

Rocket Nephew

Well thank goodness for the internet - for initial self-diagnosis and distraction. It turns out I have shingles, blech. I'm not even going to post a hyperlink for that, the images (and the reality) are just too gross.

The pain is awful but I am keeping myself distracted with ancestry.com (I'm obsessed!), reading quilt blogs and sewing my next project.

I am also excited to blog about my most recent quilt! I just LOVED making it, even though it took me much longer than I'd planned (there's just no way to hurry up hand quilting!). It is now warming it's new owner, my 8 year old nephew (who hopefully doesn't mind that it was a few weeks late!).

I used the Rocket Man pattern in the first Material Obsession book.

Starting with this pile of washed and ironed scraps from my stash, in warms and cools...



...and these navy fabrics from Sewco:



...I created lots of these units:



Hand basting for the first time, on the advice of Stacey from Peppermint Stiches I used a poly thread to sew large stitches across the whole quilt. Using the white lead on my new Sewline Trio pen I drew swirly patterns and designs on the navy blue areas.



I hand quilted in DMC white perle cotton size 12. I really, really enjoyed this part even though it took me WEEKS!



I also used some space embroidery designs from a gorgeous book Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray.




I did buy the Prints Charming rocket panel used in the book but ended up embroidering Lily's own rocket design onto a piece of white homespun:



Ta da! All finished!



Cousins getting in on the act!




Ready to post off! Twas the first quilt I've ever posted so I sent it Express Platinum!



To finish off, this was on the selvedge of one of the navy fabrics. Very apt! Am off to structure some more magic (and get better)!

Foray into hand quilting - Material Obsession's Avalon quilt

Realising I had only two weeks to whip up a present for Mia's best friend Saskia's 4th birthday, I decided to make her a simple quilt. I decided on a smaller version of the Avalon quilt from the wonderful book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

Funnily enough, I think this will end up being the first in a series of three quilts I will have made from this book - as soon as I finish this post I'm starting one for my nephew's 9th birthday and then want to finish off another I started last year!



I decided on a palette of pinks, greens and purples, many of which I've used in other things I've made for their family...



Cream floral sashing to make the colours pop. I used it wrong side up to mute the pattern. Pinned and ready to go (you can see I am not a huge pinner!)...



With a week to go, I decided to have my first ever go at hand quilting. Thanks a million to my friend Sarah from Kit Bik Quilts for her invaluable advice! I used two different shades of the variegated 12 weight Sulky Blendable threads to go round each block and then in a cross or diamond shape over each one. I used a Clover Chaco Liner and my ruler to mark the quilt lines. Am not sure what I'd use for freehand quilt markings - advice welcome for next time! I didn't use a hoop. I started off using band aids instead of a thimble (thanks for the tip Sar!) but then found it easier to use this thimble which belonged to my grandmother - very special.

I love hand quilting! If I hadn't have had a deadline I would have kept on quilting and quilting!



This double gauze Japanese fabric is SO soft in quilt. Think I will have to make a whole quilt out of it!



Sass and her mama with the quilt...



Perfect showcase for Tula Pink's Parisville's gorgeous Topiary print...



This shot is very Kaffe, don't you think?!!



Hope the quilt gives much warmth and love to a very special girl! xx

Flea Market Fancy sewing machine cover by Bloom

Another week, another project!

This week I completed this wonderful sewing machine cover called "Beyond Measure" designed by Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom. It was featured in the 10th Birthday Celebration Edition of Australian Homespun magazine (No. 90, Vol 11.11). You can also now buy the pattern here from Roslyn's website.

Roslyn featured Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley, but I used Denyse's Flea Market Fancy fabrics. (I think I'll have to make a second for a special someone who gifted me some Hope Valley fabric! You know who you are!).



I really like it when I fall in love with a project, and that desire to make it compels me to master new techniques! I LOVED making this project, not only because I adore the design and the fabrics, or because I really needed a cover for my sewing machine - but because I learnt lots of new things. I enjoyed quilt as you go, loved doing the hand embroidery (using cotton that used to belong to my Grandmother, so special) and was thrilled to successfully make piping cord by using my zipper foot for the first time. Satisfaction and beauty!

Selvedge reading glasses case

I made this quick project one afternoon last week, for my dear friend from The Woolly Tree. She has recently started wearing glasses and is studying again. I wanted to give her a present to say good luck and congratulations!

I used the template from Betz White's caterpillar eyeglass case tutorial and foundation pieced the selvedge strips onto interfacing.



I padded it using bamboo batting and chose a happy yellow spot for the lining.



Voila!



I secured it by sewing on a press stud, to stop the glasses sliding out.



I was thrilled to finally make a selvedge project! I have been saving them ever since I read this issue of Down Under Quilts. It featured lots of amazing projects using selvedges, including the work of Karen Griska, author of "Quilts from from the Selvege Edge" (you can check out her Selvage Blog) and Jodie Carleton. Check out Jodie's INCREDIBLE Selvedge Dress that was featured in DUQ. Her blog has more photos of this incredible work of art plus lots of other cute project tutorials.

Busy start to the year

I've finally put aside some time to update my blog. With Lily at school now I have more time to sew but life is also more hectic!

I just did a post on the Christmas projects I completed last year.

I started the year off with this amazing haul of goodies from Hancocks of Paducah. I couldn't resist their limited offer of free postage and 10% off, especially with our exchange rate right now! I got all this for around $100!


My haul included a jelly roll of Punctuation by American Jane. I am in love with these fabrics! I made a quilt for my new baby cousin who will arrive earthside in a month or so. I used the Pandora's Box pattern out of the fantastic book "Jelly Roll Quilts" by Pam Lintott and Nicky Lintott.


I made this skirt for Lily, using the Twirly Girl Skirt Pdf Pattern available on Etsy. I used some of the spare Punctuation fabric I bought for the quilt back and also some vintage Laura Ashley cotton lawn fabrics from my MIL. I am in love with the fine, light texture of these and would love to know where to get more!


I made this wrap for another special man in my life for his first birthday. It uses super-soft double gauze Japanese cotton and satin binding.

Christmas - finally!

Here are the projects I whipped up for Christmas...

Using the super easy Monkeysbug Picnic Dress pattern available on Etsy, I made three cute Christmas dresses - one each for my girls and one for their little cousin:





I made some aprons for some of my friends, using tea towels and lots of ruffles!



I also made an apron for my lovely Mum, from a fabulous book called "The Perfect Apron: 35 Fun and Flirty Designs for You to Make" by Robert Merrett.