Monthly Archives: October 2013

Happy Halloween

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Way back in August I joined a Halloween Sewing Swap and through September and early October I gradually pieced together a package of goodies to send to my partner.

I started with an owl hotpad pincher. Fun, and handy to have around.

Howl

I then moved on to coasters and made a set of four little coasters that were reversible. One side black and white, the other more colourful and whimsical.

HcsbwHcsc

To add a little more table decor to the mix I opted for a table runner. A chevron in black, white and orange fabrics on one side, more fun and whimsy on the back to match the coasters.

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For my final piece I created a fabric bowl, ready to be filled with fruit and nuts or candies.

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I gathered together all these lovelies, packaged them up and then I thought that it would also be nice to add a little something for my partner’s son and so I created a small trick or treat bag, popped a few candies inside and sent my parcel on it’s way.

BagThen a week or so ago the postman called to my house with the most wonderful delivery from the very talented Nicole over at Modern Handcraft.

HSwaprec

Nicole made me a fabulous table runner, cushion cover, mug rug and zippered pouch. She also adeed some really fun extras, which of course were quickly snapped up by my boys. As Nicole has written some great posts about each of the items as part of her Halloween Series I have linked each item to it’s respective post. Why not go and read more about how she made these really stunning items.

A Mini for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival

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When I posted about my “English Garden” cushion last week I never thought to enter it in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival over on Amy’s Creative Side, but as I see many other cushions in the doll/mini quilt category I thought I would enter mine.

Fall-BQF-Button-e1380294012428The “English Garden” cushion came about after I had created some QAYG flowers from Liberty fabric scraps. I want to use one of the flowers on a cushion but wanted to frame it somehow and so I actually created the cushion/mini quilt from the outside in.

EGcushion

Wanting to make use of the remaining fabric pieces inthe scrap pack I first created the sashed border, using a dark navy solid to seperate the individual fabric pieces. I have become a big fan of using dark solids in this manner as I feel they really make such bright fabrics as the Libertys I was using pop. Once the border was made I used it to frame a central cream panel and there I created my simple garden scene.

In place of quilting I stitched some leaves and stems in green, and topped one with my QAYG flowers.

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I added an EPP butterfly that I outline stitched to give it more definition.

EGbutterfly

The butterfly was created from quarter inch hexies. They may be small, but I find them great fun to make.

EGminihexies

The overall result is a mini quilt that will find it’s use mainly as a cushion at present. However, I suspect that given my preponderance for making cushion covers I will soon have too many and will be rotating them between the cushions that I have and when that time arises I will defintiely make use of this piece as a wall hanging.

EGhangingI hope you have enjoyed reading about my “English Garden” cushion, and that, if you haven’t already, you will take the time to visit the Blogger’s Quilt Festival and read about all of the other wonderful creations that have been entered.

A Buggy Throw

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Blogger’s Quilt Festival is in full swing over at Amy’s Creative Side and I have decided to enter my Bug Picnic quilt into the throw quilt category.

Quilt in a tree

Some of you will remember this quilt from earlier in the year. I decided I would make a quilt for my boys and opted for some nice fun prints.

Bugs for a picnicI mixed a few different techniques to create the different panels. There was some weaving for the central block,

bpweavesome appliqué that picked up on the creatures frolicing about in the border fabrics,

Frogand some simple 9 patch corner blocks that mirror the overall nine patch design I used.

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The quilt, which finished up at 57″ square was backed with fleece because I intended it to be used as a picnic quilt in the warm summer months and as a throw quilt to snuggle under when the colder winter months came around.

bug picnic backIt was bound with a scrappy binding making use of most of the prints that appeared in the quilt.

Picnic basketWe’ve had a summer full of picnics and garden fun with this quilt

Picnic timeand now we look forward to a winter of snuggling up under it to read our favourite books.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my entry to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and if you haven’t already visited the festival then I do hope you will take some time to go and see all of the other wonderful quilts that are entered.

Fall-BQF-Button-e1380294012428

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Hexies Galore: WiP Wednesday

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I seem to find myself working with lots of Liberty fabrics this week, not that I’m complaining one little bit. I never thought of myself as a floral person but these are such a joy to work with and now I find I can’t get enough of them. Earlier today I shared my “English Garden” cushion and now there is just time for a quick peek at a couple of works in progress.

There are more butterflies in the making, like this blue and pink creature.

VBButterflyThere are lots more mini hexies in the making too as I have decided that the butterfly quilt I had planned to make shall feature lots of different sized EPP butterflies rather than just the larger ones I have been making to date.

EGminihexiesLinking up with Lee’s Work in Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. Hope to see you there.

An “English Garden” Cushion

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Today I’d like to share with you the second project I made with my QAYG Liberty Flowers. This is my “English Garden” cushion.

EGcushionI love to use these flowers appliqué style. For this project I started by making the framed cream center. I used navy sashing and the Liberty scraps remaining from my QAYG Liberty Flower tutorial for the outer border. I then spray basted my quilt sandwich and once I had that done I arranged the layout of the central design. The stems  and leaves were first sketched in place with a disappearing fabric pen, then stitched in King Tut Malachite tone-on-tone thread. I then attached the flower, simply pressing in place to adhere with the interfacing backing and then slip stitching around the edge to finish. The butterfly was outline quilted to highlight it’s shape and to finish I quilted the sashing an eighth of an inch from all seams.

EGcoverThe butterfly itself was created using English paper pieced hexagons. It took a little time to create as I chose to use tiny quarter inch hexagons, but I love the end effect.

EGbutterfly

I made a basic envelope back using some “periscope” from The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection that I had in my stash.

EGbackI think my next project will have to be making a filler for this cushion. All of the ones that I have at present are a little on the large size and as the size of the finished cushion was determined by the number of fabric scraps I had left over it is a little smaller than I would normally make, finishing at 17.5 x 16″.

I hope to see you again on Friday when I’ll share the final project I made incorporating the third QAYG Liberty flower. In the meantime if you’d like to try you hand at making your own flowers and cushions you can find the QAYG Liberty flower tutorial over on Very Berry Handmade, and the scraps are available in the Very Berry Fabrics store on Folksy.