our 52 week project - print and stitch part 1

As the new year began I was looking for a project to commit to, which wouldn't leave me stressing to hit deadlines, but would push me creatively. I came across the #our52weekproject on Instagram which was started by Brooklyn Haberdashery. It was just what I needed, you set your own project and the only commitment is to post an image on Instagram once a week using the hashtag. Perfect.

My project is to print and stitch into linen squares measuring 30 x 30 cm. I'm keeping it simple, I don't know how many I'll complete, I don't have a plan of how they will look. They will most likely become a quilt.

This print was stencilled using the waste you get from sticker sheets, (these were from Moo stickers) I did a tutorial for this way back here. 

I'm keeping the stitching really simple, so far just running stitch. Hand stitching into linen feels so luxurious, I'm really enjoying the time spent on this project.

More stencilling this week, introducing a second colour.

So many possibilities with this project, it's very freeing to work on this with no restrictions and no pressure. 

If you'd like to join in, find #our52weekproject and start sharing your creations.

memory quilt

I have boxes and boxes of baby and children's clothes that I just can't part with. Favourite trousers that were rolled around in at the park, dresses that were worn to birthday parties, pyjamas that are filled with memories of our favourite bedtime stories. The special items, the ones that were chosen everyday, now worn out at the knees - they are so precious. 

I've long been planning a memory quilt, but those boxes are just so overwhelming. After a huge New Year clear out, the boxes are a glaring reminder in the corner. So I've taken the plunge and have begun to cut the clothes up and I've made a start at cutting some into squares and rectangles.

This will be an improv quilt, I plan to work on blocks throughout the year, this is definitely a long term project, but one that I am going to thoroughly enjoy and savour. 

There is also a lot of pink, with two girls it was quite hard to avoid, especially if you're fussy and will only buy your children cotton clothing!  I hope I can tone it down with some of the blues and greens from my maternity clothes.

I have lots of jersey fabrics in the mix, I'm wondering if I should interface these, any suggestions? Now I just need to keep up the momentum!

Vintage Pledge

I have a fairly small vintage pattern collection, but I do intend to build it up! Though most importantly I need to actually use them and increase my me-made wardrobe.  

Which is where the Vintage Pledge comes in, hosted by A Stitching Odyssey and Kestrel Makes.

Seeing everyone elses finished items is sure to keep me motivated and help me find the time for some selfish sewing.

The appeal of the illustations on the pattern envelopes is often too hard to resist, the style and glamour they portray makes me long for days gone by. 

So, during 2016, I, Colette Moscrop, pledge to complete at least four new pieces using patterns from my vintage collection. The theory is that this will also help me to use up some of my fabric hoard and encourage me to only buy new fabric with a specific project in mind. Wish me luck with that part!

 

make it - stash busting

I have started this year with a good stride and intend to make a large dent in my fabric hoard. There is so much of it, it's beyond ridiculous.

I have many unfinished projects and I desperately need to tackle them. I need to make up the patterns that I have bought, with the fabric that has been sitting there, oh so patiently and I need to finish things as I go.

First up is Little Misses quilt, which I started about two and a half years ago, gulp. This week I have basted it and it's ready to be hand quilted, yes I know this will take forever, but it will be beautiful and worth it in the end. 

I am making one for each of my girls and I have hand quilted Missy Big's quilt. It has a lovely texture and drape to it and is just waiting to be bound. They will both be finished before the end of the year, I promise!! You can read about how they started here.

These cushions were a super quick and easy make, the girls choose their fabrics ages ago and have been waiting... 

These neck cushions have also been in the pipeline for too long, so glad to have ticked three things off the list this week and made a (very) small dent in the stash! These were made using this pattern from QuiltMag. 

It has been very satisfying to start and finish things in a week, lets see if I can keep it up.  

Me Made May - part three

Me Made May was fun, and a challenge. I really enjoyed considering my outfit each day and I became very aware of the gaping holes in my me-made wardrobe. 

I need more basics, in solid colours that I can mix and match with other items. I love bright colours and bold prints, but they need toning down with solids.

 

This typewriter print fabric skirt has been a hit. My second make of the month, a simple pleated skirt but that fabric makes it look great, I can see it being over worn this summer. 

I made this Peter Pan blouse from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing in my third week. I had a soft cotton in my stash which has a subtle spot print, I paired it with some of my duck egg circles print on kona cotton for the collar. They work so well together and the vintage buttons I found at classic car fair matched perfectly.

My final make of the challenge was meant to be a skirt, but I hadn't considered that it was half term, so my plans changed and I just managed this bow belt, I don't have an outfit to go with it yet, so that may well become my next project!

This is a round up of the four items I made this month, I plan to try and make at least one new Me Made item each month and to continue to wear what I make more often. 

Thanks for sticking with me with all these tricky selfies! If you took part in Me Made May, has it influenced your future makes too?

Me Made May - part two

I've been wearing something that I have made each day throughout May, as part of Me-Made-May this is a what I've been wearing so far. 

Day 5 is the boatneck top from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual, a very quick make and easy to wear everyday top, I always get lovely comments when I wear it. 

Day 6 is my live-in-it denim A-line denim skirt and a Liberty print infinity scarf.

Day 7 is an A-line corduroy skirt with a Liberty print trim and a teal silk neck tie

Day 8 another boatneck top, which is the first make as part of this challenge. Worn with a swing skirt I made many years ago with a faux moleskin, this is such a versatile skirt and it's wearing really well.

Focusing on the details - an interesting trim can make all the difference and stamp your personality onto your wardrobe.

Day 9 a collar I made which is very sweet, but shifts about a lot, especially if you put a coat on, adds a nice accent to an outfit though

Day 10 Liberty bias trim on a Zoe top, a free pattern from Tesutti 

Day 11 Inside facing on the hem of the A-line denim skirt

Day 12 I printed duckegg hexadots on a lovely raspberry cotton and made an infinity scarf, love these colours together

This challenge is proving to be fun and inspiring, take a look at the flickr group, there are many women taking part and some incredible outfits. I just need to work out how to squeeze in some more sewing time to build upon this handmade wardrobe!

Me Made May 2015

This May I'm taking part in the Me Made May challenge hosted by Zoe, which is to actually wear the items of clothing and accessories you have made. 

I know many of the items I make lurk in the wardrobe, this is most likely because I'm saving them for best, which ties in with my last post, so I'll be wearing these items as part of my 'everyday best' challenge to myself too. 

My pledge - 

'I, Colette of www.colettemoscrop.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear one me-made item each day for the duration of May 2015 and create one new piece each week'

I'm documenting this challenge every few days on Instagram, this way by the end of the month I'll be able to see what I wear a lot and what I'm missing and need to make next.

This should be fun, though I'm going to run out of different items soon, prepare to see lots of repeat outfits! 

everyday best

Do you keep things for best? I do, or did. I'm trying to break the habit of a lifetime and use all those favourite objects, in particular fabrics.

I have a stack of beautiful fabrics I'm too afraid to cut into, which is ridiculous. I bought them because I want to use and see them, not to open the 'suitcase of fabric' and just stroke it now and again.

So I'm on a mission, to use my favourite fabrics in projects I will use and enjoy regularly.

First off the work bench is this Ruler Cosy, for storing and protecting my quilting rulers. I'm always afraid of dropping and chipping them, especially when transporting them. This does the job perfectly and uses lots of favourites from my stash. 

My new 'everyday best' rule applies to essentials too, my old Liberty peg bag finally fell apart after 11 years of good service. So I've made a new one, this green on natural linen makes my heart skip a beat, so I have something to make me smile whilst hanging out the endless amount of laundry.

Now it's time for a cup of tea, in the fancy vintage china I rarely use, well it is Friday after all!

cool colours, calm improv

I'm in love with this quilt, it seems to be very calm and soothing. It's not my usual colourway of choice, but I'm finding it very pleasing. Duck Egg blue seems to have that effect on me.

I made this up as a sample for a recent show I attended, it's improv, as you can see and I didn't labour too much over the placement of the prints and solids. Once you let go and just cut and sew, cut and sew, you begin to see your work in a slightly less 'control freak' sort of way, or at least this is how it works for me.

I used four colours of Kona cotton and a selection of my stone and duck egg blue prints. I cut the solids into strips and the prints into chunky rectangles and a few strips. I marked out on the floor (no fancy design wall here) roughly the size I wanted the quilt to be so I had somewhere to lay out my pieces after I had stitched them together. 

I then roughly laid out my blocks, of varying shape and size to create a strip which was the full width of the quilt. I joined up the blocks, adding and trimming as necessary, until I had a full width pieced together.

I repeated this process until I had enough strips for the full quilt and then joined all the strips together.

The back has a one off printed panel positioned slightly off centre. I printed this in stone and duck egg blue with the different designs overlapping and creating interesting patterns.

This is a cot sized quilt, 115cm x 125cm. At some point soon I'm hoping to take custom orders on these. 

I have a red one planned next, I'll keep you posted and I may even remember to take some progress shots!

Improv Quilting

At the last London Modern Quilt Guild meeting Shevvy talked to us about Improv Quilting. When quilting this is how I like to work, I like to make things up as I go along, swap and change things around and be led by the fabric and colours rather than make several identical blocks. I like to have movement within a quilt, to have different piecing throughout and I love the appearance of a random layout, though this actually takes a lot of thought and playing around.

I'm working on this Improv Quilt at the moment, I used only red, bright pink and white fabrics and tried to keep it simple and random. It just needs binding so hopefully I'll be able to show it to you soon.

The quilters that inspire me the most are the ones that have their own style and put together quilts in an original and interesting way. Ashley at Film In The Fridge is one of my favourite quilters, her quilts are all so different and she has a wonderful way of using colour and creating interesting designs with fabric.

This one, Cascading Pools has a wonderful balance of colour and neutral spaces. Have a look at her blog, you'll be inspired.

Lu Summers is another inspiration when it comes to improv quilts, her book Quilt Improv is packed with blocks, tips and inspiration to get you started. Remember this one? It's one of my favourite quilts.

I've put together a mosaic of some Improv quilts that are inspiring. I think I'm going to have to try some improv curves, these ones look so good!

Click on the links to see who made these -

1. Assembly, 2. Improv. Blocks, 3. improv curve mini quilt, 4. wool improv quilt, 5. Keeping Eden, 6. add a border plus plus, 7. "Up Down" Quilt with Facing Finish - Detail, 8. Improv / free form quilt block number 5, 9. Quiet improv quilt

Shevvy talked about how some of her Improv quilts have grown from the desire to use up her scraps, tiny as many of them are. Shevvy pieces them together, sometimes chops them up again, mixes them with solids and plays around with colour and design until she's got a quilt she's happy with, there are many examples on her Flickr page. I got a bundle of her tiny triangle scraps at the last meeting and my challenge was to make a block with them.

This is what I came up with, I tried not to overthink it and just added a few rectangles to these tiny triangles that were mostly pieced together. I'm not mad about the finished block, it's too busy for my taste, but I absolutely loved the process and trying something new. 

dressmaking

I've started the year pretty well with sewing projects, January is always a productive month for me. I love the fresh start, the quieter pace post Christmas, the ease of getting back into routine after a few weeks of crazy.

I started with some dressmaking, for me. It has been a long time goal of mine to sew myself a vintage inspired wardrobe, and I'm getting there, but it is painfully slow. So to have made two items in the first week of a new year has pleased me immensely. 

First was the boatneck top, from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. I'll be making more of these as it's quick, easy and looks pretty elegant for everyday wear. I'll make a few adjustments on the next one, but overall I love this.

I've had this floral fabric for ages, I bought it with a full skirted fifties dress in mind, (I still have enough fabric and may well make a dress too) This gathered dirndl skirt is super easy to make, it's basically two rectangles of fabric (front and back) and a waistband, there is a tutorial over on Gerties blog here. I used the full width of the fabric, 142cm for both the front and back and I love the fullness it gives. Roll on summer, I can't wait to wear this.

I got this new old pattern too, I'll need to adjust it I should imagine but I'm looking forward to getting started on this. View C  was the most popular over on Instagram and it's my favourite too so I'm on the hunt for the perfect fabric for it. 

Voyage Quilt

Before I dashed off on summer adventures with the family I finished this quilt, 'Voyage'.

I'm super thrilled with this one, the coloured panels are handprinted with my designs and the background fabric is Eclectic Elements, 'Documentaion' by Tim Holtz, a wonderful print of old receipts, travel documents, tickets etc 

I added curved corners to the coloured rectangles, I love the softness it brings to the design, these was easier to sew than I had expected too.

  

The quilting is mostly straight(ish) lines by machine. I couldn't resist doing a few extra lines by hand with perle thread, using colours to compliment the rectangles. If I had more time I would hand quilt all my quilts, it adds such great depth to the finish.

I had a deadline looming though (always the way), I made this quilt as my contribution to the London Modern Quilt Guild's stand at the Festival Of Quilts this August. 

It was so exciting to see it there, alongside so many inspiring quilts. It was a wonderful opportunity to have a really good look at fellow members quilts too, there was such diversity within our stand.

I am filled with enthusiasm and lots of ideas for new quilts, though I am reminding myself that I still haven't finished the two quilts I started for my girls last September. One of them is three quarters quilted, the other still to be basted... and Winter is coming. I am going to have to hold back and crack on with these before I start something new, or at least that is the plan.