Sewvivor

Have you heard about Sewvivor?

It is a kind of online reality show type competition where the final 16 contestants are given quilting challenges every couple of weeks. The finalists finished products are posted on the Family Ever After Blog and put up for the public vote. 10 out of the 16 get through to the next round and narrowed down with each challenge until we have the Sewvivor.

There are some amazing entries for the first challenge "Nautical", sew anything quilted with a Nautical theme you can see the entries here. Pretty great huh!

Here are a few of my favourites.

Sea Breeze Mini - finished!!!

Here it is folks, the finished Sea Breeze Mini Quilt! I love the bright colours and it has been so much fun to watch everyone's pieces come together on Instagram over the weeks. A huge thanks to Angie of Gnome Angel fame for hosting and to Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations for the easy to follow pattern.

So what have i learned during this whole quilt-a-long.....
1 - My accuracy skills suck, they still need some serious work. I need to get some more practise with HST's and learn to follow a pattern!!! It's written that way for a reason Sandra. My finished mini is 22"x 23" instead of the 22.5" on the pattern (It's actually a lot closer than i though it'd be haha!).
2 - Learn that less is more, matchstick quilting is good sometimes but not always and it will make those nice straight lines pretty wobbly as you pull the fabric.
3 - The Instagram community are fab. Everyone has been so nice and encouraging to each other and made this whole thing so much fun.

Patchwork and Quilting Classes

Some exciting news! I'm going to be taking some evening classes in patchwork and quilting at the wonderful Kitschnbake cafe. The class is suitable for complete beginners, all you need is your own sewing machine and to be able to see a straight line with it, as easy as that. We will start by making some simple quilt blocks then move onto individual projects which can be pieced, basted, quilted and bound into lovely handmade masterpieces! If you are interested just get in touch. 

A Quilt For Joshua

My gorgeous little nephew Joshua arrived in January and I wanted to make him something special he could keep for years to come but I also wanted to make him something he could actually use. It was always going to be a quilt but I wasn't sure what colour scheme to go for - a nice mix of fabrics in paler shades or to go completely bold with it?!? 

I used a lot of my wonderful Maze and Vale fabrics by Leslie (who couldn't love them right?) and I mixed them with some new pieces I picked up on an Instagram de-stash sale. I tried to add lots of little details like these tabs, perfect for little hands to play with, the monkey pictured below has nice crunchy ears too, he should have had a squeaker in his belly but I forgot to put it in! This all meant the quilt could be laid on the floor and used as a play-mat too.  

I hand embroidered his name above the monkey and of course finished off the dungarees with a J. I must admit I really loved this quilt and was quite proud to hand it over to wee Joshua. I hope he will love it for years to come. 

I actually forgot to take photographs of the finished article for the blog so these are just some of my work in progress ones taken a while ago. 

And how cute is the wee man himself lying there on his quilt looking quite content. Proud Auntie alert!

All About Me

A work colleague and good friend Jennifer Farquharson has just launched her own range of handmade greetings cards. Jennifer says her "All About Me" cards are unique, hand made and lovingly created to give you a greeting card suitable for all occasions. Each of her individual designs are inspired by 'Me" but without the ego. She has just opened her folksy shop here and you can check out her Facebook page here. I love them, so cute and some really nice colours and paper combinations - nice work Jen!

Crib Quilt Completed

So here it is, my first crib sized quilt is complete and I love it which means this will be a picture heavy post haha!

I love the colours and the quilted circles and the quilted wiggly lines and the fabric!!! It measures roughly 75cm x 100cm so was a great size to quilt up without getting lost under a whole load of fabric and tangled up at the machine. I think it would look pretty good as a wall hanging too if I added some loops to the top. Would love to know what you think since I'm still pretty new to this quilting malarkey. 

Can't wait to start the next one now.....

Charley Harper Fabric - Oh My!

This is like a dream come true - Charley Harper designs on fabric, oh my goodness - swoon. Birch fabrics are about to bring out this range so hopefully there will be a UK supplier before the end of the year or else the import tax may bankrupt me as i need to have some in my life!!! If you spot it anywhere please let me know.

PS if you want to check out the Birch fabric Facebook page you can do so here.

Little Quilt Eared Elephant

Firstly apologies for the lighting on the photograph but I didn't find enough hours in the day today to whip up this wee fella and take a pic of him too! Isn't he a cutie, he's even got a little squeaker inside him (found them in the cupboard whilst on the search for some toy stuffing). I didn't find a needle though so I'm going to have to go out and get one tomorrow to finish sewing him up - his poor little eyes are just pinned in place just now. 

Bunting Bunting Bunting

Tonight is project bunting night!

 I've been wanting to make some for ages but seemed to take me forever to go ahead and get some bias binding ordered to complete it. Last night I set about cutting out many many triangles and sewing them together, the part I dreaded most was the ironing, that was finished this morning whilst Sam had a quick 20 minute snooze, nice of him to give me some time. So tonight I just had to add the flags to the binding and sew it all together, add loops to the ends and sit back with a bit of cake and cup of tea. Need to get some made up for Sam's room - love the robot fabric, there really is some great fabric for boys out there too. 

Hope you like! 

The Finished Article

Right, here we go...... I am refreshed after my cup of tea and ready to show off my finished quilt! I really tried my hardest not to be too lazy and i started to quilt between all the triangles (Of course I regretted it after the first row but glad I stuck with it as I like the look overall).

The backing fabric is covered in little robots, spacemen and spaceships and is so cute for Sam. I'm going to have to get some more of it, it's so great! And look at this next picture, after reading up on many, many blogs and tutorials about how to make and bind a quilt I did it, my proudest moment haha! 

So that's it, my first finished quilt! A huge thanks to Shannon aka (Auntie Cookie) for the quilt-a-long, it's been a great learning curve, got me being slightly creative again and I think I've got the bug - I'm going to try another quilt, maybe even to my own pattern - watch this space. 

Oh and if you want to see everyone else's quilts then take a look at the Flickr group here. 

Quilt Progress

So in my usual blogging fashion I have been a bit lazy and missed out loads about the Quilt-a-long. I am now finished the quilt and I couldn't be happier with the result - don't think it's turned out too shabby considering it is the first quilt I have ever made.

The fabrics were picked to suit my little boy's room and the quilt fits his cotbed perfectly so I'm hoping it lasts a few years (perhaps putting a bit too much faith in my sewing skills!).

I also surprised myself by keeping up with the timescales for the project and snatched whatever time I could between Sam's naps and after his bedtime, think it would've turned out to be another of my great unfinished craft projects otherwise! 

I managed to do patchwork, quilting and even binding all on my own - feeling a bit smug that I managed haha. I will pop on some pics of the finished article for you to see too, after a cuppa though! 

Quilt-A-Long

Aunty Cookie is having a Quilt-A-Long! I am a big late with the blogging of this project but once again it's a case of better late than never, right?

So the plan for everyone involved is to get the "Fly the Flag" quilt pattern from Aunty Cookie (it can be found here if you want to give it a shot!) then week by week complete a stage of the project and end up with a great quilt. I thought it would be a good one to start with, the deadlines each week might keep me up to date and actually mean i finish something and the pattern is just so cute.

Below is the schedule, we are pretty far into it but will list anyway and hopefully post some photos of my work so far later on when i've got a bit more time on my hands.

Week 1. (Finish by 16 August 2013) Pick it! Fabric selections – in a show us your flags kind of way.

Week 2. (Finish by 23 August 2013) Cutting it! cutting out & making the flags – ideas for personalizing flags, tips on making it fancy.

Week 3. (Finish by 30 August 2013) Sewing it! yes that would be sewing it all together.

Week 4. (Finish by 6 Sept 2013) Quilt it! ideas and inspirations and techniques.

Week 5. (Finish by 13 Sept 2013) Bind it! And lets perve at your finished quilt….

Week 6. (Finish by 20 Sept 2013) QAL Wrap up & the awarding of awesomeness.

Ps Its now week 4 and i am actually up-to-date...... just a bit more quilting to finish - go me!

(Photos credited to Aunty Cookie's blog here).

I Need To Do This

I need to get the old garden clothes pegs out and try to keep my embroidery threads slightly more organised. I loved this idea from Cozy Homemaking to keep them together and tangle-free - I need to do this!

Cute Necklaces

I can't believe I didn't show you any photo's on here of my first attempts at making some cute little animal necklaces from Silver Clay. I think I posted the images to Facebook and on Twitter and forgot about the all important blog. I think I did okay but obviously still have to practise and refine the whole process. I'm not sure which one I prefer - the flatter looking bear necklace above or the more 3D effect kitty one below. Either way though I have popped both into the shop and you can view (or buy), them here and here.

I Like The Colours

Bit of a non blog post here but thought I would add this photograph for you to see. I sat my new ribbon-tied gift box on top of my Liberty Book Of Sewing and the colours matched perfectly, oh yeah that's one of my necklaces hanging around there too :)

Gift Boxes

I ordered these gift boxes during the week for my Silver Clay jewellery and love the teal ribbon. I have just now realised that I haven't actually posted anything about my latest exploits in silver clay so hopefully I can get some images on the blog here soon for you to see!

I tweeted asking people to recommend some places to buy gift boxes for jewellery and the Tiny Box Company seemed to come out highly recommended. They have a wonderful selection on recycled boxes, tissue, ribbon etc. I took the plunge and put in an order for some white boxes and the teal ribbon and I love them, just right for what I need, they even have a great insert for resting my necklaces on - perfecto.

Button Wrapping

Just saw this cute little button wrapping idea on Pinterest, the original link is just from Etsy but when I click on it the link has expired so if you know where it is from please let me know and I can credit accordingly! As you may have seen on this previous post I do have a little bit of love for bakers twine and think this may be an idea I need to steal in the future.

Stitching

I tried my hand at a spot of embroidery last week. I really don't have much of a clue when it comes to doing this properly or any official stitches but I don't think that matters too much - it's more fun just to wing-it! I started this thinking I would do some kind of love heart design and hey it managed to become a tree, a pretty pastel coloured tree but it is a finished design nonetheless.
I find it quite relaxing to sit in the evening with a nice cuppa, some TV and to do a spot of sewing so who knows i may do some more in the future, unless I decide to move my fickle self off to try out something else new - which lets face it is probably more likely to happen!

More Gocco

Another picture for you from my frenzied day of Gocco printing a week or two ago. It is a drawing a did a while ago in a pen suitable for burning carbon images onto Gocco Screens. I have printed this illustration before in gold ink and really didn't know if you could re-use the screens or not...... but you can! I made these with the intention of using them for backing cards for some button brooches I have recently made and think they will look quite nice. I am so glad the screens can be used again and again, I'm sure I can come up with lots of uses for the images again in the future. Photos will follow of the brooches once I get them all pinned through the backing cards, hoping it makes them look a little bit more special.

Shrink Plastic - Shrunken

As promised a few photographs of the little characters I drew the other night. I had a go at printing them onto the shrink plastic using my printer (a long battle to get the thing up and running but I eventually managed to get them scanned then printed). As you can see from the photograph in the centre they really do shrink quite significantly and thicken up too. I punched a hole in the forehead using your run of the mill hole punch and once baked in the oven the hole is still of a big enough size to put a ribbon or jump ring through. I'm thinking they might make cute little key rings, I think all I will need is a coat of varnish to seal the design. It's also giving me lots of ideas for Christmas decorations, greeting cards...... the list is endless.
The actual plastic seems to have gained quite a grainy texture since shrinking, I'm not sure if I've gone wrong somewhere or maybe not baked long enough, any tips would be appreciated.