Swoon Worthy Sewing

I have been enjoying some simple sewing lately, a great thing to do if you only have a small window of time in the evenings.  I do the cutting out in one evening and lay out all my squares and rectangles on my ironing table ready for the next evening, when I pull my sewing machine closer and get on with the sewing!  My workspace looks a bit like this at the moment, with lots of little clipped triangles that escaped the bin.

Here's Mr Bingley, jumping onto my chair
as soon as I'm up!

The patchwork block pattern that I've been tinkering away at is called Swoon, designed by Camille Roskelley at Thimbleblossoms.

  

Each of the star/flower blocks take two fat quarters of fabric as well as some background fabric.  Above is the first one that I made, I tried to cut out the little girls carefully so as not to decapitate any of them.  My second attempt went okay too, just a few houses and trees on their side, but at least the little ladies are safe and well.

  

The fabric is a Fat Quarter bundle I bought from Westwood Acres, a US online store.  The cute little prints are part of a collection called Country Girls designed by Tasha Noel who writes a blog called A Little Sweetness.

  

The third and fifth ones were a bit easier, inside the checkerboard print there were occasionally some words that I had to try my best to keep up the correct way, which I think I managed.

  

Each of these blocks are 24" square, and there will be nine of them altogether, so the final quilt will be quite large when it is finished.

  

So that is five made so far, including today's one - made with Mr Bingley's "help."

  

Half the job is in the preparation.

My own guilty UFO.

I enrolled in a Block-of-the-Month (BOM) program where I was supposed to follow an applique/patchwork pattern and get one 20" square finished each month. For the first three months I was always on target, and then life interrupted, as did other more interesting sewing and knitting projects.  So I got a bit distracted and instead of having 9 finished blocks by November I have only got 3 and a half done.

This is the progress of block number four.

Having this blog makes me feel a little accountable, so I decided I would photograph the process of finishing block 4, in the hope that I would then be re-motivated to press on with the work.

First I trace each shape from the pattern onto the paper side of Freezer Paper.

Then I label each piece to indicate position, then cut them out
(with paper scissors) and store them carefully.

Then I choose my fabric colours, using the pattern photograph as a guide.

Then I sit the pattern pieces of freezer paper spaced-out onto the fabric,
plastic side down, and dry-iron them onto the fabric.

I let them cool, then start cutting them out, leaving about 1/4" edge of fabric,
to later become the turned under hem.

Then I match the fabric colours to some thread, and keep it all together
in a zip-lock bag so that I can grab it and go, and I know everything
 I'll need is inside ready to be worked on.

All of this takes MUCH longer than the actual sewing, I spend about an hour one day doing the paper tracing and cutting, then on another day I will choose the material and press the pattern pieces onto the material and cut them out. Then on the third crafty session I can actually start the sewing part!

Actually, now that I have typed this out I have noticed that it is the same with my dressmaking.

Day one I cut out the paper pattern, for about an hour. Day two I pin it to the fabric and cut that out. Not until the third day do I actually spool on a bobbin and begin the sewing... I wonder if I could have made an entire dress in the same time as it will take for me to finish this block?? Hmmm...

I'm Home at long last!

I have been away from cold, grey Scotland for 5 weeks visiting family and friends that I haven't seen in over four years in Victoria Australia, which is where I am originally from.  It's been very busy visiting lots of old and meeting lots of new.  My Mr and I did get a chance to have 3 nights to ourselves but every other night was spent in the company and hospitality of others. Imagine it... I am sure you can.

Along the way I did get a chance to do a little fabric shopping. So here are a few photos of some of the lovely things I was able to bring back with me in my overweight luggage.

I mentioned to my Mum and an Aunt that I quite fancied making a dress out of old doilies and voila! Off they go to Second Hand shops and bring me back this lovely little collection! (Did you notice there is even a lace collar in there? Can't wait to find the perfect garment for that little pretty!)

I had admired this collection of fat quarters whilst on holiday in Skye but I didn't buy it then and regretted it later. So when I saw these in a Victorian town called Bright I just had to snap them up. On the top right is an extra print by an Australian designer - which is a great souvenir from my trip.

Got these three lovely rich fabrics in a Quilter's shop in Ballan Victoria, called the Mill Rose Quilts. It's a Surprising little shop with a huge collection.

Got these fat quarters in a storewide 30% off Sale in a Ballarat Patchwork shop! Delicious!

These were also 30% off - I couldn't resist these Australian birds - I simply Must make a souvenir quilt!

This fabric was in a remnants basket in a small crafts hall in a lovely, rural Victorian town called Beechworth. It feels silky and luxurious, and was only $10 Aus. Blouse or skirt?

Quilting just for Me!

I saw these beautiful fabrics and just HAD to use them for something.  

They are from a range called Rural Jardin by French General for Moda.  Despite not having even one room in the house that they would coordinate with I didn't care, I just HAD to use them.  So I spent many a happy hour browsing the internet for a pattern, and again found the Moda Bake Shop had a superb pattern that would fit the bill perfectly.  The pattern is called Chain of Faith, and it comes with really clear photographic instructions.  I didn't do my quilt as big as the one in the pattern, and I also started it 5 squares in from the edge, as I prefer the red squares to create these diamond shapes, instead of the cross shapes that they create in the pattern.

I really enjoyed cutting and then laying out the fabrics. As you can see on the right, I've started sewing them up into squares and then into the larger squares.

I decided to be a bit more uniform with my colours, and kept the browns, reds and blues together.

Luckily for me, this is the bed in our guest room, so I could leave them laid out there with a sheet over them for a few weeks whilst being busy with other things.

After finally finishing I sent it off to be quilted together on a huge quilting machine, (which was a lot more expensive than I would ever have imagined) and am extremely happy with the results!!

I backed it with a pretty country scene toile  fabric from the Rural Jardin range.

Are there any fabric collections that you just HAD to have?

In My Garden BOM

I have started teaching myself how to do applique by hand. I saw this lovely quilt pattern from Hatched and Patched called In My Garden and knew it was the perfect challenge for me to tackle a new skill.

Anni sends out one pattern each month, and then I use the photos to try to colour match the fabrics from my scraps collection. Her quilt design is based on her feelings about her garden, and uses personal images that reflect her garden from growing up until now. I hope she doesn't mind, but I have already decided to imitate her and have slightly altered a few of her pictures so that My quilt will reflect my love of my garden here in Scotland.

Here's my first ever attempts at needle-turn hand applique AND I LOVE IT!

This is block #1. I changed her bird design into a chicken, because I was looking forward to getting chickens at the time! I also changed the flowers in the top diamond shape into snowdrop shapes, as that was a flower in the garden at the time.

This is the starting patches for block #2. The only thing I changed here was the shape of the butterfly wings - I wanted them a bit rounder looking.


What is your prefered way to applique?

Quilt

Saw a lovely quilt in the Moda Bake Shop called Wild Rose Postage Stamp Quilt that looked like something I might be able to try myself. A friend is having a baby, so it's a perfect opportunity to begin a new crafty skill. Patchwork seems like such a good idea!

So I sent my dear friend some links to Moda's lovely range of fabrics, and she chose a Sandy Gervais collection.

So I layed out the fabric strips from Left dark reds fading into pinks then pales and heading to the right with the dark aqua shades.

Then I cut each 2.5" strip into 2.5" squares and mixed them around into 4x4 grids, as you can see keeping the darker ones to the left and interspersing a few pale and pink in amongst them. I quite enjoyed this process - it was fun trying to keep it looking jumbled but balanced.

I sewed them into rows of four squares, then sewed 4 of these strips together to form a 4x4 square, pressing each and every sewn line as I went.

All done! 

Then I aded a pale border, wadding, backing and binding and tried to quilt it together on my basic machine! Voila!

What do you think of my first ever attempt at a patchwork quilt?