Show n Tell Saturday

I have pin basted, quilted and bound my first complete project!

Friday is one of only two days in the week when both the boys are in school/preschool all day (9am-3pm), so I took the opportunity to completely ignore all the chores that needed doing around the house and started looking for a small project that could be completed in a day by a beginner.

I found a lovely tutorial for placemats and potholders and decided to make the smaller of the two.

Mine has come out slightly smaller again than the tutorial... so I'm calling it a Mug Rug!

I used 2.5" scraps of apple fabric I had left over from my Fruitilicious Baby quilt top made on Wednesday, and plain white just because that's what I had to hand.

I was a bit confused about binding as it was my first time but I found that the tutorial on Jaybird Quilts was really helpful.

Although my binding is messy and the stitch doesn't disappear in the ditch all the way around (My hand sewing is atrocious so I machined it) I'm really pleased to have completed a full project on my own.

I'm a Winner!

Back on Valentines Day, Melissa over at Sew I Was Thinking had a fabric giveaway and guess who won?!?!?! ME!

My beautiful fabrics arrived from the States today, thank you so much Melissa for posting to the UK!

Show N Tell Saturday

Look what I made! A cutesy storage cube courtesy of the tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts found yesterday.

It was so quick and easy to put together, I'll definately be making some more this weekend.

The fabric is BLOMMA by Clarke and Clarke, it's a remnant I got from my local fabric store, it's heavier than quilting material, probably curtain material but I just loved the pattern.

Friday Finds on Flikr

I saw the term 'Friday Flikr Finds' on another blog and thought it a great way to share our inspiration.

Although my very first quilt isn't finished yet I'm completely in awe of all the fabulous work out there and have ideas flying around in my head day and night!.  Here are some of my current favourite snaps from Flikr.

P.s. I'm new to this importing photo mosaic tool thingy, so I hope I get it right!

1. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperknit/4589980936/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3E128.pointy kitty!</a>, 2. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/purlbee/4096222463/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EMolly's Sketchbook: Miniature Patchwork Pincushions</a>, 3. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/firehorsetextiles/3092704123/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3E%22Austerity Britain" - small patchwork quilt flag - detail</a>, 4. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinfibers/3348400677/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3Ehandbagswap1%3C/a>, 5. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31957791@N08/5348200896/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EOwl quilt - front</a>, 6. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80179988@N00/5199936627/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EColorbrick Quilt-along</a>, 7. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinfibers/5231266029/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EOrnament Mini Quilt - stitching detail</a>, 8. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chezvies/4720177321/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EZigzag table runner</a>, 9. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieantinucci/5199661209/in/faves-8789000@N06/%22%3EElephants and Dots Quilt</a>

Fabric Stash - A Beginning...

I only know one other quilter, Judith, and she has a beautiful sewing room in her converted attic and what a fabric stash she has!  I was very jealous!

I've seen online too many photo's of lucky quilters with the most beautiful stash of materials, so I recently ordered my first selection online and they arrived today! The 4 colourful pieces of Robert Kaufman on the right, thank you Celtic Fusion Fabrics :o)

My closest fabric shop is Heocks Patchwork in Liss, Hampshire but unfortunately just as I've found her, she's closing up to move to Dubai.  I popped in today and most things are 30-40% off, so I got some lovely bright red brick fabric and the black and white pumps fabric.

I popped into Mitchells Fabrics in Haslemere, Surrey on Saturday and got this very pretty remnant to play with.

I've got black and white bits and bobs left from my current quilt project - but I'm sure I'll use these up on the back of the quilt.

And last but not least I've got some Union Jack Flag fabric from ebay.  I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet, but I just had to have it!

My First Quilt

I asked my husband if sometime this year, 2011, we could redecorate our bedroom?  We hastily painted it a lilac colour when we moved in 9 years ago but now I'd like it much simpler, in white.

Having been to Ikea recently, I had seen and fallen in love with some HUGE wardrobes which had fully customisable interiors and they had a misted glass sliding door with a white panel behind and a flower design just visibile in a shade of grey.  Then onto the textiles section of the IKEA warehouse and I found a lovely black and white material with trees, flowers and birds on, and just the slightest hint of green on it.  'Curtain Material' I thought!

Next came a bargain duvet and pillow set brought in Asda, in black and white with a floral design but not so much that it offended him indoors!  A positive step in the direction of a newly coloured boudoir I thought!

I needed a project for my new sewing machine and said so on my facebook page.  I was pointed in the direction of some quilting pages which provided much inspiration (and awe!), and I found the Moda Bakeshop website which provided step by step tutorials for beautiful quilts.  I came across the Sugar Pop N Change tutorial and thought it to be a lovely quilt;

A trip to the Hobbycraft 'massive clearance sale' provided a jelly roll of fabric in black and white materials and a subsequent facebook post from a friend that the local fabric shop was closing down and that I might get some bargain fabric with which to practice, yielded even more fabulous fabric.

I got cutting...

And sewing...

And one square became 3 very quickly...

And before I knew it I had 16 squares.  The original pattern only calls for 9 but my bed is king size and I measured up and decided that a 4x4 pattern would work for me.

The pattern is great for newcomers to quilting as it all starts coming together very quickly and results are visible.  I found that any slight cutting or sewing errors resulting in uneven lines could easily be rectified by trimming down the squares slightly so that they all ended up exactly the same size.

This latest photo shows my squares in 4 rows of 4, but I have since sewn them all together to form one piece, and cut the edging strips too. 

So my very first quilt top is almost finished!

Sewing Machines

What do you buy the woman who has everything for Christmas? This was the dilemma my husband faced this year.

I have embarked on this quest to grow my own, cook my own, make my own and be a lot greener. Although he's not on board with all the things I've got going on he does respect the fact that I wouldn't want mindless gifts that I'd never use and end up giving away to charity.

He kept asking and asking; "what would you like?" and my reply was always very vague, so off he trotted to ebay...

And here's what he came up with...

A beautiful antique Singer sewing machine, in working order, via the hand crank on the side.  The chap he brought it from said it was 1940's-50's, but after we had looked up the serial number on the Singer website it appears to be 1895!

It sits on a cheaply made wood and mdf base - which is probably where the 1940's bit comes into it.

I did a bit of searching online for Singer machines of that era and found this picture of what it would have looked like on it's original tressle table.  I was expecting a swivel table but this one is called a Coffin Top!

Now funnily enough, years ago when we first moved into this house, we visited the local furniture warehouse to look at dining room furniture and they had a portacabin full of house clearance items.  After we'd brought a lovely dark solid wood table with hidden leaf and 6 chairs, including 2 carvers for a bargain £330 and a dresser with plate rack and a corner unit aswell, we noticed a singer sewing machine table in the corner.  My lovely Nan brought it for us as a house warming gift to go in our conservatory as a plant table.  It is the exact same cast iron base as pictured above but ours has a white marble top, not the original wooden one with drawers - if it had it wouldn't have been so cheap that's for sure!  I will endeavour to take a photo of it and post it here for you to see.
And back to my christmas story...
then in the evening when we were all sitting around discussing sewing, (or rather learning to!) he gave me his credit card and told me to get online and order a new machine while I was at it so that I could have a proper manual and learn properly! What a gem he is!

Even before new year the January Sales started. I found a Toyota sewing machine, originally priced at £349 at half price.  It had lots of accessories and freebies with it and had lots of different stitches so I clicked 'add to basket' and on I went to checkout my purchase...

During the checkout process a note pops up 'use this code for an extra 20% off', so I typed the code in and bob's your uncle my sewing machine was only £124! And here she is

And I have to add here that I was very impressed with the very little packaging it had. The box, 2 pieces of polystyrene and 2 polythene bags with extras/accessories in, which were very clearly labelled so I know i can recycle them. Well done Toyota! I'll keep the box and polystyrene until the guarantee is expired and then one will be recycled and the other broken up to go in the bottom of plant pots for drainage!

Happy sewing days ahead!