My first Mini Quilt

The sewing room walls are looking a little empty....

I was thinking of making a mini quilt to hang up and then last week Heidi @ Fabric Mutt guest posted the tutorial for this little cutie over at Jedi Craft Girl.

So here is my Chevron Doll Quilt.

Made with scraps including Central Park by Kate Spain, Picnic Fairgrounds by Denyse Schmidt and Aneela Hoey Sherbet Pips.

I really wanted to bind it in black polka dot but haven't got any, so black and white safety pins it is - and that just happened to be out on the table already!  I backed it in a yellow solid and hand quilted it in white, variegated yellow/orange and blue/purple Pearl cotton.

It finished up at 13" square, perfect.

And now to hang it... I had some lovely red and white bakers twine that I was going to string up, but do you think I can find it? No!  Then I remembered 2 small measuring tapes that came out of Christmas crackers, I have sewn them together and if I can ever find the drawing pins they will be used instead!

Edited to add the hanging pictures!

Ah yes, that's better!


Linking up with Lets Get Acquainted at Plum & June today.
The last stops on the New Blogger Blog Hop for this week are;


A Quilter's Mission
RobinSue Quilts
In the Boon Docks
Sew Fresh Quilts
fabric and flowers
Sewing by Moonlight
Lovelea Designs
A Note to Follow Sew
Sew E.T.


Also linking to Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Sew Cute Tuesday,  Needle & Thread Thursday, Link a Finish Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Crazy Mom Quilts

A Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in the Something Old Something New Challenge!

 

 

 

It has been wonderful for a recycling geek like me to see all of your projects giving an old item a new lease of life!

 

 

 

Erika at Vintage Sheet Variety Shop very kindly sponsored our giveaway, and the winner of all this vintage sheet and button goodness

 

 

is...

 

 

Catrin's Summer's Little Hen Quilt!  Congratulations Catrin!

 

 

I hope you will all stop by Erika's Etsy store and have a look at all the gorgeous vintage sheets on offer there and maybe I'll see you for another Something Old Something New Challenge soon!

Last Day! - Something Old Something New Challenge

Today is your last chance to link up to the Something Old Something New Challenge folks! 

The linky is open until Midnight tonight (London GMT).  So if you would like a chance to win this bundle of vintage sheet and button goodness

Sponsored by Erika at Vintage Sheet Variety Shop

Please link up HERE something you have made with vintage materials, something you've given a makeover, or something you have repurposed and given a new lease of life!

Here are a couple of the projects linked up since last Friday.


Kathy's Framed Vintage Quilt Blocks


Kwilty Pleasures Apron Signature Quilt

I'll use good old Mr Random Number Generator to pick a winner over the weekend once the linky is closed.  Good Luck to all those that have already entered!

What will it be...

Second day of the school holidays and today I had to endure several hours of junior roller disco... Large glass of wine in hand... Enough said!

Not wanting to do too much on my hexy project as I'd like to take it on holiday with me I decided to pull fabrics for another project.

They along with these random bits and bobs will be incorporated into my next project.

On a completely unrelated note, look at these super cute fine tipped mini sharpie pens I found! I laid them next to a regular pen so you can gauge their size.  There were more colours available so I may have to go back and get some more and experiment with some larger quilt labels.

And now a proposition!  I've found some Sketch on sale at £4.80 per half metre but I really can't afford to be that extravagant, I was thinking more along the lines of Fat Quarters, does anyone in the UK want to go halves with me on these colours?  Yellow, Red, Pink, Denim & Spring.  I'll order them, cut in half and post the bundle to you.  That's £2.40 per quarter meter x 5 colours = £12 plus a little postage. 

 

Anyone for Tea?

I finally got around to making the Teabag Pouch from the Zakka 2.0 Patchwork Please sewalong!

That tea themed tea towel that I got in Matalan yesterday has been chopped up 

and I've even had a go at appliquéing!

This particular item in the book doesn't come with any process shots and the wording is a bit tricky to understand in places but there is a pictorial tute over at Finding Fifth which is really helpful.

I would like to point out that when attaching your elastic/ribbon/string for the closure, lay your exterior fabric rectangle right side facing up, place your closure in the middle of the top edge with the raw edges overhanging the raw edge of fabric and sew in place - in the same way as attaching ribbons to the baby blankie seen here.

I think I'll put this away for my friend Claire for Christmas, she has a whole shelf of a kitchen cupboard dedicated to different flavours of tea!  Perhaps I should have made a more industrial sized one...

So that means I can link this up to Christmas In July too! - if I could remember where it's being hosted!!!  So for now I'm linking to Sew Cute Tuesday, Quilt Story, Freemotion By The River, Thursday Threads, Needle & Thread Thursday, Link A Finish Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, Crazy Mom Quilts.

Christmas in July is over at Love By Hand :o)

Something Old Something New Challenge - Week 3 Update

I'm sorry this post is a little late, we had a very busy Friday at school, Lucas got an achievement in the end of year assembly, there were plenty of activities for the kids to do for the rest of the day that required helpers and then it was my birthday weekend! Phew!

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up last week, here are a couple of the new projects added to the Challenge.


Elise Lea's vintage scrap jars


Emily's gorgeous bag.

I can't believe we are into our final week of the Challenge already! July has flown by!  If you haven't entered yet you have until Midnight this Friday, 26th July, GMT London time.  The Something Old Something New Challenge guidelines can be seen here but really there's not a lot to it, just link up something made with vintage materials, something you've given a makeover, something you have repurposed and given a new lease of life!

The linky party page is HERE and remember every entry is a chance to win this lovely bundle of Vintage sheet and button goodness

Sponsored by Erika at Vintage Sheet Variety Shop.  Please pop over to Etsy and have a look around, she has some lovely prints available!

For my Something Old Something New item this week, I have this tea cozy that Lucas bought me at the Mothers Day Shopping event at school earlier in the year. Bless him, he knows I love a good cuppa but he didn't really understand what a tea cozy was and that we actually don't have a tea pot!

I thought I could take it apart and perhaps put the circular design over an embroidery hoop to hang in the sewing room or is that too easy?  I have lots of pot holders already so what else could I do with it?  Make it the centre of a table runner, a placemat perhaps?  I'd love to hear any ideas you might have!

These are the stops on the New Blogger Blog Hop this week;


Little Birdie Quilting Studio
modern handcraft
Ella & Nesta's Little Room
ayliN-Nilya
Everyday Fray
Kwilty Pleasures
Snuggle Up with a Dish
Making Happyness
chezzetcook

Be Sure to pay them a visit.  I'm linking up with Lets Get Acquainted today :o)

Sunday Stash - Birthday Edition!

It's my birthday today! Yay! :-)

38 years old :-( everyone is ribbing me about getting closer to 40!!!

I had money and vouchers to spend so off I went shopping and sod's law there wasn't anything I liked so I only came home with a £2 pair of flip flops and this fab tea towel (100% cotton of course!)

But of course The Eternal Maker isn't open on Sunday's otherwise I would have spent the lot!

My birthday loot includes;

Not 1 but 2 irons! Finally an iron with an auto shut off - I have left my iron on soooo many times! And a gorgeous antique iron and stand.  A years subscription to British Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, a set of gorgeous owl notebooks, a bamboo pointer & creaser, a Seams Right acrylic template and some handy floss bobbins & ring and other assorted goodies as pictured!

What a lucky girl I am! And I still have money burning a hole in my pocket too!

My stash this week comes in the form of some donated vintage duvet covers, my favourite is the alphabet one but come on people, who doesn't love Care Bears!

And some fabulous flannel sheets, vintage pillow cases and over a metre of Laura Ashley fabric, all from the Car Boot Sale for about £3!!

I seriously don't have room for this lot!  I might donate the animal hospital duvet cover to the charity shop and sell the Care Bear cover, they're coming back again you know - my next door neighbour who is 5 years old told me so!

Linking up with Sunday Stash being hosted by Kristy @ Quiet Play this week.  If you are a UK quilt blogger and would like to take part in The UK Fabric Stashers Blog Hop in September please take a look here and get in touch with me!

I've just realised that I forgot to do the weekly update on the Something Old Something New Challenge! I'll post that tomorrow - sorry!  You have until Midnight Friday 26 July GMT London to enter your project and be eligible to win the Vintage Sheet prize donated by Vintage Sheet Variety Shop.

 

WIP Wednesday - Hexie Edition!

Hexie production has come on leaps and bounds whilst sitting in the garden with my feet in the paddling pool!

I almost have enough for my table runner now.

I read a couple of tutorials on stitching them together and need to ask you hexie experts about which stitch to use.

This picture shows the whip stitch 

And this one I think is a ladder stitch 

Obviously my ladder stitch looks neater but it takes longer.  Am I not doing the whip stitch right or will it improve with practice?  Which stitch do you all use?

Remember there is still time to enter the Something Old Something New Challenge and be in with a chance of winning this prize

Sponsored by

Linking Up with WIP Wednesday, Fabric Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Needle & Thread Thursday, Help for Hexie-aholics

24!

I managed 24 little hexies over the weekend whilst camping - which I'm really pleased with for my first outing!

I really should measure the table top to see how many I'm going to need!

It was another scorcher of a day here in the UK today so I sat with my feet in our little foot spa of a paddling pool and started unpicking the pirate quilt top.

The stitch they used is sooo small that it's impossible to get the seam ripper in there, so I'm having to pull the seams apart and rip it from the front (right side).

I took a couple of pieces off the edge but look

I don't think I'm going to be able to resurrect the charms to be used with a 1/4 inch seam allowance with all those holes in there that won't scratch off with a finger nail rub!

I'm going to pop them in the wash tomorrow with my dark load and see if that helps it re-knit at all but I doubt it.  It looks like I'll have 2 choices;

Remove the outer sashing and keep the inner squares as is, adding to them with the extras I have

Or

Cut the whole thing apart, see what's left and make something new from scratch!

 

We'll see...

 

Thank you so much to everyone who visited and commented on my Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop post, I am slowly working through my emails and replying!  That's the most comments I've ever had on a single post!

 

Linking up with Lets Get Acquainted over at Sewing By Moonlight today :o)

Sunday Stash 14/7

Wow! I just got back from an amazing weekend away camping down at Hayling Island so I need to be quick to squeeze in my Sunday Stash report!

My first picture is actually of a gift from my friend Judith, she is encouraging me to finish the backing for my Black and White bed quilt and gave me these 4 FQ's as an incentive!  What a sweetie!

 

As you may have read in my Something Old Something New post this week, I placed an order with Prints to Polka Dots for some Pirate Matey prints, while there I also slipped these in my basket.

 

A little piece of cute Blend Fabrics Tinsel Collection - Trees on Blue - well the whole Christmas in July thing is going on right?  An FQ of Riley Blakes So Sophie Collection Blue Dots and Spots - I bought this one for the mustardy colour as I have none of this in my stash, and 2 FQ's of Michael Miller Mending Madness in green and pink.

 

Isn't the print so cute!  You could cut these little pictures out and use them individually on a myriad of things!  Love Love Love!

 

Right I'm off to wash the Solent water from my hair and have an early night!

Linking Up with Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth and New Fabric Friday