Work in Progress Wednesday...

Right...so I've been following WIP over at Freshly Pieced for a while now, and today is the day I'm going to join the party. I figure it'll be a good way of keeping tabs on myself and the progress I'm making.

I don't have all my "works in progress" out to photograph at the moment, but there are a few (read a lot!) of them. Quilts, cushions, bibs, burp cloths...it goes on and on. 

My primary WIP for this week is a lovely memory quilt for a sweet boy called Benjamin...and one for his brother Adam. 

Please excuse the train track and shoes in this shot!

I basted Ben's quilt on Monday and started quilting when this happened! 

I have a new needle, a clean machine and my walking foot...some stitches are perfect (on the right), while others are teeny tiny! I don't know why! If anybody can help I would appreciate the advice!

So I've unpicked the offending line of quilting and am going to have another go later! Just straight lines, nothing too stressful.

Wish me luck!

Octonauts T-shirt

So, my first born turned 4 last month! F-O-U-R!! Seriously! That is ridiculous! Anyway, he wanted an Octonauts themed birthday party...what self-respecting 4 year old boy wouldn't right!? 

So Mom set to work! The first thing I did was delegate the cake making to my very talented friend who came up with this! How amazing is that!?

I spent the weeks before wondering what I could do instead of the usual party bag business...I really begrudge having to spend money on rubbish that (lets be honest here) most kids look at for about 3 seconds and then never touch again! 

So I hit Pinterest! And found a brilliant tutorial for making t-shirt designs. 

Alas, I can't find the link now ('cos I'd like to give credit where credit is due), but I'll do my best to show you how it's done!

It really is very simple. All you need is a t-shirt, some freezer paper, some fabric paint, a sponge or roller and an iron.

You start by tracing your design onto the freezer paper and cutting it out. I used a blade for this. 

Then, iron your template onto the t-shirt wax side down.

Grab your fabric paint and paint over your template. Make sure you put something in between the layers of the t-shirt to stop any paint seeping through.

Leave these to dry for the time specified on your paint. Add another layer of paint if necessary.

When the paint is dry, pull off all bits of freezer paper, leaving your design! The fabric paint I used required that you press the paint with a hot iron to finish off.

And ta-daaaaa...a gorgeous party favour! The kids loved them!

Fin's Cushion

So the sweet little person that inspired me to make my first quilt (a whole other story!) has just been christened. What do you get a little person on their christening day? I wanted to give something that he (and his parents) would know had been chosen with love. 

As he already has the FIRST QUILT I EVER MADE, I decided to make him a cushion. I wanted something simple, but interesting. So I settled on "sweet pea" from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify. 

I chose some red, white and blue fabrics all with stars, dots and stripes and got cutting!

It came together really quickly, both because of the simplicity of the pattern and also because of the seemingly random way the blocks are pieced.

I quilted the cushion top with randomly spaced horizontal and vertical lines. I really love how it turned out! 

Finished size 40" x 40" 

  

The Windsor Emporium

Let me start by saying... 

I am officially crap at blogging! The days just seem to pass by in a blur and I realise I haven't posted anything...AGAIN! 

But anyway, let me tell you about my first experience at a market. 

I finally bit the bullet and decided to get a stand at The Windsor Emporioum. What a grand setting for a market! In the Guildhall, right next to the castle, looked down on by huge portraits of Kings and Queens.

I spent a few weeks before sewing my little heart out, trying to get enough bits to have for sale. The fact that I make memory quilts poses a bit of a problem in that I can't make them ahead of time. So I borrowed Callum's Quilt back from him for the day. I made up some cushions, embroidery hoop pictures and had 4 other quilts for sale too.

I was super excited by the time the first Sunday in June came around and ready to go and sell everything I had! 

Unfortunately, it was the first proper hot, sunny day in Windsor so everybody wanted to be outside...NOT looking at lovely handcrafted items INSIDE! It was very quiet. I had quite a few people have a look and ask questions, several of whom took a card, but that was all. Nothing sold. Nothing. At all. 
Nobody else really sold anything either though, so that made me fell better!

I did learn a lot and met some lovely people! And ate a lot of very nice cake (what else can you do when you're bored and there's lovely cake about? It would have been rude not to!)

I am planning on going to another Windsor Emporium in a few months time...maybe stop by and say Hi!

Callum's Quilt

It's ready to go to it's new home! (Please excuse the photo's - it was a dull and particularly windy day!)

I totally love how this quilt turned out! Each little item of clothing has such meaning for it's owner. 

One of the things I love most about memory quilts is the fact that the items are used and have a part of the owner in them. I find myself wondering about where stains and marks on the clothing come from. For example, did the scuff on this trouser knee come from crawling, or a tumble taking first steps?

I kept the design of this quilt really simple. Just straight lines made up of blocks and strips of clothes. I separated them with grey strips and then added a scrappy border.

I bound it with a satin binding, which is nice and soft, but wowsers it was a pain to work with! Now that it's done, I love it, but I would have to be persuaded to use it again!

For the back I just pieced a simple red stripe across the bottom. I then hand stitched 2 motifs from 2 special items and Callum's name onto the stripe. The name is made from a nice fleecy jumper and adds a bit of texture.

Cheeky monkey!

Pooh Bear

I do hope that Callum is pleased with his new quilt! I know I am!

Lisa x

Easter Table Runner

I have had a Vintage Modern charm pack sitting around for the best part of  6 months! So I decided to make it into a table runner for my mom-in-law for Easter.

I made it pretty simple...charm squares and white blocks in a checkerboard design, white sashing and straight line quilting. 

Work in progress... 

Lovely mitred corner!

Lovely straight lines!

All done!

I love the fresh colours! Might have to make myself one too!

x Lisa

Spots, Runners and Easter eggs.

Ok, so I've left too much time between blog posts again! Sorry! I'm going to backtrack a bit to Easter...gosh doesn't that feel like ages ago! 

We had plans for the long weekend...staying at my in-laws and catching up with sister-in-law and her family who are over from Saudi (including meeting our nephew for the first time!)...braaing (South African term for BBQ) at my sister's on easter sunday and just doing general DIY around the house. That was the plan...didn't happen 'cos we woke on Friday morning to this!

Chickenpox!

So we decided to spare the cousins and the rest of the family and went into quarantine!

Lots of dvd's and snuggles...a few sleepless nights...a couple of Easter egg hunts and not much DIY, and it was all over! A long weekend done in a flash of spots and itchy grumpiness! Now we're waiting for Adam to get it.

I did manage to get my mom-in-law's table runner done. I wanted to give her something other than chocolate and decided that a vintage modern charm pack that I've had for a while was perfect. 

I pieced it together in a very simple checkerboard pattern and added some white sashing. I decided to give straight line quilting a go...I usually go for stippling because straight lines scare me. Until I saw this tutorial by Megan at canoe ridge creations. She made it sound do-able...so I gave it a go. And was pleasantly surprised by the results! So was my m-i-l!

 x Lisa