spring steps
I do love surprises... and happy mail... and quilt making (especially for a good cause)!
For this months Aurifil Artisan challenge we were sent five fat quarters of Kaffe Fassett fabric to use in a project.
I knew I was going to make a quilt. I don't use red prints very often and spent a while auditioning fabrics to go with the bundle. Initially I pulled pinks and oranges, other warm tones because that's my vibe. It all looked too samey though and the Kaffe prints didn't stand out enough. So then I pulled a whole rainbow of solid fabrics, mixing them up with the prints to see what worked well.
Ultimately I went with a pale grey for the background and deep yellow, bright purple, olive and cerulean - sorry I don't have the exact shades, these fabrics were left over from other projects and I've failed to have any system for keeping track of the names/brands of solids. If you have a good system please let me know!
Traditional blocks are always a favourite and, as I haven't used any of my special quilting rulers for a while, I looked through them and decided to make Courthouse Steps blocks.
The olive was a considered choice, as it's the colour for the centre of the blocks. Inspired by the blooms on the prints, I wanted the blocks to look like large flowers and the green would be the stems.
concrete garden quilt
I am over the moon with this finish! It's been a long time coming... it began it's life in 2016 when I created the central hexagon and my wonderful Bee A Brit Stingy friends made bee blocks. They each made a square and a triangle block. My brief as 'queen bee' was asking them to use the background fabric I sent, along with a mix of cheery fabrics and create geometric blocks for the squares and triangle blocks made up of triangles.
The starting point for all our bee blocks was a central panel in the shape of a hexagon. The hexagon was formed with six triangles cut from the background fabric. I hand pieced the flowers, which are from the Daisy Do pattern from the book Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell. Then machine appliqued them to the background.
This quilt is called Concrete Garden because of this central panel - the mix of prints with the monotone background reminds me of city living and a garden growing through concrete. Overall the quilt layout and blocks remind me of an allotment too, common in city suburbs.
clam points and leaves ~ epp
I am excited to be writing about this make because it's such a fun and useful way to use English paper piecing shapes/blocks. I've made a new project bag and decorated it with epp. There are so many tips and tricks I can share with you; epp curves, light fabrics on dark backgrounds, neat applique top stitching and the awkwardness of metal bits on zips - oh I'm covering it all today!
〰 stitchy / fabric stash 〰
I'm a busy bee over here, so many projects being planned and worked on. Of course when you craft, you need supplies! Happy mail in the form of fabric, cross stitch supplies and vintage trim. Over the past couple of months I have bought the things you'll see here, some have already been used and others are for upcoming makes that I will share soon. Shopping small and supporting independent businesses is important and I found some fun creative businesses to buy from. This post is really a way for me to keep a record of the things I've bought so I can return to it, to remind me of the details when I share my makes. If you do not need enabling then come back soon because I have a finished project to share... but keep reading to see some lovely things and get details of my machine quilting class 🧵
First up, look at these adorable individually wrapped needle minders - opening them was such a treat, like it was my birthday! I love this kind of personalisation and in her note she apologised for the puns but it made me chuckle.
glitta pouch + improv
I do enjoy making little projects, it's always good to have a nice quick finish between bigger projects. I have been joining in with Laura of Sweet Cinnamon Roses as she hosts her Pattern Parade of projects, all designed to be fun to sew and encourage your creativity!
So far for the pattern parade I have made the Glitta Pouch and an Improv block using her patterns, here's how mine turned out...
midnight sewing basket makeover
The other night I couldn't sleep and I did what any crafter might do, I starting pottering around my sewing space. On the windowsill sits a sewing basket. A perfectly nice, floral sewing basket. I think it was gifted to me but I don't actually remember. I really like the colours but it's a little twee for my taste and it doesn't really fit my vibe. So - I'm sure to some peoples utter horror - I found a way to make it more me.
Now if you've been here a while, you know I love stickers. I will put them on anything but fabric?! no.
What is the fabric alternative to stickers? Patches!
Here's how I did it and what I learned in the process...
vintage sewing set ~ scissor fob
A satisfying and useful little make, combining things I love and using up what I have - this scissor fob is keeping my scissors safe!
I have been so enjoying a lot of hand stitching time recently and my cross stitch obsession is growing. Counted cross stitch is so relaxing, I have to concentrate enough so that my mind is not engulfed in worries or to do lists (as it often is) and the patterns mean that even though you are repeating the same stitch over and over it doesn't get boring. Also you can create little projects like this one or work on much bigger pieces, so there's variety. The rabbit hole that is FlossTube (search flosstube on YouTube) led me to discover the website Tiny Modernist Cross Stitch and I fell in love with the Vintage Red Sewing Set pattern. I will stitch the pincushion at some point but as I kept loosing my scissors down the side of the sofa, I bought the pattern to make the scissor fob.
Stitched on an offcut of linen from my current big cross stitch project (Modern Folk Embroidery SAL), it was a quick stitch and I spent some time thinking about how to finish it off. I know a lot of people use the little glass seed beads beads but I don't have any and didn't want to buy anything new. I searched though my boxes of stuff and found these wooden beads from AGES ago - my mum has saved them from when I was a teenager (I was obsessed with the bead shop in Affleck's Palace and the bead shop in The Lanes in Brighton, where we spent holidays). She had given me a bag of beads and these wooden ones are such nice colours.
life is short you're capable
I made a thing! The original plan was for this to be a pincushion but I like it too much to stick pins in it, so it's a decorative little pillow. I like just having it around, a nice reminder and message to myself.
I designed this embroidery pattern as a companion to my You're Capable cushion/mini quilt pattern, which was inspired by Gwen Stefani lyrics and created to give empowerment.
It was a quick stitch, using couching with double strands and a single stand, and 3 strands for the back stitch with Aurifloss in # ???. It was complete chance that the dot of the fabric fit perfectly in the tail end of the Y but it does make me smile.
The fabric is Double Dots, Black & White by Cotton + Steel 2017. I fused Shape Flex SF101 to the back of the fabric before stitching. It is easily my favourite interfacing, it gives stability without stiffness and it fuses so nicely. I find myself using it often with different projects and it's perfect for this kind of thing.
I am lacking in trimmings stash and though I do love pom poms, I wanted to try something a bit different and used a THIN ribbon for edging. I had to carefully baste it in place because there was a risk of loosing it completely in the seam allowance, thankfully though it worked out and I love the extra pop of pink on the edges.
Then I added handmade tassels because why not add corner pizzazz too?!
Since I'm on a kick of using my hoarded stash fabrics, I couldn't resist using the fabulous telephone print on the back - ok, this officially makes it double sided!!
Telephones, Trinket by Melody Miller.
It's pretty and squishy and I will certainly be using ribbon this way again because it was fun to sew.
If you'd like to stitch this message, you'll find the embroidery template as part of the You're Capable pattern available in my shop!
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