Sew-Inspiration Sunday....

Wandering around in blogland this morning I found this absolutely gorgeous Cathedral Window Pillow at Bearpaw. 

The "Windows" are made from vintage embroidered linens which are surrounded by a white that just makes them pop. It is So. Sweet.  Now, who has some doileys or other embroidered items lingering in their wardrobe, that might be treasured but are not really right for your house. Me! That's who!!

Now Bearpaw mentions a tutorial at Hyena In Petticoat's that I had already bookmarked, and I have some linens. But... I also have a to-do list and a Want-To-Do list. Both lists seem to grow longer everyday, the more I see the more I want to make. Does anyone else have this problem?  

I'm sorry I don't have any photo's for you but I wanted to share today and didn't have any time to ask permission. I hope you've been inspired like I was.

The Cheeky little Red Rabbit

Now my kids and their Nanna have a whole "thing" about the cheeky little Red Rabbit(it's a tin rabbit that lives at her house). It does naughty things, never stays where its put and generally gets up to mischief!


So, I thought why not make a little mischief of my own. Im using a RR(red rabbit) from some wrapping paper she'd given the kids on a gift, I don't know who the designer is but if you do, let me know.

I'm making two little RR wall quilts.  One, I'm going to hide at her house when we next go there, the other I'll get my husband to put up in the kids room when we are out. Then when they ring each other they can tell each other what their rabbits are up to and try to work out where they came from. And I can move them around and fake complete surprise when they notice! Oh, good times ahead.

I've used an applique method that I call 'slash and turn' but it probably has a proper name.  All you need to do is trace your design(backwards) onto a piece of interfacing.

 

Then you sew around the whole design on the line using a very small stitch length, I think I used 1 here. Slash the back and turn it through. I use a crochet hook to turn the small parts. Once your happy with it give it a light press and sew it on! I used the same method for the cute fluffy tail.

The first one is almost done, I just need to decide on the binding????

A Ballerina Bag.... and the Naughty Corner

Now last year for Christmas I planned and started to make my Goddaughter a Ballerina Bag or a Tutu Bag. Then I got told she was getting a Tutu for Christmas from someone else, so instead I made her a little doll quilt and pillow which, thankfully, she loved.(I'll post some pictures soon!)

So in my New Year enthusiasm, I thought that I'd finish the bag early and give it to her for her birthday in July.

But, the tulle annoyed me so much, that I put the project in the Naughty Corner and it has been languishing there for months.  Does anyone else have a Naughty Corner? My projects go there when they've annoyed me by not doing what they've been told, when I'm waiting for that "Aha" moment or when I need to make a purchase before I can finish it.

Last week I took it out, gave it a stern talking to, introduced it to my new machine(Ella) and everyone was happy. The bag was happy I was finishing it, my machine was happy to be played with and I was happy it was finally working out how it was meant to.

The pink sparkly fabric is Make Believe Star in Pink(I'm sorry I don't know the designer), the lining a basic pink pinstripe. The Bling(sequin trim and buttons) I got from my local spotlight.

The pattern was published in Patchwork & Stitching Vol 8 No 12, however Jodie from Ric-Rac has it as a free pattern, which is where I found it. So Thank you!  Now I have to say, I find it very difficult to follow a pattern, I always think "what if I?"... so I redesigned the pattern to make it more 4-year old friendly, added a second layer of tulle and shortened the handles.

So after all the delay, including an extra trip for more buttons, 'cause I broke the first ones-long story, its finally on the way to her. So Happy Birthday beautiful girl, I hope you love it and take it to dance class with you.



AP&Q Competition Winners

I had a nice surprise the other day.  Remember the competition that Katie, from Chuord's Crafts encouraged me to enter? Well, in the morning I had a call from Katie to say that she was one of the winners! Well done her, it was very well deserved. I loved the blocks she entered and her winning block was fantastic. Check them out here. Then, when I checked my email later that day I found that I'd won too!

So yesterday a nice package arrived in the mail.

And in case you're curious the block that won was the baby Dresden.

Thanks very much to Katie, AP&Q magazine and Leutenegger Fabrics. Now I've got something half planned for these fabrics but you'll just have to wait to find out what!

A Scarf

My Son was invited to a birthday party and confidently said "I think she'd like a scarf for a present". How could I resist his big blue eyes? So he happily helped choose fabric and trim to make her a scarf.

The fabric is Sweet Dreams by Henry Glass, the trim a cotton broderie and a lovely soft white wintella for the reverse.

Who doesn't love something with their name on it? Well, hopefully....?

I think it turned out lovely.  We went to the party today, he had a great time, the gift was given and received gracefully. The best part for me was I got to use my new sewing machine(her name is  Ella), to make the scarf, so really, it was a win-win situation!

AP&Q Competition

So last month's AP&Q magazine(Australian Patchwork & Quilting Magazine) had a competition to win some Leutenegger Fabric. My friend Katie of Chuords Crafts firmly, gently, suggested that we enter.

To enter we needed to make 6.5" square blocks in bright purple, pink and green.  There would be 8 winners chosen and the blocks were to be made into quilts for charity. The deal was we would each submit a couple of blocks and if either of us won anything we would split the prize. If not we would have the fun and challenge of making something new and the results would go to a good cause.

I ended up making four blocks and I would just like to point out that in no way are these my favourite colours! Also sorry for the very ordinary photo, but it was late, and I just wanted to package them up ready for mailing and go to bed.

Anyway, the top left one I was really happy with, a good chance to do a test dresden for a quilt I'll be working on later(Shhh... Secret Squirrel).  The top right was great in theory but someone may have worked out the math fairly late at night and the resulting pieces were all 1/4" too big. So I lost the other green and purple that was in the zig zag when I cut it to size. I was going to add some pink hand stitching in perle cotton but none of the pinks I had seemed to work. The bottom two blocks are just leftover strips pieced together that I thought could be fillers in the charity quilts.

Wish us luck!