Do you need a glass of water?

Do you need a glass of water? A fan? A quick lie down?? I was just checking you see, as this is my second, that's right folks, second(!) post this year and I thought maybe someone might have fallen over in shock. No? Just me then :)

That unfortunately is probably the most exciting bit as there hasn't been a great amount of progress here this month. I haven't been feeling that well and Ella has not been on her best behaviour.  She's been skipping stitches all over the place. So we've both been to the doctor to get an overhaul. It's not all bad though, soon Ella will be home and I have had the lovely Faye looking after me the last couple of weeks. It's been so nice to have another girl around to talk with, a rarity in this all boy house.

I have managed to finish all the stars for the rocket-ship quilt,

Rocket-Ship Quilt , Stars Prepared for Appliqué

make a test mini quilt of a larger quilt that I have planned, sorry no more details, I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Modern Mini Quilt - Detail

And make good progress on some binary code that's been waiting for ages to get some love and attention. (Yep that's my nerdy side showing its geeky head...)

Binary Code - Piecing Detail

But that's it. Everything else is still all plans and daydreams and possibilities. Which is kind of nice, then I can imagine fantastical quilts that I'd like to make. Ones with perfect seams, amazing colours and dazzling quilting. That in my head are a cinch to make and take no time at all....  Maybe I hit my head when I fell over in shock? Anyway, here's hoping this month of March will be more successful!

Linking up to where people have actually done some stuff for:

Fresh Sewing Day

and Small Blog Meet.

It was lovely to receive some new visitors last month.  Today I've put out some Jelly Lamingtons  filled with fresh cream and a nice cup of coffee.  Don't worry about getting crumbs on the rug - TH is great at vacuuming!

Bloggers Quilt Festival & Sew-Inspiration Sunday

For those of you browsing around in blogland lately you might have seen a little thing hosted by Amy that is the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  Ok, ok, it's not little, its HUGE! and its wonderful.  It's like going to a great quilt show but without the crowds or the sore feet. Oh and there is no line up at the coffee stand either! Last year I had a great time seeing all the wonderful quilts and this year I'd like to share one of mine. 

NB: Some ninny got the date wrong when the Festival closed, so now I'm just sharing not linking :( 

I finished this quilt earlier this year, before I started this blog. Its a small quilt 23.5" x 27.5" designed to fit my Goddaughters doll crib.(Sorry about the bad photos, I took the photos on a very cloudy day) This was the third quilt I'd ever made and it was a gift for Christmas 2010 however I only finished and posted it to her at the end of February 2011, that still counts as Christmas right?

Doll Quilt - Front

 

Doll Quilt - Back

 

Quilting

This shows the lovely quilting that by the very lovely Faye did for me over the Christmas holidays. 

Doll Quilt Pillow- Front



Doll Quilt Pillow - Back

I also made a little matching pillowcase to got with it. I tried to match the front and the back of the quilt and the pillow so she could reverse them if she chose.



Doll Quilt Label

Lastly I put a sweet little label on the back. The quilt pattern was a free pattern from the Marcus Fabrics website. I like to think its both modern and timeless(just humour me ok :) ).  All the fabric except the pink sparkly fabric was from my stash.  The floral print on the back is more like a voile so when Faye quilted it she put a lining fabric underneath and it worked really well. 

I loved making it and it was hard to let go of but I'm told she loved it and she and her doll slept with it that night. So totally worth it!

I'm going to the Craft and Quilt Fair today(wish my feet luck!) but the Bloggers' Quilt Festival is also a great way to spend a Sew-Inspiration Sunday!

Fake it or Make it?

What do you really think about appliqué? Not the design as such but how it's actually done. I don't know about you but I've always had a thing that appliqué, especially on a quilt, needs to be done by hand and be invisible. Any other kind was faking it. I guess it really stems from the fact my Mum used to teach and judge handicrafts and we would always hear her comments about items that were poorly finished, seams not pressed and hand sewing that was visible. All those comments seem to have embedded themselves into my brain and so I've always hand sewn(very carefully!) any appliqué I've done. (TH has mentioned I might be a teeny tiny bit pedantic about it but really, who are you going to believe ;)

But having said that, the first Dresden I appliquéd took me over an hour to finish. Yes, I did have some little interruptions, still that meant even if I could do three a day, it would take me ten days. Two a day, fifteen days.  So I had a rethink and a google and then a play on my machine to test out some machine appliqué. I decided to go with a blind hem stitch and just do one and compare, cause you know, I can always unpick! Or frog it? Is that the right term? You know where you rip it, rip it, rip it!

I'm really happy with the result.  It took me longer to figure out that I was trying to put the blind hem foot on back to front (It actually took me a fair while to realise this and then I didn't use it anyway) and to stop giggling than it did to do one plate.  The thread is one that Faye has given me(Thank you!) and it blends in really well on all the colours and I'm very happy with the results.

Dresden Plate Applique Techniques

Have a look at them side by side. The one on the left is by machine and the right hand one is done by hand. From about 15cm away(less with my eyesight!) you can't tell the difference!

Dresden Plate Centre Applique

I've also used it to put the centres on. They take no time at all compared to all the stopping, starting, turning for the Dresden's.

Dresden Plate Centre

So even though I feel like I'm faking my appliqué, doing it this way means I'll get to actually finish this quilt in time this decade. So I guess my answer is I have to fake it to make it!




I did have a couple of other questions though:

Why do I only do wobbly sewing on the parts where it will show?
Why don't sewing machines come with a foot lever for the presser foot, instead of that stupid knee thing?
Why can you only find the pins you've dropped by stepping on them?

If anyone knows the answers please let me know!

Happy Birthday My little Superhero - UP UP and AWAY!

What does a going-to-be-Three year old need for his birthday? A Superhero Cape of course! I based the idea on this superhero cape tutorial I found ages ago. As you know from this ballerina bag I find it hard to follow someone else's design, so I used some newspaper to make my own cape pattern.  In between about 150 games of hide and seek I managed to do a little sneaky measuring without too many questions.

Superhero Cape Pattern

Big brother had helped pick out a colour (a VERY bright green that the camera does not do justice to) so after cutting it out, I then designed some simple superhero-ish applique.  Naptimes this week have been filled with some secret sewing and I finished it off the other night.

Superhero reversible cape

Superhero reversible cape

Of course every superhero needs a mask to hide his identity so with some help again from big brother, I made a template and used two different colours of Eva craft foam, to match both sides of the cape.

I used a fairly close satin stitch to go around the edges. One colour stretched a lot and the whole thing needed a retrim which was pretty awkward, especially around the eyes. I still didn't like the way it looked so I ended up using a sharpie to colour the outside edge and around the eye holes. Voila! Now you will never know who he really is. . . .

Then for Big brother who was an excellent secret keeper I made one too.