Thursday 4 October 2012

The dog!

Here's some cute pictures of my puppy Pippa 

Aww - sleeping like a baby!
In her new pink polka dot hoodie!
Isn't she the cutest thing?  I don't think I'm biased either.  She's so gorgeous and yummy!!

Christmas Pinwheels

Inspired by an online tutorial by misouri star quilt co I've decided to make a small table runner - just to even out the work and effort in trying to get my huge king size through the machine!

I went to my local craft store the other day and bought a couple of Christmas fabric bundles and started cutting them up into 6 inch squares to make pinwheels.  So far so good.


Start with some pretty christmassy fabric

Cut them up into 6 inch blocks
Choose two to piece together (right sides together) and just sew a 1/4 inch right around by pivoting with needle down at the corners

Then cut them along the bias until you have 4 perfectly formed triangles for each square
You then need to iron them out (choosing one colour to iron flat - I usually go with the dark), then piece those together to get your pinwheels!

Pretty pinwheels!
So now I need to get some kind of lattice fabric and do a lattice to join them.  I'm thinking something white with a slight print and then use one of my main colours for a border and binding.  I think I've got enough fabric to do 2 or 3 so I guess some folks are getting Christmas table runners for presents! 

This was lots of fun and a really easy project to get in to!  It's always nice to do the quick and fast ones as it gives you the inspiration and encouragement to tackle something bigger!  I can see that king size coming off the top of the wardrobe this weekend and being stuffed through my machine again!

I got a quote from a quilting shop for how much they'd charge me to do the quilting for me!  £180.  Can you believe it?  No way.  I'll manage it myself for that price.  Tho it did make me wonder about investing in a long arm machine!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Log cabin quilt

Here's my log cabin quilt.... this was honestly the simplest quilt to build, BUT I've made a king size and it's too much for my little janome - I just can't seem to squeeze it through... I mean I could do it if I really wanted to, but it would flatten me!  It's so nearly there tho.  I need to find a way to get it done and on the bed!

So another pile of pretty fabric.........

And you cut it into strips and sew it together!  so easy, so quick!


Then you sew the blocks together to form a larger pattern.....

Something like this!  next add a border

And hopefully you are sensible and get enough fabric to do the border from your centre pieces!  If you're like me tho you didn't and so I had to hunt down a matching red!  I think it's OK tho - can you tell?


And this is as far as I've gotten with this quilt.... I've added the batting and backing BUT it's stuck in my machine now.  I so, so want to finish this quilt.  It's a labour of love.  Love of America.... when I visited there last christmas I went to their AMAZING craft superstores and fell in love.  WHY can't we have such amazing places here?  JoAnns fabric store was honestly, honestly, honestly the most amazing place I've ever been!  It was a eutopia!  I could have spent my two week holiday in there alone.  The fabric for this quilt all in all cost me abou £40/60.  Could you imagine getting that much fabric here?  One colour would have cost me that much at my local rip off fabric store!!! 
The start of a quilting project!  A bundle of beautiful fabrics

You cut it up, you make it into pretty blocks..........


Then you sew them together with some lattice and binding........ now you have a quilt top!
Then you put it together with wadding and batting, quilt it and hey presto it's on your bed keeping you cosy (and looking pretty... oh so pretty)