Holiday Makes

Not long until we depart for our ‘holiday of a lifetime’!  Thought I’d show you my 2 holiday makes.

Number one is my ‘Hawthorn’ dress from Colette Patterns:

Isn’t the fabric fabulous!  I bought it from More Sewing, where I go for a sewing drop-in once a week.  It’s a lovely drapey fabric, perfect for a summer dress!  Must admit, I still can’t get over the fact that this time next week I’ll be wearing this dress with sandals in Australia, with temperatures in the high 20s!  It’s about 9 degrees here and dull and raining! (Hence my photos are a little dull)

Second is another baby quilt:

We are visiting Maurice’s nephew and family near Sydney, and this is for their baby girl, Isabelle.  Again the fabric is from More Sewing.  The pattern comes from an old quilting magazine.  It’s nice and easy to do and shows off the fabric really well.

Here’s a bit more detail of the fabric.  Cute eh?

And the back.  The fabric has little bees in bonnets with shopping baskets LOL!  I really like putting a stripe of the fabrics used on the front of the quilt.  It looks fab and saves on backing fabric.

Here’s the label.  I always handwrite the label and then stitch over it.

Review of 2014

I’ve been wanting to do a review of 2014, especially my dressmaking for a week or two.  But I’ve been struck down with a nasty virus, and my head has been so full of ‘fog’ that I couldn’t think straight!  So now I’m beginning to feel better, here’s my review of dressmaking and other crafts.

My favourite dress was this purple one, worn for Christmas events.  It’s Style Arc Trixie dress, made with purple ponte from Fabricland.  I had plenty of help at my dressmaking drop-in with Laura at More Sewing.

Other favourites and most worn:

1. Lottie blouse.  Free pattern with Love Sewing magazine
2. Kimono.  Free pattern from Sew Caroline
3. Dress made last year and altered to fit since I lost loads of weight
4. Staple Dress by April Rhodes.  I really didn’t think I’d like this, but it turns out to be really comfortable on hot days!
5. Tartan skirt from a Kwik Sew patter.  The tartan fabric was very slippery and tricky to sew, and I challenged myself to line it.  I made it quite short which I like.  It’s too big now and I’m not sure whether I will alter it.
6. Deer and Doe Plantain top.  I wore this loads last winter, but it is too big now.  It’s in my pile of things to alter as it should be quite simple to do.

My least worn items are these:

1. Wiksten Tova top.  I just don’t like the neck line or how it looks on me.  Think I am better with more fitted tops.  The second one in green is on my pile to refashion. 
2. The broderie anglais blouse is lovely and fits really well, but I haven’t worn it as much as I thought I would.  It’s because it’s a bit see through!

I made a few other tops that I didn’t blog, and some trousers that I have only worn once and not photographed!

My biggest challenge this year was getting the fit right.  And then I lost loads of weight! I am lucky to have 2 fabric/sewing shops close by, and am attending dressmaking drop-in every Tuesday morning at More Sewing.  I am loving it!  I have loads more confidence to tackle more difficult items now I can get help from Laura.

Other craft successes include:

2 quilts.  First one is my scrappy quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts. It still needs backing and quilting. Second one is my own design and was made for a great nephew.  The fabric is fabulous!  I am not sure you can see it properly in this photo, but it’s retro little boys with rockets and space themed toys.

 

Cushions

1. I challenged myself to do piping round the edge and put a zip in it.
2. Letters cut out using my cricut machine and appliqued on to cushion.

Christmas ornament.  A reindeer garland.  I really wanted to make more of these but ran out of time!

Bags

These were all made for Christmas presents:

1. Sew together bag by Sew Demented.  It has 3 zippered compartments inside!
2. Scrap Happy Purse by Crazy Mom Quilts
3. I did follow a pattern for this one but can’t find it now!

Crochet

1. Happy Blanket for MIL
2. Owls form Crochet Gifts magazine
3. Flower Garden Blanket crocheted throughout the year along side my craft cabin pals

 

Scrapbooking has taken a bit of a back seat this year.  I have completed a Project Life style album for 2014 and

1. Completed an album of our holiday to Canada in 2004.
2. My mini adventures ‘art journal’
3. one swap: Home made project life style cards.  These are the cards I made.

 

All in all it’s been a great year for crafting!  I’ll do another post soon about my intentions for 2015.

WIPs

I set myself the task of finishing off some sewing WIPs this month.  Here’s what I have been doing:

Number 1.  My scrappy quilt top from ‘Sunday Morning Quilts’ by Amanda Jane Nyberg and Cheryl Atkinson.  This is ‘High Five’, and it measures approximately 58 inches square.  I may yet add some more, either on the top and bottom or all the way round.  The fabrics come from scraps I pooled with my 2 craft cabin friends, Tash and Burnice. 

2 Red and Yellow Bear

He appeared in the magazine ‘Love Patchwork and Quilting’, and is designed by Jo Carter.  We cut him out one Monday evening at Burnice’s craft cabin, and I was determined to finish him!  It was not easy!  He is very fiddly to sew and I had to recut a few pieces because they were the wrong way round.  The instructions don’t tell you that!  Despite all this , he has turned out really well, although I don’t think I will be making any more small plushies!  He measures about 15cm tall when sitting.

3 Piped cushion with zip!

Burnice and I made the cushion front on another Monday evening at the craft cabin.  We had bought mini charm packs and were wondering what to do with them.  I decided to have a go at piping a cushion, and rather bravely stupidly thought I would put in a zip too!  I watched loads of videos on You Tube and after a bit of trial and error, ended up with this.  I am quite pleased, not bad for a first attempt! The zip works too!

3 Peg Bag

I bought this kit at Sandown quilt show back in June, from the Cross Patch stall.  I just fell in love with the bag and bought 2 lots of ‘Candy Bars’, a pack of precut blocks, each measuring 2.5 x 5 inches.  This one is Birds of a Feather by Camelot.  I will be making more of these!

4 Loopy Scarf

This came in a Seamstar craft club box.  I subscribed for a while, but found that I wasn’t really doing anything with the kits, so I gave up.  They are lovely kits and I would recommend them.  This loopy scarf is made in gorgeous cotton lawn, but sadly I won’t be wearing it myself as it is not my colours, (and it’s much too hot here at the moment!)

5 Red Dress

This dress was hanging up in my sewing/dining room for a couple of weeks.  All it needed was the hem sewing!  It is Simplicity K1913.  I got it free with Sew magazine a year or so ago.  I had tried and failed miserably to make it before, and even tried an FBA (full bust adjustment).  Then I found that another of my local sewing shops did a dressmaking drop-in on a Tuesday morning.  I am so lucky – 2 sewing shops within walking distance – The Ecletic Maker and More Sewing.  So, over a few Tuesday mornings, Laura at More Sewing helped me fit the dress.  It’s a wee bit big now, as I have lost more weight but I love the colour!  It’s really cheap polycotton from the market.  I think I paid £2 per metre!  Now I have the bodice to fit reasonably well, I would like to make more dresses with this bodice, different necklines, and different skirts.  Watch this space!

 

Now I should tackle some of those scrapbooking WIPs!

Scrappy Quilt

Last year at the craft cabin, me Tash and Burnice pooled all our fabric scraps together and shared them out, with the intention of making a scrappy quilt each. We decided to use this book by the ‘queen’ of scrappy quilts, Amanda Jane Nyberg.  She blogs at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I do recommend you go over and have a peek at what she makes with scraps!  No scrap is too small!

I have been sewing mine bit by bit as and when I feel like it, making a few 5” blocks every now and then.  I have had a bit of a blitz lately and sewn a whole load more.  Here’s what my table looks like:

 

And here’s the blocks I have made so far, including 5 large 9.5” blocks laid out on the hall floor.  I guess it is about lap size at the moment, but I will keep going to make it quite large. 

Which colours should I concentrate on next?

Scrubbed and Polished!

 

Way back in December Lucy turned 21.  One of her presents was tickets for both of us to go to a Maroon 5 concert at the O2 arena in London.  It was supposed to be last weekend, but Maroon 5 have postponed until next January!  So we looked around for something else to do, and came across a ‘pamper day’ at a local hotel on Groupon.  I am not usually all that keen on beauty treatments, but Lucy really wanted to go so we packed our swimming costumes and off we drove!  We had 2 ‘mini’ treatments each, a pedicure and a facial.  Look at my toes!

We had a really lovely lunch, all healthy stuff, sitting in the bar area.  The waitress asked me if I was Merlin’s owner!  I didn’t recognise her at first, so asked her what her dog’s name was.  It turned out that we used to walk our dogs together about 8 years ago!  Sadly she had lost her dog earlier this year too.

Our day was made when we ventured outside to the pool (the water, a balmy 30 degrees) and then the sun came out!  So we sat in the sun for the afternoon, perfect!

Remember my craft challenge?  June was supposed to be make a bag, which I am pleased to report I have done.  It’s a doggie bag!  I made it from a pattern in Lynette Anderson’s book It’s Quilting Cats and Dogs.

Yarn Tales

Two projects made from wool finished!

First a crotcheted blanket for my niece’s baby girl:

I used a pattern by Nicki Trench.  This pattern appeared in her book ‘Cute and easy Crotchet’, but I found it in issue 2 of the magazine Simply Crotchet.  I added the treble border.  The blanket measures about 36” square.  My niece was really pleased with it

I have been trying to improve my knitting.  I am very much a beginner, so my crafty friends Tash and Burnice helped me!  Here’s a 4 patch cushion I made.  Burnice knitted 2 of the squares, and Tash did 1.  See that cable block on the first photo (bottom right), that’s my first go at cabling, so I am really pleased!

We used the book: 200 knitted blocks by Jan Eaton.  (I have the crotchet one too!)  Knitted in Arran wool.

Finally, (not yarn related), but here’s a picture of Tash and Burnice our second sewing day for the charity quilts, here at my house on Tuesday:

We just about finished this scrap quilt – backed with blue fleece, and I have been quilting the other one this morning