Easter's (Nearly) Over

One of the major advantages of working in a school is the school holidays. For everyone else Easter was over and done with nearly two weeks ago, but I'm clinging to the last few hours before 'Easter holidays' becomes a normal working week!

So what have I been sewing?

I pieced and machine bound this quilt (it's twin was only finished 11 months ago!!!)

I attached the blue plus blocks to a fleece, and having mucked up the centering was driven mad by it's not-quite-symmetrical ness

And had to chop a bit off one side and the bottom

I made some little project bags to be sold at Richmond and Kew quilters exhibition in the autumn,

I made a sample tote bag for a customer,

 and a trial version which will hopefully lead to a whole load that I'm hoping to sell

 

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2010 October

 Day off = Sewing Day!!!

I did nearly three hours work at Breakfast club this morning (invoices & accounts after the kids had gone) but now I'm free until tomorrow morning - yippee!!!

I got stage 4 done on the Stay At Home Robin I'm doing with Kate (click here to see others', and the instructions)













and I've nearly finished a felt castle for India. Can you recognise which castle it's meant to be?









Once it has some windows on the castle walls, and a flag pole to support the flag, it can go in the post to Australia. She might be old enough to appreciate it!

I'm going to make a blue car felt postcard for Marley, but he's just a likely to eat it as appreciate it!

2010 September

Velvet Jewel Blanket: LISA KEEP OUT

No proper pictures yet, (camera is out of action, so using phone instead) but I've been working on a velvet fleece for Lisa.

Years (and years) ago I made her this quilt. I have no idea what the wadding is, only that it is very heavy. the rectangles are not patchworked, they are stitched on by hand to look as if they are patchworked. It is much loved, but really is too heavy and too small - she can get her shoulders or her feet under it, but has to curl up to keep both warm!

As she is off to University in a few weeks, she has been sorting and packing. She has put the velvet quilt in a pile to go with her (the t-shirt quilt is also much loved, but doesn't drape well - another dodgy wadding I suspect!) but I thought I'd try and make a replacement before she goes.

As far as I know she doesn't read this blog, so hopefully I'm not spoiling anything by posting it here!

So I bought two Ikea fleece blankets and joined them together, and bought up all the jewel velvets in my local fabric shop, and started putting them all in place as a crazy patch.

The reason I am blogging straight away is to write (type) the things I have learned, and would do differently:

• 1.7 x 2.6 metres is huge - I could have worked on each blanket separately and joined them and used more fabric to hide the join
• 1.7 x 2.6 meters is too big to work on anywhere other than my bed - take a self healing board to avoid pinning to the bedclothes!
• 1.7 x 2.6 meter is huge - I don't have enough pins to pin many fabrics in place, so work in sections
• the velvet stretches one way. it's best to place the fabric so the straight line quilting goes along the non stretch direction
• The fabric needs to be arranged so the first bit overlaps the second bit etc, (so I am always sewing down a bump, not up a bump)
• The raw edges can be stitched with a fancy stitch, but do all the straight quilting first in case it drags fabric down with it - naff if I've already stitched down the end of the fabric.
• If I pinned vertically I could have stitched between the pins, whereas pinning horizontally meant I had to remove them as I stitched
• Fleece is really hot - try not to do this again in the summer (especially if I keep having tropical moments!)
• Load up loads of bobbins - this uses a lot of thread
• Mark the top and bottom at 4inch intervals and try and concentrate when sewing from top marker to bottom marker
• Stitch at 4inch intervals and medium speed and then I can stitch the in between lines faster

Well that's all for now, I need to do a bit more stitching, but only to pretty it up, it's all held in place, thank goodness. Then I need to find somewhere to hang it to photograph it. maybe it should be called the velvet beast?

Lola Rose & Emily

My Great (and terrific) Niece, Emily (age 10) came to stay last night, and wanted to do some sewing. She decided a doll was a good starting place, so we could then go on to make clothes for her (for the doll, she reminds me, not for Emily!!!)

We started with a doll shape which she pinned and I stitched, and then we had the fun of turning it inside out!!! It was AWFUL! says Emily

We stuffed her, and Emily tore strips of yellow fabric to make the hair, which was stitched into the top of the head as we closed the final gap.















Emily says "I drew Lola Rose's belly button and facial features with permanent markers."

Then we started on the clothes. We made a summer dress, and it has straps and a sash and a matching scarf.




























And then she platted Lola Rose's hair.




















Ta-da!!!!!!