craftjuice

fabric bird pattern

Last night I finally had a go at another project on my BIG crafty list - these lovely birdies from a great free patten on Spool.  I used some Japanese fabric squares that I purchased a little while ago (they don't need very much fabric at all).

They are super quick to make (you can cut a couple at a time) and are great fun to match contrasting fabrics for the 'breast' panel.

These will be on their way to Auckland with me soon to keep a watchful eye on three pussy cats!

I was ambitiously thinking of attempting a matching bird house...

sublime sitchette

For all existing and new subscribers, Mixtape sent a fantastic Sublime Stitching Craftopia pattern set with edition 8 (which is a cracker)!

I had been wanting to do a little stitchette for some time and these patterns were just the thing to chase the Sunday night blues.

It was a lovely little project which took no time at all. I embellished it with some lovely beads mum gave to me. It is framed it in a little embroidery hoop and have hung it on Miss M's wall. Sweet as.

Another thing to tick off my BIG crafty list!

quilt-a-long finished!

I've finally finished off tiny teeny Miss I's quilt...here's some pictures...

Little Miss I was born at 28 weeks and with her fighting spirit, continues to astound everyone with her amazing progress. She is just incredible, as is her mum and dad. I send her and her parents good vibes every day and hope she grows big and strong to have a tea party and cupcakes for six on this quilt.

quilt-a-long-201

Here's how I'm going with my hand quilting.  I'm quite surprised how quick the stitching takes, which is very satisfying seeing it realised under my hand.  No bleeding, but I can see how a thimble would assist!  Lucky I have a callous from a seemingly unnatural handwriting style in the right spot on my finger!

I'll keep going on it - have some lovely time set aside tomorrow evening at our Crafty Craft Night over at Susan's house.  I can't believe a month has passed already since our last one! 

Less wine, more stitching for me!

quilt-a-long-101

OK. I'm back from the shops - gotta love SewCo.  I found a lovely girl to help me who was very generous and non-judgemental in my lack of quilting technical knowledge!  Of course, she asked me what I was quilting and enquired if I had 'hand pieced it'. I was a bit embarrassed (standing admist some rather amazing examples about the store) and qualified it wasn't a 'real' quilt, just two pieces of fabric with batting in the middle and a scalloped edge.  To my surprise she told me this indeed was a 'real quilt' and was even called a 'whole cloth quilt'! Woot!

Here I am now the proud owner of quilting needles (in their own cute pebble pack), some 100% cotton thread (I thought the buttery yellow looked so lovely), a quilter's hoop (that I am yet to work out) and just in case, some bees wax to pull my thread through if it sticks or tugs.  So, for A$25, I now look like a professional hand quilter.

After a bit more research, I'm now a little worried about my virgin quilt thumb and fingers and probably should have found myself a thimble too...

Oh well, let's give it a go...! I'll be sure to let you know if I start to bleed.

the trouble with stitches

I've been wanting to try a simple quilt for a long time. I made a dolls quilt for Miss M last year for her birthday that I am pretty proud of for my first attempt, but it lacked, well, 'technical quilting' and I made it up as I went along really.  The arrival of a friend's very teeny tiny premmie baby has been a very convenient excuse for me (and being ever the fan of a practical handmade gift) to have a crack at the Bend The Rules scalloped baby quilt.  (It's also on my BIG to do list this year.)

It is, I guess, a bit of cheating making a quilt that only has two solid sides, but I was more interested in this project for the decorative edge and actual 'quilting' bit - the bit where you sew all over it.  I thought it was a lovely project to introduce me to these skills and try and demystify this technique enough to give me some confidence in trying a few more quilting projects. I'd love to make Miss M a large quilt full of love (and some level of technical correctness!).

Yesterday I made a start and bought these lovely West 22nd fabrics from Spotlight, followed the instructions and made my own template, tracing around my favourite chinese noodle bowls. I used some lovely white cotton flannel as the lining, so it wasn't too heavy, but still had a good feel to it with a little weight.

The cutting, scalloping and finishing, ready for 'quilting' has resulted in a lovely looking project so far, with which I'm really quite pleased.  The bit I'm not pleased about is my sewing machine, who insists on sewing perfectly on every practice scrap, but when it senses my lovely project beneath, immediately throws it's tension and does something weird with the bobbin thread so it loops and wraps up underneath. So the sewing on top looks OK, but underneath is a mess.  I only had my machine serviced last November, so am loathe to take it back for another look, but I think I'm going to have to. It's very frustrating and disheartening to the point of tears. Especially when all you want to do is straight stitch sewing.

So I'm now toying with the idea of hand-quilting.  Which was not why I chose this project, but the universe always is pointing me in new ways, and often for good reason. So I'm Googling a 'how to' on hand quilting (do you, like, just stitch it like normal running stitch and what sort of thread and needle do you use?) and about to dash down to the shops again to pick up the supplies I need.  I think it will be a good project to do some hand sewing. I need to stop and count the stitches at the moment, so this will be a good mediatation and I'm guessing, very satisfying to complete.

Moral support and hints are very welcome at this point!

PS I've just found this which is simple to follow and enough to get me started at least...

my BIG crafty 'to do' list

I don't know if its too early to start making New Year's Resolutions, but with only nine short weeks until the end of the year, I'm starting to get that 'for goodness sake just get organised' feeling. Or as others like to call it, end of year panic.  Like everyone, there are just SO many good crafty projects I want to get my teeth into, but never seem to either get motivated or find the time to do it. 

It's like exercising.  For me, I can't seem to get committed to doing it by myself unless I have a class to attend or I've promised to join/meet another person.

And I've got about three hundred projects (ok, a bit of an exageration) I've either bought the pattern for, started and put down, have on my kitchen bench/behind the sofa/stuffed in a draw, seen on a blog/in a book/on Martha and thought "oh yeah, I could give that a go", or just want to make something for myself for a change.

So I decided I need a place to list them all and work through them.  My challenge is to do one a week over next year. No matter how small.

In order for me to be accountable, and there is nothing like public accountability, I've added a new page to my blog called 'the BIG to do list' where I can list the things I want to make (and will continually add to) and tick them off as I go.  My main blog page will document my achievements and projects.

I've added a link on the right hand side of my blog there...

I have a list of Christmas presents to make before I start on my BIG to do list (have you realised yet I'm an over-achieving listoholic?), so when 2009 comes around, I'll be ready to go on the BIG list! Wish me luck!