Baby Joe's foxy quilt!

I have a Pinterest board I share with my mum where we collect quilt inspiration, it's packed with all sorts of ideas that we want to try one day and when we are stuck for an idea it's the first place we look!

When a colleague of mine told me she was pregnant I knew I wanted to make her a baby quilt and my mind jumped to this beautiful fox quilt I had seen on Pinterest

http://redredcompletelyred.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/fifty-shades-of-fox.html

It was also pretty perfect as she wasn't going to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl but this quilt works well for both...

I think there is a pattern available but I just picked up some squared paper and got to work (as in my usual method - I don't tend to like following the instructions!)

This was my test fox (out of scraps) Which turned out better than expected:

And here is the finished quilt:

I also got the baby a toy fox (LOVE Jellycat toys):

Since I made this there has been a flurry of babies at work so I have at least 4 more baby quilts in progress which I will write about soon!

Baby Clothes Quilt!

Two years ago I spent a year living in the Netherlands.

It was an amazing year and I'm so glad I got to spend some time in such a beautiful country!

While I was there my manager (and friend) lent me her (unused) sewing machine and set me a task; she asked me to turn her daughter's baby clothes into a quilt.

It was a fairly epic task with lots of annoying stretchy fabric and it took me most of the year to complete but the result was awesome (if I do say so myself) and I definitely think it's one of the best things I have made to date...

The whole quilt (except the wadding) came from the clothes, including the binding, and I tried to keep a lot of pockets, buttons, zips and other details from the clothes. We also decided to make the quilt 'two-sided' with one side using a lot of the characters and being a bit more 'baby' and the other being a bit more grown up and fairly plain so that she could flip it as she gets older...

Here are some pics:

Phone and Ipad Case!

Today I was on a mission to make a phone and an ipod case/sleeve thing...

It's not my ipad (unfortunately) so I let the owner choose the fabric from some I had lying around...
The fabric is a sort of jersey type material so I was a bit scared to use it at first thinking it might slip while sewing and just end up a complete mess!

I had the idea to use iron-on vilene to strengthen the material and stop it stretching but wanted to test it first to make sure it worked. I therefore made myself a phone cover first :)

The vilene worked fairly well to strengthen the material and I also used wadding to give the cases a bit of padding. I then used bias binding to finish off the tops, this was a little bit fiddly but worth it for a nicer finish!

Here are the finished results:

My Finished Quilt!

You may remember my blog post from back in February where I talked about starting a new quilt...
(you can read the blog post HERE)
Well, 5 months later I have FINALLY finished!

To make the quilt I used a moda jelly roll (lots of 2.5 inch strips of fabric) and I WAS following a pattern which I bought at the Malvern Quilt show around 2 years ago! :P

To back the quilt I used a big piece of moda fabric (bigger than the front patchwork) and used the excess to fold forward to make the border...
It's hard to see how I quilted the layers together from this photo but I followed the union jack design using blue cotton on the blue and red on the red so that from the back you could see an outline of the union jack  :)

I'm REALLY pleased with the result and although I missed the jubilee it's perfect timing for supporting team GB and the Olympics!

Tapestry Bag!

A few months ago I made a tapestry (pictured above) from a Cath Kidston pattern :)
I blogged about it HERE
The design was actually meant to be made into a clutch bag and I finally got round to giving it a go over the weekend... Although the Cath Kidston books are great for patterns I'm not a big fan of the project instructions so I decided to ignore those and just do it my way!

Above is a picture of the half-way stage, I used iron-on vilene to make sure the fabric didn't fray when making the button holes for the magnetic clasp.....

 And above is the finished project, I'm REALLY happy with how it turned out!

This was also the first time I tried using a magnetic clasp, after having a look on the internet for instructions it was surprisingly easy, I'll definitely be using them again :)

Lily's Baby Clothes!

 My cousin Lily turned 3 today and for her birthday I made her/her mum some things using her baby clothes! In total I made a patchwork cushion, a mini cushion, a bird, a heart, some 'LILY' magnets and two christmas decorations....

Here is a back view of the patchwork cushion:

I especially like how the christmas decorations turned out, here is a back view of them too:

Cloud Mobile!

While trying to figure out what to give/make my cousin for her birthday I turned to her pinterest for some gift inspiration... she had pinned this amazing cloud mobile but unfortunately, at the time, it was unavailable on etsy so I thought I would give my own version a go!

I made it quite a bit smaller than the one from etsy and since I used my own templates it obviously looks fairly different but I definitely think it was a success and my cousin loved it! :)

P.S. If anyone hasn't already jumped on the pinterest bandwagon I really recommend it! It not only gives me crafty inspiration but also awesome recipes AND makes me discover amazing, talented people making and selling their gifty things online!

Mooshy Belly Bunnies!

I found an awesome pattern on the blog: Chez Beeper Bebe for a little cuddly bunny!

I didn't make mine out of an old t-shirt, instead I used some jersey type fabric that I happend to have lying around, it was really quick to make and I was so pleased with my first attempt that I decided to make another one...

Here are some pictures of my bunnies:

If you like them I recommend giving it a go yourself using the tutorial in the link above as they are REALLY easy to make :)

Covering a Notebook!

I haven't kept a diary for a LONG time but I'm forever writing quotes, poems and ideas onto bits of paper which inevitably end up lost! I therefore decided that it would be good to have a nice notebook in which I could write my random things and keep them safe...

I found a good notebook but the cover of it was a bit rubbish and made of fairly thin cardboard... So I decided to cover it! First using wadding and then material and finishing it off with some kind of catch to keep it closed...

Here is my starting notebook

Here is my chosen material, wadding and button

And here is my finished notebook! In order to keep the notebook closed I decided to sew a button to the front cover and some string to the back cover which can then be wrapped around the notebook and then around the button...

This is a close up of the string which I sewed onto the back cover using a sewing machine!

Making Magnets!

I found this awesome tutorial for quilted alphabet magnets:

http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/tutorial-how-to-make-plush-alphabet.html

I thought I'd give it a go, so I found some craft magnets on ebay (100 for £3.05), dug through my bucket of material scraps and set to work; here is the result (the K and S being for two friends of mine!)

I'll definitely be making more for gifts in the future!!

Baby Clothes!

I recently (well... in December/January) made another 'baby bundle' out of old baby clothes.

This time I made a mini pillow, a name drop, a couple of birds and three hearts!
I especially like the name drop; since Tom is such a short name I decided on using slightly bigger letters and since all the letters are 'symmetrical' I made the letters different on both sides :)

Bunting!

A lovely lady gave me some almost finished bunting the other day... so I thought I'd finish it off :)

Not sure I'll be making more anytime soon but I think it looks awesome - perfect for a party decoration!

Here's the finished result:

Finished Quilts!

So... I've FINALLY finished my quilt, and what I didn't mention before, I actually made 2 quilts! One for me and one for my very awesome friend Sarah for her birthday :)

Here they are (mine is the one with the pink bias binding):




I made sure to take some photos of the 'work in progress' so I can give a more in-depth explanation of how I made them:

Once I had cut out all 280 8 inch squares I paired them all up and with right sides together I pinned along one side. I then used the sewing machine to sew along the pinned line.
A really good way to save a bit of time is to sew all the squares in a 'continuous strip' (pictured below) - this saves having to stop and start sewing for every single square!




Once I was done it looked a little like strange bunting...
I then cut up the 'strip' into the original pairs. Each pair of squares was then opened out and the seam ironed flat:



The pairs were then joined to make fours and the fours joined to make eights etc until the sides of the quilts were completed.
I cut out wadding to the size needed and pinned one of the patchworked sides onto it:



I then flipped it over and lined up and pinned the other side to the reverse of the wadding.
I then tacked through all three layers in order to keep the sides in the right place while quilting.

I decided to hand quilt the quilts and used quilters tape to mark out where I wanted to sew - it was REALLY helpful and I definitely recommend it if you want to quilt straight lines!



Once I had quilted, the last step was to add on the bias binding. For my quilt I used pre-made bias binding which my mum had left over from making curtains about 15 years ago! This definitely fit in with my idea of using up materials :) The bias binding is pinned and then sewn along one side of the quilt. The excess fabric is then cut away so that when folded over the bias binding sits straight! I then hand-stitched it down...



Once the tacking was removed I had finished!!
I also added on a cross-stitch 'label' to both quilts - here's mine:



I hope you all like them :)

Pan Grabber!

As yet another 'practice quilting thing' I decided to make a couple of pan grabbers....

We use one in our household to open/close the wood burning stove and our old one has completely fallen apart - so I came top the rescue :)

I patchworked and hand quilted them, like I'm doing with my quilt, but mostly they were a good way to practice using bias binding (especially those corners!).

Here are the two sides of one of them:



and an action shot taking chips from the oven (sorry about the quality):

Birthday presents and CAKE!

Quite recently it was my very good friend's birthday!
I love to handmake all gifts I give to people but the hard bit is generally not the making of the gift but thinking of what to make in the first place!

No two gifts should be the same...... well... not exactly the same :P

Anyway - so for my friend I decided to delve into the cushion side of life and managed to come up with some new ideas :)

I then got my brother to take some good 'in focus' pictures (since he always says my photos are rubbish... which they probably are...):







I also made her a very awesome cake (I got the idea from the martha stewart website!):

St David's Day Daffodils!

I know it's still 9 days until St David's day but I got this idea in my head and just couldn't get it out! I simply had to make these badges:



e-mail me if you want one!!
(newton.rose.mail@gmail.com)

Turning baby clothes into...

Just before Christmas a very nice lady had an awesome idea; she asked me if I could make her some of my 'products' for her daughter Eliza but out of Eliza's old baby clothes!

So after Christmas I took 8 'baby clothes items' and got busy sewing and I made her a whole goodie bag full of things!




I had talked with Eliza's mum about most of the things I made in advance but when I reached the end of my list I still had LOADS of fabric left over! It occured to me that up until now I had been making baby clothes into things that didn't resemble baby clothes AT ALL so I decided maybe it was time to try to keep the idea of the baby clothes rather than hide them away. I cut out all the pockets, buttons, labels, fringing and special little details and patchworked together a cushion cover :) It turned out REALLY well and I was SO happy with the result!



Although I did also really like the back of the 'mini pillow' I made with one of the patches on Eliza's t-shirts:


SO, for Eliza (and her mum) I made:
a name drop
a mini pillow
2 lavender hearts
a bird
a brooch
and a memory cushion cover

All items are priced individually so I can make as many or as few items as required!

New Top!

I got the idea for this top while I was in London in September and actually MADE it before Christmas but I didn't get around to photographing it until now!

I knew I wanted to sew a quote or a saying onto a jumper but finding a good thing to write was a challenge, luckily I was reading the book 'A Week in December' by Sebastian Faulks, near the end of the book one of the characters quotes a French poet saying "Il n'y a qu'une vie, c'est donc qu'elle est parfaite" which means 'There is only one life, it is therefore perfect'
And I thought it was a perfect thing to write on a jumper :)

Then I picked out a long cowl neck jumper dress and started sewing...

Here are some pictures:

Name Drop Orders!

I said I'd post pictures of name drops once they were all delivered so here they are :)
This isn't all of them but its a good selection I think!

Thank you to eveyone who ordered one from me, I hope that everyone you gave them to loved them!