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:

Jane Davies 'New England Houses'

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining the Gwent Quilters at a workshop run by Jane Davies who uses free machine embroidery quilting to create her 'New England Houses'

I can't seem to find any picture of her work online which is a real shame as it's really impressive!

I had never tried free machine embroidery before but I loved it (even if I got a bit shaky at times) here are some pictures of my efforts:

I had a great time at the workshop and discovering a new technique - I'm definitely inspired to add some more quilts to my 'things to make' list but maybe not so much 'New England houses' but maybe castles or haunted houses or maybe some Dutch houses... We'll see when I finally get round to it...

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!

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!!

Quits!

Recently my Mum and a few of her friends have started a quilting club, they meet once a month in our local hall - a lot of the work is done outside the club but the time together gives them a chance to share tips and get some advice from the more experienced quilters!

So, my Mum has started her first quilt and made quite a lot of progress already!



Although it looks fairly done, a lot of the squares still need sewing together!

Since I have now finished my internship I will be joining the quilting club and so it's my turn to start a new project!
I picked up a brilliant union jack pattern and a jelly roll at the Malvern Quilt show in 2010 and thought I would FINALLY get started on it:



I'll keep you up-to-date on my quilting and I'm starting to make a bag so I'll blog about that at some point too!

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):

My first quilt - making big squares from little squares!

Making this quilt is turning out to be quite addictive...
Once I cut out the 96 'little' squares I couldn't help but make them straight into 'big' squares!

First I lay them out onto the table to pick which groups of 4 would go together - I really wanted to make sure that no two same squares would be the same:



And then I sewed them together :) It was actually REALLY quick to do!
First I pinned the squares together in pairs and sewed all of the pairs in one MASSIVE continuous strip. I then ironed out the seams and pinned each of the pairs with another pair, then sewed THEM in one continuous strip!
After some major ironing I lay all of my squares out on the floor - I'm really pleased with how they have turned out:



(I'll make sure to take a few more 'work in progress' photos when I sew the big squares together! My explanation might make more sense that way :P)

My first quilt - in progress!

For the past few days I've been busy cutting out squares for my very first quilt!

I'm making a 'scrap quilt' - basically trying to use up all of my random small pieces of fabric (of which I have a LOT) and trying to not think too much about a colour scheme or pattern or anything...

Thanks to my Mum I have a VERY useful rotary cutter, cutting mat a quilting ruler thing (one of my very lovely christmas presents...) which is definitely time-saving! and so far I have 157 'big' squares and 96 'little' squares:



I've cut out 96 'little' squares to make up 24 'big' squares and to use up more of my really little pieces of fabric:



I still have some more cutting to do and I have to make my 'little' squares into 'big' sqaures but I'm getting there slowly!

I shall keep you updated on my progress :)

Malvern Quilt Show!

On Sunday I went to the Autumn Quilt Show in Malvern!
It was a really awesome day, I saw a LOT of amazing quilts and was tempted by hundreds of fat quarters :)

I gave in a bit a got some material:


I could have easily bought more - As many people said to me on Sunday "Nobody here NEEDS more material, but we buy it anyway..." :)

I also got a necklace charm shaped like a bobbin! Which I LOVE, me and mum are always complaining that we don't have enough bobbins so now I'll always have an extra :P

I would DEFINITELY go to something similar again if I had the chance!

Buying Opportunity and Purses!

On Friday and Saturday I shall be round the corner at Julia's fairtrade coffee morning thing with my own Newton Rose stall selling handmade stocking fillers, decorations and gifts!

When? Friday 15th October, 10am-3pm and 7pm-9pm
Saturday 16th October, 10am-12.30pm

Where? Esnadene, Sedbury Lane, Tutshill

Why? Solve all your christmas gift issues, drink tea, eat cake and support charity while you're at it :)

I've been busy making things for the stall and have my usual felt badges and hanging birds and hearts (although some with a chirstmas twist)but I've also been making purses!
I first made one for the awesome Jemma for her birthday and just got inspired:

Here's Jemma's:



My new ones:

New Material and a start on a quilt...

I went shopping yesterday to find some nice baby blanket material. For other projects I generally use a lot of offcuts and try to recycle old material where I can but baby blankets definitely need some good, NEW material :)



I've also made a start on a 'colour wheel' quilt which I saw in one of my many books! It requires 52 different material pieces to eventually form a wheel shape, I don't quite have 52 but I've made a start :P

The American Museum in Britain

Today I went to 'The American Museum in Britain' in Bath with the 'Gwent Quilters'!



We had an awesome guided tour of the quilting rooms in the Museum which MAY have inspired me to give quilting a go...I really loved the Hawaiian quilt below so I'd like to do something a bit like that but on a MUCH smaller scale!! Maybe a place mat or something :P



I would also love to give patchwork quilting a go...

I shall post any attempts on here - it might be a while before I start though!