A very loverly quilt

 

 Hello peeps,

Earlier in the year I was asked by the lovely Cat from Wouldn't it be Loverly if I would consider making a custom quilt for her husband's 40th birthday.  I was flattered that she would ask (I've only finished 3 quilts so far), I consider myself a beginner quilter.   But.....I do love a good challenge and I want to improve my piecing and quilting, so I said yes (with much excitement) 

 

 Cat lives in Australia and I live in Hong Kong.  This whole quilt has been designed through the internet, with the help of email, instagram and pinterest (quilt design was inspired by this quilt)

I love the colour palette Cat chose - it is so different to my usual approach of use all the colours, all at once.

How wonderful is the solid navy blue binding?  At first I was unsure of this, but Cat knew what she wanted, and I was quickly converted to see how it works perfectly.

I loved this quilt right from the start, and fell deeper in love with it the more I sewed and the more time I spent with it.

 

It was such a pleasure to make this quilt.  It warms my heart knowing that Cat and her husband and their children will be snuggled under it for years to come.

It washed up beautifully, looking nice and quilty and snuggly (and very, very wonky, but wonky is good)

Yes, it is HUGE.

It is much bigger than my Grandma's quilt.

Thank you Cat, for trusting and believing in me, that I could make the quilt that you wanted.  I loved working with you.

Now, some time soon,  I probably should finish the three other quilts I have started.

Have a great day.

Cat xox

I made a giant, stuffed carrot: it must be Easter soon.

 

Hi peeps,

Where has this year gone?  It is the middle of March already, how did that happen?  Easter will be here soon.  

Zoe's kinder is having a 3D Easter Decoration competition. I looked through Pinterest for some ideas, but nothing grabbed me.  All the ones I liked required craft supplies I did not have (like large polystyrene eggs)

I thought Zoe could take a few of my fabric carrots, but they are quite small (compared to most of the other decorations - yes, I did check out the other competitors!)  Instead, I decided to make a huge, fabric carrot and give it a happy face.

I know I promised way back in March of 2011, that there would be no more fabric carrot posts, after the carrots in the ear incident.  But that was two years ago and giant fabric carrots are a whole new type of carrot, right?

Zoe carried her carrot all the way to kinder, there was no way I was allowed to help with that important job.

If you want to make your own fabric carrots, get the know how here (thanks Clare).  If you are making large ones, I recommend adding interfacing to the leaves, it helps them to stand up and not be too floppy.  I don't have this problem with the smaller carrots.

Have a great weekend.

Cat xox

The green and purple

Hi peeps,

Don't you just love it when your day goes to plan and you can finish off things that need to be done.  Thank you to the toddler for playing so happily by herself today.  Often, when I have sewing I "have to do", I procrastinate and start a new project (do you do that too?  Please tell me I am not the only one)

Not today.  I was determined to finish these zippered pouches.  Two of them are gifts, one is spare (for me? probably!) and one a friend commissioned me to make (such a compliment, she wanted one of my large zippered pouches!)

I have not been happy with the straps on some of my other zippered pouches, the ones I use almost everyday.  I have one I use as a snack bag for the girls when we are out and about, it is used most days, and often hung from the handles of the stroller. The straps don't hold their shape, and get all bunched up.  They need to be reinforced.  So this time, I added a very thin iron on interfacing, and top-stitched over the whole strap, 4 rows of stitching.  I love the look of the top-stitching.  They are very firm now.  Only time will tell if this is sufficient reinforcement, I'll test drive the spare one, and probably keep it for me - you can never have too many zippered pouches, right?

I got all fancy with the straps on the purple zippered pouches, and patchworked some of the fabric scraps with the strap fabric.  It was really fiddly to do, but I know I will use this method again as it adds such a special touch.

Both of the purple zippered pouched are to be gifts.  One of the recipients is my Nana and she has sewed all her life, so I felt the pressure to make hers just perfect.

It will be so hard to part with these purple pouches.  I love how they have turned out.  But that just gives me another excuse to make even more zippered pouches, right?  Yes, definitely!

Yay to it being Friday!  Have a great weekend you lovely people.

Cat.

My (green and purple) Creative Space

Hi peeps,

This week is all about green and purple. These lovely green and purple fabrics are to be turned into (more) zippered pouches. Yes, I am still addicted to making zippered pouches.  The purple ones will have fancy straps on them too, if they work out as planned (in my head)  We will see.

I can't sew up just one zippered pouch anymore, it seems like such a waste of my time.  I always make them in batches now.  The negative side of this is, I often have many unfinished ones lying about, in various stages of completion.

These ones need to be finished soon, as they are to be gifts.  What are you making today?

Happy Creative Space day to you.

Cat.

Edit: See these completed here.

My (WIP) Creative Space

This week, I still have lots of sewing projects on the go.  The only things I finished this week were the zippered pouches.  I am still working on the rattle cubes and the pink and sparkly bunting.

This gorgeous collection of green and orange fabric is destined to be bunting for my besties daughter for Christmas. She is 6 years old and I love it that pink is not her favourite colour like most other girls her age - she loves orange.  It is a refreshing change to be sewing with some colours I would not normally have chosen for myself or my girls.   I am waiting for the just washed fabric to dry.  That won't be too long as it is still warmish here in Hong Kong, most days this week have been in the low 20's (celsius)  The stifling heat of the past few months, I hope, is behind us.

I want to finish off this lego bunting I begun way back at the start of July soon after moving to Hong Kong.  I only realised yesterday that I do not have the right shade of blue thread.  (Zoe and) I have been exploring the Sham Shui Po area one day a week since we first visited this amazing area of Hong Kong.  I now know where to buy more fabulous ribbons, zippers and beads beads and so many more beads.  Last week I found a shop that sells sewing machine needles for my Janome machines.  I have not found any threads, anywhere, yet.  Some more exploring is in order (yippee!)

All the other lovely Creative Spaces are over here.  Happy browsing to you.

Cat

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday