Large Handbags & A Mini Quilt

Hello

Thought my pesky knee injury was on the mend, was back at work (except the kneeling to weed bit), dog walking keeping up with marching Olwen and her terrier, Archie. Things were looking up, until I stepped down onto my newly mended knee.  It prompty gave way, Olwen went to get the car as I couldn't walk back home, while she was away, I fainted with the pain (what a wimp) cracking my head on the way down!  I am beginning to think that I am the most accident prone idiot I know.  Had been really careful about not stepping down onto my left leg while it was sore forgot when it stopped hurting.  Doh.

Anyway, a few days off, yesterday at the hospital.  Today, finishing off a shopping/hand bag.  I bought the pattern from a company called Monkey Buttons at the quilt show.  I had made a girly pink version to try the pattern out a couple of weeks ago.

Have had this label print cotton linen look fabric for a while, its ideal for machine quilting, straight lines around the labels and free motion on the sewing bits.  The more you quilt, the more fabric stiffen so your bag stands up.

I don't wear a lot of pink so made another one using some vintage suiting fabric (I made a jacket out of this material when I was teenager for my sewing exam at school many years ago).  The leather bit came from an off-cut from the furniture factory in the village.

Used vintage buttons on it which I think are 1930's buttons with the buttonholes made with the aid of my Griest Automatic buttonholer attachment on the Singer 201K.  Lined with Liberty Lawn fabric.

A tiny mini quilt was yesterday afternoon's effort after spending the morning in A& E getting my head bump checked out and knee xrayed!  I decided that sewing would take my mind off sore heads and knees.  Please note if you spot any mistakes in my sewing, I can blame the bump on the head!

Cheers

Sharon

Hexie Quilt

Hello

This has to be one of my "took the longest" quilts. What is about these Hexie Quilts or is it me?

Started EPP quilt in Aug 2014, didn't really have a plan for it, I just needed something that I could take to Drawn Threads Sewing Circle Drawn Threads run by the delightful Sarah.  Kept getting distracted by loads of other things so its been a while.

This week, due to twisting my knee badly and having to "rest the piggin thing" finally finished it off.  Spent yesterday adding some sashing and putting the quilt together then machine quilting in a diamond pattern on the Singer 201K.

Tad daaa

Sharon the lame duck

Mini Quilt Parade

Hello

Been playing about with mini quilts which is good fun cos you can complete a quilt in a couple of days, Yeah

The first one I did was machine pieced with hand quilting finish.  Used left over fabric from a lap quilt I gave my friend Julie for Xmas.  The finished squares are 1inch and the "quilt" measures 9.5ins x 12ins.

One of the ladies at Sewing Circle had a Tim Holtz half inch hexie punch and she kindly gave me some teeny hexies.  Had some left over fabric from the last baby quilt so did some English Paper Piecing with them.  This one is hand pieced and machine quilted the totally opposite from the first one.  Finished "quilt" size 9ins x 7ins. 

Last Saturday I went to the new Quilt Show at Harrogate Show Ground.  Bought this set of acrylic small templates along with an extra 1 inch apple core template from Crafty-uk

They came in a cute treasure chest.

Thought the back looked good.

Hand pieced, hand quilted measures 6 x 7.5 ins so the smallest yet.

I know that technically this isn't a quilt but it is hand quilted so nearly qualifies.  All antique mother of pearl buttons.

A little bundle of fun which fell into my shopping basket, 2.5 ins of loveliness.

Cheers

Sharon

Moda Jelly Roll Hexies

Hello

When I went to the Stitching Show at Harrogate last year I bought a Scrap Bag of Moda Fabrics for the bargain price of £10.  It was a complete range of fabrics from Jo Morton's Reflections range.  It must have been what was left from cutting out the Jelly rolls so had the selvages on which I  trimmed off leaving me with 2 inch fabric strips.  This is the left over selvages which I did use some as ribbon on my Christmas pressies.

As usual I fannied about trying to decide how to use the strips.

Decided on a ESP project using 1.5inch hexies so that I can sew on a evening while watching the telly.
I wanted a random choice of fabrics so prepared all the fabric on the hexi templates.  I added a few more patterns from a Jelly Roll I already had.  They do look pretty all tidy in their box, seems a shame to start!

Off we go!

Going to make a throw for my settee.

Cheers

Sharon

Treasure - Silk Thread

Hello

Ooops, couldn't resist this vintage box of threads off Ebay!

If it had been full of Sylko reels of thread I would have been happy.

These are even better

Pure silk embroidery thread in a rainbow of colours

I have used this type of thread before, hording a couple of reels of it. It's lovely to sew with, doesn't knot up and glides through the material.

Not sure how old it is, going by the colours 30s or 40s?  I Googled Pervale and apparently it was a Mill in Greenford, Middlesex.  

I popped in a local charity shop last Friday and bought a tatty looking box which as usual I forgot to take a "before" photo.  Painted it with Laura Ashley eggshell and cut out a leaf design from the Laura Ashley paper that I have just used in my bedroom.  Also lined the bottom with the paper.

Take care

Sharon

Keep your Quilting Templates and Small Rulers Safe

Hello

Here in the UK we have a wonderful shop called Wilko.  It sells all sorts of stuff including stationery.  I bought some handy small wallets to store my work receipts in and a dinky file to keep the wallets in. Then had a brainwave and got a couple more for quilting templates and small rulers.  I find these tricky to store, had ended up with them all over the place in tins and boxes.

The Lori Holt "Bloom Quilt" & "Cozy Christmas" templates are very easy to misplace so needed a secure form of keeping them.  These little wallets are ideal, they have a popper fastener on them.  There was only one of the templates that wouldn't quite fit in the wallet but did fit in the file Ok.  There are little index labels on each section of the file. The file is small enough to pop in your bag when you are out and about or just take the wallet.

My smaller rulers fit in the other one a treat.  Each in their own individual section in the file.

So no excuses for lost templates.

If you are wondering, the button wallets are £1.00 for 5 pack, the cheque files were £1.25 each. Bargain.

Word of caution, when the file is full the elastic over the button is tighter, don't do what I did.  Undo it and let go of the elastic when the file is on your knee, ping, it doesn't half sting when it hits your leg!!!

Cheers
Sharon

Baby Boom Cot Quilts

Hello

I am starting to lose count of how many cot quilts I have made.  My niece Amy is expecting her second baby, its late like her first.  She didn't ask what it was so have made another neutral quilt.

Cute farmyard animals.

Had some fabric left over so made her a cushion for her new nursery chair, thought it might help support her arm when she is feeding. I hand quilted around the animals so it has a textured feel to it.

All ready to parcel up.

k

Update Amy has had a not so little boy weighing in at 10.5lbs.  Both doing well,

My school friend Helen is going to be a granny in March, Katy wanted to know what she was having so its a girl.  This one is a girly pink one, its my favourite.

The backing fabric is from Moda "Bespoke Blooms" by Brenda Riddle, its lovely fabric soo pretty and feels divine.  Kicking myself cos I only bought the metre I needed for the back of this quilt.  Will have to keep my eye out at the Quilt show in Harrogate later in the year.  I quite fancy doing a plain "whole cloth" quilt with this fabric and machine quilting it, will have a go if I manage to get some more fabric.

I didn't have any fabric left over from this quilt so no extras.  I like it better when I over estimate (wild guess more like!), they get another gift!  Don asked me the other day how do I decide how big the quilt should be for a cot, my answer was, when I run out of fabric!

Cheers

Sharon