Liberty quilt.............finished.

At last the quilt is finished; a gift for a wedding at the beginning of September but several weeks late unfortunately.   Hopefully it will arrive in time to keep the young couple warm this winter.
I love the way the colour of the scraps of different vintage Liberty tana lawn patterns blend so well together in this quilt...........and I'm so glad it's finished.   Now I can move on to new projects!

Somerset Patchwork

A friend has been having a clear-out which meant that I was the lucky recipient of several patchwork books.  This is one of them.

They looked a little old and dated but I had a flip through and came across this technique for Somerset Patchwork (click on pic above for details). Having worked on my Grandmother's Garden quilt non-stop for the last few months I thought I would give this a go for a change.  You start with a square of plain backing fabric approximately 30cm square and mark the quarters and eighths; the rectangles that become the triangles are 6cm by 3.5 cm - very simple.

Starting at the marked cross the first round comprises four folded triangles; each subsequent round used 8 folded triangles and the final round was 16 folded triangles.

Finish with piece of matching fabric, cut out a circle so that the edges of the triangles of the final round are hidden and there is sufficient to fold under and neaten.   I'm really not sure what to do with this pretty little masterpiece - it could be the lid of a little fabric box or the centre of a cushion!  

 My cat Claud loves to get in on the act - why is it when there are plump cushions on settees he prefers to sneak onto my work-in-progress the minute my back is turned!!!

Tutorial for a little zippy bag.......

I bought a fat quarter of this lovely Japanese fabric and decided to make two little make-up bags with it; at the same time putting into practise recently acquired skills of working with zips.

Needs one 15cm zip, two pieces of cat fabric 15cm x 16cm (because there is a right-side up for the fabric, otherwise a piece of fabric 15cm x 30cm) and one piece of fabric for the lining, 15cm x 30cm.

 With the two short sides of the fabric, right sides together with the zip puller facing the lining, sew with zipper foot on the machine.

Sew the other side in the same manner.

Sew the sides leaving a few centimetres of the lining open, turn to the right side and sew up the opening in the lining.

Turn back to wrong side and sew across each side as shown.  Zigzag across the trimmed seam.

Turn to right side and you have finished.   If you want to put a pull-tag in as I have then this should be done at the same time as the sides are sown together.

Lovely Liberty

I bought a bag of Liberty Tana lawn scraps from Ebay a couple of years ago for the princely sum of £3 and started to make a quilt – of course there wasn’t enough so I bought some other bits of Liberty and when I had finished my quilt I had a bigger bag of scraps than when I started.  

Then came the wedding in September, “aah” I thought, I can use the scraps to make a marriage quilt for the lovely couple.     Not having a long time it has to be a simple quilt so I have chosen to make a “Grandmother’s Garden”; simple but hand sewn so very time consuming.  
Starting with the hexagons; this is the place to go to print off hexagons of any size for paper piecing http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/   - mine are 3cm.

Cut a lot of hexagons paper pieces and then fabric hexagons with a quarter inch seam, like this...

The scraps are a right mixture – can anybody name all the patterns – so I chose a cream fabric to bring them all together.

Then I made one of these…….

…..and then two of these …..

……and some more of these…….

…. and then start sewing them together like this.

So far so good but a long way to go yet.   I have three months to get it finished, it must be possible.  Watch this space.

Spangled bobbins......!!!!

I learned to make bobbin lace a long time ago but the time it takes to make means that it has taken a back seat lately and patchwork has taken its place.  However, occasionally I am asked to take it along when my sewing club members are exhibiting their work and it always attracts attention.   It seems very romantic with its beautiful spangled bobbins and delicate, intricate lace.   It's good for me because I am inspired  to make lace again and keep my hand in.   Here is my cushion and some of the lace I've made.

Two little elves........

Isn’t the Internet wonderful for finding inspiration – all those wonderful people who give us crafty people free patterns?   Here’s one I found which I love at Wee Wonderfuls http://www.weewonderfuls.com/2006/12/freebie_elf_sti.html#comments .  I couldn’t wait until Christmas to embroider these two delightful little elves - so I decided to make two book bags for the littlies in my family and use the embroidered panels for pockets.  Little bags like this are ideal for visiting grannies or outings in the car, they hold just enough toys and books! 

Mouse

The village fête looms large so it's time for our sewing club to start making things to sell and raise a bit of money for club funds.   Mice seem to be on the agenda this year - this one is mine.

These little bags are very popular too and easy to make.  I do have other fabric besides purple spotty!!!

It's such a beautiful time of year here in SW France, it's warm and sunny, the  sunflowers are popping up in the fields around, everything in the garden is perfect - soon the onslaught of the hot months will have everything looking bleached and dry - so it's time to enjoy the moment.

Exercise de style

Another book that has inspired me is “Exercice de style” by Marie Suarez and Katrin Laeremans, a beautifully photographed book of cross-stitch designs.

   Each design is done on natural linen in red and white thread and throughout the theme relates to embroidery stitches, ABCD-aires, etc.     Just wish I had the time to complete all the designs but unfortunately there is not enough time in the world!   However, I have completed one design which I am thrilled with.

My daughter bought me some beautiful fabric from Oakshott fabrics for my birthday.   You really need to feel it and look at it to appreciate the colour and quality – a fabricaholic’s dream.  

    “ Oakshott fabrics are fine quality handwoven shot cottons ethically sourced from weavers cooperatives along the Malabar Coast of South West India”.  On the same special day my husband bought me a book, “Creative tucks and textures” by Jennie Rayment.  An inspiring combination!!!

  So I have started on some blocks and will see what happens......................!