Scary Squares Halloween Table Topper

Here is the third pattern I was hoping to have ready a few days ago for the launch of my Etsy Shop

It's a Halloween Table Topper, made using most of a Charm Pack, and some extra black 5" squares for the embroidery panels.  The fabric is Haunted Mansion by Sanae

The pattern includes instructions for how to do the spider web quilting design.  I have to say that I'm rather pleased with how that came out!  My free motion quilting skills are definitely improving.

I guess now I'm allowed to buy some more Halloween fabric for next year!

Have you got any Halloween crafts in the pipeline?

Dino designs and puppy dog tails

Now that I've finished one of the projects on my to-do list, I've started planning for the next new one.

I decided that my niece and nephew (turning 10 and 7) will get lap quilts for their birthdays this year, in August and September.  She LOVES puppy dogs and he LOVES dinosaurs.  Her favourite colour is green, his is blue.  So that makes for an easy start, but then it got harder.

I wanted to make sure the quilts weren't 'kiddy' so that they would last for a long time, but also I wanted them to be fun and bright, not 'adult'. I didn't want something that was heavy in applique because then I might risk not having it finished in time, which has been the fate of my music quilt.  I had decided that I was going to use a pattern (not design it myself) and make use of interesting fabrics in a pieced design.

Doing a google image search for "dog quilt" brought lots of ideas, both using dog fabric and pieced blocks.  I eventually came across There's a Dog on my Quilt.  It must be an older pattern because it is rather hard to find, and even harder to find as a stand alone pattern, not part of a book.  Postage costs for the book (from U.S.) was a bit much when I only wanted one pattern, but eventually I found a copy of the pattern for sale on a very old blog post.  Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the pattern was soon flying it's way around the world to me at a very reasonable price!

In my searching I found this picture of the quilt:

Photo courtesy of The Quilt Show

 
I liked the idea of the plain blocks to show of a nice print fabric, and only using the 9 patch blocks as alternates.

Then it was on to finding fabrics, but I'll leave that for another post.











The dinosaur quilt happened in a different order.  Google searches for "dinosaur quilt" returned lots of images of baby quilts.  For a 7 year old boy, that wasn't going to work.  Girls might still give into the 'cute' factor, but boys aren't going to want anything that is baby-ish.  In the end I went hunting for fabrics and found this:

Photo courtesy of Bug Fabric

Perfect for a boy who isn't a baby!  I found Bug Fabric and they have an awesome range of animal/creature prints!  From there I found some other coordinating prints, and built a design around it.  Since the dog quilt actually had a dog in it, I didn't want the dino quilt to be just plain repeating pieced blocks.  I gave in and added some applique to my design, but hopefully it will be simple.  It's just a silhouette in one colour.  This is the design I've come up with:

That's my first rough go at designing a quilt in Photoshop.  I know there are gaps between the blocks, and the fabric scales aren't necessary right, but it meant I was able to pull the fabric samples off the website and insert them, rather than relying on colouring in graph paper with a pencil.  Not bad, if I do say so my self.





All the fabric comes from Bug Fabric so once I work out yardage (do we ever say 'meterage'?), I'll be putting in my order.

Craft Show Round Up

I thought when I finished work I'd have more time to update here more regularly.  Doesn't seem to be the case.  Although I have had things on nearly every day since finishing.

The first of which was last Thursday going to the Craft and Quilt Fair.   I managed to stay within my budget, sort of ;)  I had a shopping list of supplies I needed for current projects but still hoped to pick up something a bit new and/or exciting.

I picked up a few essentials such as applique fusible web, embroidery stabiliser, bag wadding, needles for embroidery, applique and quilting, then I got some fun things.  I've been wanting to do another latch hook for ages (did one once as a kid), but could never justify the price of the kits when I didn't really have a purpose in mind.  Thanks to baby-on-the-way, I decided I could make a colourful rug for the nursery.  Don't need a rug as there is plush carpet, but anything to add colour to the room is great.  And the plus was that this came out of 'baby budget' and not out of 'craft show budget' ;)

The other fun thing I got was my obligatory quilting pattern (I seem to end up buying a quilt pattern at every show I go to).  I had decided that for my pregnant music teacher friend I wanted to make a quilted wall hanging for the nursery as a gift for when the baby was born.  I saw a pattern from Joan's Own Creations and just couldn't resist.  It's not particularly a baby pattern but I'm going to make it out of more child friendly colours and then it will also last long beyond them being a baby.

Instead of using gold for the brass instruments I'm going to do things like metallic purple.  I might even make the piano keys multi-coloured!  Who knows, I haven't thought that hard about it yet.  Got too many other things to finish first.  The baby is due in November, but I've got until Christmas to make it really because I'll be going up to Sydney then, so don't see the point in paying for postage just to get it there 6 weeks earlier.

I also bought some books on quilting to help me with my current projects.  Good basic details in the books, concentrating on techniques rather than just giving you quilting patterns etc.

I've started doing some hand quilting on my elephant quilt, but discovered that I need a lot more practice!  I also might need to attend a class to get someone to help me with the rocking stitch method as I can't seem to do that.  I gave up in the end and am just doing stab stitch.

And just because I took a photo of it, here is the bag wadding in action!  It's great because it keeps the bag standing up-right on it's own.  That's my fern bag making some progress (until I rearranged the sewing room and haven't got everything set up again yet).

Not much crafting this week but....

I now have keys to our new house!!  It will be a couple of weeks before we start to move in and then a few  more before we can fully unpack and settle because the carpet is being held up (because the bank took so long to pay the bill, the handover was delayed and we lost our carpet booking so we have to wait till they can fit us in).

I bought those two patterns I wanted, and am scheming on colours for the apron so I can make it before Christmas.  Just have to hope that I can find a fabric that fits my 'vision'.

Must spend today finishing Christmas decorations for the Amitie Christmas Challenge tomorrow night.  I think that will be my whole day.

Pattern sale!

Clegs in Melbourne currently have 1/2 price McCalls patterns.  Sadly it's not the Simplicity sale that Mrs Beckinsale wants but since it was Butterick last week maybe it will be Simplicity soon.

I intend to buy this:

I think it's so cute!!  More summer clothes for me YAY.

And this:

I've been thinking about making an apron, would really like it for when I get crafting in the kitchen.  Now seemed like a good time because we're having 18 people over for Christmas and I don't want to spill food on my clothes during prep.  I  just love this pattern, it's got the perfect retro shape without being frilly.

I feel a bit pathetic buying a pattern for such a simple apron when I could draft it myself, but sometimes it's nice to let someone else do the hard work and just have fun with the sewing part.  Now I just have to decide what fabrics to use and whether I want the apron with the bow or not.