A very belated (Grand)Mother's Day

As I mentioned previously, my family doesn't get hung up on specific dates, so I've only just given my mum her Mother's Day present, since it's the first time I've seen her since Easter (I live interstate).

So now I can finally show you what I made:

And this is the one I gave to Nanna last month (my husband's mother)

I'm going to do a tutorial for making these, which is one of the tutorials I mentioned in my June Challenge

Better get busy with the writing now!!

A Reveal

A while ago I showed you a sneak peak of a friend's birthday present.  Well I'm finally able to show you the finished product!

I actually gave it to her a week ago, but silly me forgot to take a photo so I had to wait till this weekend to see her again and get a good photo.

It was a pattern called "Life's a Hoot" from Handmade magazine (Vol 28, No7 if you really want to know).  As soon as I saw it I wanted to make it for her because she collects owls, and I'm glad I'm finally getting some use out of all these craft magazines I keep buying.

From a technical point, it was rather fun and exciting to make.  The pattern used several embroidery stitches I haven't used before and most of the work is done with one strand of floss, giving a very fine and delicate result.  It is also the first time I've used a pigma pen to mark the design, but I don't think I'll do it again.  I decided to have a go because the pattern instructions said to use a pigma pen, but some of the stitches, such as the lazy daisy and fly stitches, don't cover the lines completely.

It is a very cute little pattern and I'm almost tempted to make one for myself ;)

Birthdays and Babies

Today we went to a friend's 2nd birthday party.  The request went out for no more toys or books because she had too many already.  That always turns my mind to consumables, so I thought crayons and a colouring pad.  Of course that sounded too simple, so I just HAD to make something.

Thus, crayon roll

It was made using this great tutorial from Chocolate on my Cranium.  I just reduced the pattern slightly because I only had 12 crayons instead of 16.  I think when I make another one, I will include a flap over the top of the crayons because as I was carrying it down the hall to show my husband my fine work, one of the crayons fell out.

The birthday girl also recently became a big sister, so I made some funky bibs for the baby, from this free pattern at Chickpea Sewing Studio.

Cutting Table

I've been a little slack with my blogging lately.  Can't say what I've been doing to take up the time though, I don't feel like I've done anything much for several days.  Clearly this isn't true though because I've managed to do all this cutting:

That is the puppy and dino quilts, as well as another baby quilt I dreamt up, plus two civil war blocks at the front.

This seems to be a bit of a pattern of mine at the moment, cut up several jobs as once, and then production-line them at the sewing machine.  I'll do as much sewing as I can with each piece before it has to go to the ironing board, do my ironing and then back to the sewing machine.

I've also been doing a lot of hand work, enjoying sitting in my big chair watching The Boo play on the playmat.  I've almost finished the current Retro Nine Patch, and just in time too since Lyn has announced that she'll be releasing this month's block early! 
And here is a sneak peak of a friend's birthday present I've been working on.  You'll have to wait a little while to see the whole thing though, I can't risk her seeing it!

Since taking the above photo off all my cutting out, I have finished the civil war blocks, bringing me back up to date, but I'll save that for another post.

Swedish Wedding Cushions

A friend of mine got married last week and the lovely man she had chosen is Swedish.  The wedding incorporated a lot of Swedish things, including a bi-lingual celebrant and Dalecarlian horses in black and white as the cake topper.


For a wedding gift, I wanted to give them something that held some Swedish tradition to it.  My limited research on the internet told me that Swedish weddings used to include cushions which were carried across town as part of the bridal procession and then used during the ceremony for the bride and groom to sit on.  After the wedding, the cushions were displayed in the front window of the bridal home to let everyone know they were newly weds. (Sadly I can no longer find the link where I got this information from).

I chose the log cabin design as this has been noted as a popular quilt block in Sweden and I chose purple because this was one of the wedding colours.

I constructed the blocks using the quilt-as-you-go method, but many of my blocks ended up  not being square in the end due to fabric creepage.  I was using a walking foot but I guess more patience and practice is required.  This method involved starting with a square of wadding and then sewing each piece onto the wadding and folding it back over the seam, therefore piecing and quilting at the same time.  This is definitely a technique which should have sashing between each block as it was rather fiddly having to trim back the wadding on each seam after the blocks were joined.

Thanks to the ladies at Craft Depot for helping me find the right combination of fabrics.

Holidays!

Well here I am in the middle of my holidays.  Haven't had much of a chance to sit at the computer and write about stuff.  Not helped by the fact that I only have the netbook so don't have access to photo editing software.

Christmas was low key but enjoyable.  A little bit of crafty goodness.  My mother gave me some handmade knitting needle rolls for my straight and double ended needles.  She'd made me ones for my crochet hooks and circular needles for my birthday.  Mum also made hubby a great dressing gown, curtains for my brother & his wife, their son and their daughter.  She's been sewing non-stop for the last several weeks!

And now I can share with you the present from my husband!  I got the Cinderberry Stitches BOM complete pattern for Tail Feathers

I love Natalie's design style, but have to admit that whenever I see her patterns it's never quite something I want.  I love the stitchery design but not really interested in the end item (eg a bag), or I love the overall item, but the stitchery is not my favourite.  I usually read the blogs I follow through Google Reader but went to the Cinderberry Stitches page for something and saw the images in the header.  I instantly fell in love with it and had to have it!!

The pattern uses two honey buns for all the piecing.  I already had one of Moda's Clementine (by Me & My Sister) which I got from Green Fairy Quilts, so bought a second from ebay while it was still available.  I'm more into the bright colours at the moment.  I now just need to decide if I want to buy extra from the Clementine range for the bird bodies and borders/binding, or if I will just get something more readily available which blends in.

This is going to be a rather ongoing project I think.  Definitely not going to try and complete it in the 'block of the month' tradition, have too many other things going on.  Also I don't exactly know what I'm going to do with the finished product yet... but I'll deal with that when it's finished.  I'm considering getting this one professionally quilted as I don't feel confident enough in my quilting ability yet, but who knows what will happen by the time I've finished it.

Can't wait to get my fingers into it.... but soooo much to do before I'm allowed to start.

My first christmas present

Yesterday we celebrated the Wilson Christmas.  Hubby and I are going to Sydney this year to have Christmas day with my family, so we had to do his family early.  They do KK for the presents so we only need to buy one.

This year I got a bag full of quilting goodies!!

So that's a quilting bag for taking mats, rulers etc to classes (means I'll have to go to some classes this year!); a cutting mat, ruler and square in a set; a Clover patchwork layout sheet; an Ofla circular cutter; two fat quarter bundles; a June Tailor template set; a quilting template; and a Colour and Tone guide.

Can't wait to have a play with some of those things... but must not start any new projects until the Music Quilt top is finished.... (provided my mail order fabric for the sashings turns up in time!!)

Joe's Baby Quilt Finished!

The baby quilt is all finished!

I think also that was the best photo I got of it!  Have to remember that for photographing baby quilts in future.

This quilt involved a lot of experimenting and a lot of learning.  I'd decided to fairly heavily quilt the main panel (heavy compared to other quilts I've done), but I think it was too much for the high loft wadding I had.  I'd just used regular polyester thin wadding from Lincraft because this is what I had on hand.  This shows you better why my quilting was not the best choice for the wadding:

The patchwork is almost lost to the quilting lines.  You can also see that the border is a bit ripply.  This is because I was trying to square up the uneven lengths that were caused by the poor quality fabric, as previously mentioned.

The quilt was a really nice size to work with, but not sure if it's a good size for use.  It's slightly too small for a cot quilt....

 

but too big for a pram quilt....

 

The dimensions are 28" x 34" so I might have to play with them and get a feel for what a good size is.  The elephant baby quilt I am making is quite a lot bigger, but I think ultimately it will be too big as a cot quilt (but excellent once the cot is turned into a toddler bed!).

I think if I made a quilt the same size as the centre panel of this green one (without the plain borders) it would be a really good pram size.

I really had fun making this quilt because I felt free to experiment.  There are many faults in it but the person I am making it for really wont be that critical, and as soon as I started using the fabric which was cut crooked I knew it wasn't going to be of the highest standard so I let my standards drop a little.  That sounds a bit bad, but it freed me up to try new things and not be so obsessive about making it perfect.

I can't wait to try and make another one.  I do have about half the jelly roll left, and I have another roll the same in pink to play with as well!  I just have to finish the music quilt before I'm allowed to start any other new projects.

I almost forgot.... the last detail of the quilt is the label of course!  Because this quilt is for Joe I decided to make it a J

Sweatshop

Once again it has been longer than intended between posts.  I've had the urge to write but not the motivation to photograph.  I think I should keep the camera a bit more handy so I take photos as I go rather than having a 'session' every so often.

I've spent a lot of time making clothes recently, mainly due to the expanding belly, but I think I might give it a rest for a while now.  I should have enough clothes suitable for work to get me through the next month, and once I'm at home I don't mind so much if I only have tracksuits etc to wear.

I've made a pair of black stretch pants, a stretchy circular skirt, two jumpers for my hubby and a 70's outfit for a party last night

 (I also had to let out and hem the vintage trousers hubby is wearing).  Whilst the top is very bright and 70's, it still should come in usefull over the next few months. Being made of panne it's a bit warmer than most things I have right now.  The flares are actually just leg tents I wore over some leggings so they'll just get tossed in the costume wardrobe for next time I need them ;)

On the craft front I'm making good progress with the knitted poncho.  I only have about 5 more pattern repeats and I'm finished the knitting.  Then I just have to sew it together and do the fringe.

I have also now cut out all the coffee cups for the coffee quilt. 

Got the extra fabric I needed at the Quilt Show.  Found fabric I liked for the binding but they were only selling fat quarters so at some point need to make my way over to Patchwork with Gail B in Bayswater to buy the fabric off the bolt.  This could be as late as August as I'm going that way then, but we might get around to making a special trip before then if hubby wants his quilt finished ;)  Just looking at her website, I think I might have to save up some money before we go so I can have a little shopping spree!


Last year I made a baby quilt for some friends and their new arrival.  This month that new arrival turned 1, so as a follow up I made a matching doll.

I've been working on the pattern for this on and off for a year now, hoping to be able to market it, but it still needs work.  I can't quite get the neck to sit right.  I guess I'll just have to make more of them and experiment a bit.

That's it for now.  I think I'll go and start ironing all those coffee cups together now.  Also taking a trip to Spotlight today to buy a new roller cutter before I have to start cutting up the rest of the squares for the coffee quilt.

Monthly Design Challenge: Music & Dance (A late entry)

This wasn't my first idea for the April Monthly Design Challenge but my first idea didn't serve any current purpose so never got beyond the research stage.

Friends of mine recently announced that they were expecting their first child, 7 weeks after me (who isn't pregnant at the moment??).  She had never really wanted children, he always had, she'd finally made the decision that she would do it for his sake because she didn't want to deny him that.  I've spent my whole life wanting to be pregnant and now am struggling with it, so I wondered at how she might be coping considering it's not something she'd ever thought she'd do.  I wanted to make her something to help her enjoy the experience a little.

I found that as soon as my belly started to gain a little weight and size, it was very uncomfortable sleeping on my side, but a small, squishy pillow I'd made my husband previously was just the thing to support the baby when I was lying down.  So I decided I'd make something similar for my friend.  Simple,  small, easy to post (they're in Sydney), and personal.

This is the result

The treble clef is machine appliqued and, although it doesn't show well in the photo, is fabric with music printed on it.  The back of the cushion is the same blue fabric.  It's machine appliqued using a blaket stitch.

My friend is a music teacher and her husband (also a dear friend of mine) loves dragons so I wanted to combine something of them both.  It's about 30cm high and is only fairly lightly stuffed so it can be squished and folded as needed to create comfort.

It was handy that she is a music teacher because a gift personalised to her also fitted the design challenge theme.  I had thought of it before the end of April, but everything around here takes twice as long now.

The only other creative-ness I've done lately is a pair of tracksuit pants to fit my belly and a t-shirt for my hubby.  This weekend I hope to start cutting out the applique pieces for the coffe quilt.

What I HAVE been doing

So I haven't done much lately but I have done a few things.  Other than digging out the four year old knitting poncho, and washing/ironing coffee fabrics.

The other weekend I decided to get stuck into my "unfinished projects basket".  This is just the small things which didn't need much work to complete but I just never got around to, as opposed to be box of UFO's in the sewing room.

In 2008 for Christmas I was given the book Amigurumi Animals and all the bits to make one of the toys (although the giver was unable to find mohair at the time so it's just bamboo cotton).  I started crocheting it on the day but then once we returned home from the trip (Christmas was in the 'country' that year) it got put aside for all the other projects that had a specific purpose.  Last month I decided I'd just better get on and finish it, so here it is.

The overlocker real behind him is included for scale as wel as support, so you can see how pathetic it is that he took me over a year to complete!

Years before I'd even learnt to crochet, I was still trying to learn to knit.  My grandmother had taught me how to do the knit and purl stitches but I'd never really done anything great with it other than scarves.  When I was a teenager (and after my grandmother had passed away) I decided it was high time I learnt how to do proper shaping, and sewing things together etc.  I decided to do some dolls clothes, nice small project that wasn't too daunting, but still had all the aspects of a full size garment.  The pattern came from all the books I'd got when my nanna passed away, and the wool was mostly left overs from her stash.  So here is the finished project

It's quite possibly the longest unfinished project I've had since it date back to living in Sydney which makes it at least 10 1/2 years ago I started.  Not will to say it IS the oldest though, because I'm not quite sure what is lurking in the boxes in my sewing room.   It's not designed for the doll who is wearing it but she was the closest size I had.  I think it was originally made to fit a doll back in Sydney, so will be sending them home with my mother next time for my neice to play with.

Then onto a new project, rather than a unfinished project, that I actually finished in early Feb but couldn't post about till I had given it to person I made it for (not that he reads this blog to my knowledge).

When ordering the kit for my NZ Fern Bag I saw the pattern for their Kiwi Bird.  I decided I wanted to  make it for my friend, whom I met shortly after he immigrated about 5 years ago.  He is all goth, and has purple/bluish hair, so I planned to make the bird out of the black Moko fabric, and add a tuft of purple hair to it.  Here is the result

So it's a purple haired kiwi for my purple haired Kiwi ;)  And he loved it, specially the effect given by the purple fabric I chose, which in real life gives it a bit of an effect similar to how his hair actually looks!

I have some other fabrics from Kiwi Quilts as well, so there might be a few projects showing up.... eventually... ;)

Craft in Action!

I haven't blogged in a while.  I haven't done anything crafty since Christmas.  Mostly my time has been recovering from Christmas and unpacking, and now I'm back at work.

I have had some ideas brewing and developing, there has been some paperwork happening, which is something.

I just wanted to share this "craft in action" photo my mum sent me.

When I gave mum her little quilt I said it was to be taken with her and hung up when they made camp, or maybe hung in the truck window.  It wasn't to be kept at home all precious and clean.

The often go camping with big groups and I thought it would be nice if she had something a little crafty (she is crafty herself), and something a little homey for when others 'came to visit' their campsite.

So like a good mum she did what she was told ;)

It's always nice to see things you've made actually being put to the use they were intended for!

Empty House

So all the guests have left now and we can start enjoying our home for what it is.... our first home!

Christmas was surprisingly simple, and clean up was made all the easier by the fact that my lovely husband installed the dishwasher on Christmas Eve.

I finished my last present at about 8:30 on Christmas Eve, but I wasn't rushed.  I would have liked to finish earlier but other things like shopping and preparing took up time I was going to spend sewing.

So here is the Chess Quilt:

The "board" is just a poly/cotton fabric of some sort which we picked for the marble-like pattern.  The border (and backing) is a more wooly feel tartan to give it an "old man" feel, which my husband suggested.  The quilt was for his brother so I took his advice on that ;).

The chess pieces were going to be screen printed, but with the delay of moving house I didn't get to unpack my silk screen in time or have the space in the garage to set it all up.  They ended up being hand rolled using cardboard stencils on the kitchen table.  The colour is a little more uneven because of this, but I think it gives it that nice hand-made feel.  The dots on the queen were 'stamped' using the head of a nail, and the cross on the king was drawn using the pointed end of the nail.  The things you come up with when your craft boxes are in stroage and you can't be bothered spending any time looking for the proper tools!

The pieces can also be turned over to play checkers (or draughts)!

In the end it was something that was really quite simple, yet really effective!

My husbands family do Kris Kringle so we only have to get one present each, and recently they have been having a theme.  This year's theme was "more than meets the eye", so the gift had to be multi-purpose, or 'transform' in some way.  I think my gift was actually the one which fitted the theme the best, although the quillow I recieved was also appropriate (I'll post about that when I catch up on photos).

My quilt was supposed to have a backgamon board on the back.  I'd cut it all out, but then took a realistic view on the available time and decided to make it a one sided quilt.  So somewhere in the future I'll be making a backgamon quilt.....

The present my husband made for his other brother was AWESOME and deserves mention here (since this is The House of Wilson blog).

This started out as a common (large) bauble.  He found a pattern online to print out and make your own paper globe, so he printed that, and then transfered the continents to the bauble.  By 'transfered' I mean that he drew a grid on the bauble to match the grid on the print out, then hand-drew in all the land masses!!  I was amazed.  The terraforming was then built up using some liqid plastic stuff you can get from Bunnings.  The colours were painted with glass paint (also from Bunnings) and then the whole thing was coated with a 'liquid glass' product.

It was originally going to be cut in half to make a trinket box out of it, but after all his hard work he was afraid to cut it, so instead he found a glow-in-the-dark plasticine stuff, and put dots all over the globe to imitate the lights from cities.  I'd love to get a photo of it glowing in the dark!!

More presents

Christmas appears to be here.  My parents have arrived and my brother (and family) is coming in a few days.

I've made fruit mince tarts, and even put kitties on a few of them.

The house  is becoming more of a home, and the carpet is due for tomorrow so then we can finally unpack everything (once christmas is over of course).

On the craft front, I've finished another Christmas present.

A few years ago I made The Best Library Bag Ever (tm) for my niece who was starting school

 

Next year my nephew is starting school so of course I had to make him a library bag too.  It had to be cool like hers, but different.  So I present to you The Best Library Bag Ever II.

The books with titles were machine embroidered.  The green one on an angle was supposed to be Where the  Wild Things Are, but the embroidery was too long for the book unfortunately.  The back of the bag is the woodgrain fabric which adds to the bookcase feel of it.  It's padded to protect the books inside and I've quilted around all the books and around the inside edges of the shelves.  I hope he likes it.

And yes, I'm overdue for my last Christmas decoration pattern.  The scanner wasn't working when I tried so I shall try and remedy that tonight.

Camping Mini Quilt

My parents do a lot of camping and have a camper van thing which attaches to the back of their truck, a cross between a tent, a campervan and a caravan.

I thought it would be nice for her to have something 'soft' and crafty to take with her.  Something to have other than pots and pans and camping supplies.  She's a bit of a crafter herself and a lot of women that go on the trips with them (her included) take craft with them to do around the camp fire.

So I decided to make her a mini-quilt wall hanging that she can either hang for a tent pole when they set up camp, or perhaps put a hook on the inside of the truck window and hang it there permanently.

The little campfires in the corner are machine embroidered and the writing is hand embroidered using backstitch and varigated thread.  Unfortunately I chose the thread for the back label badly as most of it is very pale.  Does make it a bit more subtle though.

The dowel on the back was bought in a packet from Spotlight but I still had to cut it down to size.  The top and side edges of the pockets were sewn into the binding.  I then inserted the dowel (with the hanging corod attached) and hand stitched the bottom edge of the pocket down.

I made the twisted cord myself using crochet cotton, which gave me the opportunity to untwist the looped end and slide the dowel through.  The other end is untwisted a little as well to make a look for the dowel.  The tension in the twist naturally pulls itself tight again around the dowel.  I just tied a note and frayed the end for effect.  I quite like the asymetrical look of the back.

I used thick wadding, but it's turned out a bit to puffy for my liking.  I should have just used thin wadding.  But now I know for next time.  I hope Mum likes it.  Her birthday was last month, but she arrives for Christmas on Thursday so we agreed that I wouldn't post it, I'd just save it for when she arrived.

Busy Crafting

This weekend just gone we officially moved into our house!  Most of the stuff is in the garage until we get the carpet done, but stuff is here, and here is home.  I've currently taken over our new dining table for my sewing, with so many christmas projects on the go.

We might not have carpet but we now have a fence and a driveway.  It's all coming together

On the crafting front, I finally got around to doing the machine embroidery for my dad's shirts.  I had to unpick the pocket and then sew it back on again after I'd done the embroidery.  I had a bit of trouble with placement, which wasn't helped by the fact that I didn't have the printer working and couldn't make a template.  The last one (top) is perfect placement because by then I was in the new house and had the pirnter all set up.

I think I ended up with three layers of stabiliser under the dart board, but with that many stitches on a knit fabric it really needed it, and it came out really well.

Christmas presents yet to be finished are the chess/backgammon board quilt, and the bookcase library bag.  Quilt is cut out and partly sewn.  Library bag is waiting for some more fabric, but what I've got is all cut out.

I'm a busy girl.....

Beading work

These are the three necklaces I've made for my sister-in-law for christmas. Most of the beads came from Fire Mountain Gems & Beads.

This first one is apparently coconut shell. I was just looking for something that I liked, wasn't fussed about what it was made from. It is REALLY light weight and feels rather fragile. I hope it's not too breakable.

 The second one is woven cotton cord hooked around a metal ring.  The beads are a random selection from my friend's bead collection.  I had ordered beads for this but when they turned up they weren't quite what I was expecting, and didn't work with the cotton cord. The cord is just knotted so this required no beading tools at all.

And the last one is made with an assortment of millefiori glass beads threaded on tigertail, and held apart with gold crimps.

The first and the last both use magnetic clasps, which are really easy to put on (don't need to fiddle with your fingernails) but they stick to everything!  They stick to each other in the bag, and the split rings that holds them to the tigertail is always sitting funny because it's "stuck" to the clasp.

This has got me re-enthused for beading and I want to do more now!  But alas there is much sewing to be done before Christmas.

I hope my sister-in-law likes them...