Quilted pin cushion

How many pin cushions is it wrong for a person to own?!! I already have two pin cushions that I've made previously but couldn't resist making this one from the Quilting in No Time book by Emma Hardy. What a delightful idea! They're made out of six different materials. We didn't manage to line up all the points of the triangles exactly but fortunately, we could hide that fact!

We stuffed the pin cushions fairly firmly and hand stitched the gap closed. Next came the embroidery thread and good sturdy doll needles! Doll needles are longer, stronger and have a nice pointy end - unlike wool needles that I've used in the past that have a much blunter end. As you kept going up through the middle all the time, it got harder and harder to pull the needle through, then you had to pull the thread quite hard to pull the pin cushion in.

The rosette on the top was a neat idea. Just a circle of material, slip stitched around the outside and then, the cotton was pulled tight, forming a rosette (reminded me of a shower cap!). The button on top, hid the middle of the rosette and we loved the overall effect.

To make life harder for ourselves, we decided to sew a smaller button on the underneath at the same time, to hide our imperfections! Trying to sew up through the middle, through the top button, back down and through the bottom button etc was a little challenging, especially as the middle had already been sewn through a zillion times already with embroidery thread! It was a little congested to say the least!

Quilted trivet

 

We've been busy again! This time, we produced two trivets. As you can see they are quite different. The yellow one was made out of the remaining material from the FQ's that we made a reindeer out of. The other, interestingly, is made out of one of the curtain swatches we purchased from the bargain bucket at our local So 'n' sew's. We felt it lent itself to this project as the pattern was quite large and of course, the material was quite sturdy! The quilted flower in the middle was easier to sew on the machine than I thought it was going to be - the curves were large enough to just be able to turn the material as you went. 
 

The technique we had a go at here, that we haven't done before, was edging the trivet using the edges of the underside material, folded over. We loved the idea and it looks good but we didn't find it easy - a fair bit of unpicking was done in the process! We need more practice me thinks! Think the fact that the trivet, when assembled, didn't look exactly square and needed a bit of trimming, probably didn't help. Also, as we don't know what batting we're using, we were wondering whether it was a thicker one than the one used in the pattern? There just didn't seem to be enough material to work with!
 

And as for the corners? Well, we don't think we've got them sussed either! We understand the idea but making neat corners is difficult when the turned over edging, is different widths! And no, it's not meant to be different widths (!) and we did try our best to keep it the same all along but alas, it was all wibbly wobbly! Am just looking at a union jack quilt that my friend made me and that edging is amazingly straight and the corners are brilliant....so it definitely is possible....but I think ours is reasonable for a first attempt!

Sock creature - Wronky!

Meet Wronky! He's made out of an old pair of socks and he's out of the book Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy. As you probably already know, I love making toys out of recycled t-shirts etc so this book was just perfect for me. I think if you made Wronky out of different coloured socks, he'd look really quite different. He's my first sock creature from the book and although the techniques tasked my brain, I think the overall effect is brills and I'll definitely be making more of his pals.

The cutest thing for me (and that makes me smile), is the lips! The lips are actually the heel and when you sew them, you pick up some of the stuffing behind and incorporate it into the lips to give them that 'full' appearance - so cute and so full of character.

 

First ever quilting project - Coasters!

We've wondered for a while about quilting. We've never done it but know a few people that do. We haven't got any knowledge between us in this area, so I decided to buy us a book to teach us the basics. I opted for the Quilting in No Time book by Emma Hardy which i managed to pick up from eBay secondhand. In it, it has 50 step-by-step weekend projects, and ranges from very basic to more complicated but more importantly, it explains the basics and the diagrams are really easy to follow. Trouble is, from the moment it arrived, we were itching to get started!

We opted for a simple project to start with - a quilted coaster. It's not that either of us have need of one, it was simply a case of 'why not' and 'let's give it a go'!

As you can see, we both chose very different materials from our stash. My friends is more modern (pink and blue) and mine is more - well at 17 more years older than her - I'd guess you say more old fashioned! The backs are both plain. Again we used our rotary cutter which decided to teach us a valuable lesson....RESPECT! We had our first (and hopefully our last!) industrial injury with it - only a small nick but requiring a plaster nonetheless!

We learnt to sew two pieces of material together, then another two, and another two etc without starting and finishing by going backwards and forwards - saving both time and cotton - and then just snipping the cotton in between the pairs. Once we got the hang of it, we loved it! We could see the coasters 'growing' before our very eyes!

We used natural cotton batting - or at least it def wasn't polyester wadding! This batting we picked up last year in a bargain bucket at Dunelm Mill and it only had a price on it! Not being experts in this area, it could of course, be absolutely anything but we think it's batting!

 

Once we'd turned the coasters the right way and hand-stitched the turning gap closed, we then top-stitched them in concentric squares. We were originally going to draw them on with our Frixion pens but went for the quicker option! We simply stitched each square by using the edge of the foot as a guide, abutting the previous square. Although we can both see that our squares aren't exactly perfect, we don't think this detracts from their beauty! We love them, they're our first attempt and we learnt something new! Which just goes to show, that you can teach old dogs new tricks - me being a fossil and all that!

Designer dog collars!

As we have four dogs between us, we always seem to be drawn to the dog collars and leads aisle in our local Pets at Home store. But we always feel disappointed with the range on offer. Not only are there limitations in choice but also their range never seems to change! And of course, everyone buys them, so your dogs can't be individuals and stand out from the crowds. So imagine our delight when we realised you could buy the hardware (buckles, D-rings and adjuster) to make your own designer dog collars!

So we bought some 1 inch wide black webbing too as well as some grosgrain ribbon. We had no instructions, instead we just copied a collar we already had. They were so simple to make, we had two made in a little over an hour and at a fraction of the cost of shop bought ones!

We are so excited by the endless possibilities for bespoke dog collars - especially as you can buy different colours of buckles, webbing etc. You could even use patterned material instead of ribbon - there's no stopping us!

Christmas pressie reindeer

We've been busy making reindeers again. We had such positive comments about the reindeers we made for ourselves this Christmas, that we thought we'd make a few for Christmas pressies for our nearest and dearest! We wanted to make them sooner rather than later, as the 'how to's' were still fresh in our minds! Trouble is, we love them so much - can we really give them away?!

The materials are really cute! One has Christmas puddings on and the other has little santa sleighs on (thanks to Pauline's Patchwork again!).

The trickiest part is sewing the oval felt feet pads into position, though by the time I'd sewed 8 legs, I had got the hang of it more! On the original reindeer, we'd tacked them into position but the thought of doing 8 was a little off-putting! So we opted for two pins, one at each end of the oval. Then it was a case of sewing a few stitches, then moving the material, making sure that the edges of the felt pad and the edges of the legs are lined up as you go. I found it best to sew the pads in two halves (from end to end) removing the material from under the foot and re-starting at the other end. It's all quite fiddly but totally possible. Am not sure I'd be able to do it like this if the feet pads were any smaller tho!

Raccoon misfit

I finally got to make my raccoon misfit. His head material was a pair of man's trousers and his body, was a vest top. His nose is a little red wooden bead and his eyes, two little white buttons. 

The trouble with him, I think, is that his head looks too small for his body. I think this is because his body being t-shirt material is quite stretchy and yet, the trouser material for the head is not stretchy at all. Mental note: must take this into account when cutting out the patterns! I tried to rectify the situation by pulling in his waist but I'm not sure it worked!

Doggy bathrobe!

What to do with an old bathrobe? Turn it into a doggy bathrobe of course, for your little princess! And here she is, Isla, modelling it! It's even got a hood!  (The pattern we used is from Simplicity Crafts 9520 for large dogs.)

The whole bathrobe is edged with our very own homemade bias binding. We used a rotary cutter to cut 5cm wide, long strips. We then folded the long edges in by about 1cm each and ironed them in position. It was the first time literally, that either of us had used a rotary cutter and we were totally shocked at how razor sharp they are! We were very impressed with it and can see that already, it will save us heaps of time - that's if we don't end up spending hours in A&E! We'd certainly make bias binding again. The idea that you can make it out of any co-ordinating fabric you want, is exciting! Though we will have to research techniques for sewing it on properly, as with the bathrobe, one side looks a little neater than the other.

Panda-monium!

This is the latest creation from the Misfits book. He's a panda called Wan Wan - well that's the name for him in the book but I'm sure I'll call him something else instead! Not sure what tho? The body is an old pair of men's chino's belonging to my friends dad and the head is from an old cream fleece.

The black circles for the panda's eyes are painted on with Dylon fabric paint. To fix the paint, once it's dried, you need to cover it with a cloth and iron it on a hot iron for 1-2 mins. This went well for the left eye as I'd used two layers of material between the iron and the paint. But then my solitary brain cell must have had an interruption in blood supply coz it failed to remember the 'two layers' bit! Consequently, I managed to scorch the fleece! So if you look below his right eye you can see the pointed end of the iron! Fleece doesn't take kindly to being ironed, it kinda melts! The only thing I can think of doing now is to iron it again carefully to see if I can blend the iron shape in a bit so it's not so obvious! Am not brave enough to try this yet, so for now, he'll just have to look like he had an argument with an iron and lost! 

 

Ipad Mini travel cover

A friend of mine was lucky enough to receive an iPad Mini for Christmas and what a delightful thing it is! It is useful in a zillion and one ways already, so it's only natural that my friend wants to look after it like a baby! It already has a purple case which is brilliant for around the house but it needed a little pouch to protect it when it's being transported outside the house! Am not sure I'd want to just chuck it in the bottom of a bag either!

We decided that we wanted to make a padded pouch in two colours: pink and white spots for the outside, and solid pink for the inside. It's always more of an achievement to tackle a one off project like this, without using an actual pattern! As we didn't think the project would take that long (famous last words!) we didn't start the project til later on in the afternoon. Luckily, we'd had a full roast dinner in our belly's to sustain us for a few hours and we still had Christmas pudding to look forward to at the end of our creating!

Now, it would have been all to easy to make two rectangular sandwiches of material with wadding in between, stitch around the outside, turn the right way around; then to simply top stitch the two finished rectangles together - hey presto! But no, we didn't take the easy route! We wanted a case that looked as good on the inside as it does on the outside. We didn't want any seams to be visible. We also wanted to make the front different in some way, so it stood out from the mass produced carry pouches you can buy. So with absolutely no idea of how we were gonna achieve any of this, we set off for the 'Sewing Room' upstairs in my house!

3hrs later we came back down the stairs with this! It is really scrummy - we love it!
 

Things we learnt?

Well, firstly, it is almost impossible to pin Velcro into position. So the way we got round that was to place the Velcro where you want it to be, then draw around the Velcro with the erasable pen (e.g. Frixion pen). This then gives you the exact placement of the Velcro and therefore, acts as a visual guide to ensure you sew it in the right position every time!

When working with material with spots on, make sure that when you're drawing a straight line, that you make sure you are drawing along the same bit of the line of spots! It really does make a difference to the finished appearance.

As for the contrast material triangle at the bottom of the front cover? The idea came from a technique that I watched Kirstie Allsopp use in one of her TV programmes called Vintage Home, when she made a quilted Christmas stocking. Basically, we placed the plain pink material over the corner (right sides together) and stitched in a straight line on the diagonal (taking care to ensure it's on the same line of spots!). Then you simply pull the material back on itself, and hey presto, a perfectly seamed corner piece! As the solid pink material is quite thin, we needed the two layers so that you wouldn't be able to see the spots through it in the finished article....genius!

The hardest part was figuring how to achieve the 'no seams' look that we wanted. Had the pouch not had a flap that flips over, it would have been a lot simpler. But a flap we had, so a flap we had to deal with! In the end the way we did it, we sewed the side edges of the flap together first, leaving the top edge open. This would be where we turn the finished project through at the final stage. The flap was then pinned out of the way, so we didn't accidentally sew through it when we sewed the rest of the seams around the outside (been there, done that!).