The Snowflake

Just a reminder to my followers - please make sure that you are following/subscribed to my new address/url thingy as it has changed.

Machine applique, with hand stitched details.

The snow is quilted with metallic thread, the rays with silver thread and french knots for snow.  The boy is holding a snowflake made from sequins and a bead.

Just before Christmas, I was browsing through the Sunday newspaper supplements (You magazine from Mail on Sunday)  and spotted this lovely story The Winter Carosel, by David Melling, illustrated by Christopher Young.  It was written for story-telling sessions that were held at London's Somerset House ice-rink over the festive season.

(this is a photo of the magazine page, I drew around the outline with felt-tip to make the image clearer to trace)

This picture really captured my imagination, and on Christmas Eve (yes Christmas Eve!!!) I decided it would make a lovely applique picture & so went through my stash to find something suitable.  I used a scrap of batik from The Little Fella's quilt (still shamefully half-quilted) and some of my treasured vintage linen and a few other scraps.  Then simply traced the picture onto bondaweb & cut out the bits.

I finished the machine applique quite quickly, and actually enjoyed hand-sewing the details. That was until I  started to add french knots for snow but went completely brain dead!  No matter what I did, I could not remember how to do a french knot!  I searched for tutorials, watched umpteen videos on utube and I even took it to the community centre where I take The Little Fella to playgroup and asked some of the old dears that volunteer there.

Then I left it.

Till we had a bit of snow & it motivated me to get it finished.  And this time I remembered what to do! I am pretty pleased with it.  I love the sparkly snow (I am not sure if you can see that in the photos)

So now what do I do with it??  Cushion? Wall hanging?

Giveaways-

Just popping in to let you know about a couple of giveaways on some blogs that I follow.

The lovely Sue at Harts Corner  is holding her very first giveaway, a basket full of haby bits and handmade goodies.  Sue makes some lovely bags, make sure that you have a look around when you pop in for the giveaway.

Then over at Kitchycoo (where I found the backpack tutorial that I have been using) Amanda is giving away the winners choice of one metre of any of the gorgeous knit fabrics that she sells in her shop. 

Let me tell you that there are lots to choose from and they would make a fab Raglan Tee from the "Sewing for Boys" book.  Which reminds me that I really must find some fabric for this months pattern - the clock is ticking.  (it is half term and both boys are pretty run-down & full of cold so I have been putting off doing the charity shop searching this week)

Both Giveaways will finish on Saturday 18th February - You gotta be in it to win it!

Good Luck!

Welcome

to

"Happy is What Happy does"

Please, Please can you comment as I can still see my followers but have no idea if you can still "see" me and let me know if you can see my new address or not.

Thank you!

Growing up & Moving on

OK - edited to add my new address is

happyishappydoes.blogspot.com

 

I would love to see you there! Explanation below -

This is just a quickie, although I have lots to post about including an award.  But more about that later this week.

I started this blog purely because as a newbie to an Internet forum, I was unable to add any photos until I had posted the magic number of replies.  Also you can only upload photos from online, not your hardrive. So rather than join a photo upload site, I chose to start a little blog; to record my progress and spur me on.  (I have always been very good at starting things, less so finishing)  My blogger name came from the username I used on the forum. (a nickname given to me by a housemate at Uni)

I changed my blog title recently and I very much prefer it, so soon I will be changing my URL too. (I think that is what it is called) Now I am not the most techie person, but I am always willing to have a go and figure stuff out for myself. It will be called either "Happy is" or "Happy is what Happy does", should I dissapear from the face of the (virtual) earth.

I am really hoping that I don't lose too many of my 43 followers, Most of you followers are from the forum mentioned above but I am very amazed that I have picked up a few more readers on the way.  I have never attempted to put myself "out there" in the cyber world, in fact my blog is ungoogleable (my new word lol) so I am so pleased that you have found me & then liked what you saw enough to follow my ramblings.

So should it all go "tits up" and I vanish from blogland, that is the reason why!

(and completely random - the blogger spell checker, doesn't actually recognise the word "blog".  I find things like that funny, I am sad like that lol)

Mum's Birthday Quilt

 I have made a start to my Mum's 60th Birthday Celebration Quilt.

I fell in love with this range of fabric, Ruby by Bonnie & Camille for Moda.

But I could only find it for sale on ebay & I wasn't sure about paying the price being asked. 

I wanted something feminine without being too "fluffy" or too old fashioned and chintzy.  My Mum changes her house-decor much more frequently than the average person, so luckily I was not tied into a particular colour scheme. Although she has a blue/duck egg living room atm and her favourite colour is yellow.

 A couple of weeks ago I popped into the annual sale at my local quilting store "Creative Quilting" and picked up these fat quarters. (for less than half of what Ruby was selling for on ebay) The pink stripes on the left will be the binding.  I have no idea what ranges most of them are from, as most of the selvages were blank but there was some "Anna Griffin Lizzie Collection" and "Dream a little Dream with Me, for In the beginning fabrics" 

A nice mixture of graphic & floral prints in pomegranate pink, yellow, spring green and light blue.

As for the pattern, I really wanted to attempt some stars or traditional style blocks, but with a modern twist.

I found plenty of great free patterns & sew alongs like the

"Oh My Stars" quilt along

or pinwheels in the park by Four Wise Monkeys, a free pdf on Sewmamasew

Crazymoms seeing stars quilt sew along

Made in Cherry

Scrap Jar stars

Sparkle punch Quilt Along

As well as the fabulous patterns here. (Swoon & On a whim are my favs)

So after hours of precious sewing time spent on the computer searching, I finally settled on this one -
Quilt a long 2010 by Blue is Bleu

Lots of variation and I can mix & match blocks to my hearts content.  I love the look of scrappy quilts rather than a clean "matchy" look. I might even add my own design to the middle square.

The pattern was designed to use scraps, but after "doing me sums" I worked out how many squares of each size I would need and managed to use all my fat quarters with only a tiny bit of wastage so far.  I used 20 fat quarters in total (added one from my stash)

Mum's Birthday isn't till May, but I have put some money aside to have this professionally quilted so need to get it finished asap.  If you have any recommendations for a UK based quilter (SW if poss) I would love to hear them!

the so-nearly-not raglan tee no2

I must have had pure beginners luck when I made my first raglan tee from The Sewing For Boys book as part of the sew-a-long!

This one was nothing but a nightmare.  (probably not helped by me sewing so late into the evening.  However, I have to wait until after 7pm when the boys go to bed, to start sewing)

I used two tees that I picked up at the charity shop.  A mens M&S polo shirt, and a long sleeved ladies Top, both were in a thicker ribbed like knit material that I found a lot more difficult to sew. I cut a size 6-7 this time & used a smaller seam allowance to give more growing room.

Where it went wrong
* I didn't have any red guttermans thread so used coats which my machine hated, cue lots of tension issues & bird nesting (and then she just settled down & got on with it - my machine is very set in her ways)
* I forgot to cut one of the sleeve pattern pieces on the reverse.  Luckily I was upcycling a long sleeved tee, so had just enough fabric left to cut out another sleeve
* I sewed the wrong sleeves to the wrong armholes (ah yes that is what those markings were for)
* After unpicking and re-sewing the sleeves onto the correct armholes, I realised that one sleeve had been sewn with raw edges on outside, and the other with the raw edges on the inside!!
 * Then when attaching the sleeves to the back pattern piece, I managed to attach the back to the neckline grrr!  I decided to call it a day after this & was seriously going to throw it into the bin.

 

After sitting untouched for a week, I decided to get it finished.  

Only after it was finally done did I notice that the back seams were finished with the seams on the inside & the front seams are on the outside ha ha. 

I used ribbing for the collar and it was easier than using t'shirt material to attach to the neckline, although it also helped that the collar is open.

The Little Man was happy to wear it, but was disappointed that this one did not have a car on it!

Meanwhile, The |Little Fella keeps asking for Mummy to make him a "Mike the knight" top. I think he will have to wait till one appears in one of the big supermarket chains.  

 I think I am done with making tee's for the time being!

Mola or Reverse Applique Tutorial

This is based on a tutorial by Noah and Mole in Issue 33 (Oct 11) of UK Sew Hip magazine.

I had clear directions from The Little Man who wanted a racing car with number four on it "because I am 4"

1 - preparation

Find a picture with a simple and clear outline - the outline will be made by your sewing so it cannot be too complicated with too fine details.  I used the Internet to search but you could draw your own picture or use a kids colouring book.

The Sew Hip tutorial suggests that you use a craft knife to cut around the outline of the drawing on both sides so that you have a stencil. (photo taken from Sew Hip)

I used an image found on a search engine

I just cut out the shape of the car and didn't bother to cut away the inside of the stencil. I then traced around my shape on the WRONG side of the fabric and added the details free-hand. Your finished applique will be the reverse of your stencil, so make sure any details (like my No4) are in reverse.
If you have a more complicated picture then you might want to prepare a stencil as above.

2 - sewing

Cut out a square of jersey in each of the colours that your design uses, slightly bigger than your finished design. (around 2cm) Don't forget that you can use the T'shirt layer too. Pin the layers to the RIGHT side of you fabric.  I think it looks best if you use a dark colour on top. You can also tack the layers together if you prefer.(I also skipped that stage ha ha) You should use no more than 3 layers or the design will be too bulky.

template drawn, fabric pinned & ready to go!

Turn your fabric over and carefully sew along the lines that you have drawn, making sure that the fabric layers are all smooth. Take fabric out of the machine.

I remembered just in time, to reverse the number 4!

wrong side of fabric

right side of fabric

3 - Trimming

The scary bit!

 Turn your fabric to the right side and carefully trim away the fabric around the outside of your design, around 3-4mm outside your stitching.
Mind that you don't get too close too your stitching or nick the t'shirt layer underneath! (told you this bit was scary)
Then for each part of your design you will need to cut down to the layer that you require.
Cut a small nick into the layer, being careful not to cut the layers below and then cut around the outline again leaving 3-4mm.
Repeat his for each layer of your design.
Trim any loose threads and ragged edges (although once washed the edges will curl & any ragged bits will be unnoticeable.)

(The stain is just a water mark from my steam iron)

Ta da!