Where is the love????

First Christmas pressie (nearly) finished! Just waiting for my quilting class at Tikki London, this Saturday. Then I might actually get the three quilt tops that I have now completed, quilted up!

I set myself a budget of £30 for all the fabric and extras that I would need for three quilts. For the backing I managed to buy 2 double sized flat flannel sheets and a duvet cover at a car boot for £4 the lot.
The fabric for the quilt has come from some bundles that I bought from here, some vintage pillowcases and fabric pieces from the carboot and a couple of cottons from Fabricland. The fabric I have used for the border was my best ever bargain - I must of got around 6-7 meters of good quality 100% cotton fabric for only £1!!!!! Just have the wadding to buy now (ebay me thinks??)I used a pattern from this book called "Garden Trellis" This is the example from the book,
The instructions were easy to follow and the pattern was fairly straightforward and quick to put together.

However,
I found it very hard to seperate my random fabrics into lights & darks.
I was meant to make 8 blocks with every 4 strips but I often only cut 7 - not sure if it was my fabric or my cutting??
All my blocks turned out wonky - I dont know if it was my cutting, stitching, pressing or a combination of all them lol!!!! I was tempted to trim them, but then decided to work with them as the strips were cut on the diagonal they were quite stretchy.
When it came to putting the blocks together, I did not like how the quilt looked. So I put the blocks into pairs and that worked much better.
It took me ages to decide on the final layout- I had to avoid the same fabrics touching & spread out the dominant colours. I finally decided on a layout but couldn't find the camera, so left the blocks laid out on the front room floor for the night. In the morning I got up before the kids, and relaid the blocks out on my bed, thinking that they would be safe. However, whilst sorting breakfast out, I got that hmmm feeling when all is too quite, and found the little fella on the middle of my bed with patchwork blocks strewn all over the floor!!!!

So I have not found this quilt as much fun as the others and still not sure if I like it or not! but it is finished!!!!!!

My Little Man is 3!!!!

Where has the time gone???????

The Little Man was adament that he wanted a chocolate nee-nor cake, like Red on his favourite DVD Cars!
I normally do a basic Victoria sponge with buttercream and jam filling and a melted bar of cadburys on top but not this time!I used the WHOLE pot of red colouring paste! My hands were even dyed red, so was everything else that came into contact with the icing lol! But hey lots of happy (hyper) kids - mine included!

What on earth will he be wanting next year??? lol

Summer is over....

I spent most of the Summer in Hurley with the boys at Nanny's or Auntie's caravans so havent got much sewing done!

I started a pillowcase for The Little Man using some Disney cars fabric but I didn't manage to get it finished before he turned three last week :(I am also attempting to make some sort of storage bag for his BIG Mack and collection of cars as i am fed up of treading on them and tidying them away at the end of the day. I have some road map fabric that I bought a while back on ebay. I want the bag to open up into a playmat but I am making it up as I go along, hence it taking forever!

HOWEVER....I have finished the half-square quilt top for The Little Man - just have to add a border then quilt it.
I found some lovely bright yellow flannel sheets for the backing at a car boot, but will wait till I have done my "finishing" course at tikki london before I attempt quilting it.

I also still have The Little Fellas quilt still to finish that I blogged about earlier.
my inspiration for this quilt was from Red Pepper Quilts, if you scroll down it is the last quilt on the page.

To make my HST (half-square triangles) I used this tutorial

I used a variety of car themed fat quarters that I had been saving up. I measured and then divided the smallest fat quarter into 4 equal squares, then used this as my template. I only used half of each fat quarter in the end (around 8 FQ) so I have some fabric left to use in either a border or maybe some crayon rolls for gifts.

I LOVE the way it looks but the blue background was a twill from Fabricland that I chose for the colour but it stated "fabric content unknown". I don't like the texture of it at all! - a bit synthetic but hopefully once backed with flannel the quilt should still be lovely and cozy!

Woo Hoo!!! The Sailboat Top is finally finished!

And here it is being modelled by The Little Fella!

It is made from a man's extra large linen shirt bought at the car boot for 50p. The stitching details and buttons are in navy blue. I cheated and used a popper on the shoulders and just sewed the buttons on for decoration.
I had such trouble with the sleeves - which I didnt have last time I made this top. I used french seams for the first time ever, (using a book from the library for instuctions) and i also had to use bias binding around the shoulder seams (just dont look as it is not a pretty sight lol)

I made the top in size 18 months to 2 yrs, even though The Little Fella is only 13 months. From experience, if you are not using a stretchy fabric, you need to go a bit bigger for ease of getting it on/off. Also I wanted to play safe with the seam allowance for the french seams.

I am very pleased with it! (although I have no idea if it will survive washing lol)

GRRR

Just needed a place to vent!

I haven't had much luck with my sewing this week. I have been struggling with attaching the sleeves on The Little Fellas linen Oliver & S Sailboat shirt.

My Nan always said that you couldn't bake when you were ill or not in a good mood because it comes out in your baking & you end up with a disaster! Well I think the same can be said for sewing this week. I thought a bit of sewing would help me unwind but I have never had to do so much unpicking! Not great when you are working with linen.

The reason...
On Monday I left my School after 9 years service (although in the last three years, I have spent two on Maternity leave) and all I got was a bunch of flowers, that I am pretty certain someone drove to Tescos to buy at lunchtime. My head didn't even have the grace to present them to me, or speak to me at all on my final day! He is not a great people person & has his favs, I have certainly never been one of them. As I have only been working two days a week - Monday & Friday, I am pretty certain that they forgot Monday was my last day, as the school was breaking up Thursday.

I don't yet have a job for September. The Husband is stressing and not happy that I gave in my notice without having a new position, but this just confirms that I did the right thing.

This months car booty...

On MSE this week a few ladies had some lovely sewing boxes that they had found at carboots/ebay. This is mine. It cost me a whopping £1.
I was quite excited when I lifted the lid & saw a vintage 1950's pattern and some threads but I was dissapointed when I lifted off the top shelf. I was expecting to find some more goodies but it was just full of old birthday cards. I am going to sand it down & paint it. How fab is that pattern?Although hidden at the bottom was this box of old embroidery transfers which got me thinking...

... I often see old embroidered linen at car boots - tray cloths, handkies, table cloths etc. No one uses them anymore, so what about recycling them into a patchwork? So this week i looked out and managed to find this little lot...

An old 70's retro duvet cover for £1 and a pile of hankies & other linens which cost me £3 for the lot. The duvet I am going to (eventually someday) use to make myself a summer dress.

The linen???? Hmm.... not sure now if I am brave enough to chop it up -

look closely at the minute stitches. I love the tiny blue blanket stitched hem and red initials. How to I preserve this if I made it into a patchwork? I thought maybe using what they use for applique? Bondaweb is it??? Otherwise The Husband will not be impressed by another "collection" of mine! lol!

My next project????????

I bought this fabric from a carboot a few weeks back for £1.50. I think it must be sari fabric as it has a border, top & bottom. As soon as I saw it, I thought that it would make a great maxi dress, only I couldn't find a pattern without a zip. (I dont have a zip foot or a clue about doing zips) I have now found Burda 7555, which is meant to be made in a knit but I am just going to make a size bigger & add some shirring to the back bodice. Fingers crossed!