(Brit) Bee Happy

This morning, when I was already running alightly late for work I couldn't stop thinking about the bee blocks I received last month that I still haven't blogged about; February was my month in the Brit Bee and I now have most of the blocks back (although I still haven't done my own!) so I wanted to share some images of the blocks I have received and be warned that you will be impressed, these girls are seriously talented and the level of detail surpassed everything I had imagined!

1. Hadley @ Flying Blind
2. Jo @ Life In Lists
3. Judith @ Just Jude
4. Fiona @ Poppy Makes
5. Judith @ Needles and Lemons
6. Ceri @ Inspired By Felix
7. Laura @ Needles, Pins and Baking Tins
8. Susan @ Canadian Abroad


Don't they just make you smile?! I love these blocks as each one reminds me of the year we have been having :)

 I am really looking forward figuring out some random sashing to tie all the blocks together and the extra blocks to complete this top, I will keep you posted with my progress, I hope I can do it justice!

J x

Silver Lining - A Mini Quilt

About 4 weeks ago I was soooo excited about the Modern Mini Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts, I was inspired by the daily blogs I was reading and I had roughly two tonnes of sketches of all these amazing mini quilts I could make... and then I forgot all about it, until saturday morning. When decided to forget about the scenic art quilts I had sketched (as I didnt have the scraps I needed) and I had instead narrowed it down to 2 blocks that I have been itching to try but when I was glancing through the link up I saw that both my blocks had already been done - and one had been done more than once. Not wanting to copy any one else's efforts I hatched a new plan to create a mug rug with a technique I haven't had the courage to try it; reverse applique.

My finished mug rug is 7" x 15" so I am not sure if it qualifies as a mug rug anymore, my smaller version did not have enough detail and although the technique of reverse quilting was ok, even I could not tell what the picture was supposed to be! Hopefully this one is a little more clear :)

I found a cute silhouette shape of a couple under an umbrella and go to work and at 9.30 tonight it is finally quilted, bound and photographed and soon to be entered into the competition! Woohoo!

Stupidly I have left it too late to get a daylight shot, but luckily the colours aren't far off.

For the quilting, I had hoped to use a raindrop pattern, but I chickened out as I haven't had time to practice with my free motion quilting needle at all and settled on a dense 1/4" straight line quilting for the ground, leaving the rest mostly unquilted which hopefully gives it a billowing cloudy feeling. The quilting is quite clear on the back, I had toyed with using blue to make sure it was visible but I am glad I didn't as the white is clear enough for my liking.

And as a bonus, it is the first itemI have made entirely of scraps, yey for finally having enough of a stash that I can do something with it... even if I can't do a street scene of my little town- yet! Maybe check back in a year or two to see if I manage that one :)

I know it is not a patch on a lot of the minis in the pool, some of which are amazing, but I am pleased to say that I decided early on that I wanted to be a part of the mini fun and for once I made sure I finished in time, now as for the swoon-a-long (I'm blaming my lack of stash and slow fabric ordering for loosing momentum on that one but at least I am fully equipped when I do have the time.)

Now back to the many pieces of curio quilting.

J x

EDIT: link 198, that's a lucky number, right?!

WIP, ermm... Thursday

The last few weekends have been all about family and I have managed to do next to no sewing, as well as ignore my poor little blog, so back for a quick update on my lettering practice;

I have completed a further two words; "brown" in a whipped backstitch and "over" with a button hole and stem stitch (which, the way I did it, are practically the same.)

I also have two of my bee blocks back now for my month in the Brit Bee, and am still as excited as ever! Thank you to Hadley and Judith.

So I can start to think about layout, I have way too many different ideas for how this quilt will go together, I guess I really should wait to see what the other blocks are going to look like :) ... but it's too exciting to not think about.

AND I have made a tiny bit of progress on my Maple Leaf Rag, the first octagon is half finished (not much progress I know but at least it's some and I am hopefully back in full gear now!) Photos on that tomorrow because I have to go to work!

Photoshop tutorial for creating pattern pieces

I told my Bee ladies I would put up a photoshop tutorial for creating the pattern pieces I use for my Chris block and then promptly forgot all about it!

I'm not sure if anybody has access to photoshop, but it's all I know so at long last, here it is in 10 easy steps!

1. open you chosen photograph in photoshop. I tried to pick a picture that had a good contrasting background (this was harder than I expected as all my photos seem to be taken with detailed backgrounds.)

2.  Using the magnetic lasso tool (L) mark around the area you want to cut out, then double click on the layer to unlock it.

3. Once the layer has a name other than "background" you can delete the contents of the lasso and you will be left with a grey and white check where the background used to be.

Then you can clean up any remaining bits of background with the eraser (E)

4. Select "colour range" from the "select" menu.

5. From the drop down menu, select "highlights," and on a new layer, flood the selection with a pale grey.

6. Go back to "layer 0" and repeat for midtones, colouring with a mid grey on a third layer.

7. Go back to "layer 0" and repeat for shadows, colouring with black on a fourth layer.

8. Turn off the layers so that only one is showing at any one time.

9. Print each layer onto a separate sheet of a4 to create your templates, I found it easier to stack the applique from shadows (on the bottom) to highlights (on the top) and so that I didn't end up with any gaps. I printed the first sheet with all the layers turned on.

The second with midtones and highlights turned on.

The third with highlights only.

10. Then you can applique the shapes to your block using fusible fleece.

Let me know if you have any questions!

J x

Christmas is in the air!

One more super busy weeknd, does anybody have any free time at the moment?! I have got to say that I am loving the productivity though, even if it is hard work! This weekend I managed 3 finishes and some progress on a WIP as well asgoign to the wedding of one of my best friends!

So I guess the first thing to share is Helen's wedding; I have never been to Cambridge before so after the meal a group of us went punting on the river, it was icy cold as it was going dark, but it was lovely to see the city from that angle and I can't wait to go back :)

Here is Helen and Reeves outside the registry office.

And I was going to share a pretty picture of Cambridge, but it seems I have forgotten to upload it so I promise not to inflict anymore photos on you!

So, for the bit you are actually interested in, my first finish was an eternal calendar, a christmas present for a friend.

 I have wanted to do one of these for myself since I saw it on Design Sponge via Pinterest but after spending almost all of friday night working on it I am not sure I have the patience to one for myself! Originaly I had intended on hand stamping each day individually and had even bought a librarian style stamp to do it with, until Chris pointed out just how many 366 card was going to be. He then set up a photoshop file for me to just change the date one at a time but even that took forever! A disc and a half of Gilmore Girls later, I had it down to a fine art, but at 20seconds a card it was non-stop and I was pretty tired by the end.

My second present was a set of ruffled roses, I loved the mix of masculine fabric with such a girly pattern and made these into pins so they could be put onto anything.

I didn't think this fabric was going to fray much, but the second I started working with it, it practically fell to pieces; fingers crossed it frays nicely and doesnt completely collapse!

I also managed to start and finish a present for my mum, a tree cushion in black and white (ish) to match the decor in her bedroom. It was quite a simple style and I had planned on embroidering it, but I couldn't decide what shape the trees should be and while I was playing about with templates I decided that felt applique might be more effective.

The reverse of the cushion turned out to be kind of what I had in mind for the front, I am so glad I changed my mind as I would have to have some skill in drawing trees for this to have worked out well...

And last but not least, I had an extra hour on sunday night so I finished quilting Fifi's Nine Patch (it has been sitting, half done in my dining room all week) and I started binding. I have now finished attaching the binding to the back of the quilt, so all that is left is to flip it over and fix it down tonight and this guy will be ready to go! Then there's just one more to quilt and bind before Christmas!

Left on my list of jobs for tonight is to roast and can my chai tea mix for the rest of my christmas presents, if I get around to it tonight then I will have a recipe and some photos to share tomorrow, but don't hold your breath as I bought the ingredients last tuesday and have fully intended to do it every night since then!

J x

Busy busy busy

I finally sat down and cracked on with my christmas presents this weekend, and I can at last check one off my list... I present to you, the GrandHands Cushion!

It has been sitting in pieces since I last posted about it, but this weekend I finally got around to putting it all together and I can't believe how easy it was- why I have I not made a cushion before?!

I went with option 4, from this post, (omg I can't believe that was november, I have been so lax with this!) and Laura's suggestion of swapping the white and beige hands around and I think the little white hand stands out a bit better this way.

After outlining all the prints with a long running stitch, I traced and backstitched a signiture of each grandchild next to their hand.

A quick panel for the back flap with the date, so we can all marvel at how small Maddie's hands are in a couple of years time, and I was done!

Not only have I finished something, but it was something on my Winter Stitching List too- woohoo!!!

Now just to sit down and plan out all the things that I must absolutely get done before Christmas, time for some finger crossing.

J x

Too many choices

Today, I started working on a cushion for my nan for her christmas present. I took an outline of each of her grandchildren's hands over the summer and so far I have traced and cut out each handprint, but after laying them out on the cushion cover I am not sure what layout to use.

Option 3 was originally my idea; but I think the middle 2 hands are too similar for this (even though one is 24 and the other 9!!!) and it looks lost in the middle of the cover.

I will be going around the outside of the design with a brown quilting thread to border the prints and will be embroidering their signatures around the outside of the cushion; I anticipate this will be about 1cm deep.

Answers on a postcard please...

I think my new favourite might be option 4, but I would love to hear what you think; answers on a postcard (or in the comments section) please!

J x

ipad case

Last summer C queued for his ipad on release day at the apple shop and it has been his baby ever since, he keeps it in a plain black Apple case that was starting to look a little boring, but knowing how much he protects it- not just any replacement would do...

-drum roll please-

C's ipad case!!!!

I'm quite pleased with it, other than a handful of beginner "duh!" moments it has turned out pretty well and it contained a lot of firsts;
- first pattern designed completely from scratch
- first gift made using my sewing machine
- first quilting attempt
- first binding attempt
- first raw edge applique

I had several points in mind for my brief, it had to;
- protect the ipad if it was dropped (to some extent)
- be easy to slide the ipad in and out
- not have a seam at the bottom (where it would need most padding)
- have no exposed seams on the inside
- it had to be manly fabric with an exceptionally soft, non-scratch interior

and I think all of them were accomplished! Except for maybe the manly fabric- that is hard to find, I settled on the polka dots but I don't think they are too girly to be seen out in public.

The front of the case has an oversized appliqued apple to match that on the ipad itself

and the back has a little apple camouflaged in the corner disguised as a polka dot

J x