Cushions galore!

In my bid to make a large number of presents recently, cushions has topped my list of 'favourite small gifts to make'!

The three cushions below are for the children of one of my best friends in England. I love these Cat and Vee panels, and this was a good excuse to buy some!!

The next cushion was made by Mr.10 as an end of year gift for his teacher, although I did do a fair bit of the sewing as he just can't sit still for long enough!

This is my sixth finish for the Q2 2014 FAL (I get my kids to do some of the hard work for me!!)

 Linking up with TGIFF and Sewjo Saturday.

The Quilt with Issues!

This was supposed to be a quick quilt - one that came together easily, and I could check off my list of presents I need to get made before the start of June.

I chose the fabrics and pattern (found here) and pieced the top together fairly easily.

But the problems came when I started basting. The fabric I had bought for the backing slid around on the tiled floor and I kept getting creases in the back. When I had finally sorted that out, it only got worse once I started quilting. The backing fabric just kept puckering and pulling. In the end, after getting some advice on Instagram, I pulled all the quilting out, pulled the pins out, and dug through my stash to find another piece of backing fabric. Thankfully I had a piece big enough, and was able to finish it all off.

Lesson learnt: Don't resort to cheap, loosely woven fabric, even for backings!

In the end I really like how it turned out. It is a present for my 4 year old nephew, who I haven't seen since he was two months old. Less than three weeks to go now and I will see them all again - to say I am excited is an understatement!

Oh, and to those of you in the UK, what fabric shops do you recommend I visit? I will be staying in Bristol, London and Cambridge. I really need to experience what it is like to browse in a fabric shop as I haven't had the opportunity to do that before!

Linking up with Sewjo Saturday and Sew Cute Tuesday. And amazingly this is my sixth finish for the Q2 FAL 2014, and my May goal for ALYOF (original post here).

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Mosaic Tiles

Welcome to those visiting from the Bloggers Quilt Festival, and to my lovely regular readers too! 

This quilt is my second entry into the festival (my first is here), and for some reason is probably my favourite quilt to date. I just love the colours, I can't believe that I got all the seams to line up, and I love the texture of the straight line quilting. 

It was gifted to a close friend for her third son, and I think that makes it more special. They are Australians living in Singapore and do a lot of travelling so the trains, planes and other forms of transport are highly appropriate!




Category: Small Quilts
Size: 47" x 48"
Original post here.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Ferris Wheel Mini

I am so excited to be linking up with Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time (I have only been a visitor in the past and have loved admiring all the amazing creativity shown). 

My first entry is a mini quilt that I made for the lovely Samantha. She told me that she loved fabrics that were more jewel toned rather than bright and so I chose to work with Anna Maria Horners Dowry fabric range.

I really enjoyed the EPP work, less so the hand applique onto the background fabric which seemed to take forever! I machine quilted in straight lines using Aurifil 2600, and bound the quilt in a gorgeous teal with gold print from the Botanics fabric line. 

Category: Mini Quilts

Size: 20"x 20"

Original Post here

Thanks for visiting. I am a new blogger so it is fun to have new visitors to my blog, and thanks to Amy for hosting the festival. Enjoy visiting all the other amazing quilting blogs - they provide so much inspiration. 

Le Challenge - Nature

I was so glad that Nature was the theme for Le Challenge this month as it paired beautifully with the Good Fortune charms I had ready to make into a quilt for my second niece.

I just love the dragonflies especially.

I used some subtle pink polka dots as a backing and some bright purple polka dots for binding. Big fan of the polka dots!

Linking up with Le Challenge, TGIFF, and this is my fifth finish for the Q2 FAL 2014

May goal checking in!

For May I need to get this pile of fabrics (with a few more added from my stash) turned into a quilt for my nephew.

No more words - off to get on with it!

Teachers Tote

I love that my two boys always want to make something for their teachers as an end of year present. In the past we would make cookies or chocolates and wrap them in nicely decorated boxes. But since I started sewing they have wanted to use fabric to make their presents. 

This year I left it totally up to them to decide what they wanted to make, and Mr. 7 was very specific. He wanted to make a bag, with "bits of fabric on the front with his friends names on". 

This is what we came up with. 

He very proudly did most of the sewing on his own, except for sewing the hexies together.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, and this is my fourth finish for the Q2 FAL2014