A few small finishes

Its been quiet on this blog, but I do have a few small finishes to show!

First up this Christmas table runner.

I offered to test Aylin's new quilt pattern 'Diamonds in Diamonds'. I was looking for a new hand piecing/quilting project, and I wanted to use up a lot of Christmas fabrics that I had, and these two ideas came together perfectly with this pattern. It is a simple pattern, but very effective, and looks very different depending on what fabrics and layout you choose. You can check out what the other pattern testers made here.

Secondly, a little embroidered needle book as a prize for a giveaway that I held on Instagram. The embroidery and design come from Aneela Hoey's book 'Little Stitches'. This is the third needle book I have made like this and I really enjoy putting them together.

Next up another baby ball. I have too many friends having baby boys at the moment! Bring on some girls because I have lots of pretty pink scraps! This my new favourite go-to baby present!



And finally some cushions that my friends ordered using fabric panels from Cat and Vee. I love putting these together, and am secretly hoping that some more friends place orders for these!

Linking up with Craft Book Month (for the needle book), Ho Ho Ho and on we sew (for the Christmas table runner) and Sew Cute Tuesday.

Le Challenge - 'Era'

After a couple of months break from linking up with Le Challenge, I am back with my interpretation of their latest challenge - 'Era'. 

This was actually quite an easy one for me. A while ago a friend of mine had given me some scraps of Liberty fabric that were precious to her. Her grandmother had used the same fabric to make a blouse for her, many years ago. The blouse is now very faded and well-worn, but my friend asked if I could make something for her using this fabric, to remind her of her grandmother.

As my friend is a big tea drinker this is what I came up with.



I adapted a pattern from Pretty Bobbins for the tea-pot, and used a pattern from VeryKerryBerry for the tea-cosy. I am a bit disappointed that I didn't do a great job of fussy cutting the Japanese tea-pot fabric along the bottom, but I now know better for next time!

Linking up with Le Challenge, using fabric from another era!

One scrappy, one planned.

A finish today with this baby quilt I made using only scraps. Rachel at Stitched in Color has been motivating us over the last couple of months to use up our scraps, and so I jumped on board and I couldn't be happier with the result.

I gathered all my blue/aqua, orange and grey scraps and got to work cutting strips, or joining scraps together to make strips and then sewing these together to form blocks that were 12" square (I took the idea from here). I then joined 9 of these together to make this small quilt - perfect for a little Indonesian baby!

I decided that, after practicing FMQ for a couple of weeks on scraps of fabric, I just needed to jump in and try to FMQ this one. I attempted a meandering loop, and I was very proud of the finished result (and I couldn't believe how fast it was!).



Obviously there are lots of imperfections, and I struggled with the lack of throat space on my machine, and with uneven motion (I definitely need to get something to help me grip the fabric better), but it looks great as an overall impression and I love the texture it gave the quilt. I see more FMQ in my future!

 

As a complete contrast, this week I also finally put together a quilt top that I have been working on for the past year. No scrappiness here, instead lots of precise embroidery and piecing. 

I loved making this, and want to thank Liz for suggesting and co-ordinating the ABC sew-along. I don't think I would have finished it without her encouragement. I am going to hand quilt this one, so it won't be finished for a little while yet, but I have a recipient in mind (depending on whether the baby is a boy or girl!).

Linking up with I Quilt Thursdays, TGIFF, Finish it up Friday, The Purge and the ABC Quilt Wrap-Up.