Mini Quilt Ta-Dah

Hello Lovelies,
I wonder if anybody can remember some patchwork I started last year? I made a little rectangle of squares and blogged about it HERE .
I used vintage and retro fabric from my stash after being inspired by KATES and JANES patchwork bedding.I even added some wadding and made it into a quilt

 My idea was to make a little dolls quilt for a thrifted dolly bed I had found previously. Well, things went O.K. till it came to the binding. Then I put it to one side while I tried to figure out how to approach it. I've never done binding before and was rather stumped by the whole concept. I tried looking on line for information. There were tutorials with photos ,but  somehow it wasn't going into my brain. After several weeks of looking at my sweet little patchwork I finally gave up and stashed it in a bag.

 Until now :0)
Here's how it looked when I finally found it ,buried under a load of yarn.......



A little creased but none the worse for wear . Time to grasp the bull by the horns, so to speak, and finally brave the binding. One of the fabrics I used in the patchwork was this vintage sheet .I've still got plenty of this left and  figured that if I made a mess of it , this wouldn't stand out too much ......
 

I followed Rita ,of the amazing Red Pepper Quilts , tutorial HERE. Her words and photos made the whole process clear and soon I was bravely sewing my binding to the quilt..........



Here it is sewn onto the front......



Then I had to trim the excess backing and wadding, before pinning it to the back.......



And stitch "in the ditch" ...another first for me......boy this took a lot of concentration and exceedingly slow sewing........



The idea is, by stitching like this your stitches should be pretty much invisible from the front and you catch the back of the binding neatly......ummm........I missed in a couple of spots but it only took a few hand stitches to repair these little mistakes.........



On the whole though, I'm really pleased with how my first attempt worked out , it's not perfect but it's still neat .Next time I will try using a contrasting fabric.......



Here is my cute little patchwork quilt on the washing line ...finally finished

Ta-Dah ...........



Ooooh I love it so .It's my first ever completed patchwork quilt..... I love the vintagy fabrics and the chunky hand quilting which gives it a lovely puffiness. I'm hoping, next time ,to  feel brave enough to try a bigger size, but this little project was perfect to get to grips with the basics .


Feeling inspired ,I hauled the little dolly bed out of the shed ( thank you for reminding me about this Jones )
and made a simple mattress and pillow to go with it........



Here's the finished ensemble :0)



With a  teddy ( because there are no dolls in this boy household )......

I think he looks very comfy , don't you ?



Right oh, back to my hexagons :0)
Hope your week goes well.
Jacquie x

Hexagons and Flowers

Hello Lovelies,
well unfortunately the weather man was correct with his rainy forecast.We haven't seen any sun since Wednesday and today it's cold and windy too.
The only way to know it's summer is by having a wander in the garden.......I love to do this at the moment...there is always something new to delight me ( and more weeds to pull up !)
This afternoon I braved the rain and was rewarded with this beauty......


Oooooh , how wonderful. This poppy must have been from the seed swap I did with Cuckoo last summer. The seeds I sent her have grown too ........I'm so happy we both have a little bit of each others garden to enjoy :0)

Another part of my garden I'm enjoying despite the rain is our pond. I love the ripples the raindrops make on the surface. My poor solar fountain is struggling with the low light levels though......

The wind and rain had battered these carnations somewhat ,so I decided to pick them to enjoy indoors....

I love the ones with the dark pinkie purple edge........reminds me of raspberry ripple ice-cream.

Indoors I'm still finding a few moments to enjoy pins and paper and little bits of fabric.....

I've made more hexagon "flowers" and sewn some together. This means I can remove the papers from the central ones , to make more:0)

I think my stitches look pretty good even in extreme close up .......

I've changed to just tacking through the fabric only when I make these hexagons........seems to be working OK.......

This lovely fabric was given to me by  sweet Rachel at Ruby Red when I first joined blog land....I thought it had all been used up , so  was happy to find a bit at the bottom of my stash.

I haven't bought any NEW fabric for this project yet , though I did pick up this shirt from the £1 rail in the charity shop this morning.........

It's got pen on the white collar , but that's not a problem to me.

I'll finish today with another Rose photo, also rescued from the garden........

So perfectly pretty with a gorgeous scent.......It's one of my current favourites for sure .
Have a great weekend
Jacquie x

Happy Colours

Hello Lovelies,
 I love this time of year for it's long days and abundance of colour. Mother nature is at her best , despite the rain . These few Anemones , picked from the garden are just stunning with a bit of snow-in-summer. It's only a tiny posy , but what a pop of colour....just gorgeous......makes me happier than a big ,shop bought, bunch :0)

I'm also happy to see these Lupin seeds, that I only planted a week ago , are already beginning to grow. These will hopefully add lots of colour to my garden next summer......

Yesterday was Fathers Day in the U.K. and my eldest made his Dad a yummy sponge cake. He did ice and decorate it , but I just loved how it looked ,and smelt,when it came out of the oven............

Such a stunning Golden colour

 I finally got around to hanging up a Sunburst granny heart I made to test the pattern I shared with you lovelies. This one is made from cotton yarn and I chose pastel colours for a change. I love the added buttons and beads ..........

It's simply hanging from a picture hook  .

My Happy hexagons have been turning into Happy flowers.......

I'm enjoying the simple hand sewing involved and choosing nice combinations of pattern and colour.

Here they are pushed together...........

Lots of bright,happy colours 

I'm still not sure what I'm making here..I have an idea that I think is great , then I change my mind altogether. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated . One thing I'm pretty sure it wont be is a full size quilt. I'm not brave enough to try that yet and I'm not looking for something that takes months to do....I've too many other things I want to make :0)

Jacquie x

Happy Hexagons

Hello Lovelies,
I'm still patchwork addicted at the moment .I'm sure it will pass but right now it's all I'm thinking about so I'm going with the flow and enjoying this burst of patchy mojo.
I'm fortunate to have a sizable fabric stash ( nothing fancy and often recycled ) so I've been able to feed this addiction without hitting the shops. Actually I love that patchwork was developed to use up scraps and recycle fabric...that really appeals to my thrifty side. It makes me happy to be able to create something pretty from old clothes, sheets and little bits of fabric.
Over the last few days I've turned my attention to hand sewn hexagons...."English paper piecing" is a term I've learnt from the internet.

I think this simple , portable form of patchwork is a bit like the sewing equivalent to granny squares. It's very relaxing choosing lots of colours and tacking them onto the paper template. Like granny squares you don't have to commit yourself to what the finished project will become just yet...I like that :0)

Ooooooh I LOVE this image . A stack of happy Hexagons, just gorgeous in my eyes.

These are 1 1/2 inch hexagons....that is each side is 1 1/2 inches long....they are actually 3 inches across at the widest part. I found my templates to download and print at home HERE...isn't that great ...I love the internet :0)
Following the advice on that site I printed mine onto thin card . I've been tacking through the card as I always did with paper many years ago ......

The card is better for getting a nice crisp hexagon but boy it's given me sore fingers , pushing the needle through fabric AND card so many times. I think I need to have a rethink and try just tacking the fabric to its self at the back only.

The other thing I was not sure of was how good I'd be at all the tiny little hand joining stitches so yesterday I downloaded some teeny 3/4 inch hexagons , cut out seven and made this to revamp my handbag ,as the crochet flowers I added last year were looking pretty shabby........

I was relieved that my hand sewing skills ( and eyesight! ) were still good enough to join the hexagons . I decided to attach this little "flower" with a running stitch and some embroidery thread rather than attempt more tiny stitches.......

This is the third makeover this of thrifted denim bag  .This version  looks a bit seventies to me , but I think retro is good :0)

I'll leave you with some happy hexagon links to insipre you .

The talented Rachel of Ruby Red has a great pinterest board HERE
Oh and do check out THIS ,THIS, and THIS
There are so many people out there who make wonderful things from little hexagon shapes , I'm both awed and inspired , hope you are too.
On  a practical note....there is also a great "HOW TO" HERE
Jacquie x

Holiday Sewing

Hello Lovelies ,  we have had a rather jolly Jubilee weekend, time spent with friends and family enjoying the celebrations.
The highlight for me was a local beacon lighting and spectacular firework display. It's great that my boys are old enough to stay up till late on occasion and enjoy such a memorable event. It's dawned on me that they are roughly the same age as I was for the Queen's Silver jubilee 35 years ago. I hope that they will have fond memories of it .........

Fortunately the weather was dry, not warm , but at least dry on Monday evening.

Conditions have rapidly gone downhill since then. At least all the rain has made the garden look very lush and I've had an excuse to carry on sewing this week.

I love watching the pair of blackbirds nesting in our garden gathering food for their young. Here Mr Blackbird looks like he is saying hello to our rabbit ,who is sensibly staying indoors.

When my niece came to visit we spent and enjoyable couple of hours having a go at hand sewn hexagons. Here is her little project.....I love the primary colours she chose and her stitching is so neat......

Yesterday I made a second caravan cushion. This time I decided to make a "log cabin" design. I think this can look complicated , but it's really not at all. My centre square was one of my thrifted cross stitch pictures.
Here I've attached a strip of fabric to the top edge and pressed the seam towards the edge.....

Here I'm about to add the second strip. My strips are 3 inches wide and I made 1/2 inch seams but you can go with what ever suits you.
Trim this strip level with the bottom of the centre square before sewing...

Here I've attached two more strips , first the flowery one was attached to the check and cross stitch . Then the plain blue was attached to three fabrics......

The next side that needs a strip is the top one in this picture. It's easy to get the correct side if you just remember it's always the side made up of three fabrics.

Here's my finished cushion......Ta-Dah ......

As you can see , I've used some different different fabrics this time. I wanted it to co-ordinate with my first cushion but not be too similar.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out .There is a little oops on the back , where I made the fabric an inch too small , so I had to add a strip of the same fabric , but I'm really not upset about it.This time I got some velcro to make the closure . Slightly quicker then hand sewing snap fasteners.

Just this morning as the wind and rain lashed the windows I've made another log cabin...I know , I've got a patchwork addiction!

This one is a teeny pincushion.........using 3 cm strips ........

It's to go in my little work box..........

Now it's time to pack away my sewing machine I thought I would carry on my patchwork addiction with some hexagons of my own  :0)

Jacquie x

Sunday Sewing

Hello Lovelies,
 thank you for all your wonderful comments on my crochet heart pattern. I'm so glad you liked it :0)

There was such a contrast with the weather this Sunday, compared to the wall to wall sunshine we enjoyed last week.......cold and rain all day. Such a shame for people who were holding outdoor Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

I stayed indoors and started a little patchwork project inspired by this book........

Sigh ...one day I WILL make a quilt like this .

And especially the patchwork cushions in this image....found via  a link in Lucy's Caravan Dreams post.
I pulled out fabric from my stash and cut out 36,four inch squares ( enough for an 18 inch cushion pad )........



It was actually rather lovely sitting in the conservatory, listening to the rain , with the cozy glow of the light from my machine..........



This sort of design is trickier that it looks.........getting four corners to meet exactly requires accuracy , some joins worked ......



And some were a fail.......



But I still had lots of fun , using just things I had. These fabrics are ........... Thrifted school dress, thrifted curtain , vintage Laura Ashley ( been in my stash since the 80's ! ) and an outgrown boys shirt.

For the back I used this cheerful retro floral, also from my stash and made an envelope back..... I didn't have a long enough zip nor any velcro and didn't fancy making button holes, so I rummaged in the bottom of my sewing box and found some press studs....or snap fasteners....



To hide where I attached these I added some of my lovely embroidered ribbon.........



Lucy spotted this gorgeous trim when we met up last month and it's perfect for this project. I also followed her advice in this post and ironed some interfacing onto the back of my cushion front for added strength. It was a big advantage when it came to sewing the two sides together...no seams to get caught up on.........



Here's the finished cushion ,from the back ...........



And here's the front.......I love it , wonky seams and all :0)



The idea is to make two patchwork cushions to take with us on holiday. We don't have our own touring caravan but hopefully these , some bunting  and crochet blankets will add a bit of crafty prettiness to what will no doubt be a bland, beige rented static caravan .....



If you are in the U.K. I hope you have had some fun this long  Jubilee weekend. Jacquie x

 P.S. the roses at the top of this post are David Austin "William Morris ", rescued from my wet garden , and popped in candle holders to cheer up my kitchen windowsill....a bit of a brain wave I thought :0)

P.P.S. I've removed the word verification from my comments as some people commented how difficult they are to decipher these days ...I hate them too .