Cushion project No.2

This week xmas week was a quiet one for us housesitting in Tauranga. Stayed inside as the rain fell this week. Did go shopping for fabric and cushion inners for this project, and of course some extra fabric for the stash.

Using the string piecing as a base I did a few squares using this material

 And the matching colourway with flowers for the backing.

 

So I ended up making 3 matching ones. Gotta love the way the colours "mingle" together.

Happy happy Joy joy 

My first patchwork Cushion

Using Molli Sparkles' ideas as inspiration and following the guidelines as explained I managed to do this sweet little cushion.
Firstly here is Molli Sparkles Cushion

And I took the idea and just played with it a bit.

Found a "thift shop" bargain Hannah Montana Pillowcase all purples/lilac/white with her name written every which way and because it was a test piece I made some very small squares using 1" string peices.
I didn't take a before shot of the pillowcase which I regret now. Found this image online of the whole set but I had just ONE pillowcase

My camera does not do justice to the colours, they are more purple/pink.
I made an envelope back in a slight stretch material

finished size 11 inches.
I tried quilting the top, but I really need a walking foot for my new machine, after doing half the top I unpicked it all and left it plain.
PS need a quickunpick too, one did not come with machine.

1 of the 13 GrandChild's xmas gift

Well things are moving along well, I found a lovely bright piece which I thought would be good for one of our younger grandkids ( will be 3 Feb)

and then

I cut out some of the main animal features
and found some interesting, bubble, waves and bolds in my stash ( thanks Linda)

 sewed a few together like this

and made a lot (have lots left over)

then added a bold corner square on opposite to the animal square

Decided to break it a bit by adding black ( have I told ya all yet how much I love black)

And added my special scrappy edge I love to do

then added a lovely bright backing my Grand daughter will love as she loves balls

Just did 4 Quilting lines to stabilize the quilt, tried going round a block but wasnt thrilled with it , need more practise.This is just in time for Saturday we drop it off.
On the road for a few days from early Saturday, over to the Mount for a 2 day break then Housesitting Tauranga ( taking my new sewing machine yay, have 2 quilt tops to finish basting and binding. Have lots of ideas about projects to start, the problem is which first :)

Practise Binding creates lovely Gifts

Yep well, a few left over scraps and some itchy sewing fingers and this happens... Thanks to the binding tutorial I saw on someones blog ( sorry can't remember who's )

Placemats, or pot holders or whatever you call them. Still got to work on getting the corners better but I was happy with this first attempt, will be perfect for a get together Wednesday where I will pop them on the gift table to share.
Then this afternoon I did a larger Table runner with the last of a test band I had done in black/cream with the tribal material

 Well that's all for today :) Tomorrow planning a new quilt

Tribal Quilt Top finished

Inspiration comes from the strangest things. I saw this tribal fabric table runner and placemats in a thrift shop last month.

Now Browns Yellows and Oranges are pretty much my least favourite colours, but I had an inspiration for this my 4th Quilt
So using mostly plain fabric this is what I got

Now I also have learnt, that I just love doing the edges in a funny scrappy band, as I did two quilts without a band and this is my second one with the same style of scrappy band.

Can't wait to get the filling and the backing done later this month.

I have a Large Tribal Print for the Backing which I will Border with the Main Caramel/orange colour to fit.

Banded Jewel remains

OK Well it was almost quick work to make the top of a new quilt out of the left over Jewel Blocks.
had to unpick a few Bands and resew, but got there in the end.
I have the backing, but need to go and get some batting. Won't do that until I travel to Tauranga via Hamilton at xmas, so will be taking my Machine and finishing it when we are away Housesitting in Tauranga.
The bands Vertical are a Deep Charcoal and I have a deep grey for the back. Think One of my DIL's has dibs on this already.
I still have to add the buttons within the squares to give the quilt a real POP , got a selection from Spotlight in the main colours of the quilt, there's about 100 buttons so I have plenty to play with. May add extra buttons at the corners , will see once I lay it out.

Xmas Panel for DIL

Well over 2 days I cut and pieced and sewed it all together.
I did this for my newest Daughter in Law as a Xmas gift

I did not stitch much on the top as was a bit scared to "bunch" it. Just did the red parts inside the main panel but not Father Xmas.
Backed it with a red fabric with a top and bottom green border.

Happy days, easy to do, now for the next project

First Quilt

To start I had never done any quilting, patchwork and had not touched a sewing machine for years.
I love Jewel Colours (but not orange) and Black and white.
I saw an article in one of my handcraft books on an easy block pattern and figured well, I'd give it a try.
Picked up a small group of metallic star half metre lengths somewhere in my travels, had them for years ,I think I was a patchworker in my dreams.
Very limited Budget, so went to the backstreet bargain shop and got cream calico for the squares.
Cut out most the parts 10 years ago and made them  finally into blocks this August on a proper quilters machine that I was housesitting at.
Then did the edges with black calico and small squares for the interlock.
Backed it with a black king size sheet in a duvet style as I filled it with a duvet inner.
Will attempt to do stictching as per real patchwork on my next quilt as I have some better batting now and lots of plain Jewel squares left over, had an idea to do a similar one with buttons in the centres to hold it down (got a large pack of buttons from spotlight).
But next I might quickly do a xmas panel so I can give it to my newest DIL for xmas.

edit : Have done xmas panel see next post :) Loved it