How to line a wicker basket

I bought a basket from a car boot sale a while ago and I have finally got around to lining it. I decided to post instructions of how I lined it. First here is how it turned out...

I have written a pdf tutorial for lining a wicker basket. Click here to download the pdf.

3D Christmas tree

I went to a course on the 9th November on how to make a 3D Christmas tree with Sally Holman. I only managed to complete one layer at the class (probably due to too much talking!) but I have finished the rest off at home. Sally inspired me to embellish. I bought two of her books at the class, she brought along a few of her projects which were gorgeous! Sally's tree was much more intricate with much nicer embroidery  and embellishment. So here is my version. 

I think I might spray the star with gold glitter so it matches the gold on the tree, what do you think?

Owl cushion cover version 2

I finally finished the second owl cushion cover. I used heart appliqué to decorate the back. Using up scraps of material I had left over from the front. For this I used the heat and bond method.

Watch out for my next blog. I am currenty making a Christmas tree that I started at a class run by Sally Holmann. Watch this space!

Owl cushion cover

I wanted to try the freezer paper method of appliqué. Tricia Vint (aka The pied pedlar on google blogger) showed me how and this is how it turned out. 

I used large vermicelli free motion quilting to surround the owl. I made it into a cushion cover with a pink trim around the edge and a heart trim on the back (bottom, centre photo). I made the back opening overlap so I did not need to use any buttons or zips. I think if I was going to do it again I would make sure I snip around the edges at more regular intervals before folding over the appliqué. This would have made the edges smoother. Also I ended up padding the eyes with some wadding to make the eyes pop out and prevent the grey owl body fabric showing through the white of the eyes. I hand stitched the eyes and the beak on but the rest I attached using my machine.

I made another version of the Owl using the heat and bond method which I preferred compared to the freezer paper. I also used the blanket stitch to attach all the pieces using my machine, which I was very pleased with. I was thinking of turning this into another cushion cover but I am not sure yet. I will post the final product when it's finished. 

Christmas goodies

Last week at the last meeting of patchwork and quilters at Drayton we made a Reindeer. Mine looks a little funny, not as good as the other ladies but it was still fun to make!

I also made some little tree ornaments in the form of snowmen and gingerbread men. I made four of each for the charity sale at sew simple this Saturday. Not long now until Christmas!

Grab and go project bag

I decided to use up some of the yarn I had been spinning. However, some of my earlier efforts were not very even so I decided to make a felted bag. I used a mixture of different sheep wool. These included Wensleydale, texel, whiteface woodland, Dorset horn and some unknown fleece that I learnt to spin with at Norfolk yarn. 

The pattern I used was Grab and go pattern from etsy. However, I used an 8mm crochet hook instead. It looked absolutely massive before I felted it! It was about 1 meter across!! I used about 500g of yarn that was about an Aran / chunky weight. This was much more than the pattern suggested as I used a larger hook and yarn. I felted it in the washing machine at 40 degrees on a short wash ( about 40 min), but I ended up washing it another two times before I was happy with the felting. I think it was because the bag was so large! After felting it was less than half the original size. The pattern states to use eyelets, however, I ended up taking them out.

Here are some images... 

Cushion cover with stripes and buttons

I wanted to use some alpaca fleece that was not good enough for spinning. So I thought I would fill a cushion with it. The cover is made from a piece of linen fabric that I got as an off cut from a upholstery shop. I used one of the many stitches on my new Pfaff quilt expression 4.2 sewing machine and added a few buttons from my rather large stash of buttons. I was very pleased with the overlock stitch on the pfaff, brilliant for finishing off the linen fabric that is so prone to fraying. I made a sleeve out of calico and stuffed it with alpaca fleece before i sewed it up by hand. I placed this inside the cover so that i could remove the cover for washing. Anyway enough of my rambling here it is....