Charcoal Coco!

Tilly from last years sewing bee has designed a fabulous top-dress pattern called the Coco. See her website called Tilly and the buttons, it has some great sewing patterns and her blog is always interesting. I made a bust adjustment, added a few darts and buttons around the neck (plus some buttons on the cuffs). I used a medium weight stretch fabric, the fabric is very soft, I got it from one of the fabric shops in Holt, Norfolk. I am very pleased with the fit, although I made quite a few changes to the original pattern, including reducing the width of the shoulders. I just love all the buttons!!!! I might try the dress version of the Coco next!

Country cottage crochet needle case

I made this s a gift for a friend who likes to crochet. I was inspired by a pattern in Stitch at home. I modified a pattern for a needle / sewing case into a crochet hook carry case. The original pattern used felt but I changed the construction so that I could make it from cotton fabric. Very pleased with the result. Just hope my friend likes it!

Here is what it looks like on the inside. 

The floral fabric forms a flap over the crochet hooks to keep them in place

The back of the cottage

More Quilts for project Linus..... Trying out different free motion patterns

I had taken some blocks home from Drayton patchwork and quilters group to make into a quilt for the Linus charity. These had been made by one of the ladies who had passed away and left her fabric stash to our quilt group. It was nice to think I was finishing the project she had started. I made two quilts. Both were made from log cabin blocks. The first of which is very cheerful and reminds me of spring with all the yellow and gorgeous blue. I free motioned a kind of flower/butterfly pattern.

The pink floral fabric in the corners shows up more like brown in the photo. 

Here is what the back looks like....

The second of these is very floral. I would not have chosen these colours myself but I enjoyed trying out leaf free motion.

Here is a close up of the leaf free motion, which shows up best on the red background

I used green fabric for the backing. You can really see the leaf shapes on the back...

Phew.. That was a lot of free motion. I certainly understand that you need breaks and it hurts your back and shoulders. It is so much more difficult to free motion on a large quilt than a small sample. I still enjoyed it though :)

Spring Chicken, fluffy lambs and a rabbit!

I am feeling very spring like of late. I bought myself a lovely Tilda book called Crafting springtime gifts. It has 25 different sewing projects including a chicken, lamb and a rabbit that I have tried out.

I made the rabbit first to go in my sewing room. I made the dungarees from my favourite cotton fabric that have have had for ages. Gorgeous blue and grey.

I saw the chicken pattern and thought it was the ideal gift for my friend Sarah! She loves chickens! It was tricky and took ages to stuff because of the skinny legs. In the end it turned out OK though. It has a bit of quirky charm!

Lastly, the lambs. The fabric was up-cycled from a pair of cushion covers that was made from some type of synthetic material that looked so woolly! They were destined to be turned into lambs! After I sewed the facial features they looked very different. One looked more feminine and the other masculine, this spurred me on to sew the appliqué with coordinating pink and blue thread. I think the lambs will live in the craft room with my rabbit. I love the fuzzy ears! I might try the Goose and the hare next! The Goose feet look a bit tricky but they do look very cute!

Perfect Patchwork Cushion Cover

I bought a gorgeous mini charm pack from Moda called Road 15 so I decided to make the most of the little squares by sewing a simple patchwork cushion cover. I have written a tutorial - How to make a perfect patchwork cushion cover using a cheat method, please follow the link to the pdf. Using this method it was really easy to line up the squares perfectly! In the instructions I describe how to use the cheat method in constructing the patchwork section and also how I create mitered corners for the edge of the cushion. I used Moda solids fabric (cream colour, not sure what they called it) for the border and backing to the cushion, I would definitely recommend it, a very smooth and silky fabric. I really love road 15 fabrics, I might treat myself to a jelly roll of the same!

Appliqué star and circle cushions

I purchased some lovely a upholstery fabric and I decided to make some cushions using simple appliqué. I wanted to use muted colours and focus on differences in the texture of the fabrics.

I used heat and bond to attach the appliqué and used satin stitch to finish off. The smaller circles were especially tricky to sew around. I used buttons to enclose the cushion at the back, using cream buttons to complement the fabric. I love the gold shimmer of the background fabric and the smooth texture of the linen I used to make the appliqué shapes. I stuffed the pillows with alpaca fleece too so they are very squashy and comfy. I think I now have quite enough pillows on my fabric filled ottoman!

Vermicelli for project Linus

At Drayton patchwork and quilters we have been putting together some quilts for the Linus charity. I helped piece some of these together. I took two of these tops home to quilt and bind. I chose to practice vermicelli on both of these. The first was my favourite. The bright colours are very cheerful. I bound the first in white and the second in green (same as the backing).

Quilt 1: front

Quilt 1: back

Quilt 2:

This shows some of the back. The backing was plain green.