Pretty fabric

I’m going to make another small quilt, this time for Frodo. I think he deserves his own quilt for when he arrives. I’m going to use one of the fat quarter bundles that I got from Hobbycraft when they were on offer.

It’s very pretty and I’m sure Frodo won’t mind a bit of pink in his quilt. These are the six fabrics in the bundle.

I’m cutting it into 5″ squares and I think I’ll probably do a nine-patch or a variation of that. Hopefully I can get it done in time as we should be bringing Frodo home in a couple of weeks.

Advertisement

Snowballs

I’ve started on Sammie’s new quilt and have decided to make Snowball blocks. I haven’t tried those before and I think they suit the fabric better than something consisting of lots of small pieces.

I’ve made a start already.

I just need to find the time to finish it off. Then I plan to practise some free-motion quilting on it. Yikes!

A bit of sewing

I got a pretty fat quarter pack from HobbyCraft recently and have decided to use it to make another quilt for Sammie. It’s got cats on some of the fabric so it seems like the logical thing to do with it.

I just need to decide which blocks to make with it. That could take a while.

Stitching and Sewing

I haven’t been in the mood for cross stitching for ages. I’ve got one or other of my WIPs out occasionally but just couldn’t get interested in it. I think I’ve found the solution though. I started a new project. I’ve got so many projects on the go as it is, that I’m sure one more won’t make any difference.

It’s one that I’ve had kitted up for a while and is by Country Cottage Needleworks.

It’s called Pie Menu. I do seem to be thinking about food a lot lately. I’ve recently read five books by Jenny Colgan. One was set in a bakery, two in a sweet shop and the other two in a cupcake shop. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much time online looking at all the lovely dishes that are waiting for me at Epcot’s Food and Wine festival.

We’ve just signed up for Netflix so I’m currently re-watching all of Stargate Atlantis while I stitch. I love that show.

I’ve also started a new sewing project. After a few smaller projects, I think I’m finally ready for my first quilt. Just a small-ish quilt, mind.

This is some of the fabric I’ll be using.

I’ve done most of the cutting up and am ready to start sewing it all back together. It’s a very simple design so hopefully won’t take me long.

 

Craft show goodies

Today I went to Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC with my friend Jackie. We had a lovely time walking round all the stalls and gazing at all the beautiful stash. I made one or two purchases, but I was very restrained and didn’t buy any yarn or cross stitch stash. Just a bit of fabric…

I got a selection of fat quarters as they’re so useful to have in. I rather liked the colours in these packs.

They’ll go with quite a bit of the fabric that I already have. I did get a few patterned ones too. I spotted these at the pretty much the first stall we looked at and couldn’t resist.

Such gorgeous colours, aren’t they. I picked up a couple of brown ones from there too.

This roll of fat quarters caught my eye and as it was a bit of a bargain, I bought it.

There are ten pieces of fabric there and I love the colours and patterns. This is them flattened out so you can see all the different ones in there. You can also see the colours as for some reason, the roll photographed with a blue tint.

One stall had small packs of 5″ squares in the most gorgeous colours. I tried to just buy a couple but I couldn’t narrow it down. I feel some more cushions are in my future.

I also got some yardage. I have a project in mind and needed one and a half metres of something pretty. I picked this.

And when we spotted this, we agreed that I had to have some. I have another project in mind for it.

Is that not perfect? I hope I can do it justice.

I think I’ve got enough fabric to keep me happy for a while now. I just need to find the time to get into my craft room and play. Oh, and I may need another fabric storage box…

A few sewing purchases

I spotted a brand new quilting and patchwork magazine a couple of days ago and as it looked as if it might be useful for a complete novice, I bought it to have a look.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. So much so that I’ve taken them up on their 3 for a fiver offer and I may continue to sub for a while if the next three are as interesting and readable. It kept me happily occupied for ages. There’s a nice section at the back that’s sort of an idiot’s guide to quilting along with the basic tools needed and why. There are quite a few projects in there of varying skill levels, and quite a few of those are ones that I feel I could tackle as the instructions are very clear.

There’s a pretty cushion in there that I really would like to make and although it calls for wider strips of fabric, I feel I could adapt the pattern to use some of the remaining Honey Bun. I’ve pulled out these strips out to use.

Of course, in order to make a quilted cushion, the magazine explains that you need some muslin. I didn’t have any of that so I had a quick look online and found an Ebay seller, Suzie May, who had some and I ordered it. It came about 16 hours later, which I found quite impressive.

Now, the problem is that once I get in the shopping mood, I find it hard to stop. I’d been seeing lots of lovely things online while I was looking for that muslin. I get so easily distracted by the pretties, you see. I thought it might quench my thirst for buying stuff if I got some zips as I’d need one for this cushion – so I got three. I have several cushion inserts from our last trip to Ikea so I knew I’d be needing more of them at some point.

Then, I thought I’d just have a wee look at the fabric. Just a look.

I’ve fancied getting some Batik fabric for a while so I’m afraid I did a bit more than look at this one. It’s Batik Rainforest. Isn’t it yummy?

And umm, I thought it might be a bit lonely on the way here so I got it a friend.

This one is Sansui Indigo. It’s very pretty. They’ll both make lovely cushions. Or maybe one might be for a bag. Both came from Secret Garden Quilting, which I stumbled across while surfing. They dispatched these quickly enough so I’ll use them again.

Hopefully I’ll have something made from them to show you soon.

A trip to the NEC

This weekend is Sewing for pleasure at the NEC here in Birmingham. I like to go to this every year if I can and preferably in the company of a good friend. This year I had a really fun day out with Jackie and we both enjoyed ourselves so much, we’ve already plotted to do the same next year.

It’s great just to wander around the various stands, natter, have a nice lunch, and later an even nicer dessert, but there’s also the stash shopping to be done. The plan was to have a good look first, to check what was on sale and who had the best prices, but I fell at the first hurdle. As we walked in we spotted a stand with cross stitch kits on it. They were all the type that I like. There were LHN, Lizzie Kate and other US designers. One in particular caught my eye as it was one that I’d been looking at a few weeks ago, but couldn’t find for sale in the UK. I had to buy it straight away – it’s the coffee one in the pic below. We went back to that stand later to get a nice kit for Jackie and I got the owl chart there as it was calling to me. I did only buy one cross stitch kit, at a different stand, which I thought was most restrained. It’s a specialist stitch one with lots of beading. It’s really pretty. I also got the threads to go with Let’s Do Coffee, and believe it or not, they were the only threads that I bought all day.

I also bought a few cross stitch related items during the day. I stocked up on gold needles, bought a 5″ hoop that was on my shopping list, and found some gorgeous silk fabric to use with the Hardanger SAL. The buttons are to go with the Cottages. There’s also a Cheeky Owl in the pic. He’s a tiny fabric owl, or rather all the pieces you need to make him. I fancied having a go at that.

There was so much fabric there that I was a bit mesmerised and didn’t get nearly as much as I’d intended. I am pleased with what I did get and have tentative plans for it all.

I’ve been wanting some bamboo crochet hooks for a while so I was on the lookout for some. We found some sets of ten for a bargain price of a tenner so we both got those. I also managed to find some bamboo Tunisian crochet hooks so I got three different sizes to experiment with. I also managed to get some nice bag handles for a couple of projects that I have in mind.

Then there’s the yarn. I’ve spent the past week going through all my patterns and those I have marked on Ravelry, to see which ones I’d really like to crochet. I made a list of the yarn that I’d need for them and I think I succeeded in getting most of that plus a little bit more.

This one is gorgeous. It’s lovely and soft and worked out at £1 per ball. It’s DK and I have a few projects in mind for it.

This one is a super chunky for a specific pattern, and a DK for one of two projects that I’ve been considering.

I was looking for some sock yarn and found this. It was fairly expensive but I just loved the colours and texture.

And then there’s this one. It’s a cotton DK and the colours are just scrumptious. Dusky pink, Strawberry, Lilac and Iris. Yum. I have a good idea what I want to do with these. I just hope they stretch to the two projects that I’m thinking of. I’m fairly sure they will.

I had a lovely day out and I’d just like to say thanks to Jackie for the wonderful company. Now I just need to start using some of this beautiful stash.