Spike The Echidna Cushion

I know this pattern is called Hazel the Hedgehog...but being Australian my kids are not too familiar with hedgehogs. As soon as the block was finished they named her 'Spike the Echidna' and it stuck!

When Angie from Gnome Angel announced that she was hosting a Hazel Quilt-A-Long using Elizabeth Hartman's pattern during February I decided to join in. This year I am making a point of trying new things and participating in more sewing events. It's a good way to push myself and try new things, and also join in and connect with the online sewing community.

I started off with just one block and it took some time. I love this orange leaf print and knew it would be perfect for Spike's spines. The leaves give it some additional pointiness (is that even a word?) and then I went for solids for the body and a low volume grey spot for the background. Despite the accuracy of the block, it's not paper pieced. (making it more appealing for me!)

I knew that making a series of these blocks for a quilt would be too much right now, so I decided upon a cushion. First I added more of the background fabric to make the block large 16" x 16".  I basted it and I used my hera marker (a little device that draws a crease into projects rather than a pencil or pen mark) to draw up a simple criss cross (Kriss Kross - jump jump!)* design for the quilting and I quilted in a pale grey thread.

Finally I bound the cushion (my first time binding a cushion!) with the same fabric as the spines. It finished it really nicely as I didn't want to add any other colour.

The back keeps the colour scheme but I used a grey with larger white polka dots that I had floating around in my stash. To conceal the zipper I used this tutorial by Ms Midge.

Spike was very quickly claimed by Anna and now has a happy life living as a feature cushion on her bed next to her pet pillows!

Make sure you pop over and check out all the other variations of Hazel from the QAL over at Gnome Angel's link party!

*yep I was a teenager in the 90s and now that song is stuck in my head.

Raspberry Kiss Cushion

Could this be one of favourite projects EVER? Yes I think so!

As you might remember from this post, I found a gorgeous mini quilt on pinterest that used these blocks. After some detective work I discovered the maker and followed her information over to the Raspberry Kiss block tutorial by Wooden Spoon Quilts.

When A Project Doesn't Work Out

I had high hopes for this patchwork heart, I really did.

My plan was to finish sewing it up, pat myself on the back for how awesome it looks, then post all the details as a new tutorial on the blog.

Nope.

Looks pretty good so far right?

Once I sewed it together I realised a few errors. I didn't account for the fact that the seam allowances for the larger rows of small patchwork would significantly decrease the size of the row in comparison to the top and bottom that only required one seam.

My planning and design did not incorporate measurements for the patchwork, but rather a solid area without seams.

Quilty Projects in Progress

I've been stressing out that I've had no project finishes to share this week despite spending quite a lot of time sewing. Some projects are a long game and you just have to chip away at them bit by bit. And if I keep telling myself that maybe soon I'll start to believe it and stop putting pressure on myself!

I'm at 14 of these raspberry kiss blocks with two more to go. (Block details in my last post.) The consensus on social media is that my last two should be yellow and green, although purple was another popular choice. What do you think?

Quilt Block Boot Camp

I've joined my first ever quilt bee! I'm part of one of the Beehive Swarms - I'm really excited about it AND I'm swarm leader (omg) so I've decided that I need to do some practice. Accuracy is a weak point for me so the last couple of days I've started putting myself through a quilty boot camp of sorts.

Mini Swoon Block Mug Rug

A good friend of mine has recently started a new job and she was feeling a bit unsure about it all and told me that her office environment hadn't turned out to be as friendly as she'd hoped. I decided to do something to help make her workplace more inviting, so I made her this little mug rug to go on her desk.

I used the Mini Swoon block pattern by Camille Roskelly. I love her designs and all her quilts and fabric choices are consistently beautiful. In many Swoon blocks I've seen (do a pinterest search on Swoon quilts - there are LOADS), white is the most popular background so I decided to change it up and use an aqua solid.

I had a bit of trouble making this - it was my first time using the pattern. It's much more detailed than any block pattern I've sewn before and on such a small scale it's quite fiddly. I thought I'd made a bit of a mess of it once all the block elements were done, but spending some quality time with the seam ripper and trimming it up before sewing the block elements together salvaged it.

The feathers print is a recent purchase from my local Spotlight and the grey spot I bought online a few months back. I can never have too many polka dots!

The finished block is about 8" square but I added a small border before I quilted and bound it, so the finished mug rug is probably about 9". The quilting is minimal, just an outline around the star shape.

I'm kinda late to the party with the Swoon pattern, it's been popular for a few years now. That's fine - let's just call me fashionably late! It's good to get a pattern after it's well established, because I like to search around the internet and look at the different variations other quilters have made. It allows me to pick my fabric combo more carefully and identify things I like or things I would change.

I also bought a pretty mug and I remembered a conversation where she mentioned that her office has an Aldi coffee machine, so I picked up a pack of coffee pods for her as well. 

I'd love to make a whole quilt from these mini swoon blocks. They are just so pretty. I also purchased the original quilt pattern, the blocks are much larger, so maybe I'll start there and see how I go. 

I've made several mug rugs in this past month - I'll share another with you in the next post. I do love the quick finish and the possibilities are endless design wise. Quick quilty goodness!

The Zahra Quilt

Close friends of ours recently welcomed a baby girl named Zahra and this quilt has recently flown around the world and arrived in London for her to enjoy.

Red Diamond Quilt - Tutorial

You know those days you wake up and BAM! There is an idea in your head that you can't get rid of and you must MAKE IT NOW!

That happened to me with this quilt. It's the first quilt I have made for myself and it's been lovely this winter to snuggle into it while I watch TV or read in the evenings.

This is a lap quilt made with large half square triangles.  The final size is a 56 inch (142cm) square.

Saturday Sewing Inspiration

After my creative slump confessions from last week, I completely ignored everything related to sewing and blogging until today and enjoyed the week.

I spent some time with old friends who were visiting us from Wagga, their kids and ours had a blast together. I had a fun girls day out with Anna as a special school holiday treat and we went to a really delicious sushi train restaurant for lunch. Yesterday the girls and I lazed in bed and watched episodes of Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom (anyone else's kids obsessed with that show?) on the iPad until 10.30am. So a good time was had by all.

A busy week with the kids means this pouch gets a work out. I keep baby wipes, tissues and band aids in it!

Pink & Aqua Quilt in Progress

Some friends of ours have just welcomed a beautiful baby girl, but I started working on this for her before I even knew she would be a girl. They chose not to find out the gender of their baby until she arrived but I took a gamble because I could just feel in my heart that a baby girl was on the way!

The couple who welcomed their sweet new daughter are not particularly cutesy people so I avoided any traditional baby prints and used a lot of blenders - polka dots, stripes and ditsy prints. Pink, aqua and grey is a lovely palette for a new baby girl and is not too overwhelming on the pink.

Night Owl Baby Quilt

I started making this quilt for no reason, just a whim I had a couple of weeks ago to start something new. I need to burn my way through what I consider to be a fairly excessive stash that I've built up so I thought I'd pull out some fabric in colours that I don't often use and do something with them.

It was an exercise in forcing myself out of my comfort zone  - I do seem to stick with the same colour palette a lot of the time. Primarily aquas and greys.

I'm in a Magazine!

I've been meaning to share this with you for a while and I know some of you have already seen the April issue of Homespun magazine!

I called the quilt Neon Pop due to the mix of colours and the cassette tapes print that are the main feature fabric of the quilt. It was great to see the pictures when the magazine was published, to see how they decided to style it.

The design is fairly traditional but given a modern twist with the fabric choices. All of the fabric are homespun solids apart from the print which is Cassettes in White from the Riley Blake Geekly Chic range. Amy Adams is the designer, you can check out her lovely blog post about this quilt here on her blog Penny Candy.

The article I wrote for Homespun is a full tutorial sharing how to create the quilt yourself.

On the final page of the article is an interview and profile of me! Very cool seeing myself in print!

It's been lovely to share this achievement with family and friends, especially my Nan who isn't online so she doesn't really see what I blog about (although she does see all the finished projects!)

You can check out my Neon Pop quilt in the April 2014 issue of Homespun, and for those of you not in Australia you can download the digital version quite easily through the app store. Feels like so long ago - I made this quilt in September 2013 and submitted it in October. I've kept it a secret for so long it's nice to be able to finally show it to everyone!

Shhh...don't tell but occasionally I do bring out my old cassettes and listen to mix tapes I made as a  very young teenager. Digital play lists just aren't the same!

Easter Weekend Sewing

It's been a while but I've finally had some time to get back to the sewing machine this weekend.

First up was a quilt - I've had the top completed for several weeks but just needed to psych myself up for the back breaking task of basting it. We have wooden floor boards and I've found the best method for me is to tape my quilt backs to the kitchen floor. Works well but it can be really hard on my back and knees!

I've been making a concerted effort to use what I have in my stash. This quilt has what I like to call "franken-batting" - several smaller pieces of batting stitched together to make a large piece. When it came time to bind, I searched through my thread stash and was pretty pleased to discover I had the exact shade of thread I needed to hand stitch my binding. Shopping from the stash can reveal surprises sometimes!

Today I decided to start something new so I pulled some scraps out for some patchwork. I chose and aqua and orange palette - so pretty! I don't have much orange in my stash but this combination might encourage me to look for some more orange shades next time I'm fabric shopping.

Those scraps turned into this patchwork panel. The project is still a work in progress but hopefully I'll have something finished to share next week. It was nice just to cut, arrange pieces and stitch without hurry.

Hope you had a lovely Easter weekend and got some stitching time too!

Stacked Squares Quilt Block

You might remember that over the past year I've been participating in the Modern Blocks Quilt Along with the ladies from And Sew We Craft. We've finally reached the end - the Stacked Squares Block is the 12th and final block.

To make this block I chose a hot pink solid and a text print. Working with the text print was a bit tricky as I had to really think about each piece as I cut it to make sure the directional words would face the right way.

For this block, you need:

Pink fabric: 4 squares 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" (corners)
                  8 squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" (geese)

Text fabric: 1 square 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" (centre)
                  8  rectangles 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Lay out all your pieces on your work surface. If you are using a directional fabric make sure all your pieces are facing the correct way and in the right place.

The first step of this block is to use a text print rectangle and the small pink squares to construct the flying geese units.

If you decide to make this block using directional fabric, be careful sewing each geese unit to make sure each piece faces the correct way.

Next, sew the rest of the rectangles to each geese unit. You will have 4 small units.

Now you can use these elements to assemble the block. Sew the block into three rows.

Carefully align seams and stitch the three rows together to finish the block.

All done! This block is quite simple, but there is a lot of room to be creative with different fabric choices. The centre square would be a great way to showcase a fussy cut, or you could use a print as the outer fabric and a solid for the centre where I've used text.

You can check out some of my other Modern Blocks, and you can get all the details of the quilt along and all the blocks here at And Sew We Craft. They all come from the book Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers.

Now that the QAL is over, I have to confess that there are only about 4 or 5 blocks that I really like. Mainly due to the fact that not all of them were made well. My block skills are a little bit lacking - small fiddly sewing still eludes me and I'm not yet at a stage where I want to put so much detail into a quilt.

So watch this space, but I suspect several of these blocks will get a new lease on life as cushion covers!

Scrappy Charm Square Quilt

I needed to do some serious scrap busting and I knew I had enough to make a whole quilt. Truth be told I could probably make a couple more of these...

I had about 15 squares left over from various charm packs, and the rest I cut from scraps in my basket. While the quilters amongst you will say 'pffft, bigger than 5 inches is NOT a scrap', remember that many of these have come from fabrics used for garment sewing projects. Quilting is a relatively new thing for me, and sewing clothes always leaves you with bigger and odd shapes pieces of fabric.

It was deliberate to use as many fabrics as possible - I wanted this quilt to have really random scrappy feel - no pattern or colour palette, just a jumble of colour. I think the most repeated fabric has 4 squares.

It probably sounds a bit weird and obsessive to admit this...but I could name almost every fabric in the quilt or could tell you which previous project I have made using that fabric. I am a sewing nerd.

Quilting was pretty straightforward - diagonal lines through every square. I used grey thread which I was so pleased with - it was a great colour to blend through all the different fabrics - not as stark through some of the darker fabrics as white would have been.

I used white in the bobbin as it worked better with the backing fabric - this awesome large scale print from Ikea. Ikea fabrics are on quite wide rolls making them ideal for quilt backs.

To keep with the scrappy theme I made the binding out of scraps of solids I had in my stash. This quilt now lives over the back of our sofa and is very popular with everyone to cuddle under while watching a movie! I'll have to make some more so everyone can have one!

A Collection of Cushions

I've been busy making new cushions lately. Cushions are great fun - you can whip one up in an afternoon, and you can really get creative with design and colour. They are a great way to showcase your favourite fabrics, as they are on display and you look at them every day!

This first cushion was a scrap busting project. I stitched together a couple of batting off cuts, then used the quilt as you go method to create a log cabin type patchwork front. It all came from my scrap basket apart from a few fussy cut favourites, like those Heather Ross goldfish. I love how it looks - although the fabric selections were quite random, they all seem to work together.

I enjoy working with my scraps as the project becomes something that reminds you of all the projects from the past where each fabric came from. Like that floral underneath the fish - it's from Lucy's first birthday outfit.

How could I resist this pink galah? With the added bonus of a reference to one of my favourite films. (I adore a good film reference - 10 points to Gryffindor if you get it!)

The galah is a Cat & Vee panel, which are perfect for cushions, all I had to do was trim it up to the size I wanted. The galah needed a little something extra, so I added pom poms. Because who doesn't love a good pom pom?

I had a special helper during my impromptu cushion photo shoot. Soooo helpful...although I don't really mind, she loves that cushion so much she takes it to bed sometimes. Nice to know my handiwork is appreciated!

This cushion is a 5" square patchwork using some charm squares from a V&Co Simply Color charm pack. I've had so many comments about this one on facebook and instagram that I thought I might host a sew along in the next couple of weeks. It's really simple and a great one for beginners. So do you want to sew a cushion with me? Keep an eye out for the announcement and dates, and in the mean time get some 5" squares ready!

Quilted Big Tote Bag

It's Valentine's Day today  - hurrah if you are into it, but personally I always remember my awkward teenage self who never received anything for V Day while girls around me at school were showered with flowers and cards. It can be a wonderful day, but man - it can be a terribly lonely one too! (Note to self: do something sweet for my girls on future Valentine's Days when they are teens.)

A few weeks back I signed up for the Secret Valentine's Exchange hosted by Sanae and Ute. I got my details and discovered I would be making something for Stephanie from Sew A Crooked Line.

As I always do when sewing for others, particularly for people I don't know, I went through a crisis of confidence, then took weeks to settle upon a project to make for Stephanie. If you are regular reader of my blog, you'll know my love for zipper pouches knows no bounds, but this time I wanted to make something I hadn't made before.

Stephanie said in her info that she liked the colours pink and mint. Pink I can do, but mint was a bit tricker, so with that colour palette in mind I made the patchwork panels for the bag with lots of pinks and a variety of greens moving into aquas. I also used any fabric I had that had a love theme.

For this side of the tote I decided to make this elephant print the feature - so glad I did as it turns out Stephanie is a huge fan of elephants and sponsors three of them.

I really love those TVs.

The pattern for this bag is the awesome Big Tote Bag designed by Abby from Things for Boys. We are friends in real life so I thought, perfect, I can give her a buzz if I need help. Didn't need to - this bag is so simple. Cut 2 exterior pieces, cut two lining pieces, follow some simple construction steps, wham bam DONE. Obviously the quilting made my construction process a bit different - I made two patchwork panels, basted and free motion quilted them, then cut them out. From there the bag construction was the same as the pattern. I used some simple hot pink cotton drill for the lining.

Then once I had finished the bag, I stressed out again. This bag is kinda LOUD. Bold prints, bright colours. What if Stephanie has a more understated style? But then I thought, it's not an everyday bag. It's large, so it's more of a beach bag or library bag. Maybe a gym bag. Or even a bag to keep her latest unfinished sewing project in, so all the pieces are together.

The size of this bag is really great so in my head I am already planning another one, this time for me to take to work so I can fit my lunch, drink bottle, book and handbag. Better add it to the ever growing to-do list...

Sending you all lots of love on this Valentine's Day!