Just Like Mums

My mother is a great maker of things. She has made things as long as I can remember. Some things just remind me of her and the things she makes. One of those things is William Morris. Every cushion, curtain and table cloth in our house seems to be made with William Morris material. The other day she showed me a sewing case she had made out of Morris material and weirdly enough the iPad fit in it perfectly so I borrowed it for a while. To be honest, Morris isn't an all-time love of mine, but there is something so... warm and familiar about it. Eventually I decided that I had to give it back as it wasn't really mine, but mum, meanwhile had ferreted out a remnant from our kitchen curtains and told me I should make my own. So this weekend I made my mumple ipad case! She chose every coloured item in order that it be 100% mum choice. And she made me do it properly!



Behold a corner of my parents house. You can see a Morris table cloth, a cushion, mums sewing bag on the left and the material she gave me laid out flat. I cut a section of the material 22" x 14" and backed it with some batting mum had lying around.



I drew chalk lines at 45° angles 1 1/2" increments. I picked out 5 threads and mum chose the blue.



I sewed over my chalk lines using mum's super duper Juki industrial machine which is so fast! I also sewed some velcro onto what would become the flap and the pocket front.



I added the inside backing underneath, pinned it together, trimmed the edges down to a finished size of 22" x 13". Then I sewed the binding onto the front flap and folded and pinned it into shape. I sewed round the whole thing 1/8" to stabalise it which you can see here as I hold it up against the kitchen curtain!



Then I sewed on the remainder of the 1 1/4" binding cit on the bias.



And here it is finished! Just like mum would make!

Finished!

I stayed up quite late but I finished it off. Now for the next project! Maybe I'll be a bit better with my measurements next time. I miscalculated the backing dimensions on this quite quite drastically hence the little patterned strip at the top, but I quite like it! I have also decided that Kei Honeycomb Dots are my favourite kind of dots ever. You can get them from Fabricworm or M is for Make.

My weekend

It's a quiet time to myself this weekend. There are lots of things I could be doing, but after Birmingham, I just wanted to have a weekend to myself so I sit down and make something with no outside interruptions. It's been great because I can stay up late and not go out in the daytime now it is pouring with rain.

I have a couple of small projects lined up to soften the longer, more intensive projects I am thinking about starting. One of my main problems is always space. I never have enough surface space to lay big quilts out. I find it hard feeding them through the sewing machine. They are just an effort in my space. So I decided to make a cutting mat quilt. Basically this just meant that it was no bigger than the mat, making it an easy thing to handle.

A while a go I saw this lovely backing on a quilt made by Namoo on Etsy, all in tasteful greys and yellows. I just thought it was ace and I wanted to make exactly the same thing. Of course these things never turn out the same because I always change my mind halfway through when I see the next thing I like!

Pinterest is my newest love as it allow me to make a virtual pinboard of all the things I see which inspire me. I think everyone should sign up and befriend me on it!

Anyway, Rachel and I had bought cheap brushed cotton sheets from Tescos for a fiver so I thought it could be lovely and soft. I had quite a few bits of material for it already and I picked up a few at Birmingham so I was all set. I decided to do just simple squares on the front and recreate the backing I had seen for it.


Because it's small, I had my first go at pin basting. I don't think it's perfect as I have one wrinkle in the back but it's pretty good considering it took minutes to baste.


Here it is all basted together last night. You can see where I had sewn two bits of wadding together. I get quite a few leftovers so it's good to use them up.


Then I stayed up late doing half the machine quilting, then I got up early and did the rest.


I don't think the back looks as nice with the criss cross pattern on it but you live and learn.

Now it's all trimmed and waiting for me to iron the material for the borders and attach that. Then I can sit and tie off the ends. I'll be done by tomorrow night! Until then...

What I bought!

So what did I buy at the quilt show? Wellll, I thought I did quite well, but I seem to have accumulated a lot. I don't know how it happened! Some things I needed... others... well, they will be useful one day!


At first I didn't buy very much. There was nothing I actually needed. It's quite nice not to feel you have to buy anything. One thing I did realise though is that I often just buy random fat quarters then I am annoyed when nothing quite matches. So when I saw the above material, I remembered it matched a similar set I bought from Chilford.


The one great thing I did get is this template which is just the right size for the big hexagons I am going to make. I also got pre-cut papers. How lazy am I? I was just so excited as I didn't think they would make either so big. If it makes life a little bit easier then why not?


Rachel showed me a great quilt pattern which I bought. We have decided both make it. Even though we still haven't made our sawtooth star quilt yet. The pattern asks for 18 far quarters but I think we will make it 2/3rds of the size. So we bought some material for it. I am very excited about it. More on that in a later post.


Petraprins was there again this year. My favourite stall can never go unmissed, but I felt quilt frugal this time which surprised me.


Another useful purchase. I am making a small quilt based on a lovely one I saw on Etsy. I loved the backing. I mean the front is nice, but the back really caught my attention. I felt that the colours were so tasteful, all yellows and greys, so I bought this material to go with it. More about that later!


And last but it least, I bought some material right near the end from The Eternal Maker, just because it looked pretty and I didn't want to have any regrets.

So that's it! My haul. I had a great time. I wish I had had longer as there is such a lot to look round. But I only would have spent more money!

Finished!

Another day, another quilt finally finished.



It's hard to show it as it's so white. It's lovely and soft and all hand quilted. I am very please with it.



I used grandad's pillow case for segments of the main quilt, as well as borders AND binding. I definitely made one pillowcase stretch out.



Apart from the pillowcase, this is my favourite material. I like the white stripes. I think it was an old table cloth.



I am very chuffed that I have managed to finish two big projects. I was starting to think I would never get anything actually finished.



Of course, it wouldn't be me if it didn't have a huge error in it. The above was supposed to show the lovely backing sheet I bought for a quid at Emmaus, but it also shows you that I had to create one of the white panels with some extra white material I had as my £1 white emmaus sheet ran out. Little did I realise until they were all sown up that the white is a different colour! Booo. But I think it fits in with the makeshift nature of the whole thing. This was definitely the cheapest quilt I have ever made... well apart from the original roll of fabric bought from Kim at Worn & Washed.

It's great how differently a roll of Kim's fabric works out based on which bit you choose and what you add to it.



This is the same roll I bought. This is the quilt I originally wanted to make, but along the way I changed my mind, probably when I saw this



I added old sheets and pillowcases, along with some scraps of material from the every growing scrapbag and suddenly the whole colour scheme moved slightly. Anyway, it's done and now I get to start something brand new!

Binding update

So this week I finally managed to have a go at using my binding tool. I followed the instructions and it worked perfectly. Definitely s good buy. A bit lazy perhaps but it elimates the errors I always make as I am terrible at maths.



I am very pleased with the binding. I used the very last bits of grandad's lovely pillowcase. I feel it is now saved forever. I even sewed the original label in so I can remember every part of it.

The Festival of Quilts

The festival of Quilts 2011 was on this week at the Birmingham NEC. Mum wasn't going this year which made me very sad, but I decided to go along for the day anyway and see what was going on. The pendalino train affected me quite badly this time and I have basically felt sick all weekend ever since! It's a terrible affliction travel sickness. But it didn't stop me looking at all the amazing quilts and buying lots of things I didn't need! I thought it was a bit less busy this year which was nice as it was easier to see things, especially the Cotton Patch which has a lot of the contemporary material and which is usually rammed.



This year I was quite fixated on quilts that are very bright or totally patterned. I think to make myself feel better about my crazy technicolour quilt. Here are some pictures from the show.


Pattern overload, but it kind of works.


All the colours ever conceived, but it works.


The ever tasteful Kaffe Fasset. In the end I felt rather good about my quilt. Then I just moved on to looking at everything!


This quilt was really amazing. I don't think you quite see that here.


After doing a single girl quilt, I can really appreciate how hard double wedding ring is. This one is perfect.


I was really drawn to the hand rendered things this year. It was so perfect. It makes me realise I just need to be better!


The sheer size of some of the hand rendered stuff just blows your mind. I mean how long did that take to make? It's amazing.


Just look at the detail! It's perfect.


Another perfect detail...


From this huge quilt! Lovely.


I like scalloped edges. I have only done it once and it was surprising easy. It might be time for another go at it soon.


I am very interested in solid colours at the moment and how they go together.


My favourite section is always the mini quilt section.


They are tiny! They are obviously made by mice or robots.


I also like the three dimensional section. There is always something crazy! I love these little lace people.


I've never done a class but this one looked good.


I think they were making this long wall hanging.

Anyway, It's a huge post. Tomorrow I will show you what I bought and show you my finished quilt! That makes two quilts I finished before the show, which hopefully justifies some of my big spend.