Royal Festival of Quilts

So this year I made it. And it was ACE. So much to look at and take in. It was less busy than last time so you could really browse through everything. I saw lots of lovely things. I tend to like the quilts on the stalls as they are more simple. The ones in the exhibition were all amazing; so much effort and skill involved, but sometimes I wished they were simpler. I guess they wouldn't make the grade if they were. The historical stand had the best quilts as always but of course, no photos allowed. I think it all makes me realise that as much as I love all the modern bright fabrics and quilt designs, I still sigh happily when I see one that looks like it has come from Little House on the Prairie. Anyway here is some of what caught my eye. There was so much though. There is more on Flickr.

I'm quite into the idea of doing a block a month sampler. There is something very higgledepigglede about them which appeals to me plus you learn new techniques but don't have to slave over and over making them in one huge quilt. I like the colours in the above. I just need to hunt out the right pattern.

Not bad! A lot of work in that.

But this is the one which convinced me. I love the fabric choices (so much for being old fashioned). I love the amount of paper piecing involved. I have wanted to do a clamshell quilt for a while so this might be a good test. I am sold! Now just need to get started. More pics in a later post.

Here we go. I am really taken by solids at the moment. There is something so simple about them. Oakshott fabric is so nice, it's well posh. It has a lovely shot quality to it. So I must make this quilt! The lady on the stall convinced me. She took me by both arms and shook me. I was sold. I reckon she sold tonnes of this fabric with the shake technique!

First time ever I didn't buy something from Kim at Worn and Washed! Crikey, I must be feeling ill. I decided that I hadn't touched any of the stuff I bought from her at Duxford so I should reign it in a bit. She had some lovely Liberty fabric though. Quite a few people are stocking it now. It's obviously IN bigtime!

The CottonPatch stall was amazing and bright as ever. It's so tempting! For once, I managed to restrain myself and only bought 1 fat quarter. But when they put bright basketfulls out like that it is SO tempting.

They had a lot of lovely modern quilts on display at CottonPatch.

There were some amazing things on display. These mini log cabins must have taken ages! They are so perfect. They gradiated out into a full rainbow.

They won a prize they were so good.

I've been wanting to do a Baltimore quilt for a long time. I just need to find the right block patterns. I really liked this one. It's traditional which I think is the way to go, but I likt the use of slightly more contemporary fabric.

I love the border fabric. The whole thing went really well together. It was huge!

The miniature quilts are always my favourite. They are just SO small and perfect. I have no idea how people do them. This was so tiny. How can they stop the fabric from just fraying. What size seams must they have? The mind boggles.

I love the giant rickrack in the centre and the colours and the spots. I also like the random little squares in the border. It just felt warm ad cosy.

I thought the colours and the applique on this quilt was great. There's more in the flickr set. I took loads of pictures! Some would say too many, but I was excited. It was a great weekend. I'll do a separate post on what I bought in the end.

Crochet roll

I made a new crochet roll! It's all yellows and oranges, my colours.

It's not as neat as the last one. But it only took a long naptime. Something to do during some extra long ill naptimes. Perfect for a rainy day in.

I love the Pink Chalk pattern. It's so easy to use. I never tire of it! Just what you need when you have no brain power and little time. All the bigger projects are languishing at the moment as everytime I get them out I make a mistake then I have to put them away again.

It also only used bits from the stash. I was thinking I might never use these Amy Butler fat quarters I was given, but it all worked out nicely. A birthday present for under a fiver!

I quite like the fabric now I have used it. I was thinking of getting rid of it as my love for Amy Butler fabric seems to have declined, but now I see it finished I am pleased it is so bright and jolly. It reminds me of the very first knitting needle roll I made.

I'm sorry to see my weird yellow button go, but it fitted perfectly.

I made loads of mistakes as usual, but I did manage to get the pocket the right height so you can see the sizes of the crochet hooks. Now I just need to make myself one as my needles are just stuffed in a jar. Typical. The ill sleeper has decided not to sleep today so there will be no sewing, just a lot of grizzling and playing with plastic toys which play the same tune over and over and over again. Joy.

A Wallis Baby Quilt

After making the iPad holder, I decided to try my hand at making a small baby quilt with the scraps. It's a really tiny quilt, best for a moses basket or cot I expect. I just don't have the gumption to make anything bigger, plus I really hate making 60° quilts. I love how they look, but I find them so hard to line up as the material is always so stretchy. I am sure my technique is terrible.




It took me weeks and weeks and weeks to do each of the smaller triangle units. I was grabbing a minute here, a minute there. You really can't leave a baby to amuse themselves can you? In desperation I started using the sewing machine during nap time which is never ideal as it's enough to wake up the delicate sleeper. She needs to harden up to the sound of sewing sooner or later! I am glad I am getting the use out of the 60° ruler I bought. It's really great. You can see I cut long strips to begin with. I really starched the fabric first to minimise stretch.




Stupidly though I should have done open seams. I just couldn't get them right so there are terrible lumps where all the points meet. It's a lot of fabric. Then when I came to sewing them, the minute I removed the pin the top layer would be dragged a little bit by the machine and nothing would quite line up. Jeeez. In the end, I just had to be cool about its wonkiness. I am sure most people have wonky quilts up close.




I couldn't decide what binding to do. Spots or solid. In the end I chose solids because I felt the quilt was already quite busy. I think the big print fabric needs to be shown in bigger swathes really. It was also the first time I have quilted 1/4" either side of the ditch rather than in it. I like the star pattern in creates in the middle.




I'm not 100% about my pink backing, but I thought it would pick out the pink of the girls dress. I think I need to get used to it. Let's just hope it's a girl! Stupidly I totally forgot to tape down the backing before I basted it so the whole back has a crease in it. It's so small and yet I get a huge crease. How could I have been so dense? Sometimes I amaze myself. Going backwards is for losers though so I left it. My mum would be horrified. She is a great unpicker of things. I have seen her unpick massive double bed quilt tops just because she thinks the balance is wrong.




And of course, no quilt is complete with a few tags.




So you might think I have just slagged this quilt off, but it is only because I wanted it to be perfect, specially seeing as I have lost my mind since having a baby. All in all I wanted it to be tasteful, not too garish and contemporary. I hope I succeeded in these things. Next I might make a log cabin version just to use up the very last bits. Waste not want not.

Homemade Taggie

I decided to make a taggie for Penelope as she is obsessed with labels at the moment. She spends ages fiddling with them and sucking them.



Luckily I have a huge ribbon collection. I always save it off presents and buy it when I see it going cheap. My big love is neon ribbon which Paperchase often sell. Of course my first attempt shown above meant I sewed all the labels on the inside. I had to pick the whole thing apart and start again.



But I was pretty pleased with the end result. It's 7" which is just the right size!



Som details, including a few nametapes

Sewing Machine Cover

I decided to make a sewing machine cover at long last. I really had no idea how to make one. I seem to draw a blank when I think of anything which isn't a flat object. Suddenly it seemed to involve dressmaking techniques which is not really my thing. But I thought I would just start at the beginning and give it a go. I knew I wanted to try my hand at piping as I have been thinking about making some cushions so I thought this could be a test. I bought this bundle of fat quarters with this project in mind so I just had to buy some bias binding for the piping cord.

 
My problem was that I always keep the table extension connected these days so the cover couldn't go all the way to the bottom of the machine. I debated making something with flaps and big covers to go over the plastic but it all started to get too complicated in my head.

 
The piping cord was the biggest challenge. I did it really badly. I need to read up exactly how to do it. You can't notice it at a distance but up close you can see that it's not as tight to the edge as it should be.

 
I also made quite a few mistakes sewing the cord, until I realised there is a special foot for it! D'oh! Once I started using that it was a hole heap easier. I enjoyed learning something new though and I find I have an affection for these experimental learning projects. I totally missed out the quilting bit though so the whole thing is a bit baggy. It does the job though.

 

iPad holder tutorial

If you ever have need of an iPad holder to attach to a cot then below is how I made it. It only took a few hours and I'm really slow!

The best bit was going through my stash and choosing fabric. I couldn't decide what combination to use. I spent ages looking at combinations. It was really nice. I chose the top right combination in the end which is

1. Trefle by Kokka Forest Friends, Girl and Bear Picking Apples. This is my outside fabric
2. Kei Honeycomb Dots in - Blue. This is my intside fabric
3. Windham Fabrics McCalls Dots - Green. This is my binding.

You need:
A. 2 x Main panel 10 1/2" x 8 1/2" from fabrics 1 & 2
B. 2 x Pocket panel 10 1/2" x 5 1/2" from fabrics 1 & 2 
C. 4 x 10 1/2" x 2" Straps from fabrics 1 & 2 Plus iron on interfacing for each shape cut 1/2" smaller
D. 1 x 10 1/2" x 1 1/2" from fabric 3

I ironed the interfacing onto the wrong side of all the big blue dotty inside fabric leaving approx 1/4 gap all the way round. It doesn't have to be that accurate. It just makes your seams a bit less bulky. You could do it same size if you wanted.

The pocket Take both parts of your C shape which form the pocket and sew right sides together along one long edge. This is going to be the top of your pocket so make sure your fabric is the way up you want it. Iron seams flat.

Press flat your binding in half lengthwise and sew one wrong side edge to the pocket seam. Then press the other edge 1/4" in and fold your fabric over the top of the pocket. You should see the middle of the fabric becomes the edge of the binding and the 1/4" folds in so you have a nice neat edge to the fabric.

I then turn the whole thing over so the sewn edge is facing upright and sew along the edge of the binding making sure that the edge underneath is larger so the needle is bound to pierce it. it's easy to show in pictures.

Then sew 2 straps from shape C leaving a short edge gap so I can turn them right side out. Once you have done that I attached velcro (I can't do button holes). I measured the bars of the cot to work out where to place the velcro but it's roughly at the top seam and 1" from the bottom. 1/4" at the bottom you will lose when you sew the straps into the main body.

With all the elements done, you then construct your sandwich. 1st you place the backing A fabric right side up, then you place the pocket on top the way you want it to look at the end, so I want the bears facing front and the dots inside the pocket. Then you pin your straps so they meet the seam at the top part of the main (A) fabric panel. I put them 1/4" to 1/2" in from the edge so I don't sew over them when I sew all round. Then lastly I place my main fabric for panel A with the right side facing in. Then I start sewing 1/4 of the way towards the end of the longest edge of the panel without the straps. I do a few backwards and forwards stitches as I am going to pull this seam when I turn the whole thing inside out. I go round the entire shape taking my time with the bulky straps until I am 1/4 way in from the long edge I started on. This should give me 1/2 of the length in which to turn the whole thing inside out. Again I do backwards stitching at the end to make the seam strong.

Here's the gap I have left. I turn everything the right way round and press it all flat. I take care to press the seam here so I can then run the sewing machine along the whole line near the edge.


Then to finish off I bring all my threads to one side and knot them. Then with a big needle, I thread the ends back into the fabric and cut them off.


Done!

iPad holder

Penelope is growing. She is also waking in the night but self-soothing. Great! But. She moves. Since day one we have placed an iPad or iPhone at the top of the cot so we can play her low level white noise. Oh how she loves the sound of a loud washing machine. It used to have the power to stop her colic scream. When she was first born it worked a treat and to be honest we've just kept it going as it masks the sounds of us creaking the floorboards when we go past her room. She's getting a lot better at sleeping through sounds now but she is also waking more with teething pain. So I decided now was not the time to wean her off her sound. But she can move up the cot now and can get perilously close to the iPad. So I decided to make a holder for it so we hang it vertically inside the cot.

I am not sure if anyone would have need of this save me, but I enjoyed making it! It hangs off both our cot and our Babybay crib.

I made it so the iPad speaker wasn't muffled. I might post up a pattern for it, even though I am sure no one really needs one!