Making a miniature quilt

The Quilt blocks part way through assembling the quilt.

I've been having a little fun making something very simple for a change. This is a foundation pieced Miniature Whirlwind Quilt. I had decided to have a bit of a break from my lengthy list of projects, and make something where the design was already set. The result is this set of sixteen pieced blocks. I shall quilt these very simply and add sashing and a border.

The completed 12" square centre.

The design comes from http://quilting.about.com/. You will find the design here. There are a number of other quilt designs to choose from. The prompt to make something like this came form an online group, one of the My Sewing Circle forums which was starting a quiltalong. I just couldn't get my head around any of the projects I really should have been getting on with, so decided to have a go. I really didn't fancy making a twelve inch square block, so looked around for a design for a miniature quilt which would end up being 12 inches square. This little quilt when finished will probably turn into a cushion cover. I have plenty of these fabrics left over to make another three cushions. Perhaps by the end of doing these my piecing may have improved.

My finished edge to edge cardie, or waistcoat.

During the past week I finished off my waistcoat. I haven't worn it yet since it has been rather too warm. However, it is really nice and I am looking forward to wearing it later in the year. first posted about this project here.

The next project a cardigan.

My new project is just about ready to be started. Pink is really not my colour and so my version is going to be a pale green. As you might have noticed, this project is also in the same booklet as the edge to edge cardigan above. It is unusual for me to knit more than one project from a book, but this will be my third.
The first project and the book itself were written about here. The completed first cardigan was shown here.
I haven't knitted so much in months.

Now that the knitted elements of my wardrobe are under way I really ought to start getting some clothing sewn. As you can see, I have already bought the fabric. From the top here is some wadding, two patterned fabrics - a soft cotton destined for blouses and some blue chambray which is going to become a new skirt. The bottom fabric is a soft poly-cotton fabric which will become the skirt lining. All these fabrics, apart from the wadding has now been laundered and is awaiting a final ironing before I can start cutting out and sewing. I am hoping that it won't be too long before I can get started.

Making a bag from made fabric.

This is the bag I made from the fabric shown in the previous two posts. It is a very simple cylindrical bag, twelve inches tall with an internal zipped pocket, two large external pockets and padded handles. The tops of the bag and pocket are bound - this was sewn into place by machine and then handstitched into place to leave no stitchline.



The two pieces of fabric I used were: 26 inches long and 12 and a half inches tall (for the main bag), and 26 inches by 8 and a half inches for the outer pockets. I put a piece of wadding inside the main bag to give it some "body". It now stands well.

The base was constructed very simply after the main pieces had been sewn together to form a cylinder. The basic bag structure then became the outline for the base. I quilted this to give it some shape. The chalk marks show the internal dimensions of the bag itself.



This was then sewn to the main bag, being careful to not stitch in the lining - this was then handsewn into place.

The bag has now gone to it's new owner. It was constructed as part of a Swap organised by the United Kingdom group on My Sewing Circle. The theme for the swap was "Stash busting/repurpose". Mine used fabric scraps and pieces from my stash.

At present I am considering writing up this pattern as a free tutorial. Please let me know if you would like to have a copy.

A new year and new projects.

Now where can I start? It is such a very long time since I added anything to this blog. Apologies to all. It has been busy here.

First, a very happy New Year to you. I hope the weather is kind to you and everyone you know. A belated Happy Christmas too.

I have been working at completing my mother's quilt, a jumper for Simon, two hats, eight Christmas decorations and four present bags since I last wrote here. Oh yes, there was also the November page, some work on a December page and preparations for the January page of the Traveling Pages project. There was also a pair of dungarees for a neighbours daughter too. I also started a second jumper which now only needs to be sewn together and the v-neck ribbing to be knitted. This last jumper uses yarn left over form the first jumper I knitted for Simon and will be either for my husband, or for myself.

January has started with painted and printed fabric.

The first piece is the result of painting fabric and then overprinting using old cotton reels and various bits and pieces.

This second sheet is my cleaning rag. I think it look even more interesting than the printed piece.

This piece was an experiment using pastel dye sticks. I've never tried using these before. This piece just needs to be ironed to be fixed. It was fun to doodle with these brightly coloured sticks.

Some of this fabric is destined for the January page (Fairy Tales), and the rest just because I felt like having some fun. It is so dull and wet outside. Our beautiful snow has disappeared and been replaced by fog and driving rain. The walk we usually enjoy on New Years Day abandoned because of the weather. Never mind, there is always tomorrow.

Some explanation is probably needed. The decorations were an experiment which came about to solve my quandry over what to make for a challenge laid down by the United Kingdom group on My Sewing Circle. We each had to make something for another member of the group for Christmas. A previous challenge had been to make an apron. I found myself cutting out paper shapes at lunchtime one day. These turned into the decorations. They were good fun to make. Then the latest Selvedge magazine had a delightful pattern inside for a reversible present bag. I made a mistake in cutting out the first one and turned it into a small bag with a handle instead of a small bag with a tie. I made four since they seemed so easy and quick to make whilst being incredibly useful for presents.

This is the reverse of the bag.

One little bag was sent off containing four of the decorations I made. The other decorations became presents, as did the remaining bags. One bag held the completed hats which were a present to Simon and Liz, a secret since the jumper was an expected item. A further little bag held gifts for my younger daughter. The last was given as a gift to my friend Hilary.

The first hat is Hot Cuppa Joe by Jennifer Lacey. The pattern is available on Ravelry here.

The second hat has the wicked (naughty) title of "Ribbed for his pleasure." This pattern, by Tinksdarkerside, is also available on Ravelry here.

I like to think the fabric bags may be used in some way, or given as the container of a gift to further friends. Each little bag is large enough to be a small prject bag - perhaps to hold knitting or an embroidered piece.

The dungarees were an unexpected project. My neighbour became very worried since she was not able to find a suitable costume for her daughter who was taking part in the school play. Time was short. I heard about it and offered to help. A bit of research and a suitable design was decided upon. Eleanor, the eleven year old daughter, and her mother came round to help. Eleanor was delighted to be able to help sew the muslin for her dungarees. She was shown how to use my serger and had a wonderful time sewing a couple of long seams for me. With the muslin completed and altered to fit, they left me to get on with things. Luckily, I had exactly the right fabric in my stash. The following evening I was able to go round and present the completed dungarees to Eleanor and her mum.

I shall have to wait until the Traveling Pages mentioned have been received by their owners. The December and January ones have still to be completed, but hopefully they will be completed within the next few days. All the previous pages I have made for this project can be seen here.

Mum's quilt was finally completed on Thursday 30th December. She was delighted with it. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of her with it before she left to go home. (She had stayed here for the New Year celebrations, coming with Simon and Liz.) I shall take photos later in the week when I go to see mum again.

Thanks for reading this far. I wish you a very happy, enjoyable and creative 2011.

Recent "work" - sewn items.

This is a the lovely apron I received as part of the swap I mentioned in my last post. Thanks Cinnamon23! I was taking part in a swap organised by one of the groups on My Sewing Circle.

This is the pattern I used. I slightly amended the design, adding fabric covered buttons as a detail on the pockets. Interfacing was also added to the waistband to make it just a little stiffer. I did that only because the fabric I was using - some poly-cotton I had dyed some years ago - needed a little stiffening to balance the cotton fabric used for the rest of the apron.

Sent along with the apron was one of these little needle cushions.

The needle cushions have a little metal tag on the bottom to hold them on top of a thread spool. The pattern found in the book below, has a paper clip as the tag. However, the paperclips I have here at home were far too wide to be used. The metal tags I did use had been found as part of the packaging of a shirt my husband had bought........... Did I tell you that I don't find it easy to throw anything away? Well, nothing I think I can reuse in some way........................

You can see the buttons I covered in the same photo.

This is the book I used. It is written in Japanese, but the instructions are so beautifully clear and shown as illustrations it was easy to work out what to do. There are some beautiful gift items in this book. The ISBN is: 4-89396-943-9

I made two blouses using this pattern. It has been in my pattern collection for some time.........

The first blouse is a viscose mix with a soft cotton handle.

The second, a jacquard woven silk which has been languishing in my fabric stash since around 1990!

Then I finally got my skirt finished. It is fully lined. The lining was a lucky find a couple of years ago. I can't usually get such a nice lining fabric and hadn't seen such lovely viscose lining fabric in rather too many years......

This photo shows the lining pinned to the inside of the zip.

Then, I managed to get this jacket completed. I added a lining using the last of the fabric I used to line the skirt.

Now, I have nearly finished the Traveling Pages for August. I am rather behindhand as you can see. Sadly I cannot show you the work done on that page until it has been received by Liz. What I can tell you is that so far it has involved some machine stitching, calligraphy and fabric paint. There is some beading still to be done.............

Exciting times.

This evening, I have been busily sewing a weighted pincushion organiser. Hopefully this will help me to keep everything easily within reach. This is currently a sew-a-long on the http://www.mysewingcircle.com/ site. The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman for Sew Mama Sew. I can really recommend this pattern since it is really well written with a lot of useful photos.

This is the completed bag.
The first photo shows the construction of the weighted bag which is later concealed inside the pincushion. I ended up making mine out of a rather darkly patterned fabric. This will not matter when the whole thing is finished since I have made the rest out of some curtain material I had left over in my stash.

Part of the morning was spent very usefully in the garden.

With my husband's help, I now have a printing board! Yes!!

Why is this so exciting? Well, I have been planning for this for some time now. I can't remember when I bought the felt for the first two layers - it must have been some time back in the autumn. The old striped cotton sheet was bought around that time too - a lucky find in a charity shop.

Now I can start playing around with some screenprinting.

I bought the screens and the fabric printing medium some time ago too. I know I bought my first screen at a show last year. Now I just need to prepare the first screen and I am set to go!

Oh, and I started knitting a pair of socks during the week. The yarn is Happy by Wendy and the colourway is Scorpio. I picked it up rather cheaply in a yarn sale at Hobbycraft. Despite the photograph, I have actually almost finished the first sock - just another four inches to go.

There has been a lot of quilting going on too - the first strip of four squares has been sewn together for Rosie's quilt. The sashing has been quilted too since I took this photo.