A cute little finish!

I just don't know where the time goes but, I don't seem to get many things finished at the moment.  Perhaps the beautiful weather we have been having here has something to do with it..... we have been out and about rather a lot in the mountains!! It is cooler up higher!

This weekend I was determined to get one small project I have been meaning to get done for some time crossed off my 'to do' list. As luck would have it, it was pouring with rain all day on Saturday, so the perfect day to be in my sewing room.

A couple of years ago we were given a very pretty metal bread basket for Christmas by another family member.  I really like it, so I use it all the time (almost daily).  It is by the Danish designer Georg Jensen and I really love his style of designs.  Nearly every time I cut bread into it, I line it first with a square of kitchen paper towel and then throw that away after we have used it. 

For months now I have been promising myself that I would make myself a quilted fabric liner to put in my basket.  Well, this was that day!  I had decided to just make a simple patchwork square using scraps but, as I was sitting in my sewing room pondering on my scraps, I was drawn to look in a book I haven't used for a while. 'Flower Power Patchwork' by Anne-Pia Godske Rasmussen and found a pretty star block which used up some scraps and which I really liked.

So I set to and made myself a basket liner using just one star block.

I used a fat eighth of fabric for the main background pieces and the rest were all scraps.

I  was thrilled with my new basket liner and put it straight to use!!

Just one small finish this week.....

It seems to have been another busy week.  Don't they just fly by?!! I haven't done a huge amount of stitching but I have just managed one small finish. You may recall, that I have been participating in a sew-a-long hosted by Serena Boffa Soda of La Casetta Nel Bosco as part of a Facebook group.  Well, the last stitch for the sampler was on Wednesday so, once I had completed the last stitch, I decided that I should frame the sampler.

To do this, I layered the sampler fabric with some batting and backing and added some quilting.  I then trimmed it to 7 inches square and fused some heavyweight interfacing to the back.  I finished the edges with a satin stitch in green thread to match the embroidery thread I had used.  I then stuck this to the mount board (which I covered with a complimentary coloured paper) and put it inside the frame.  It wasn't easy to photograph in the frame as there always seemed to be a shine from the glass!!

That must mean it's time to start another new project......!! 

Not everything goes according to plan!

I think I should probably start this post by sharing with you the finished project that I showed you in my last post.... complete with it's frame!!

In fact, the frame arrived just after I had finished writing my last post and I had almost forgotten that I hadn't shown it to you!!  I am really pleased with how this little framed quilt looks. You may recall how excited I was to have finished this little project and, that I was keen to get started on another new project.

I started planning almost immediately, making good progress and getting an exciting new background pieced together, which is shown above.  I wanted to try out another 'floral' art-style quilt like the ones I had previously made (shown below).

So, the next step was to quilt the background before adding some applique and free machine embroidery.  This is where things didn't quite go according to plan!! I had almost finished the quilting and was relatively happy with how the background was looking until disaster struck.....

The corner of the backing fabric got folded back on itself and the corner was stitched to the middle of the quilt.  I cut the fabric away but, I knew it would be difficult to unpick the quite densely quilted stitches.

In any case, I had now decided that the quilting was too formal for the type of texture I wanted to give the background. So, I decided to chalk the whole thing up to experience and just be content with the FMQ practise it had given me.

I had thought that I would throw the whole thing in the dustbin but, I didn't really want to waste the fabrics and time that I had spent quilting by just throwing the piece away.  I suddenly remembered a pattern Christina Cameli at A Few Scraps wrote for quilted fabric buckets and which Christina kindly offers as a free pattern in her Craftsy Shop. She also wrote an accompanying video showing you how to make them in this post in November of last year.  My discarded background fabric was just the right size to make two little fabric buckets which I am extremely pleased with!  Now to get started on the new background.....

Waiting for a frame.....

Hope everyone had a lovely week!  I have managed to finish the new project that I showed you last time and it is now sitting in my sewing room while I wait for a new frame that I have ordered to be delivered.

I am really very pleased with how it looks. I used a real mixture of different techniques and added both applique and hand stitching as well as free motion quilting.

I learned a lot of lessons along the way as to how I would do things differently another time, which is always very valuable!!

As this was only a very small project, I chose not to use traditional binding for finishing the edges.  Instead, I fused some very stiff fusible interfacing onto the back and zig-zag stitched around the edge.

I then mounted it onto mount board (the board used to mount photographs) and it is all ready to be framed.  We are just waiting for the frame to arrive!!

This little project was my fourth finish in the month of June.

You can see the other finishes which I completed in June under my page OPAM 2018 (which is shown on the right hand sidebar.)  Thank you to Peg and Kris for running OPAM which keeps a tally of all the finished projects of those participating.

I am very excited now to get started on my next project!  I have so many ideas but it has been so hot here the last few days, I haven't really felt like sitting in my sewing room!  I know I won't be able to resist for long though..... !!

Another new project.....

After all the excitement of finishing two projects last week, I don't have quite as much to show you this time.  I have started on a new little 'art' quilt project which is taking shape quite nicely.  This is how it is looking so far....

As well as that, I have managed to keep up with adding the latest stitches to the 'Sew Simple Things Sampler' designed by Serena Boffa Soda of La Casetta Nel Bosco.  I really love this little sampler and I can't wait to add the next new stitch which will be released tomorrow.

On the subject of keeping up, I haven't been very good at keeping up with the monthly blocks of Gail Pan's wonderful i-stitch-club BOM.

The stitcheries are really sweet and a lot of fun to work and, I even have all the designs traced out onto my back ground fabric ready for stitching but, I just don't seem to have had the chance to get to them yet.

I did manage to get another of the February blocks appliqued into place, so I am making a little progress!!

Until next time, I hope you are enjoying some sunshine! 

Some finished projects to show you....

I am very excited today to show you the result of the 'experiment' that I wrote about in my last post.  I had such a lot of fun adding free motion applique/embroidery details to this little piece of patchwork that I had previously quilted.

After adding the applique shapes to the altered background, I set about free motion embroidering over the applique shapes to add detail and definition to the shapes.  This is not as easy as it sounds.

I originally added the detail to the seed heads in a green thread to match the fabric that I had used for the applique which looked quite nice to start with. 

However, once I had added the details to the leaves in brown,

the green didn't look quite right, so I had to add some brown to them as well.

I then added some extra details, including the butterflies and the sequin 'berries' and I am really happy now with the end result.  So happy in fact, that I started another quilt made in a similar way.

This one I pieced together using some lovely hand-dyed fabrics which I bought from the In Stitches Studio.  They are just perfect for making this sort of quilt. I then quilted the background with wavy lines using my walking foot.

Then the fun started!! I added some simple 'poppy' applique shapes, including a bud and some seed heads and then filled in the details using free motion embroidery.  

Finally, I added some hand stitching to complete the centres of the poppies and the flight paths of the butterflies.

I am really enjoying exploring these techniques and can't wait to get started on my next project!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a creative week!

Working on something new....

For some little while now I have had an idea floating round in the back of my mind that I have been wanting to try.  Well, you know how it is, life is busy and the idea gets pushed to the back of your mind but, it keeps popping back up, reminding you that it needs some attention.  So I have finally given my idea some attention.

My first landscape quilt

I just love all the different styles of textile art and quilts that you see on the internet.  There are some seriously talented people about!  One style that I particularly like are landscape quilts and you may recall that I tried one of those fairly recently and told you about it in my last post. I will definitely be trying another at some stage too. Another style that I really like are the more abstract pieces which often feature flowers or seed heads and I have been itching to have a go at one.

Practice quilt (including butterfly design)

At the end of last week I sorted out a small free-motioned quilt that I had made as a practice piece to audition quilting designs for a larger quilt that I was making for a friend. I had thought that this little practice piece would make the perfect back drop for some applique which could be quilted over and turned into a textile art quilt (well, that was the plan but it is a bit of an experiment!) 

Quilted butterfly

The small quilt was already quilted but, one of the designs was a butterfly which I didn't really want in the background of what I was planning.  So the first thing I had to do was unpick the butterfly quilting.  I then re-quilted the area with the same background pattern that I had quilted the rest of the quilt with.

Practice quilt with background requilted
and applique shapes added

Now I have added some applique shapes and the idea is that I will quilt over the applique to create seed heads and leaves.  So far I have just quilted over one of the seed head pieces but, I am really enjoying myself and I like the results so far!  I'll let you know how the experiment progresses!

Applique seed head with quilted detail 

In the meantime, I have also finished stitching the next stitch to be added to the 'Sew Simple Things Sampler' designed by Serena Boffa Soda of La Casetta Nel Bosco.  I am really loving the pretty design.

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely week.