January sewing

 So this year I signed up for the 52 week sewing challenge on Facebook. I've made it to week 4 ok, I'm not sure I'll be able to do all the challenges as I find myself thinking of new things I could do to meet the challenge instead of making things from my to-do list!

Week 1

Week 1 was "organise your sewing space", as I'm currently using the kitchen table for sewing, I organised my storage space instead and I went through and catalogued my fabric into albums on my phone so I can plan things without pulling everything out constantly. It was also annoying me that all my cotton thread was stored upstairs in my sewing box, so I found a tin to keep it in instead so I could bring it all up and down instead.

Week 2

Week 2 was "complete a work in progress/unfinished project". I had started making myself a tshirt and got really annoyed with the neckband after I had done it wrong twice, so I sat down and finished that off. It's still not perfect (the neckband should be ribbing really and I don't have any, so I used jersey which isn't really stretchy enough) but I will wear it anyway because I like the main fabric. And maybe one day I'll re-do the neck. (Pattern is Slim Fit Raglan from Patterns for Pirates, fabric is from Fabricasa but looks like they've sold out of that design)

Week 3

Week 3 was "make up a pattern you own that you've never made". Now I have several that fit that description, but in the end I decided to make up Hallå Patterns Twirly Skirt. It's a simple circle skirt so doesn't really need a pattern, but hey it's a free pattern and I don't have an easy way to draw a circle that big. Also it has pockets! Love pockets. I made it from some modal fabric that I'd acquired - mainly because I seem to buy 1m lengths of most things so I didn't have many pieces big enough - the modal feels nice to wear but it was very stretchy so a little difficult to work with especially on the hem.

Week 4

Week 4 was "make something for your head or feet" well I had promised a while ago to make a birthday crown for my friend's little girl so I did that. It's the same as the Christmas crowns I made, Crowning Glory from Made by Jack's Mum.

I also seem to be doing a "make all the cuddly toys" challenge with my toddler. I got a lovely panel from Bugweed's Fabrics and Crafts with easy cut and sew cuddly toys, and we've been making some of those up. She also requested an orange dinosaur, which we drafted from a picture in her dinosaur book, and soon it will be her friend's birthday so we made a pink bear using the free Plushie Pals pattern from Patterns for Pirates. (free patterns may be a theme - I do buy patterns but the free ones seem to be easier!)

Quilting: Sailboat - 26/1/12

This week's quilt block is a stylised picture of a boat. It has more pieces than the first two and so it's more complicated!
It has four colours and four different shapes. The colours are for the sky, the sea, the sails, and the boat. The shapes are small triangles, small recangles, long rectangle and trapezium (though you could make the trapezium out of one small rectangle and two triangles I suppose).
When you are sewing this block together, it's important to press the seams as you go, otherwise it will probably end up all lumpy at the back and won't lie flat at the end!
The pattern and number of shapes can be seen in the picture below

Cut pieces ready for sewing

First you sew the small triangles of sky to the sails (to make squares):

Then you sew the small squares together to make a big square (as in the double four-patch block), and then the rectangles of sky go on each side:

For the boat/sea half, first the trapezium boat sews onto the triangles of sea, then the long rectangle of sea goes along the bottom:

Finally top and bottom halves join together to make the finished block

My block has gone a bit crooked, I think this is because my final seam wasn't straight. I'll see how well the next few squares turn out, and if it's too annoying I'll unpick it and re-do it.

Two birthday cards - 29/10/11

The end of October/beginning of November seems to be a mini birthday season. Here are some cards I made the other day:

This card is an autumn theme as I have lots of skeleton leaves and also October is full of falling leaves. White card, pen & ink, stick-on flowers, skeleton leaves, stick-on letters.

This card is Halloween themed as this birthday is on October 31st. White card covered in dark blue paper, pumpkin made of orange paper with gold stars for eyes and nose, bats cut out of the blue paper, stick-on lettering.