Getting crafty

I've not had a lot of enthusiasm for crafts of late as my mind has been totally occupied with the shop developments. I had however signed up for a silk painting class, weeks ago and as it was being run by the lovely Sue from WISH I felt I had to make the effort to go along and I was so glad I did. Our group are such a friendly bunch and soon my stresses were forgotten for the evening while we learned how to apply Gutta to the silk and create our chosen designs. I desperately wanted to do a chicken but couldn't find or draw a picture suitable on the night so I ended up redoing one of my silks at home later in the week.
Last night we went back to paint our pictures, there were such a wide variety of designs and feeling much less stressed than I had the week before I really enjoyed the evening.

The first silk I painted was done on an embroidery hoop. I did this one first so that I could practise the required technique in the hopes I wouldn't make any mistakes on my chicken design.

It's a floral design about as big as a tea plate, but my favourite is definitely my chicken picture below

My chicken picture a little smaller than A4 size

So while I was in the crafty mood I decided to 'Jubilee' a top for L to wear to school on Friday. They're hoping to have a Jubilee picnic and are allowed to wear Red, White & Blue. I'm not really in a position to buy new outfits for them all to wear to school for one day (M's high school is doing the same) so I got R a cheap Union Jack themed T-shirt from the supermarket and treated L to a Union Jack head band and matching earrings. She has some lovely little denim shorts piped in red with red buttons and cherries on the back pockets and she also had this blue and white striped t-shirt

 It's OK but a bit on the plain side for a Jubilee Picnic, so I had a rummage through my fabric, buttons and ribbons and after about ten minutes I'd made her this little rosette to add to it. I decided to pin it rather than sew it on so then she can use it on other items if she wants to.

The button is just a random one from my box, the red and white ribbons were offcuts left from previous makes, the blue ribbon was actually a hanging loop that I cut out of a dress of mine and the red fabric was left over from when I made my Union Jack cushion so it cost me nothing at all to make, I hope L likes it!

WISH Quilt, 2 Dresses and a Cushion!

Last Night I went to my first WI St Helens craft class, which is an introduction to quilt making. There are ten of us in the group and we're being led by a lovely lady called Val. I made my first simple quilt at Christmas using a fleece blanket as backing, but I'd love to know how to make a proper quilt with layers and binding. Hopefully through the class I will pick up some new skills. Val has provided each of us with enough fabric to make two blocks that will be put together to make one group quilt that we will all have helped to make. I think the idea is to raffle the quilt within the group at the end of our sessions so one lucky person will get to take it home, but we'll all get to learn new skills so that we can go on to make more quilts of our own.
The material chosen is red, white and blue, a favourite combination of mine, so I was very happy.
Val talked us through the instructions, gave us our fabric and sent us on our way to make our two blocks, at home before the next meeting in two weeks time. I decided to make my two blocks today while the instructions were still fresh in my mind. I think they turned out alright, I'm hoping they have! It's totally different when you're making things for other people.

All that's left for me to do is embroider a little motif on each one to identify them as mine.
Making the blocks left me in the mood for sewing and the blocks hadn't taken very long at all. So, inspired by the colour theme of the WISH quilt  I decided to make a Union Jack cushion, which is something I've been meaning to have a go at for ages. I went through my fabric stash and did have some reds and blues but I wasn't really happy with them. Then I remembered that there were a couple of school summer dresses lurking in the girls bedroom upstairs. They somehow dodged the last charity collection and now I'm glad they did!
That then reminded me that I'd been keeping a dress that someone had given me for my girls, but sadly it had a stain on it that I could not get out. It was red polka dot and I loved the material so kept it with the intention of putting it to use in a craft project one day. Today was that day.

Two dresses ready to be up-cycled

Both dresses had full skirts to there was plenty of fabric so I'm pleased to say I still have some left.
I had a cushion pad from Ikea (I always have one spare) I cut a square of the blue gingham from the school dress and strips and two pieces for the back of the cover from the red dress. I also cut two tinnner strips from some plain red fabric.
I was making all this up as I went a long as I had no pattern to follow, so it was trial and error.

I simply ironed the edges on both sets of strips before sewing on to the gingham and used red thread to coordinate.

Simple slip opening for  the back

The Front

I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It didn't take long to make and it didn't cost anything either! After I made the cushion I saw a post from CaraFreckles all about up-cycling. There are some wonderful ideas in it and I keep thinking of all the things I could make from the children's outgrown clothes.
Today was a good day on the making front. I made my Quilt pieces, up-cycled two dresses into a cushion and topped up my stash with the left over fabric and buttons. I also cut out some hearts but I think I might save those for another day.

A quilt's not just for Christmas.....

We have three girls and a boy, which when giving gifts can be tricky. It's easy to give the girls similar things but sometimes hard to find something that suits all four children. I like to make them all a gift at Christmas and last year I made them all rolls ups, make up and stationary ones for the older girls and pencil ones for R and MB.

R's pencil roll in marble fabric

Special button fastner

One for pens and pencils..........

 and one for the handbag

All four children already have cushions so that wasn't an option for this years gift. Our girls all love writing lists and keeping journals so it was easy to choose a notebook cover for them, but not really suitable for R. Maybe when he's older, but not now.
For ages now I've wanted to make a quilt, so I decided that the girls would get their notebook covers and R would get a small simple quilt. Being the 'odd one out' might have benefits after all!
I had a brief chat with my friend N about how I planned to go about making the quilt and she gave me a couple of tips for finishing, which I was grateful for.
I had in my head the design for the quilt, simple squares in rows and offset so that I didn't have to worry too much about lining everything up perfectly. I used a fleece blanket for the backing, meaning I didn't need to worry about wadding, like I say, nice and simple.
I bought some pre-cut novelty 5x5 inch squares and hand cut the rest from fabrics I already had. The backing fleece was red, R's favourite colour so I decided to edge the patchwork section in red cotton that I had left over from making his cushion. Once I had all my pieces together all I needed was a quiet day at home.
When that day came I sorted the squares into rough colour groups and set about laying them out into a pattern I was happy with.

Almost the final design......

I laid all the squares out on a fleece blanket until I was happy with the pattern. The middle section was ten squares by six squares. I sewed each strip of ten squares so that I now had six strips. Each time I sewed a strip together I put it back in it's place and moved onto the next set of ten squares. Once I'd done them all I offset the strips so I had a brick like pattern. I pinned the second strip to the first to sew them together, then when I came to do the third strip I made sure that the squares from the first and third were lined up.

I lined up alternate rows

Once they had all been sewn together I joined a border in plain red cotton. I don't mind admitting that I did give a little squeal of delight once the front was finished, it actually looked how I had hoped it would!
I pinned the front to the new red fleece blanket, face down and sewed round the edge leaving a gap for turning. Once turned (I was very pleased at this point) I stitched round the edge to close the seam and then round the edge of the patchwork section and decided to leave it at that.

The quilt had taken me four and a half hours from start to finish, not including cutting the fabric and without any breaks, As I went along and could see it growing, I simply couldn't stop. For so long I had wanted to try making a quilt, but I really wasn't sure I could do it.

The fabrics included are some I've used before, like the marble and football prints, some that I saved from my Mums house, various novelty ones with bugs and creatures on and two Christmas themed squares, just in case he ever forgets when it was he got this quilt.

Folded ready to be wrapped

I was very pleased with it (can you tell?) It's the perfect size for R. Big enough to go on the end of his bed, for him to snuggle under while he watches a movie or if ever he's poorly and when I finally got to give it to him on Christmas day, despite all his other gifts, he says this is his favourite. Now I'm just wondering how long it will be before the girls ask if they can have one!
It's made me realise I need to 'have a go' more. Maybe the girls will finally get their comfy pants they've been asking me to make for months, after all I've had the fabric and the pattern for ages and now I have the time.