Tuesday 28 May 2013

::Show & Tell:: Lovely end to a rubbish day...

Lookie what I found in my mail box this evening when I got home...



Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...................! :) :) :)
After my yuck day it was a lovely surprise.


Last week I stumbled upon Indie Stitches then I found the Indie Stitches Facebook Page where there was a 10% discount code to celebrate opening of the store. Well, I just can’t not take up a fantastic offer like that! (Be quick the discount ends 31st May!)



I had been coveting the Sewaholic Renfrew ever since it was released and I saw fabulous (and practical - my main focus in sewing) renfrews popping up all over the interwebs.


Oh. What’s that underneath the Renfrew pattern you ask?



Weeellllll...
While I was looking I came across the new Megan Nielsen Tania Culottes pattern. I’ve never used a Megan Nielsen pattern before and I've enjoyed the Tania culottes I've seen popping up in the blogasphere. So I thought I’d give it a go.


The service from Indie Stitches was pretty speedy. The only criticism I have is that it was raining today and the patterns were not in some sort of waterproofing. Luckily it wasn’t heavy rain so the patterns weren’t soaked, just tiny titch damp. In saying I shouldn’t be such a fuss pot :)


I hope you’ve had rays of sunshine on your lacklustre days,
Vanessa xo

Tuesday 21 May 2013

::Show & Tell:: More Books

I've bought the Sew U Home Stretch book. Blogger have been raving and referencing this book for yonks and for aaages I'd been looking for it online. Having not been able to find it for sale anywhere I gave up.

But! When Kestral mentioned the book was on sale I jumped online and snapped up the Sew U Home Stretch and Built by Wendy Dresses books.

I zoomed through Sew U Home Stretch as soon as I got it int the post.

I've only just finished Built by Wendy Dresses.

I have yet to make anything from either books, but both have been very inspiring.

Until next time, I hope you're reading something that you've been excited about too,
Vanessa xo

Tuesday 7 May 2013

::Quilting:: Stacked Coin 'Treasure' Quilt

This post is well overdue. I wrote up great big post about this aaages ago and before I got a chance to post it for some reason the internet farted or something and the post vanished.
On with the post...

A friend was having her first baby (the baby has been had and is 4 and a half months old - see what I mean by this post being overdue) and the lovely Sarah of Stitching Lyrical suggested we collaborate on a quilt for the impending arrival.

I agreed and immediately went on the hunt for a project that would be simple to collaborate on, yet effective. I stumbled upon this tutorial for a Stacked Coins Baby Quilt. This was ideal because Sarah and I could sew a few stacks each and then we could assemble the stacks and spacing strips later on.

Treasure Baby Quilt for baby Packitage
Chained Pieces
One lunch break Sarah and I went to Lincraft  in the city to get some fabric. As the gender of the bub was not to be revealed. we got a stack of  "warm" coloured charm squares and some navy fabric for the background and some mottled yellow fabric for the binding. A great combo for a "unisex" quilt I think.

Treasure Baby Quilt for baby Packitage
Pieced Strips
The colours are not typically "baby", but I think that makes the quilt timeless. The quilt can be used the bubba and then they can use it as throw on the lounge later on.

Treasure Baby Quilt for baby Packitage
Here is the top all pieced together and ready to quilt.
(Being held up by the lovely Sarah)
Sarah and I pieced the coin stacks for the top together using light thread. So I wasn't sure what colour to stitch the quilting in. I ended up going with a light colour.

Treasure Baby Quilt for baby Packitage
Close up of the quilting
I'm not sure if I could quilt a whole queen sized quilt using my sewing machine. This quilt was quite cumbersome to baste and quilt and it's only a baby quilt. I've bought the Craftsy class Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine but haven't watched it all yet. Maybe there'll be some tricky tricks I can use in future.

'Treasure' Quilt - Front
The finished quilt front
I originally thought that I would just quilt vertically up and down the the "coin stacks". So I echo quilted along the sides of the columns. I didn't stitch in the ditch because it was just a little too tricky to wrangle the quilt and keep the stitches in the ditch. However, Sarah's mum (who is a quilting guru) said we should quilt horizontally as well. So Sarah quilted around  couple of the "coins" in each stack.

'Treasure' Quilt - Back
The back of the finished quilt.
Sarah's mum used her great handwriting skills to write a little note for us on the strip we used for the back of the quilt. We named the quilt "Treasure".

Unfortunately, we didn't get the quilt finished in time for the baby shower (although we certainly did try, we sewed right up to the start time of the baby shower, but alas by this stage we still didn't have the quilt bound). However, we were able to give it to her at the first meeting of the the little baby boy.

That my friends is the tale of the first quilt that I've made...and the first quilt I've given to anyone.

Until next time, I hope you're making lovely thing for the lovely people around you,
Vanessa xo