Tovas dress is finished!

My sewing student Tova has finished her dress! She was so patient with the final stages and hemmed the whole thing by hand ever so neatly! She's such a great student and I couldn't be prouder, she learns so quickly! You couldn't believe that she's only had two terms of sewing classes and that she a year ago had never used a sewing machine!

 

We had to take it in quite a lot, she's a very small person ^^

Hemming and hemming...

Closeup of her neat hem and beautiful ruffles.

Our classes are always so much fun and I too learned a LOT making this dress as I normally don't sew clothes (in fact, I generally very much dislike it) and it's been such a fun project! =)

2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - April

So I've been practicing my Free Motion Quilting for the challenge a bit lately as time hasn't permitted any real projects (apart from trying to finish my secret big project which isn't at a sewing stage yet) and I'd go crazy without sewing anything but buttons into my finances pants and mending trousers.

I really liked this months tutorial by the very skilled Don Linn aka "Mr Quilt", it had a some valuable tips and the tulle transfer technique looks very clever I have to say! The only thing though is that I honestly wished the video would have been a touch shorter (like having the design partly per-drawn) as I tended to skip ahead the first time I watched it to get to the "good parts" and then ended up having to re-watch it to make sure I hadn't missed anything important.

I've been meaning to do this months FMQ challenge in full but after trying I can't get my hands on any tulle at this point in time nor an embroidery hoop (would have to order from abroad) so I figured I'd try some of the techniques, practice sewing in the same lines back and also practice FMQing quilting a per-drawn design and count it as this months challenge even if I didn't do the tulle-transfer part. I now know how to do it and once I get the equipment, I'll absolutely try it because it seems like an great technique as I could never mark a quilt before basting it!

I used a tutorial from Judi over at Green Fairy Quilts to draw the star and then I gave it my own little twist to get some of the rounded edges from this months tutorial in there too. =) It wouldn't show up very nicely on the front in the photo, hence the main image being of the batting/back. To get it to match my other pillow I'll also make some swirls around the edges before it's done.

Make-up travel bag

I've really needed a new one for ages and I finally decided to sit down and make it now before my quilt retreat. The retreat starts on Sunday and tomorrow I'm flying to Sweden again for it and I just can't wait! It's one of the best weeks of the year and I get to spend some lovely quality time with my mother whom I get to spend way to little time with otherwise! And speaking of my mother, it's from her I got the adorable fabrics with the rainbow horses I used for the appliqué on the front, the covered button and also for the lining of the zippered pocket.

The zippered pocket open, aren't the horses just great? I can't stop smiling whenever I see them, so it'll be a good start on every day when I bring this with me =) I'm happy to say I'm feeling really confident with the zippers at this point, haven't had to bring out the seam ripper for the last two at all ^^

Fully packed but unfolded (hence the bumpy looking left side in this picture ^^), it has a really handy place for all the 4 brushes I "must" have with me. Thanks to this set-up, I don't risk destroying the brushes by having them roll around with the other stuff and they're protected when the bag is folded up.

I'm really starting to feel confident making bags of my own design now, which will be very good for my plan for the quilt retreat is to make some more advanced ones following patters with help from the talented ladies at the retreat, so it feels good to at least have a grip on the basics.

Table runners turned into a bag!

I've made my very first, "real" bag. I made it from the adorable table runners I bought in Sweden from the previous post. I love lupines and poppies so this fabric is just great! It's lined with Kona Coal and the handles are also made from that. While I really like the bag I'm very, very unhappy with the stabilizer I used, it's absolutely terrible! I bought a yard of it when I was in Sweden at the "SyFestivalen" and I really wish I'd gotten the name of it so I wouldn't have to make the mistake of buying it again, it bubbled up from the fabric after just a few hours! Really glad it's on the lining and not the outside fabric.

Inside it has all of the little stuff I need, one zippered hidden pocket lined with my favourite cat fabric (very proud of this, I'm once again, master of the zipper! ^^), one key holder tab with a little plastic clip fastener, and a bunch of dedicated pockets, left to right it's for lipgloss, phone and then big one is for my compact camera. 

Really happy with the folded look of the bottom.

And a not very pretty picture for size comparison with me looking what I am - sleep deprived ^^ It's a rather big bag which is by design, it will be my beach bag so it was important that a big beach towel plus a big book could fit in there while still having room for a 1,5 litre water bottle and lot's of sunscreen =)

All in all, very happy with my first "real" bag project =)

Play with my brand new ruffle foot

I've been playing for the first time with my brand new ruffle foot, gosh what a fun tool it is!  Never had I known what a deep seated longing I had for perfect, pretty ruffles until today. ^^ The joy at making them was much, much bigger then I ever could imagine. =)

It took a few tries to get the ruffles right, so I ended up with a bunch of more or less nicely ruffled strips of fabric. I turned a couple of the more decent ones into flowers. As you might be able to tell I'm on a bit of a barrette streak lately. I bought a few ugly, cheap barrettes and now I'm having lot's of fun making them into pretty new barrettes for me to wear for the summer. =)

Here's the result of today's play, one BIG Ruffle Flower Bliss Barrette.

 And a smaller, with a different twist for the middle Sunkissed Barrette

Sock Monkey and Sock Kitty!

Me and Tova has spent the day finishing up our sock monkeys, however as I really don't like monkeys (I know, I'm a terrible, terrible person - who doesn't like monkeys??) I decided to go for a sock kitty instead! =)

We have to take lots of step by step pictures for Tova's teacher in Sweden, and since you stuff a sock monkey through the crotch we wanted to take some pictures of sewing it up. However, we did not realize exactly how weird this photo would be until we actually saw it, safe to say - it did not get sent to her teacher =D

Sock Monkey Factory - I just love this picture, we have so much fun during our classes!

When we where taking pictures of the fruits of our labor, Diana of course came to join, which resulted in the sockies going for a kitty ride. My sock kitty is named Kiki and Kiki and Diana are becoming very good friends ^^

A little baggie with silly doggies

Last summer I saw this fabric with absolutely ridiculous doggies on it, it was so cute and it instantly made me think of my fiance's mother (not because it was ridiculous - because of the cute doggies! :P). She's a lovely woman who runs a doggie daycare and grooming center at home. She's of the last few years also employing her husband, really awesome!  You can see their business homepage here, it's in Swedish though: http://fjakelmyrans.se/

Anyhow, this fabric made me think of her and I just had a to buy a small piece of it and it's mate with bones on it. And since then I've been thinking about what to make of it. It's a silly thing so it couldn't be anything she'd take seriously and I didn't have enough to make something like a doggy bed or so so I went ahead and made a little baggy of it, I figured she could always use it to store her threads in like I do with mine, or for dog treats or something =) I think I'm going to make a little bag of the leftovers...

Sewing caddy done and in place

My hexagon sewing caddy is finally done *wipes sweat from forehead* it was a battle!

Let's just say that while I'm really glad I made it, I learned a ton about sewing by hand (can now stitch really nicely and invisibly when closing up stuff ^^) but it didn't turn out great. I think the main problem is the stuffing actually, it clumped no matter how much I fought and didn't fill it out nicely at all :( However, it's very practical and quite cute from a distance =)

You can make your own by following the tutorial here over at Penny's Hands: http://pennyshands.blogspot.com/2010/08/hexie-caddy-tutorial.html

I'm going to Sweden today so while I have a few posts prepared, it'll not be very frequent blogging for the next two weeks I don't think. However I might surprise myself ^^

Valentines Day = Kittycat Hearts

So we going home to Sweden on Wednesday and I'm getting a brand new sewing machine then! Yay! And I'll also be attending Syfestivalen, which is a fabric and crafting fair  (the largest?) in Sweden. I'm so excited as it will be my first fair! My shopping list is VERY long, luckily my fiance is not aware of this *lol*


Anyhow, I'm going home and I'm going to visit a dear friend (I'll be visiting many but you know) from my cat showing days in Sweden and since I haven't met her in a while and I've missed her and the other "cat ladies" so very, very much I'm trying to put together some small, homemade gifts.  So in the spirit of Valentines day I've been making fabric hearts with catnip in them =)

 I also tried my hand at making fabric fortune cookies for the kitties, a little tricky since the tension on my machine is very near completely broken but after the 4th try I got a decent enough zigzag around the edges. *sigh* However, everything I make right now gets all bumpy and weird because every 5-10 stitches my machine takes it starts chewing on the thread and jumps left and right XD

I can't wait to get my new Janome home! <3

Next year for Valentines day I absolutely have to have made myself one of these beautiful Valentines table runners:

It's my mothers very own design from a little versatile triangle block we learned at quilting camp, and I just love her use of it! I'll write more about my mother another day but she's an amazing quilter and seamstress and it's thanks to her I have my sewing skills. Even if my interest was limited growing up she thought me all the basics  and today she shares the "quilt bug" with me and it's her and me who are going to the fair together on Friday. I'm going to help her set up her own blog when I go to Sweden now so hopefully you'll be able to see more of her fantastic works online in the near future.

Happy Valentines Day! <3

Time to vote and WISP- Work In Slow Progress =)

It's time to vote in Gen X Quilters Valentines Contest and there are so many AMAZING entries! I entered my Crazy Rainforest Quilt, contest blog entry can be found here. I'm number 7 in case anyone would want to vote for me, you vote in the poll in the right hand margin ^^

However, there are so many beautiful quilts in this contest so make sure you check them all before casting your vote, I can tell you it's no easy task the judges are in for in this case.


So while I was on my tutorial seeking spree  the other day I finally found the tutorial for the adorable hexagon sewing caddies I've been seeing here and there around blogland for a while, it's a creation by Penny's hands. That is my WISP, despite my hate for sewing by hand I knew I had to try and make one because I wanted it so badly! First, it took me about 30 minutes to empty any and all cardboard boxes I had in my home, since I don't eat pasta/cereal etc. it was a difficult task and I thought I wouldn't be able to make it but having to go to a friend to borrow some I realized that the box coffee filters came in could be used to make the final hexagons. And it's been so slow sewing every seam by hand! I have nothing but pure admiration for the somewhat insane incredibly patient people who make entire quilts this way. =)

I also have to show you just how lucky we are to live where we do, this is some pictures we took of beautiful Spinola Bay on our walk home from some dear friends yesterday.

Pleated Pouch

So, one of my very best friends have just turned 25 and I've made her a special birthday gift (albeit the materials arrived a touch later then planned *insert cursing over MaltaPost here* so it's a while after her birthday now). I will post that after I've given it to her.

For this gift I of course wanted a suitable wrapping, and after some serious pondering I concluded that a little fabric pouch for it was cuter and more fun then any of the gift boxes I could buy at the store. So off I went finding a suitable baggy pattern and stumbled across this tutorial: Pleated Pouch Tutorial over at a place called "Skip to my Lou". I will have to admit I got stuck on that page for a while, so many cute things to do!

I had a serious fight with the zipper (I hate zippers, why don't the darn things ever go in nicely on the first try?), had to rip the seam, managed to tear my lining fabric, had to cut new lining fabric and so on but in the end it came out looking really nice for a first try I think!

My friend always carries a huge bag with her to work, maybe she can make use of this little bag to contain her small stuff in her large bag or something? I always keep tiny pouches in my purse for small stuff =)

I have to make more baggies, this was a lot of fun! <3

Tutorial - Simple Blossom

Materials:
* Fabric - how much depends on how big you want your flower, I used about 4x5 inches.
* Paper & Pen for making petal template
* Thread and sewing needle
* All purpose glue
* Cover button, that you can cover with the fabric of your choice

Step 1:
Fold a piece of paper in half and draw half of your flower petal shape on it. Cut out the shape, so when the paper is unfolded you'll have a perfectly even flower petal.
Place it on your fabric which has been folded in half with right sides facing together, trace 5 shapes onto the folded fabric.

Step 2:
Place a pin in in each of the shapes before you cut them out to ensure the fabric don't slip. Cut out your shapes.

Step 3:
Sew your petals together, using a slightly smaller then normal seam allowance, I used about 1/8 of an inch or they'll get bulky.

Step 4:
Turn your flower petals inside out, this might cause the seam to come a bit undone, which is why I made my petals a touch longer then I wanted them, so I could now trim off a little bit to get them the appropriate length.

Step 5:
Thread your needle with thread, leaving it double throughout. Then thread your petals onto the thread, taking care to do a small stitch first, leave a bit more open, then then do another small stitch (hope this makes sense, please look at the picture) to ensure they all end up looking the same and getting that fold in the middle, making them look flower like.

Step 6:
Using the leftover pieces of your fabric, cut out a round circle according to the instructions on your button package and dress your button.

Step 7:
Pulling on both ends of your thread, tie your flower together in a pleasing manner. The place a dab of glue in the center of the flower, and place your button in place. Cut off the thread and glue a hairband to the back if your flower is to be used as a hair decoration - leave to dry.

  
Finished!

Bows and flowers for my hair

I have such a hard time finding hair decorations that I like, so I decided to try my hand at making my own. Here's the resut of todays play, a simple black bow and a batik blue flower:

They're really easy to make too, I'm thinking I'll throw up a quickie tutorial...