Cutting corners isn't necessarily a bad thing

I was sewing up some pillows for the couch (that I started 6 or so months ago...) late last night and was cursing like crazy when the darn machine got stuck in a little seam as I was attaching the double fold binding. I cursed  quite loudly about the bloody thing needing service and continued sewing without thinking much more about it until I was done and stung myself on the reason for the machine getting stuck:

Very well sewn down was a green needle I apparently had forgotten to remove in my sleep deprived state ^^

My first mistake that night however later turned into awesome lesson was when I was cutting the binding, After cutting up my fat quarter I realized after cutting that I'd cut it to slim. Anyway, decided to wing it anyway and try to make it work (the way you  think seem like an excellent thing do at two at night, while you during the day just would have cut your losses and just cut up a new strips).

When I got to the corner I realized there was no way I'd be able to make it fold neatly over the corner with that little fabric, which is when I decided to try and cut off the corner to make it work. Which was such a brilliant idea if I may say so myself, thanks dear brain! Maybe this is something everyone already does so if I'm late to the party forgive me, but for me it was a pure "Eureka!" moment! I will now always cut of the corners of my quilts before folding over double fold binding, the corners where so easy to get neat!

Look how pretty they came! I mean, I can generally get a very decent result with a bit of hassle, but this was so easy peasy to get them that perfectly even! Front:

And back (and yes dear mum, you're seeing this right - I'm actually hand sewing this one, I'm feeling very grown up  ^^)

Will hopefully be done with the binding tomorrow so I can show you them completed, I'm not very fast with the hand sewing so even a little pillow is a big project for me in that area.

Stash Stack Club August & November

Like I told you my August Stash Stack got lost in the mail, I've had contact with the lovely people at Pink Castle Fabrics and this month we realized we had to consider it lost, so they immediately cut me a new stack and sent it! Pink Castle Fabrics customer service is simply great and I couldn't be happier, topping it with the super fast shipping and it's just an awesome store (and no, I'm not getting paid by them *lol*).

It arrived today and it's LOVELY! My favourite is the Pencil Check in Navy by Michael Miller Fabrics on the top tightly followed by the Metro Living Circles in Navy underneath, so cool!

And I got my November Stack to course, just didn't have time to blog about it until now. This month was all about orange, a color I have a very strange relationship with. I used to really, really dislike it until an apartment we rented a year or so back (you rent fully furnished here in Malta) had a bathroom all white tiles but with bright orange accessories in it like towels, carpets etc. And I was in love, that little room made me so happy whenever I'd walk into it! Now we have an orange bathroom again by my choosing and orange on the balcony so I think we have to conclude I'm a big orange fan now. =)

I was super excited to get my first Lizzy House Print, but my favourite this time around was the one at the bottom, Haystack in Tangerine - Madrona Road by Violet Craft.

Cellphone Case For A Friend

One of my friends saw my cellphone case  the other day and really liked it, and asked where she could buy one. I thought she looked kind of disappointed when I said it was home made so it wasn't available to buy.  I of course secretly immediately decided to make one for her! Seeing how little time to sew I've had lately it was a perfect "sewing break to keep my sanity" project ^^

She's a really cool girl, so I didn't want to make her something too cute and girly like mine, so instead I opted for a modern feel but still with a few, cute details like the little buttons, the little loops detail and the swirly quilting. I really wish I had found some grey Velcro but none was to be found so I had to settle for white =)

I really hope she'll like it =)

Stash Stack Club - October

I got some lovely greens and yellows for October. My favourite this month is (surprisingly enough to myself, didn't think I'd like the color at all!)  Honeycomb in Sunglow - Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry. The second farthest to the right in my photo. I think it will look lovely mixed with some greys and blacks.

And since Christmas is just around the corner I thought I'd show you a couple of the lovely Fancy Folded Stars I've had sent to me during my "downtime".

A lovely solid version by Simple Living and Giving. Have to make one in solids myself one day, love the look!

A fresh and flowery version by Jane, who only has been quilting for 3 months! Amazing job!

And another beautiful blue by Aceroni:

I'm alive!

Haven't written anything in a long time, haven't really had much to write about nor any time to write. Things have just been piling up the way they usually do so I've been working, eating, sleeping. Now we're also doing some home improvement so we've been plastering, painting etc in our "spare" time.

Anyhow, we did have quite a lovely Halloween, went to a fabulous party as Pyramid Head and one of the  Nurses from Silent Hill. Our friend is an Enderman from Minecraft. We made our costumes ourselves and had a ton of fun doing so =)

Making of Nurse Costume

I bought a much too large, white dress which I sewed in to fit me, and at the same time get some spare fabric for a nurses collar from as all store brought nurse costumes  where ridiculously expensive to just ruin. 

I tea dyed the dress (what an awesome way to dye stuff!) with some cotton fabric to get that old, rotting skin color that their dresses have.

From the leftover parts of the sewn in skirt, I made a collar - to make it look more like a nurses dress.

Dress sewn in, and finished with it's collar:

I made a nurses cap out of a pattern I found online here and the cotton fabric I previously tea dyed and Fast2Fuse heavyweight interfacing. I left the edges raw and cut them up a bit to make them look worn.

Coloured it in spots with a tea bag to make it look a little gross and more stained. I smelled like forest fruit tea all night ^^

Painted my shoes to make it look like I walked in blood with Pyramid Head =)

In the end I stained it all with some more tea stains and some paint with a rusty red color to give a it a little drops of blood feeling. The nurses aren't really covered in blood like you see in many costumes but I thought a few spatters couldn't hurt to increase the scary factor. I stained bandages with tea too to get a worn look and wrapped them all around my head and then colored them in places to get really creepy feel.  It took me about 4 hours to color my legs/arms/chest with white/grey and the veins and dead body bruises.

Pyramid Head

The Pyramid Head costume was the real challenge. Sooo much fun to make and sooo much hot glue used! *lol* First we cut out cardboard triangles which we tried for size. 

Then made the vision holes.

Added side triangles and some more pieces for depth and a more in game feel.

Trying on the base.

Adding more details and bottom edges.

Packed the whole things in painters tape, glueed on the carpet slip covers we used to hide his eyes but still allow him to see. Glued on some plastic pipes and the caps of some medicinal bottles for the screws and then spray painted all of it silver and black.

We made the oversized sword from and old broom handle rescued from the garbage room, cardboard and lots of silver tape.

Made his "butchers skirt thingy" from an old sheet which I tea stained and then painted with  non toxic face paint (in case you're wondering why Diana is allowed to help with the job ^^).

Tada! Silent Hill Pyramid Head and Nurse:

Me and our lovely host at the party who LCHF blogs over here: http://www.lchfmalta.com/

I really hope I can get back to sewing soon or I'll loose my mind. 

I think I love fall, and I know I love my mom!

Cut to Pieces was having a giveaway and she only asked us to tell her what we like about fall. And as I was preparing to write that I hate fall (I used to have what I can only call fall time depressions when I lived in Sweden), I realised that nowadays, here in Malta I think LOVE the fall!

A bit of rain falls from time to time giving me reason to stay inside and sew a bit more while the island is slowly turning from burnt out brown to a healthy green. I love that I can walk outside without getting drenched in sweat and I love that I don't have to shower after a walk to the store =) I love that I get to wear a bit more clothes, while "as little as humanely possible and still somewhat decent" is fun for a few months it get's boring after a while.  I love that the quilts on the couch soon no longer will be purely for decoration purposes but soon will be used to snuggle up under. I love lighting candles, making stews and actually feeling like cooking. Don't get me wrong, I still love summer more then anything but I think I've found there's enough  room in my heart to love fall too =)

The image has nothing to do with anything other then that I came to think about this photo session a number of years back with our much loved goddaughter Alma so I thought the image would be appropriate =)

But what I do know I do love is my mother! And no, not because she sends me lovely things, that just makes her even more awesome. A while back this little packet came with the most adorable fabric and a bunch of equally cute buttons and notions! <3 And Anki who is just as sweet as my mother had ordered an awl for me. I've been looking for the really thin clover awls which I haven't been able to find anywhere so she ordered it for me! Thanks mom and Anki, you are the best!

Stash Stack Club - September

I just received my September Stash Stack from Pink Castle Fabrics! Like with the July one, I couldn't possibly be more pleased with the fabrics or the fast shipping! Sadly my August stack has gotten lost in transit somewhere... But I haven't given up hope yet! =)

The fabrics are lovely, the variations of the color is really wide and the fabrics are so modern and fresh feeling! My favorite this time around is the Kiss Dot in Aqua (Michael Miller Fabrics) for sure tightly followed by the Clown Stripe in Aqua (Michael Miller Fabrics), but all are truly gorgeous! =)

The stash stack club is so much fun, it's like Christmas once a month and since the kind people over at Pink Castle packs mine so flat, I can pick it up directly in my mailbox with no hassle from customs! <3

A Little Froggy Heart

Remember this post about the cellphone case for a friend? The package arrived so I can finally share the little froggy coin purse I made for her with a little of the fabrics I received from lovely Anki, possibly the only person in the world as frog crazy as Tracy =D

Had a tricky time with the heart shape, it got all wonky when I added the zipper and it took me some time to figure out how to draw the heart pieces to make it work, but it was a really fun learning experience. =)

Color Wheel Quilt - It Has Finally Begun!

This is a project I've wanted to do for YEARS. I've always loved all those gorgeous color wheel quilts out there! I've been planning this in my head for soo long and I knew I wanted to do something unexpected and new. There's a lot of stunning ones out there and I didn't want to risk replicating a design already out there. So I ended up going with something a bit more unusual (I hope! I haven't seen anything similar at least ^^). The reason I chose this version of the color wheel was because I not only intend to use it for decoration but for actual color picker help in my sewing area. So here's the beginning, the center of my color wheel quilt.

I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew to make my pattern. As you can see I used my Tonga Treats, Strip Treat - Hard Candy strips for this so I had to sew them together to fill the space I need them to fill. Now I'm terrified that I've missed some step in this whole piecing curves thing that will make my center or outer ring unusable... But we'll just have to wait and see =)

I'm still waiting for my white fabric to arrive so this is actually at a bit of a standstill right now, which might be good as I'm currently considering what I want to do in terms of border for it. If I had the background fabric here now, knowing myself I'd probably already be quilting it! Any suggestions are most welcome.

I've picked out all the colors I want for the actual wheel part of the quilt too, that was sooo much fun!

The only ones I'm not perfectly happy with are the greens, but they will do =)

Simply Solids Under New Ownership!

Simply Solids have changed hands! You can read all about it here over at Justines Blog Sew Justine Sew. As a quilter I'm always happy and excited about great fabric stores and Simply Solids truly is one. And Justines plan is to make it even bigger and better!

Why not hop over to Justine's blog to to show your support for her in her new venture? =)

To celebrate this new beginning for Simply Solids, until midnight on Saturday 22nd you get a free Fat Quarter with every order.

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On a more personal note the queen of the house received a shower and thorough cleaning and is now all daisy fresh. Luckily she likes taking showers and getting blow dried, just not all the "washing" she has to do herself after the blow dry nor when I take embarrassing photos of her all wet. =)