A Mat for Stumpy

When we moved into the new house I decided to retire my old dressing gown. It was tending to be used as a lap blanket mostly anyway. It was Stumpy's favourite.
Rather than just throw it away I cut it up and made a little blanket for Stumpy. My main motivation was him sleeping on my ironing board. I needed to make him a nice place behind my machine.

I cut the biggest rectangle I could get from the front then squared the corners. I cut 2 x 3" strips from some cat fabric. I measured the long side and cut two border strips to size and stitched them on. I then measured for the second two border strips. Such a simple thing, but I had to learn that making the opposite border strips the same length kept my quilt square.

The cat fabric had the cutest selvedge.

I used my trusty 505 basting spray. A few squirts along the borders and a few waves across the middle and press it neatly into place on the backing. I didn't use any wadding. I just cut a second piece of the dressing gown for the backing. No fancy FMQ for the cat. I stitched in the ditch of the borders.

I also stitched around the edges after trimming the backing. I made some single fold binding with my binding machine. So quick and neat. I don't roll it up. I just feed it through by hand and let it fall off the edge of the table as it comes out.

It fits behind my sewing machine. Well, close enough anyway. Now all I have to do is get Stumpy to use it instead of sleeping on the ironing board.

DH and I also worked on some Glassapplique business. We have found a lovely couple who visit all the weekend markets and they love our dichroic glass jewellery. We hope to have a healthy wholesale business with them. Here are some of the pendant sets we made. They are not fine art but they are great at the markets. I will get back to playing with the glass soon.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Update:

Go Wild Garden Quilt - WIP Wednesday

It feels good to get back to this quilt. I love all the projects in this book.
I prepared my applique sheets for easy tracing. I explain it in more detail in my quilt diary

Then made up one block ready for sewing. When I get my machine back from servicing I will be doing machine buttonhole stitch in purple embroidery thread. I am making 16 blocks instead of 12.

I have been very remiss with working on my quilts lately. I like order so I am getting back into a routine of working on a different quilt each week and posting twice a week. I feel like my quilt block pendants for GlassApplique are all under control now. Interestingly it is the photo taking that is the hardest and most time consuming part of setting up shop.

Once again all my fabric photos were a bit blurry so I took my laptop upstairs and checked each one as I took it. I don't think I took them any differently but all the new ones were fine!
Also there must be something up with my Flickr permissions because my Flickr photos don't show up as thumbnails for my blog. When I use a photo from my computer it shows up as a thumbnail in summaries. Things move so fast. As far as I know I set my Flickr photos so they could be pinned but I suppose I will have to check that too. I really want to put a 'pin it' button on my photos in my blog but I am always a bit nervous about changing the code in the template.

I did find out how to add meta tag keywords and meta tag author and a meta tag description to my blog. How to make some simple meta tag changes is here. You don't have to know much about computers to do it and it means people can find your blog more easily.

If you like reading my blog you should register to receive my posts in your email. I post twice a week and I am always sewing something new.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday this week over at Freshly Pieced

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Tickling a Tote Bag Design

The Two Button Two Tone Tote

This small tote has a handy outside pocket to stuff in that tissue you just used or pop your sunnies in while you have coffee. It also has a zippered phone pocket and two other inside pockets. Once you have done one inserted zipper pocket you will never look back.

My feature buttons are a work in progress but the handy badge pin backs mean I can work on making an even better set of buttons and swap them in a flash. I have made lots of patchwork and quilted totes and purses but they have all featured the fabric. It is like learning a new skill to make the buttons the feature while still using pretty fabrics. This is my first go. I can feel an obsession coming on :)

I have made a hugely detailed picture tutorial. I have been very impressed with the Sew4Home tutorials so I have followed their format. The only difference is that I have numbered from one to the end rather than in sections so it is easy to refer to a particular instruction if there is a question or problem. I have still put headings for each section like the Sew4Home tutorials.

I wasn't able to upload the tutorial as a PDF so I made a new page for my blog. The tab is at the top but you can see it here.

Linking up with Chris W Designs

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val

Opening Glass Applique

For the past 3 months I have been having a lot of fun making little fused glass beauties. When My husband said he wanted to buy a kiln my first thought was "Yay! I can make my own buttons... or glass quilt blocks....or zipper pulls! What fun!"
I have done a lot of surfing the web and visiting craft shows but I have not seen quilt themed fused glass items. After playing around for a while I realised why. It is very fiddly but it is also satisfying. Since my first thought is to make something to go with my sewing I don't mind fiddly. I like to try to copy the different quilt block designs or just try to make something cute and pretty.

This one is flying birds.

My husband was keen to try his skills at making detailed animal pendants. He has the skills with the tools but just needed the right outlet to use them. His interest was in the sparkly dichroic glass to highlight the silhouettes. Of course I saw pretty sparkly buttons.

I made this shirt from my Short and Stout range.

Just with fabrics I never seem to have enough glass colours and a big trick with the glass is that what you see is not what you get when you fire it. Also if I don't like something I have to make a new one and glue bits one day, then fire it the next day, then look at it the next day. It takes three days to try something. It is like crafting in slow motion.

Since I liked many of the pieces I made and I hadn't seen much like them around I thought maybe others would be interested, so I have joined my husband in the shop. I make quilt block pendants, buttons, zipper pulls and brooches all with a bit of a patchwork and applique theme.

I bought some very pretty fabrics to make some small projects from Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

I thought it would be easy to make some things to showcase my buttons and zipper pulls.

Not so! I can make a great pouch. This one is from Sew4Home with a few changes. The fabric is the feature not my zipper pull. It seems I need a whole new way of thinking to use the pieces I make.

I then made a little frame purse. The first one I made had little owls on the outside. Once again I had made the fabric the feature. Back to the sewing table. I tried the brown and orange piece with the new arrangement. You would think it would look OK but it still got lost in the fabric. I then tried the little cream letter and I think it looks great.

I didn't fully close the jump ring because I am putting this one in the shop.

Finally I am asking that you go and have a look at all the things we have made over at Glass Applique and maybe pin a picture or two from here or from the shop.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Buttons or earrings???

I can't decide if I will make buttons or earrings from my projects. Maybe both. I love the feel of the fused glass. It is so much fun to make quilty looking jewellery and I can't wait to try some little dishes.

Maybe some brooches when I get a little neater with my piecing.

Linking up with SewDarnCrafty linky party week 124

Happy Quilting,

Val

 

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Glass Applique

This is what I am calling my new venture.
DH was looking for something to do and jewellery making has always interested him. He decided to buy a kiln so he could make fused glass jewellery and it is a perfect companion to my sewing. I was excited because I could see that glass was a great medium for making quilt block designs.
Yesterday we fired up the kiln and made a couple of sample items. One was my first quilt block.

The nine patch is my first glass quilt block and the blue and white one has gone in today. It won't be ready til tomorrow.

The kiln is only small so projects will consist of brooches, pendants, ear rings, buttons and small dishes.

It is quite exciting to make things with the glass. This is how it looked while it was firing.

We have to experiment a bit but I hope to make some more complicated designs soon.

Happy Quilting,
Val