I have been feeling very inspired to sew after reading some wonderful crafty sewing blogs, many of which have free tutorials. If you haven’t already visited Tiny Happy then you are missing a treat. Not only does this lady make the most adorable things for her shop, she also has excellent easy to follow sewing patterns for bags and home accents.
Ever since I started designing fabric for Makower I have begun to accumulate a growing selection of fabric samples, my only obstacle is finding the time to sew. The thought of making a full size bed quilt is still very daunting so I have been concentrating on smaller projects. I bought a large quantity of linen in France a few years ago and have been wondering what to do with it, so after much deliberation I finally got around to making some extra large table mats, two of which act as a table runner. I thought I might be able to use them singly for picnics in the summer if the opportunity arose. I made each one about 18 inches by 30 inches and started by neatening the edges with a zig zag stitch, then I cut some borders from my "Herb Garden" fabric and simply top stitched them along the side edges, hey presto, it was as easy as that!
The little baby shoes were also made using fabric from the same "Herb Garden" collection. We are having something of a baby boom in our family at the moment starting with the imminent arrival of a great niece in May. If you would like to make some of these reversible baby shoes there is a great tutorial here by Rhiannon Vining.
The little baby bib was my first attempt at this style of free machine quilting using a darning foot. I got the idea from reading Crazy Mom Quilts, she has some very easy to follow tutorials and lots of other inspirational projects. I used my “Nestled in Springtime” fabrics for this bib and I was pleased with the result even though the underside turned out a bit wonky! I found that a project of this size is a good way to start as it takes a while to get the hang of freehand quilting or stippling. At first my tension was all wrong and so had practice first on a few scraps, I found that I had to increase the tension because I kept on getting loops on the underside.
If you feel inspired to have a go yourself you can use any fabric that you have in your stash, or you can find “Herb Garden” and “Nestled in Springtime” here at The Tabby Cat online shop.
So thank you to Tiny Happy, Crazy Mom Quilts and Rhiannon Vining and for taking the time to post inspirational tutorials.
