Sew be it!

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.

Little quilt

Last Easter, Tony, Ted and I stayed in a lovely seaside cottage in Portpatrick, Scotland. The weather was bracing to say the least but the cottage was cosy and warm and I started to make a little quilt out of my Hedgerow samples plus a few plains from my stash. I used a simple hexagon template and started to assemble the quilt piece by piece using the “English method” which involves tacking each piece to a paper template. (A good way to recycle junk mail!) The first photograph shows how the work looks before the paper is removed.

I made good progress whilst on holiday but inevitably the sewing had to take a back seat when I returned home. I hate to leave anything unfinished so little by little I eventually managed to complete a tiny quilt. It was very satisfying doing the actual quilting by hand, although it looks a bit wonky if you look too closely.

Now anybody who owns a Jack Russell will know how they love to sit by a window and guard the house against postmen and cats, Ted is no exception. I found that the little quilt makes a good chair cover, which is easy to wash and looks less unsightly that the old towel which it replaced.

If you have never tried quilting before I hope you might be tempted to try, working by hand, little by little is very satisfying and unlike a larger machine project, is very portable, you can pick it up and set it down again, just like knitting

Hedgerow Collection

Some time ago I created a collection of Hedgerow inspired designs for Makower UK

The fabric collection is aimed at crafters and quilters and features images of owls, frogs, hedgehogs and mice alongside fruits, flowers and leaves.

It is always lovely to see how many different uses people make of these fabrics. Imagine my delight therefore, to receive a gift all the way from a crafter in Maine. TKR Designs make use of these three inch square "label" designs by sewing them into Balsam Sachets. They say that the Balsam Fir tree grows in Maine and the trimmings from the tree are used to make scented wreaths. They have a wonderful clean, fresh scent: I have hung mine on a drawer handle, as it is far too pretty to hide in a drawer! You can buy these hand made sachets from their on-line shop at Etsy.com