First Foray Into patchwork...

Evening,

I know its been a while since i posted anything on here but to be honest i have spent the last month or so making christmas presents....things have been as lairy as a lairy thing here...there has been a mass flurry of material,cotton and batting everywhere and anywhere...i even managed to finds loose cottons in my underwear and all over the floor,and the hoover just doesn't pick up every little thread,does it??

Anyway enough of that side line...here goes...

I have spent the last 8 weeks or so collecting material from charity shops and material shops the odd curtain here and there and anything i think might be a little unusual and pretty...and i ended up with a chest of drawers full of scraps and mass meterage of material all over the place.

Well last week it was time to bite the bullet and enter the place that is my stash....

i started cutting strips about 3" wide and about 18" long and went from there...But i had help...My Darling Daughter decided that she wanted to help me in this endeavour bless her,she drew up the designs for me and i had a go at making them...the first one was a hold the breath moment,it wasn't exactly straight,and it was a bit wonky to say the least...but after much shouting and swearing i managed to get the top part sewed together...it looked like this;-and i was more than happy then i realised that i would have to make it 4 large squares across and add a frill along the bottom to make it wide enough....,you see my mum had asked me to make a cover for her sofa for christmas because her old blankie had just disintegrated on her...then it was time to put the backing and the batting on,well that was a trial and a half...the thing was so big it was like trying to wrestle with a jelly,i couldn't just get into a comfortable enough postion to sew...so my hubs came up with a brilliant idea...why not lay it out on the living room floor and then the kids could help feed it into the machine and take the strain of the weight...well that worked fine for the first anchoring row,and then it was a bit downhill from there,but after much nail and lip biting i managed it!!!!I even managed to put a wide homemade bias binding on the edges to neaten it up(i never realised how many sin's bias binding could cover......)and it looked brilliant,the only problem was that i had a heck of a job getting the dog off it,she spent the rest of the evening sulking when she finally moved......

And then i had the bright idea that i would make a lap quilt for my nana for christmas,and there i saqt today sewing strip after strip after strip or material togther and then cutting it up to make it stripey and like a brick wall,and to be honest i really like it,and because its smaller i didn't have to worry about wrestling this one into submission.....and here it is.....sorry my photoshop isn't working but i was well pleased with it,i just hope my nana isn't going to be too critical of it...my nana is a seamstress and makes wedding dresses for a living...but the funny thing is that i never realised that even the most beautiful prize winning quilts aren't always straight and level but i enjoyed the process and will definitley be doing it again.....

TOYS,TOYS,TOYS.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,boys and girls....here is that latest update on my journey through my sewing machine.

today i had a look through my sewing magazines ...and decided that it was time to have a go at making toy's even if i only ever made one...then at least i could have said that i had a go!!!!I picked a toy pattern out of Quilting Arts Stitch 1....i have to say that i fell in love with miss kitty...she looks very retro and i thought she would has been pretty difficult to make...but i shrugged my shoulders and thought what the heck lets do it!!!!

I copied out all the pattern pieces onto a sheet of greased proof paper,picked out some scrap material...and pinned out the pattern and cut it out ready for stitching...it wasn't until i had done the cutting out that i realised the pattern hadn't got a seam allowance so i "made" a seam allowance...so the kitty ended up a little smaller than the pattern should have been...i was expecting something little and handheld..but no,it was the size of a small cushion!!!But i enjoyed making it.Would you like to see it???? And there she is...she's soft and cuddly and if I'm not careful my DD will be whipping it!!she's already been dropping hints that she'd like one in a goth colour...purple,black,red and leather!!!hmmmm am thinking about that one...it could be fun to do another one with studs and piercings....

I also managed to buy a new copy of sew hip! I was well pleased with it as there's a lovely simple pattern for KNICKERS!!!!! I'm going to have a go at them tomorrow and make my mother -in law some for a laugh!!!She has got the most warped sense of humour i have ever seen or known....so i shall be making them with blue silk...and white pinstriped cotton shirt material.....i think it will put a giggle in my mother in laws tank!!after the last 4 years she's had she needs a good laugh!!!

it was due to my mother -in -law philly,that i shall be making little girlie's dresses out of the sew hip book to sell....she kindly donated 3 double quilt bags and the pillow cases...all made in the 1950's...one is white with the clarice cliff style orange and yellow flowers with a white background,a blue paisley with a white background,and a yellow and green 1970's print...i can't wait to get my hands on them!!!where else am i going to be able to recycle them into clothing mind you i do feel guilty about this......but then again they would have ended up in the ragbank otherwise........but will be posting this weeks about how things went!!!!

have got to go and cut out the pattern and get ready to pin tomorrow morning.............bye!!!