Sewing attire……and some real concentration

We’ve been very quiet in the past few days with all the back to school prep and visits to grandparents. However, sewing has not been forgotten. Cupcake Princess in particular has been very busy working away with her Doodle Stitching book – she’s far more studious and patient than I am when it comes to projects

What do you wear when you’re working on your sewing projects? Apparently CP’s pooh hat helps keep her hair out of her eyes.

Do you have a concentrating face? Does anyone know why sticking your tongue out helps with concentration?

Updates on what we’ve made coming soon ……. hope you like scooters!!

Getting stuck into some embroidery…

For the last week we have been working on hand embroidery rather than working at the sewing machine.

Firstly I finished embroidering around the applique of another one of my Aunt Millie’s Garden blocks. You may recall that I fused this block months ago but it seems to have taken forever to blanket stitch around all the pieces…mainly because the surface area of so many pieces added up!

I love the way that blanket stitch raises the applique up and makes it stand out…..

After completing this I started work on preparing for my month in the Sew Buzzy quilting bee. I’ve decided to make a book quilt which includes some embroidery of initials, motifs, book names etc. I’ve asked everyone if they are ok doing a little bit of embroidery – which they are - so I am making some samples for my sample block. I may also post out motifs I have stitched to be incorporated into blocks, just depends how much I can get done before I have to send the packages out to everyone at the end of the month.

I bought two great books called Doodle Stitching and Doodle Stitching the Motif Collection by Aimee Ray. I have taken most of what I have stitched so far from the book but may have a go at some of my own designs aswell.

I have been transferring the designs onto fabric using a disappearing ink pen…which puts the pressure on slightly as I have to remember the lines will disappear after 48 hours!!

I started with some simple motifs and used back stitch to outline them.

Today I have worked on some more complicated motifs but am still just using back stitch, simple straight stitches and french knots.

My favourite motif so far has been a hedgehog. The question is can you guess which book ends I will be using the motifs for?

Cupcake Princess has been very interested in the embroidery I have been doing and this morning started work on her first ever embroidery…

I am so impressed at the completed picture….considering she is 8 and I just helped her with the knots I think it was a great effort.

New Bags for a New Year

There has been a need for making some new bags for the family.

The first bag was for myself. I happily acquired a new work laptop just before Christmas but sadly it was too big for the laptop bags I already had and due to its size I was struggling to find a reasonably sized bag at the shops.

Last year I bought some fabulous owl fabric – unfortunately I don’t know what it is called or who it was by - my intention was to use it to make some shopping bags but it seemed perfect for my laptop bag. I combined it with some black and white dotty fabric I picked up from Fabric Rehab before Christmas. I added some stiffener between the layers to give it some additional strength and shape. I’m really pleased with the outcome…and having used it for the past couple of weeks I can confirm it is perfect for carrying everything to work on the train.

Owl laptop bag

The owls are so funny some of them have really mean looking faces!!!

The second bag I made today was a new book bag for Cupcake Princess. You may recall I made her a book bag last year using a pattern from Heather Bailey but although she uses it and its perfect for her books she can’t fit her lunch in it. For the last couple of weeks she has been using another bag I made for her last year – the ice cream bag – which her lunch will fit in but it doesn’t have a flap to keep out any rain.

We popped down to Cotton Patch yesterday afternoon and CP chose some brilliant fabrics from Kaffe Fassett to make her bag from. The first one was a pencil fabric and the second one was a coordinating fabric of flowers. CP’s current favourite colour is turquoise so it is perfect for her.

I spent a couple of hours this morning piecing it together. I used the basics of the Heather Bailey bag but scaled it up and added some interior pockets for transporting letters and money for school. I couldn’t find the original pattern but a bit of staring at the original bag made me remember the basics.

It all went really well and I was pleased with the results. I deliberately made the strap a bit longer than necessary so the bag would fit well when worn over the top of her big winter coat – she hates feeling constricted by bags that are too tight when worn across the body.

I really love the colours….they’re so vibrant. There will be no problem finding the bag in the cloakroom.

Close up of the booky bag.

Cupcake Princess really likes it and she has packed it up this evening ready for taking to school in the morning.

Proud of her pencil booky bag

I have to share the photo below aswell….CP came outside wearing her daddy’s slippers and they looked so hilarious in the pictures – talk about Big Foot!

New Year Catch Up 2

Before Christmas I mentioned that Cupcake Princes and myself were making gifts for my niece and nephew but I didn’t get a chance to share the finished items. Unfortunately I also didn’t manage to get good photos of the finished items before giving them as gifts so instead I am sharing photos of the finished items with their new owners!!

First of all you may recall that I made a Russian doll wall hanging for my niece. The wall hanging was made using a drawing that Cupcake Princess did plus fabrics that she chose……thankfully her cousin loved it!

Russian Doll wall hanging delivered to its new owner

Our second gift was a pirate game for my nephew. We bought some pirate fabric a few months ago which we turned into a pirate board game with matching game pieces and bags for storage. Cupcake Princess wrote out all the game rules and game cards so it was a big project!!

Pirate game board

Bags for the game board and pieces

We played it over New Year and had great fun going around the board and falling foul of the pirate tricks!!

Playing the pirate game.....

The children had a great time with all their gifts as you would expect BUT they also had great fun helping me make mince pies. It’s amazing how enthusiastically children throw themselves into cooking activities. We had a great little production line of cutters, fillers, brushers and snippers. What’s even better is they all tasted delicious at the end.

The mince pie makers.......

Cupcake Princess has been busy…

As I mentioned in my previous post Cupcake Princess has got the bird making bug. Yesterday she dug out a craft kit that she bought with her pocket money a few weeks ago and set to work on making felt birds for Christmas presents. Below there are a few piccies of how she got on…she couldn’t use the table as I was working on my own projects hence some of the rather strange poses!!

 

Draw around the pattern.....

 

All cut out and ready to piece together

 

Applique on the red breast and add an eye

 

Sew the sides together ready to stuff

 

Bird is all stuffed and ready

 

Add some thread and a few beads and its finished

The beads weren’t part of the kit but we thought the beads would jazz it up a bit……especially as we want them to be used as ornaments.

Now all the friends and family have to guess whether they will be the proud owner of a bird at Christmas ?????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween from the Patchwork Palace!

Happy Halloween……….

 

Decorated the fireplace......

 

The friendly Halloween pumpkins in the hall...

 

The witch gets ready to scare away the ghouls......

 

Trick or treating.......

 

 

 

Waiting for trick or treaters.....

 

Something to scare away the witches and ghouls.....

 

 

 

Clearing out the working area ready for Xmas projects….

At the moment my living room looks more like a fabric store! I always have some of my projects to hand to work on in the evenings but they seem to have taken over in the last couple of weeks since I got my Christmas project box out. I’ve decided to put my non Christmas projects away in my sewing cupboard for the time being but first I thought I’d try to get some work done on finishing the piecing of some projects.

Last night and this morning I pieced together all the houses and ladies for my The ‘ Burbs quilt from Material Obsession. You can still see all of Cupcake Princess’s names pinned to the blocks….I’m thinking of embroidering all their names on.

 

Laid out ready to piece

 

The piecing was fairly easy although I started to run out of the background fabric which was a little stressful.

 

Piecing started

 

I didn’t manage to finish it last night because we had a powercut! There are a lot of things I can work around but a lack of power is not one of them. I got up early this morning and finished putting it together.

I nipped out to the garden and tried to get some pictures of the quilt top but it was a bit difficult as it is so big. Hopefully you can see what it looks like even if the pictures aren’t great. I’ll try to get some better pictures tomorrow when my family are back from a trip and can help with holding up the quilt.

 

All pieced together

 

Close up

 

The next step will be to add lots of flower embellishments, paths, names and quilting but it may have to wait until after Christmas.

 

The bat witch wins a prize…

As you may recall from an earlier blog I have been working on a Halloween costume for Cupcake Princess to wear to her friends party. Today was the big day…and despite some last minute wavering as to whether or not a cape was required we managed to pull off a costume.

Last night we decorated the black leotard with some bats that Cupcake Princess made from felt plus a few sequins. I also knocked up a little necklace made from some fabric scraps, a felt bat and a press stud.

Add a purple wig…..

………the some purple stripy tights and an inflatable broom and you’ve got a bat witch!!

It was all worth it as Cupcake Princess won the prize for best costume….and she got a lovely certificate with a best costume skeleton statue.

So I am now a mummy who is in the good books BUT it does mean I may be asked to make more costumes in the future so in the long run I may be a victim of my success!!

P.S. Couldn’t resist sharing the photo below….the evil side of my daughter……that look is like something out of the movie.

What should you call a Christmas Russian doll?

Another Christmas project is starting to take shape. Whenever I am working on my projects Cupcake Princess avidly follows the progress and gets out her paper & pencil to come up with her own designs. Whilst I was working on finishing off the gingerbread angel she was sketching a picture of a very pretty Russian doll with a pocketful of baby Russian dolls.

As usual the potential item was going to be a stuffed Russian doll for her with lots of stuffed baby dolls but I managed to convince her that stuffed dolls was a bit beyond my ‘winging it’ skills…and I have already made her a Russian doll doll this year. Following a lot of discussion we agreed that we would make an applique Russian doll. An hour of fabric selection, tracing and fusing later and we were off.

This evening I have sewn a face onto the doll and she is finished…….

Now we have two questions – 1) What should we call her? 2) What do we make with her? Cupcake Princess’s initial ideas are Holly and a wall hanging for her bedroom.

Cupcake Princess has already been working on ideas for another Christmas wall hanging/quilt – I really must stop letting her looking at pictures on Flickr with me…it gives her too many ideas.

A snuggle rug for a poorly Cupcake Princess….

This weekend Cupcake Princess has come down with a horrible cold, sore throat and chest infection. To keep her busy I worked on a project using some fabrics we bought from a company called Worn and Washed a few weeks ago (http://www.wornandwashedfabrics.com/). The company specialises in fabric strips taken from old sheets etc…all nicely washed and cut up into usable strips. We mixed the Washed and Worn fabrics with some new fabrics (for some extra strength and colour) and made a snuggle rug (as CP calls it). Cupcake Princess has decided she would like to tell you all about the project so now I’m handing over to her…..

Here is my environmental friendly snuggle rug. Its made with reused flannelette sheets and the middle wadding is made with old green plastic bottles.

First we lade out the old flannelette strips and added some of the new strips to the quilt .

Laying out the strips....

Quilting in the stripes...

Next we sewed together the strips then we quilted the snuggle quilt so it would not be loose and baggy .

Finished off the quilting....

Add on some binding.....

When we finished quilting we did the difficult binding which mummy did because it needed precision. Mummy finished it after I went to bed when I got up I saw it straight away and tried it out on the sofa.

Do you like it? It is really snuggly and warm. My favourite pieces are the bright blue flowers. I also love the cute little chicks on the back because they are adorable.

Finished snuggle rug....front

Bird fabric on the back of the rug...

Wrapped up in my snuggle rug