Friday 31 May 2013

Bloglovin Link

Friday Finishes

Working in a school means that I get school holidays off with the kids.  This is great for us as a family as we don't have to worry about childcare, but sometimes personally frustrating as I only have time off with them.  However this week they have been busy making a Doctor Who episode (I helped make sets and costumes and they then filmed and added special effects).  This left me free to play.

This started off as a play on my new sewing machine with some shiny Gutterman threads.  I had some grey essex linen and I thought the threads would show up well (which they do in real life just not in my photo!)

I used the various satin stitch options and came up with this freehand peacock feather.

Having seen lots of 3 zip pouches on blogland I decided to have a go myself,

My local market provided the zips which (almost) match and I found some (almost) matching fabrics to make the pouch linings.



 




(The purple and blue are Oakshott as they are my LQS - lucky me!)

The boxed bottom means that I can fill all 3 pockets (they all reach the bottom).

Now all I have to do is decide what to use it for - any ideas??

Ali

(edited to add - linked to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish up Friday)


Pretty Things

So once I had made my shirt quilt, I started reading quilting blogs and found all the things I had done wrong.

This quilt is made from a charm pack of Bella from Bonnie & Camille - so pretty. 

The sashing and border are made from some Laura Ashley fabric which I had had for at least 20 years. (It was left over from a top I made while a student!)  Although you can't tell, this has a rose pattern woven in which gives it a slight texture.

The backing and binding are another Bella print. 

The quilting is a simple diagonal with shadow quilting inside the charm squares.

This quilt sits on my chair in my craft room and is a little oasis of girly in a mostly male house.

Ali

Thursday 30 May 2013

New beginnings

Hi, my name is Ali and I am addicted to Fabric.  Gosh, that feels better.
 
I thought I would start this blog to help record my makes and hopefully link up with some of the people whose work I admire so much.
 
So, having started with a confession, here is my first quilt.  Lots of confessions needed here. 
  1. It isn't modern
  2. It isn't all cotton
  3. The quilting is rubbish
  4. I love it!
This quilt was made from my Husband's old shirts (plus one cream maternity shirt which I made when I was pregnant).  It therefore has a lot of my husband and a little bit of me and my 2 boys in it.  It has been on our bed for just over a year now and has kept us snuggly warm.  I am itching now to make a new modern quilt to alternate this one with, but the memory of quilting this on my old machine puts me off attempting something quite this big again.

Ali