snowman pincushion

FINISHED

snowman pincushion part 3

with right sides together sew the front and the back pieces together leaving a gap for turning.

clip corners, turn and stuff. sew up gap.

snowman pincushion part 2

2. take the 2 longer pieces and sew to the top and bottom. iron.
Trim.

1. Take the fabric strips for the front and sew the 2 short pieces to the sides of the snowman. Iron flat.

snowman pincushion part 1

i had wanted to make a pincushion to add some Christmas cheer to my sewing table so i drew this little snowman. He was so enjoyable to stitch that not only did i make my pincushion i made hanging scented Xmas tree decorations to give with my Xmas cards. he is everywhere.

if you want to make your own, you will need:

linen or calico 8 x 8 inch

fabric strips for front 2 x 6 inch (2 of these)

2 x 8 inch (2 of these)

fabric for back 7 x 7 inch

stuffing

embroidery thread

Print the above pattern onto an A4 sheet, it should come out the right size.

Trace the pattern onto the linen( or calico), I just used a light box and a pencil but taping it to a window works just as well.

Embroider the design using 3 strands of floss, Snowman white (back stitch), Arms brown (back stitch), Nose orange (satin stitch), Eyes and mouth black (satin stitch), Star yellow (back stitch).

The scarf is done in 6 strands to make it look chunkier, it is a 2 colour stripe.

when finished iron and trim to a 5 x 5 inch square.

Angry birds christmas

it has been very snowy here the last 2 weeks, schools are closed, traffic stuck, so we are not going anywhere. it does however mean more crafting time for me.

as i am a huge angry birds fan i decided to make some Christmas ornaments for the tree, i have so far made these 4 and have drew up patterns for the remaining characters. they are quite big ornaments but i think they look great. i hope to complete the rest over the weekend as i am not going out (minus 15) way too cold.

finished cushion

here is the finished greg made into a cushion. dosent he look great?

wimpy kid 2

here is the pattern in block colour instead of symbols if you prefer

wimpy kid

my son just loves the diary of a wimpy kid books and even though i havent read them myself the film was very funny. "Touch the cheese" is funny at any age.

i have done this xstitch which i intend to stitch today for him, its done all in full xstitch and in one colour, black, so it shouldnt take long. i will post the finished item when done not sure what i am making it into yet.

hope you enjoy

Happy Halloween

A bit late but i have had trouble accessing my account for the last few weeks. Everything seems to be working now so hopefully i will be back on track. Maybe for next year?

Jelly rolls are great

I love Moda. Precuts make everything really quick to make. I used the jelly roll to make a book pillow from a Sew Liberated pattern and made a matching quilt from a jelly roll and a charm pack.

The quilt is made of 4 jelly strips, then 2 rows of 8 charm squares, then 4 jelly roll strips, the upight panel is 6 half strips, then 3 rows of 4 charm squares and then another 6 half strips.Then sew both panels together. it is very simple and very quick to make, you even use the jelly roll as binding strips, no cutting. I used fleece as the backing fabric as i hand quilted it (cant get the hang of machine quilting) it hides lots of mistakes as you cannot see the stitching because of the pile. Yah.

is it christmas?

a trip to the garden centre yesterday for some bulbs (yes i am running a bit late) left me wondering if i had been sleeping a lot longer and missed a few months. All that was missing was Santa Claus. The place was so over decorated with lights, decorations, gifts, the lot, that my children just stood there looking confused. They knew Halloween hadn't been, or that my son Ben didn't yet have his birthday (November) so what was going on? i think September is a bit early.

I have already been making gifts,this takes time, but i do not need to be thinking about Christmas dinner.

I recently bought this great book,(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fa-Felt-Handmade-Holiday-Decorations/dp/1600596150) see pic, with lots of great felt projects to make for your tree. I love making things that can be done by hand in front of the TV, and this is ideal. My only complaint is that the patterns aren't full size and it has taken ages to photocopy them then cut out sections and then recopy them to size. i had paper everywhere, i can never get the hang of where to place the image to be copied so i can enlarge it without missing anything out. It is very time consuming, full size patterns would have been so much better. The projects are really nice though and i cant wait to get started, some patterns are a bit fiddly looking and i will have to draw these myself as they are far too small to transfer to felt but in all a book i highly recommend.

cushions or footstools?

These are great cushions for children to sit on, i have been making them for everyone and all from just 1 metre of fabric. This allows you to buy something really nice that you may not be sure of what to use it for. I also find they make nice footstools although my daughter is forever telling me to get off hers. I am going to make one that is a little bit taller just for my feet.

so head on over to http://3punkmom.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-land-of-nod-inspired-floor.html

for instructions on how to make it. piping also makes things look more professional.

i am back

oh its been a while but now that summer is nearly over and the kids are back at school i hope to get more time for blogging and crafting. my aim will be to post an item at least once a week (i think i have said this before) but i do hope to keep to this promise, its also good for myself to keep a record of what i do or i just forget. Thank you to pamela kirk of kirkskorner, http://kirkskornerathome.blogspot.com for being my one and only follower and showing me that i am not just talking to myself. Also for her baby bib pattern, its just what i was looking for as a baby gift, i couldnt find a pattern i liked but i really like the long flap on this one, i plan to make it tomorrow so i will post some pictures in the next few days.
over the last few months i have been on a sewing frenzy making a baby quilt, a quilt for my sisters christmas which i will have to take pictures of as i made it from a jelly roll and a charm pack and i cant believe how quick it was to put together, i also discovered that if you use fleece fabric as your backing fabric it hides a lot of mistakes. i even impressed myself to how proffessional this one looked. i also made a quilt from heather bailey fabric from a pattern in sew hip magazine, it is very bright, and i also made slippers but they turned out to be too small for my big feet. oh well just something else i can give as a gift. my husband says i would have been cheaper buying a pair of slippers but wheres the fun in that! i also dont even like slippers i am always in my bare feet, even outside, it was a cute pattern though. i have also been making reading pillows from a sew liberated pattern, again i love the pattern but i am not sure if people will use it, they are getting them as christmas presents anyway, maybe even everyone i know as i just love this pattern. i have also made a few hopscotch mats and i have also been making the kids floor cushion from living with punks blog http://3punkmom.blogspot.com , they look really good made up although it took me ages trying to find a circle large enough. well thats enough for now, will be back soon with some pictures and hopefully some crafts to do.

English paper piecing

English paper piecing, how addictive.

I have been cutting and sewing hexagons non stop, it is so easy and so pretty, i have been using up all my scraps to make them in different sizes. I had so many i thought i better do something with them so i made these place mats with some large ones and coasters with some really quite tiny ones. The place mats are 15inches by 10 inches as i used a moda layer cake square and half a square sewn together. At least with precuts you know it is going to be pretty straight. The coasters are 5inch square, a layer cake square cut into 4, how handy instant coasters, well nearly.

i have also been making the patchwork pieced hexagon bag from cath kidston's sew book, the hexagons where larger and i needed 60 of them, this was a bit less enjoyable trying to sew them all together but its done, yeah. I don't think i will be making a full quilt but i will happily be decorating everything with the funny pieced flower.

Happy Easter?

Its the beginning of the Easter holidays but what is this to wake up to. A few days after British summer time began we have SNOW. no rolling eggs this year, no daffodils in bloom, no lambs, no bunnies, and definitely no sunshine. A cold Easter is not what i wanted, the garden is in desperate need of some TLC , the grass really needs cut and i am way behind in sowing seeds.

It is just too cold but the plus point is all the extra time indoors to craft.

Hopscotch

Hi, today i made this excellent hopscotch for my kids. I used a basic tutorial which can be found at http://sewhappytocraft.blogspot.com/2010/03/hopscotch-tutorial.html

i had been looking for a pattern for a few weeks and came across many but this was this quickest and easiest way to do it. I don't know how i didn't think of it myself.

The kids love it.

The only thing i did differently from the tutorial was that i treated it like i was making a quilt and added wadding, backing and binding and just stitched in the stitched lines. I used the machine to quilt as it was narrow but i still found it hard to get everything under and rolled out the way for stitching. hand quilting may take longer but it is so much easier. if anyone has any tips on machine quilting i would love to know, i just don't know how to do it without getting in a mess.I have bought many a book and looked at a lot of web pages on quilting but there is not a lot of instructions on the actual process of doing the "quilting", no info on where to start or what patterns to use or how to do them. You always get lots of detail on piecing the patchwork top together but then all it says after that is layer batting and backing and then quilt.

is it so big a secret that you can only be born with the knowledge?

buttercup bag

I made this cute bag from a pattern i found at made by Rae,

http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html

it was really enjoyable to make and the pattern pieces fitted exactly which is actually a very rare find, this needed no adjustment at all. I made it from a fat quarter of Amy butler fabric and used a contrasting print for the lining. It is a bit smaller than i thought but ideal for when you do not need to carry a lot.

penguin cross stitch

As i have said before my daughter loves penguins. Here is a new penguin cross stitch taken from the Bang on the door animal range of images, i thought it was so cute i just had to convert it for stitching. I am also loving the new windows 7 snipping tool it makes uploading images so much easier and quicker as before it took ages to convert the cross stitch file to a file that can be uploaded to blogger but now i just have choose the snipping tool and drag a box around the image. How great is that?

valentine

here is a picture of what the back looks like.

valentine

picture 4

picture 3

picture 2

picture 1


1. Cut out all pieces. (picture 1)

2. Iron interfacing to large heart back.

Cut 2 slits on large heart back as shown on pattern for pin. (picture2)

3. Thread beads onto floss , i have used a small jump ring to hold the beads at the bottom, and sew onto back heart piece. (picture 3)

4. Blanket stitch around large hearts (both together) and the 2 small hearts, front and back together.

5. Attach the 2 small hearts to the large heart and add the pin to the back through the two small slits. (picture 4)

valentine

I have been making these felt heart brooches for my children to wear over the valentine season.

tutorial to follow.

Here are the pictures of the child's crayon bags I've been talking about. The tutorial was on Moda bakeshop a few weeks ago and i cant stop making them. AS you can see i have been adding stitching panels to them to make them a bit more personal but they are very useful bags indeed, i have also done a few non patchwork ones and they are just as nice, i will take pictures of these tomorrow. http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/01/childs-activity-bag.html#more

more cross stitch

This is a cute pram cross stitch pattern. Stitch the outline then add your own choice of colour for either boy or girl. would look good on a card or cushion. I haven't even started my own version but will post a picture when finished.

ben 10

here is a simple black and white cross stitch outline of the BEN10 logo. There may be some grey tones in here but just stitch in black, much easier and will work better. I am creating some stitching projects to put on Easter gift bags, this would look good on coloured Aida or done with soluble canvas onto patterned fabric but do what you will. I will be putting it onto one of the crayon bags I've been making, i cant seem to make enough, they are very popular.

sewing caddy

This is a little scissor keeper i made using instructions i came across on

http://http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/bags-pillows/sewing-caddy_1.html.

It was so cute and didn't take long to make, i had to have one. The loop fits nicely over the lamp of my portable craft table so doesn't get lost. I have also been continuing my quest to stitch everything that is in the Quilt a gift book, i just love it.http://http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quilt-Gift-Heartfelt-Projects-Heirloom/dp/0715332821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264025534&sr=8-1

There is something to make for everyone.

I have also been busy sewing the children's activity bag which was posted on Modabakeshop. I have started making them as Easter gifts for all the children i know. I haven't got round to taking pictures yet but i have changed the front panel to include a personalised stitching, i will try and post photos tomorrow. the original tutorial can be found at http://http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/01/childs-activity-bag.html#more

In all a busy sewing month but with it being so cold outside my needle pricked fingers are very painful, lots of hand cream needed on my very cut fingers.

We have a Pet

This is Biscuit our new dog we got for Christmas. Its very well behaved, doesn't need feeding, doesn't need walking and can be switched off when you have had enough of it. My ideal pet! It does sit up, lie down, gives a paw, begs, eats it bone and snores. It just sits in the corner and makes noise when it wants attention, it really is quite funny.

Happy New Year

Happy New year, as you can see it has been very snowy over the last two weeks. Schools closed early for Christmas, we couldn't get the car out of the drive and we nearly couldn't get to the shops to buy Christmas dinner. It was the most snow we have had in years, so lots of sledging and making snowmen but not much else. Christmas was good, lots of presents and lots of crafting. I got a new book, Quilt a gift by Barri sue Gaudet , i highly recommend it, i have completed five projects already. School returns on Tuesday and cara starts nursery for the first time on thursday, so we have a very busy week, hopefully she will like it there and we will have no dramas, she tends to only do what she wants!