Finished cupcake apron

Well it's been a crazy busy november, and I've had this v. cute cupcake fabric dominating my current plans to finish other projects.  The pattern was downloaded online, but was exceptionally hard to follow, so the end project is not anything like the plans.

But then again, how hard is an apron?

I've still got to finish the pocket, I'm planning to stitch a giant cupcake on some pink fabric...

Trying to find the time

Time = fail, it has been so busy of late, that I haven't made much progress.  Ugh.

This doesn't mean I haven't bought new fabric for new projects.  Whooooooops.

Whooops, new project started

I know I'm meant to be finishing things - but I've made such good progress lately on my existing projects...I couldn't but help start making something with my moda fabric.  This cute little packet I just adored, but had no idea what to make - something small but pretty and also useful.

Hence, I thought, babies are small - I know people with babies...I'll make a gift for a friend!  And so a little chuck rug for Aston was decided upon.  Little Aston is our neighbour's little boy, who has reflux, so plenty of towels required!

I'm feeling pretty lazy today though - so I couldn't be bothered planning it out - I just started sewing and cutting - and sewing back together.  Bit silly really to chop up all the fabric just to put it back together again - but it's come up really nicely.



Now the real challenge is to finish it before Aston gets too big......

Onto the construction.  All the blocks were 5", so I chopped all of them in half to begin with.  Then there are three different types of block.  The halves sewn short end, end to end.  This made the strips above.  Then I sewed all the left over blocks long side to long side.  Then chopped it into thirds again to make almost log cabin blocks.  And that made the busy strips shown to the right.

Then when I laid it out over the hand towel I was using as a base...it was too short!  So finally I got some extra blocks and you can see those pinned below. Again, just 5" blocks chopped in half, and then sewn long side together.

The general idea from this stage (although I'm not sewing any more tonight - red wine is on the agenda), I'll stitch this down to the hand towel, then add a border much like the binding on a quilt.  But machine sewn for a bit more durability, as I anticipate it'll be going through the wash a fair bit!  And now, I've got all the pinks from the Moda pack left....just need someone to have a little girl now....

Projects complete!

 It's been a hell of a week- but this weekend I've been all hermitage and finally finished the fat cat, and also managed to finish a few other projects.  It's nice, feeling such a sense of actually getting something done for me :)   My husband did say that it would be nice to give to our first child.  I think it will be sitting in the cupboard for awhile then!

In trying to get Katies quilt done, I've finally made all the binding.  9m of carefully folded and wrapped up, ready to go as soon as I've finished the quilting.  I needed a bit of a break, as the stitching 4 rows on the border really felt like I was getting nowhere.  Funny that, 5 years in the making and the borders seem to take forever.  Bah.




But, what I did think was a real win was this fun little project from clothkits which was a free gift with a subscription from Sew Hip in the UK.  (thanks mum!).  It was pretty much the easiest 1 hour project.  Not that I actually needed a doorstop, but I've looked on the webby, and there are heaps of other awesome projects.  I really would like to try one of the little dresses. But this doorstop was seriously easy to make, with the full pattern pre-printed and easy to follow instructions.  

It's going well on the sewing front!  Maybe this blog to completion plan will work out!

Further work on the fat cat

Finally finished the fat cat face!  It's looking really quite silly, and it's now at the stage of sewing the little cat into 3d.  The nose is a little wonky, but seeing as the cat nearly didn't get given a nose it can't be too picky about the one it gets.  Tom thinks I should sew little arms on it, but I'm not sure.  

The ears are causing me a few problems, I had originally planned to sew just two outlines together, but I think it won't make the ears as full and cat like as they could be.  Trying to google a way to make extra little inserts at the back.  And a tail - not sure whether to just sew an actual tail, or whether to embroider one.  

Need to go and get the filler next - always drives me nuts that you can only get it in such giant bags.  Seriously useful if you want to make a huge soft toy - or multiple toys.  

Maybe I should just make some more....

Psychic felt skills

UGH.  So after thinking about Katie's quilt, which is most definitely close to being finished, I started thinking about all the other unfinished projects lurking in the back of the closet.

Turns out to be a couple - but not toooo bad.  (but I'm pretending not to see the denim skirt or the satin dress).  I was going to blog them all - but then I realised that was part of my divine procrastination technique, and that wasn't going to get anything finished.

But I'd forgotten about a little felt squishy toy I tried to make - which is quite amusing in hindsight.  This fat cat was started when we were just back from living in the UK, and were living with my parents-in-law.  Who could have known that I had psychic felt skills - as 18 months later I have a real life version of this little blob!

It's hard to see the extent of how fat Mei is - she tends to blob out towards the bottom end.  But she's on a special diet now, so she might even be thin by the time the felt fat cat is finished.  Unlikely though - that cat seems to spontaneously absorb carbs.  Or bacon....

I've just stitched the other eye bit on, and started with a bright red tongue.  The only problem is I did have a little red wine while sewing, and my blanket stitch got very very shady....

Katie's birthday quilt

OK - commitment time.  I started Katie's queen sized quilt in 2005 (eek), when we were students sharing a house together.  4 years later, engagements, pets and weddings, it's still not complete.

However, it's getting a lot closer.  At the moment it's got wineglass stitching (all by hand) through the middle, which took significantly more time than I predicted, but the effect on the back has come up really nicely.

I tend to do all my piecing by machine, and quilt by hand.  While painfully slow, the feel of the handsewn quilt is just so nice - I've got one of each on the top of my bed at the moment, and the handquilted one has far more flexibility.  Personal preference I guess.

For the borders I've gone for solid colours, with strong lines to break it up.  Around the final border it will be 4 lines stitched side by side - Katie actually asked for this, but it causes some bother, as I keep flopping around with 4 needles.  In reality it would probably be easier to just sew around it 4 times, but that would be the easy way to do it.

The edging is a bit of a struggle, as I want to bring in the colours in the middle into the edge.  I'd previously bought all the fabric for the edge, but then it was destroyed in a fire (better the stack of fabric than my half done quilts) - so I've started the hunt again.


At the moment I'm leaning toward this fabric - picking up the yellow and green.   The colours aren't showing up very well.  It was hard enough trying to get the cats to stop playing under the quilt for long enough to take a photo, so I wasn't worrying about the lighting and colours so much!
It's quite funny to flick through the photos quickly as Charlie was hiding and moving about under the quilt top, and you can see it move!

Best get to the sewing and less of the writing, or it'll never get done!  A loft aim of having it finished before Katie's wedding would be nice (April 2010), or maybe I'll get booted from the bridal party!

In the beginning

It started with needing a blanket.  While a normal 21 year old would go buy one, I decided to make one.  And with my first demented little yellow and orange patchwork square, it was all over.

So was the interest in yellow and orange.  4 years later, I've started 1 skirt, 1 dress, 5 quilts and 1 stuffed toy.  I've finished 2 quilts.  The result, a fabric spill.  While partially attributable to the breeding quality of fabric (I go to buy one small thing and walk out arms laden), it's mostly attributable to a lack of focus.  And thus you, blog, will inspire me to limp a little closer to the completion stage.

Hell, if the internet can provide lolcats surely it can provide inspiration. ? .


So the works stand as such -