I chose this beautiful bright batik for my latest sewing project - it has nearly every colour of the rainbow!! I decided to pick a plain colour thread rather than a variegated one, and used a deep blue Mettler quilting thread, shade 0790. The tutorial is by One Shabby Chick, and really simple to make. I've made scrappy ones before, and you can find them here and here - this was the first time I'd used the same fabric for the whole strap, and I'm really pleased with it. As usual I've used an Ernie Ball nylon guitar strap and removed the leather ends and slider to make a unique strap for a guitar-loving friend's birthday.
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No, it's got nothing to do with THAT book - I needed to make a special gift for a friend's birthday, and was drawn to these masculine-looking batiks, as I had the perfect project in mind. I had previously used a great tutorial by "One Shabby Chick" and made a guitar strap as a Christmas gift, and decided to make another one for my friend's birthday..... .....I sewed lots of straight-row quilting, 0.25" apart on this strap. The edge of the walking foot makes an excellent guide! I used a variegated King Tut quilting thread, shade 902, which blends beautifully with these grey batiks. I had already bought a plain nylon Ernie Ball guitar strap, so just removed the hard wear and attached it to the batik quilted strip. Finally it was adorned with one of my "Quiltystuff" labels..... .....then the second part of the gift. Using left-over scraps of fabric is ideal for making this journal cover. A selection of grey batik scraps was put to good use, along with an A5 journal from my local supermarket! This was quilted very simply, with lots of straight-row quilting 0.5" apart. I even managed to stitch one of my "Quiltystuff" labels inside the lining. The birthday boy can use this journal to jot down any musical thoughts and ramblings!! Better hurry now and get these wrapped up, ready for the birthday boy.
Don't you just love it when you find a finished quilt top ready to quilt - and that's just what happened at the weekend! I'd been sorting through all my boxes of fabric and my daughter Alice commented on some fabric that she saw in one of the boxes. So I pulled it out to show her - and discovered that it was this beautiful quilt top that I'd pieced together about 5 or 6 years ago! I'd bought this as a kit from my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven, and can't even remember the name of the pattern - all I can remember was that it was a kit by Timeless Treasures and included this collection of beautiful Tonga batiks in greens and blues and purple and I couldn't resist it! After it was machine pieced together I'd put it away, thinking it was FAR too big to quilt myself, and had forgotten all about it. And it's big. Really big. 80" square big. So on Thursday I'm off to see Janette, to get it long arm quilted. Now I wonder what other hidden treasures I can find in my stash!!
Another project that I completed on the "Drama and Detail" course with Philippa Naylor, was a cover for a ring-binder. I used a mixture of batiks and linen for this project. I prefer to use Schmetz Microtex needles size 60 when sewing batiks, and this project was no exception..... .....I was really pleased with how this cover turned out! The applique on the front was a combination of edge-stitch applique for the petals, satin stitched applique circles and free-motion applique for the top layer of the petals. I quilted the batik part of the cover in straight rows of quilting about 0.5" apart, and used a King Tut variegated quilting thread to match the colour of the batiks. I even managed to thread a Schmetz Microtex needle size 60 with the quilting thread - for some reason my automatic threader isn't very good when it comes to size 60 needles - and I could hardly see the eye of the needle when it was in my machine, so my top tip was to thread the needle THEN put it in the machine!
During the "Drama and Detail" course that I did with Philippa Naylor, we learnt to make some curved bias strips - and some were made so the sides had varying widths. These strips were made with a turquoise batik, and stitched into place on top of some linen to make a notebook cover, lined with more batik..... .....this one was for my daughter Alice. Now I've mastered this technique for covering notebooks, I'll be making several for friends and family as Christmas gifts! And what about making one as a cover for a Wedding Album using a photograph printed onto fabric like the memory cushions? Ohhhh now my creative juices are flowing I can't wait to get stitching at the weekend!!
Another journal cover - this time with 3-D applique and a surprise! Embellished with applique and plastic flowers and button centers. This tutorial is a really easy project to make..... .....I used some denim from an old pair of jeans to make this, and quilted the front with the same flower shape that I had used for the applique, then quilted the back with straight rows..... .....the batik flowers have been appliqued in different ways - satin stitch applique (this was done VERY slowly!!) with a Mettler silk finish cotton thread, and free motion applique with a variegated YLI quilting thread. I added a "foil" flower with the add of some steam-a-seam 2 and some red craft foil. The plastic flowers were great fun to do, (they were Philippa's idea - I thought she was mad!!) and I added a button centre for all the flowers..... .....and the surprise? The 3-D pink flower has been backed with a bright lime green batik!
During my week away with Philippa Naylor, I made lots of small projects embellished with applique - I took a supply of notebooks and bag handles with me, and was inspired by the sample I made of satin stitch appliqued circles to progress further to make a decorative journal cover. I've just enlarged the layout so it will accommodate an A4 notebook - and I've made this one using pink batiks and linen. 3 circles of different batiks were attached to a piece of linen using steam-a-seam-2 and secured with machine satin stitch. I used a Mettler silk-finish thread in fuchsia pink around the purple batik circle, orange Mettler quilting thread around the pink batik circle, and finally I used purple Mettler quilting thread around the orange batik circle. Then I added the panel of linen, which I frayed along the 2 long sides, just off centre on the front of the journal cover. The linen panel was then machine stitched into place with a matching coloured thread..... .....and here is the finished journal cover. I really love using linen, and think it goes beautifully with the fine cotton batik. The joy of having a removable cover is that when the notebook is full, it can be removed and replaced with a new one! Philippa showed us lots of top tips for satin stitch applique - we used stitch and tear stabilizer underneath the background fabric (in this case the linen), and stitched very slowly!! As you can see, this was quilted very simply using lots of straight rows, using a variegated YLI quilting thread in shades of orange and pink to match the pink batik fabric.
Do you remember a few weeks ago I made a tote bag using some brown batiks from my stash, and an AnnAKa pattern called "På Quiltelaup"? Well I had some leftover fabric from that project, and decided to make a shoulder bag, again using an AnnAKa pattern, "Gladveska". I didn't have any pellon wadding left for this project, so I used a double layer of thin cotton wadding instead. It is quilted in a zig-zag design, using a variegated brown King Tut quilted thread... ...rather than stick faithfully to the pattern, I used a variation of the Perfect Quilted Totes pattern by Elizabeth Hartman for the lining and pockets, and was really pleased with how this turned out. There are two slip pockets in the lining, and a pocket with a zipper and a key holder too. And finished off with one of my "quiltystuff" labels? And the upper edge of the bag neatened with binding? And a magnetic button fastener sewn onto the flap? Of course!... ...this bag really does have everything, as you can see from this picture of the inside of the bag, it has a slip pocket, neatly bound with a cream batik and a zipper pocket and a key holder. This side of the lining has a slip pocket, lined and trimmed with one of the batiks and finished with one of my labels. It's the little finishing touches that make this bag look so smart... ...here is the finished bag - the strap is made out of strips of fabric, and as I didn't quite have enough, I made one of them "scappy", which seems to work well. It's surprising what you can make with left-overs. Now I need to sort through my box of batiks and maybe make some more of these shoulder bags.
I was so eager to put some pictures on my blog about this tote bag, I completely forgot about the buttons that adorn the top of the bag, securing the prairie points so they don't flap about! Anyway, I bought these large grey buttons la couple of weeks ago from Fabric8 in Felixtowe - they really so finish it off nicely. I really wanted to get a green and a yellow one, to match the colours of the bag, but couldn't find the right shade, so chose these grey ones instead. And these are the nice brown buttons that I bought for the brown batik version of "På Quiltelaup". These buttons really do add the final flourish to these tote bags. Now I might have to make another one to match the buttons I've already got in my button jar!!
At the weekend I had a super day on Sunday, sewing with my youngest daughter, Alice. She is currently working her gap year at our local quilt shop Quilters Haven (lucky girl!) before she heads off to uni in September. Anyway, Alice loves sewing and creating (I wonder who she takes after?!) and we spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon sewing together, as she wanted to make some more of these beautiful cosmetic bags for 2 of her work colleagues. The pattern she used is "Anna's Sminkepung, by the Norwegian designer AnnAKa. The first one was made with a selection of red and white fabrics - she did all the quilting and sewing herself - her zipper insertion deserved full marks! She chose some red crocheted lace for the trimming. The fabrics all came from Sew and So's, which Alice bought when we went there for a shopping trip a few weeks ago. The pink batik bag was trimmed with some gorgeous fuchsia pink velvet ribbon/lace that I bought from Little A Designs.
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About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! Archives
July 2023
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