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Sewing With Alice

15/4/2013

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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Lecien Leftovers

15/4/2013

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Do you remember when I made some "Sminkepung" toiletry bags using this gorgeous Lecien fabric and an AnnAKa pattern? The fabric was bought from Sew and So's in Bungay when they had a booth at the Chilford Autumn Quilt Festival simply ages ago - think it was 2011 - anyway, I think this fabric started my addiction with all things Lecien! Well as you can see, I had a few little left-overs, and thought I had enough to make one more bag.....

...the delicate lace-printed fabric is used for the lining and bindings inside the bag - I always like the inside to be finished off as neatly as possible, and the bindings are stitched into place by hand. Oh and yes, it's been adorned with one of my "Quiltystuff" labels too! And here it is - trimmed with this gorgeous lace that I bought from Little A Designs a few weeks ago. Well now I need to go shopping again to stock up my Lecien fabric box!!

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Open Heart Dangles

14/4/2013

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You know that feeling when you see something and you want it so badly you think you can't live without it?? Well I've been ohhhing and ahhhing at these on the Amanda Davie Etsy shop. These were just so gorgeous and I just HAD to have them!! Beautiful Red Coral has been wire wrapped around these lovely kidney wire earrings. Amanda has paired them with a pair of lovely heart charms for the finishing touch. I know, ANOTHER pair of earrings - but they were cheaper than a pair of new shoes hehe!!

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"Yellow Brick Road" Quilt

14/4/2013

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Here is another one of my quilts that I made a few years ago - my daughter Alice had bought me a bundle of fat quarters of this gorgeous fabric for my birthday, and I bought another bundle as a treat to myself! I used a really simple pattern that I bought from my local quilt shop called "Yellow Brick Road" and is by Atkinson Designs. This quilt is a very simple pattern to piece together and it looks great in these colours - turquoise and teal and brown.....

...I added a small brown flange between the quilt top and the border. This was machine quilted very simply, using "stitch-in-the -ditch" and I used some gentle curving rows on the borders. Maybe one day I'll unpick those wobbly quilting lines, and let Janette weave her magic on it!!

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Black Lace Sminkepung

13/4/2013

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My Bernina has been off on it's holipops (AKA having a very well deserved service!) and today I just NEEDED to make something and see if I noticed a difference. Searching through a box of scraps, I found a small piece of red and black lace-printed fabric in my sewing box that was left over from a larger piece that I had already quilted a couple of years ago, and even though it wasn't very big, I decided to use it rather than throw it away. Ooh my word - I didn't really how noisy my machine had been, as now the "clunking" noise I heard every time I sewed anything was missing - my Bernina is now sewing like a dream again, and it was practically purring as it stitched through layers of fabric and wadding as I made another little cosmetic bag. As you can see, this little bag is lined with a super red and black polka dot print...

..the red lace didn't look right in the end, as it was just too scarlet - so out came the thread un-picker, and I swapped the red lace for a piece of black gathered lace, which I think goes much better. Umm this little bag looks like a very sexy version of "Anna's Sminkepung". Oh la-la!!

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AnnAKa

13/4/2013

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Several of my blog followers and FB friends have often asked me about where they can buy patterns by AnnAKa - they are available from quilt shops in Scandinavia, and there are lots of links on the side bar of my blog. I buy mine from my friend Hanne who has a quilt shop in Bodø called Lappedilla, and also from Elisabeth who has a quilt shop in Sweden called Lapp-Elisa. Please contact them if you need any help with ordering patterns - they will be very happy to help you. This shows me with Ann and my friend Hanne when I went to stay in Norway for the first time in November, 2009 - I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with Hanne and to do a course with Ann - it was extremely exciting! I had such a great time there, and made friends with lots of Norwegian ladies - hei hei!! And this picture was taken when I met Ann the second time, in 2011 and I did ANOTHER course with her - I really am VERY lucky!! And of course I'm lucky to have so many Norwegian friends - especially Hanne and Eva. I've got quite a large collection of AnnAKa patterns, as you can probably imagine!

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Four-Patch and Friends Scrap Quilt

13/4/2013

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I'm still posting pictures of some of my "older" quilts, and here is another scrappy quilt - made with "worms" - 2.5" strips pf fabric. This pattern is called "Four patch and Friends" and is another pattern from the book "Open A Can Of Worms" by Debbie Caffrey. I attended this class at Quilters Haven about 7 or 8 years ago. I started off with a fat quarter bundle of fabrics by Benartex, and added more fabrics in similar colours - black and grey and tan.....

.....you won't believe how hard it was to make sure all the cats faces were the right way up when I was busy machine-piecing all these blocks together! 4.5" squares of background fabric are teamed with the "worms" and I picked out a light grey for this. This was very simply machine quilted with a grey Mettler quilting thread, when my quilting skills were very much that of a beginner.....

.....I added a flange between the quilt top and the border, using a dull red fabric that is also by Benartex - it matches the bows that are tied around those leaping cats! The backing is made with 2 lengths of fabric stitched together, and I used the same fabric for the binding.

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"Road to Oklahoma" Quilt

12/4/2013

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Before I discovered the joy of Jelly Rolls, I had enjoyed making scrap quilts using 2.5" strips of fabric - and had been on classes at my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven, where I learnt how to make this quilt. The pattern is called "Road to Oklahoma" and is from the book "Open A Can Of Worms" Debbie Caffrey. "Worms" are a quilting term for 2.5" strips, and this pattern is made entirely those strips - I had great fun wandering around Quilters Haven choosing all these fabrics - just think how much time I would've saved if I'd used a couple of Jelly Rolls!! This quilt was made about 7 or 8 years ago, and was one of the first "proper" quilts I had made. The backing fabric is a deep blue star print, and I used Quilters Dream cotton wadding.....

.....this shows a close-up of one of the stars - I stitched a red button into the centre of each star for a bit of dramatic decoration! It's also a great idea if your points don't quite meet up in the middle! This was machine quilted very simply, just "stitch-in-the-ditch" and I used strips of all the red fabrics for a scrappy binding. Now I've looked at this quilt again, I think I'd like to make another one using this pattern - using Jelly Rolls of course!!

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Turning Twenty Again - Blue Batiks

11/4/2013

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Before I had my blog, I had made a few quilts!! and some of these have never been featured on her before - so I thought I would share some pictures with you of some of my earlier work. This quilt was made a few years ago, and the pattern is called "Turning Twenty Again" and is by Trisha Cribbs. The original pattern makes a quilt using 20 fat quarters, but I made a smaller version. This uses 12 fat quarters, with some extra fabric for the borders, backing and binding. All the fat quarters are cut out exactly the same, and this is perfect for layering 3 or 4 fat quarters one on top of the other, using a large 60mm rotary cutting blade (it's essential to have a nice new sharp one to slice through all those layers) and it's cut out ready for piecing in no time at all.....

.....I added a narrow flange between the quilt top and the border, using a pale blue batik., and machine quilted this one myself, very simply just "stitch-in-the-ditch" using a variegated blue quilting thread, and used a cable pattern for quilting the border. This was before I had discovered Janette and her longarm quilting machine!! This is a good sized quilt, and one that I tend to use as a picnic blanket.

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Gifts of Spring

10/4/2013

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Yes - Etsy shopping again hehe!! These lovely earrings feature tiny, delicate Peridot gemstones that have been carefully wire wrapped around brass kidney wires. Amanda has added some beautiful little heart charms with a Peridot accent for the dangle. These are sweet,light and feminine. Oh and did you know - Peridot is known as a stone that protects against negative energy. It is a stone associated with lightness and beauty and is often worn as a protection stone. Can't wait for these to arrive!

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Sewing With Alice

Lecien Leftovers

Open Heart Dangles

"Yellow Brick Road" Quilt

Black Lace Sminkepung

AnnAKa

Four-Patch and Friends Scrap Quilt

"Road to Oklahoma" Quilt

Turning Twenty Again - Blue Batiks

Gifts of Spring

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