A Scrappy Quilt - A - Long

Have you heard of Aneela Hoey?  If you don't know her name you may know her range of fabric - Sherbet Pips?  Well I have been following her blog Comfortstitching for a little while now.  I love her approach to design and the way in which her colours just flow.  She is very inspired by her children and they feature as a large part of her work. 

My Scrap bucket looks like this:

It is full to the brim!  Although they are "scraps" there are lots of pieces of fabrics I love and usually the last little piece of my favourites are hiding in here.  I use these alot in my works but at the moment the pile is a little larger than I like it to be.

When I was reading Comfortstitching through the week Aneela posted a Tutorial on a Scrappy Block Quilt A Long , I was sold.  She talks about how addictive these little squares are to make and I definitely agree - here's one I made yesterday.

Since making this one I have made another 5 - I will show you a photo next time of my growing pile of Scrappy squares.  I am not sure how big I will make it at this stage - but I think I might just keep adding to it to be more of a picnic rug size.  I have gone with bright colours - green, yellow, pink, teal, purple and orange.

Camera/iPod Pouch Tutorial

It was my youngest daughters birthday over the past weekend and as you may know she is a keen photographer at the ripe old age of 7.  She loves taking photos and I was not so keen on her using my camera (Although since I got my new one, I have been happy for her to use the "old" one -  lol!)  Well she was lucky enough to get one from her grandparents and she was thrilled.  She has been taking photos left, right and centre - all great but only one problem!  There was no case for the camera - well I knew how to solve this by making one. 

I have put together this Tutorial for several reasons - yes I know there are many, many tutorials on this type of item but I wanted to go through and practice my camera skills, photo editing and wanted to improve on the quality of the other two tutorials I have put on my blog so far.  I had made this type of pouch before with students in my High School Textiles class so I knew this would be a great little project to adapt to the size to fit the new camera.  I am very keen to hear what you think - about the turtorial, if anything doesn't make sense or even if the photos themselves are getting better!

Camera/iPod Pouch Tutorial

 

Materials

25cm x 25cm Fabric for Outside

25cm x 25cm Fabric for Lining

25cm x 25cm piece of Pellon (fusible, light weight)

26cm x 6cm strip of fabric for Handle

3.5cm piece of Velcro (hook and loop tape)

Cotton thread

Scissors

1. Print out Pattern and cut out. 

Using pattern cut out the outside fabric, lining fabric, pellon.

2. Cut out Handle strip to required size and iron in half with the long raw edges matching. 

3. Unfold the handle strip and then fold one long raw edge into the centre and press.

4. Fold the other long edge into the centre and also press.

5. Fold the strip in half and press together.

6. Stitch along the open long edge of the handle and down the other side for a neat looking finish. Set aside for later.

7. Iron the Pellon onto the wrong side of your outside fabric piece. (Make sure you stick it glue side down and use a steam setting on your iron!)

8. Take your outside fabric and fold in half, pin the side seams. With right sides together sew down both the side seams with a 0.5cm seam allowance.

9. To make the corners, pull out the corners to have the side seam facing flat (the right sides of the fabric will be facing) in a horizontal direction.

Place a pin across the seam and stitch the corner closed in the opposite direction to the side seam.

Repeat for the other corner.

10. Take your lining and fold the top of the Camera pouch in half to mark the centre. Place one of the sides of Velcro 1.5cm down from the top and in the centre. Pin and then sew around the outside to secure.

Repeat for the other side.

11. To make the lining repeat steps 8 and 9 as you did with your outside fabric.
 12. Take your sewn outside fabric pouch and turn right way out. Take the handle and fold in half. Pin the handle in place at the right side seam with the loop falling down. Sew across the top to secure in place.

13. Take your lining and with right sides together put your lining inside your outside fabric to have the top raw edges matching. Pin at side seams and then around the pouch.

14. Sew around the top raw edge of your pouch 0.5cm leaving a 5cm gap so that you can turn inside out.

15. Turn you pouch out the right way and then pin and top stitch around the top of the camera pouch closing the opening.

All finished – your new pouch will fit many things.  Not just for your Camera but your iPod or mobile phone will fit also.  You might like it to hold you lipstick or make up – what ever you like!

Goings on this week and Giveaway winner

After a fantastic day at Perth Upmarket last Sunday I have been left gobsmacked at the response not only on the day but also since continuing.  Thanks to all those who came along and said hello.  I was wonderful to meet some of my Blog and Facebook readers in person and I appreciate your support.

This photo was taken with my I-phone.  Hubby said I wasn't allowed to take my camera as I still don't have a bag for it yet - but with a new Epiphanie bag on its way to me for Mother's day soon I will be coming out everywhere with me. Can't wait to show you it when it arrives.

I have been sewing lots of Bunnies and Easter Eggs this week.  And I have also been sewing lots of new Aprons with Mother's Day coming up.

A few weeks ago now I won a Giveaway and won a great gift pack. I won a huge lot of embroidery threads and some mini hoop frames. The girls and I have been putting these goodies to great use.  The girls used some Sublime Stitiching iron on transfers that I had and made these sweet little faces with all the supplies I won.  This is my eight year old's stitching that she made along with some of our winnings.

And now for the winner of my Birthday Giveaway:

Melissa said...

I love the bouncing bunnies - too, too cute - my girls would love making these in our craft room (if I only had time.... only time...). Happy Birthday!



Congratulations Melissa - I will send you an email and get your prize off in the mail to you.


This week I want to spend a bit of time revamping my Blog.  I want to add some pages and other features so stay tuned and hopefully I won't need a Masters in Computers to work it all out!!!

Birthday Giveaway !

Well, it's here!  My little, humble blog has turned one!  I can not believe it has been a whole year since I started writing all about what I get up to in my sewing room.  There have been lots of ups and downs with milestones and obstacles all to work my way through.  I thought that the best way to celebrate would of course be with a GIVEAWAY.  I have put together a little Easter inspired gift for one lucky winner.

The winner will receive a Bouncing Bunnies Felt Kit, 2 felt Easter Eggs, a bag of buttons and some ribbon to match.  This will get your Easter gift giving off to a great start. 

All you need to do is go over to my Face book page and check out the Photo Galleries.  Tell me what is your favourite item and leave a comment on this blog.  Entries will close on 24th March, 2011 at 7pm (WST).  Make sure I can contact you through your comment and I am happy to post internationally.  The winner will be chosen via random.org.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!

In theme with Birthdays I have been spying lots of lovely things on the net in the past week which have now made my own Birthday Wish list.  I'd though I'd share them with you:

1.  Top, top, top of my list is this new Camera Bag 

I came across this store - Epiphanie and fell in love immediately with these Camera bags.  How wonderful that I can now extend my regular Handbag Obsession to include one just as adored and loved for my new Camera.  (Hubby if you are reading I would really love "Belle" in the Turquoise colour!)

2. Next on my list are some new supplies from Sublime Stitching. 

I do have some of these transfers and would like to get some new ones.  I think these would be great to do with my girls and just because I love sitting and stitching.  They may help pass some time on an upcoming camping trip.  I am especially after some transfer pens and paper.

3. I have had my eye on a few books recently.  Those who know me well know how I don't normally ready anything longer than a Recipe (except for the Twilight series!).  Craft books are one exception and I love borrowing books from the library and growing my own library of craft/sewing books.  I love flicking through the beautiful pages and photos for inspiration.  These titles are top of my list!

 

Thanks for sticking by my for the past year to all my readers.  It is humbling to think that others out there take the time to read my ramblings and see all I get up to.  Here's to a wonderful year ahead!

Making with the Girls!

As it was a long weekend a few days ago here in Perth the girls and I had some extra time for some crafting.  As you know my girls would rather stick, glue and paint and craft anytime over electronic pastimes.  Which is great don't get me wrong but the constant trail of pom poms, pop sticks, cut up paper and glue everywhere sometimes drives me a little nuts!

A little while ago I bought some beautiful Japanese Washi Tape from here. I fell in love with the range of colours and knew that the girls would love using this special tape.  We made some gift tags first of all - using the egg template that you can find in my Easter Egg Felt Tutorial we cut out some white cardboard eggs and then the girls set about ripping the tape and sticking the pieces on in a bit of a collage fashion.

The girls wrapped up some Easter chocolates and used the washi tape eggs as Gift Tags, adding some ribbon for some gifts to be given at Easter time.

We also had some Styrofoam egg shapes which the girls then used to stick the washi tape to. 

Watch out for my next post - I am going to have a GIVEAWAY.  It will be my Blogiverssary this weekend.  Yes a whole year since I started my little blog.  Stay tuned!



Spotted over at Make it Perfect

I was very lucky to have the wonderful Toni of Make it Perfect review Tied with a Ribbon as part of her Cool Shops. 

Source - Make it Perfect

You can read the post here.  I was thrilled to be a part of Cool Shops and was blown away at the kind and warm words Toni had to say about my little part of the sewing world.

Toni also reviewed my Bouncing Bunnies Felt Kit.

Go over and read the review and there is a special offer for a 15% discount on my Etsy store till the 1st of April.  All you need is the code found at the end of the review.  Go over and check it out, Toni's blog is full of inspiration.

I love my new Camera!

I have been spending a bit of time lately playing with my new camera.  I love it and I can definitely see that it was well worth the investment.  I have been out and about taking some shots of the bunting that I showed you in a previous post.  While it will take me a little while to work out all the things it can do I hope you too can see the difference in the quality of my photos (still need to work on setting up shots though!)

All the Easter Eggs I started a few weeks ago are now finished and so to are some bunnies that I started.  With my next Perth Upmarket only a few weeks away I have been stocking up on these.  I hope you have enjoyed making the ones in my Tutorial in the last post.  If you have made some I would love to see some pictures.  If you would like some ready made or a kit to make your own there are some in my Etsy shop.

 I have been sewing lots of Aprons lately.  This sweet cupcake Apron has been sent of to its new owner and I love my new Mannequin to help as a prop for my photos.  I came across her in a Secondhand store a few weeks ago while on the hunt for a mannequin and she was just perfect.  I also roped in one of my closest friends to model some of my Aprons for a Mother's Day Flyer which I will show you next post.  You can see lots of my Aprons on my Facebook page in the Apron Album.

We have been celebrating lots of birthdays recently and this year I thought I would go with a PJ theme.  They make a great present and I love choosing fabric that I will think will go with each kids personality.

A special thanks to those who have left comments on my last few posts.  It has been great to read your thoughts on all the things I get up to in my sewing room and know that someone else is interested.  I think I do tend to bore my family with all my talk about fabric, patterns, craft and all things sewing!