Having fun with free motion sewing...

I'm not sure whether Pinterest is a good or bad thing – as I find that I want to try lots more crafts. I don't really have the time, and what will I do when my little one finishes having a short day time nap?

I justified trying free motion sewing as it helps with quilting and I could use up scraps making doodled images – well that's the theory.

 

So after a couple of practices I had a go of trying to doodle my little Petal Fairies that I draw for my daughters. The top one was my first attempt and then the second one was a lot better, but will be improved with more practice.

I used a medium to heavy calico cotton and with these pictures I used a wooden embroidery hoop to hold the fabric taught.
After stitching the characters, I then coloured in some parts with fabric pens.

Next time I sew one, I will use metallic thread for the wings – will post to let you know how I get on.

So then what to do with these little pictures, well I had some pink patchwork and green scraps leftover from the rag quilt, and as my littlest one loves bags, I made her little tote bag using the picture as the main panel.

 

Thanks for looking today.

stompy x

Patchwork Duvet Cover Set - Finally Finished...

I started making this quilt cover and pillow case set for my eldest daughter for her new room and bed (she was moving out of the little bedroom to make way for her baby sibling).

The original idea for this set was to use up the scraps of fabric that I had collected (over bought!) while making bits for the nursery. I had made the appliquéd ABC chart for my daughters first Christmas, but had only used up some of the tiny scraps making the bird peg rail and there was still plenty left over.

The white backing fabric was a single flat sheet from my local supermarket – it was the cheapest option especially during their sales.

The character is cut out of Mitsy Mouse Lilac fabric (Prestigious Textiles Safari Park Collection).

 

The large patches were machine stitched and sewn together using a French seam (to strengthen each seam). The appliqué was held in place using iron fusing before being stitched with a small tight zig zag. To close the duvet cover, I used the popper tape you can buy from haberdashery shops.

The quilt was finished, but the pillow case just got left on the to do pile...

So after a couple of years the pillow case was finally completed and now the whole set is now in use.

 

Thanks for looking today... stompy x

First Time Rag Quilt

 

One thing I have a lot of is scrappy bits of fabric, dating back many years (think there is some Laura Ashley fabric from 1975) and finding things to do with these scraps is always a challenge. I then stumbled across Rag Quilts on Pinterest.

As my littlest one will be moving in to a proper size bed soon, we need new bedding for her and thought that I would have a go at rag quilting.

I had quite a bit of pink and green scraps (to match her bedroom) – but did end up having to buy a few lengths of new fabric. (Sadly our town has recently lost our haberdashery/fabric store and the store that is “out of town” is stocked with Ends of Roll, so the choice isn't great). My best buy however was the backing fabric, which was a Double fitted sheet from our Sainsbury's supermarket during a 25% off sale. Note – not their basic range, that's way to thin.

So then started the quilting...

The quilt is 13x8 squares.

The squares with seam allowance were approx 18cmx18cm (7”x7”)

The wadding squares were approx 15cmx15cm (6”x6”)

 

Using a rotary cutter (absolutely essential) I cut about 60 pink patterned, 60 green patterned squares, 110 wadding squares, and accidentally well over 200 backing squares (using both the Sainsburys sheet and an old ripped sheet from the cupboard).

I sandwiched the squares (backing – wadding – patterned) pinning in two opposite corners.

Once the squares were pinned I started sewing the crosses. To make it quicker (and not to waste cotton) I sewed straight onto the next square so would end up with a “bunting like” length of half sewn squares. They were then snipped apart and then sewn in the other direction to finish the crosses.

The squares were then trimmed to size, this made lining up the seams so much easier.

Once I had decided on a pattern – the squares were sewn together (wrong sides facing).

I was surprised how little time this took – I was expecting a mammoth task. When I was making this I went down with a very nasty cold and throat infection so wasn't working at my usual capacity, but the sewing together only took me an evening to do.

The seams were then snipped whilst laying in bed (not the best idea as you get a lot of shedding of fibres at this stage – doh!).

My little one loves the end result – so does my other one – so it looks like I will be trying this technique of quilting again.....

Thank you for stopping by and looking - regards Stompy

Octonauts Birthday Cake

 

 

We had promised our daughter she was allowed one big birthday party. Emily's friend Lennon has his birthday only 2 days later we decided to do a large joint party. We got in some great entertainment for the children (all 40 of them) AB Entertainments, Lennon's mum did all the food catering and I made the cake.

A huge 12x12 lemon madeira cake with a cake GUP-A and sugarcraft Kwazii, Captain Barnacles and Pesco.

The GUP-A and the characters were quite fidderly. The "water bubbles" hid mistakes and held pieces in place. The decoration of the lower cake was pretty easy - just lots of flattened icing sausages for the weed and round icing balls for the pebbles and "corals". The end of a paint brush added the holes and details of the corals.

The children - especially the birthday girl and boy - loved the cake. The mum's and dad's were surprised that I had no issues chopping it up.... but the cake was quite yummy too!

 

For the madeira cake I used the recipe from Lindy's Cakes but scaled up using the Pink Whisk calculations.



Busy setting up Stompy's Craft ...

It has been a really busy few weeks setting up the products for Stompy's Craft Little Blog Shop. I have specialised in creating craft kits for children, from simple colouring shapes (that my 20 month loves to colour in (well scribble on)) to Canvas Collage Kits and Simple Sewing Kits.

More kits will be uploaded soon - along with a price list....



So now is the mad rush to get a stock ready for two Christmas Shopping Fayres.

Thursday 22nd November 7- 9pm  - Friends of St Johns Christmas Shopping Evening at St John the Evangelist School, Newbury.

Friday 7th December 4:30 - 6:30pm - St Nics School, Newbury.

If you live in the Newbury area - come along and support the schools - it would be lovely to see you there.

Regards
Stompy xx

More Fabric fun with the Silhouette SD

Again the Silhouette SD came to my rescue when making a named toy bag for my youngest daughter.

 

As with the owl wall hanging I used cheap iron on adhesive to stabilise the fabric and then cut out quite intricate and small pieces for the letters and image applique patches.

I reused lots of old fabric for this make, including some old roman blinds for the main fabric ( I had to turn it inside out to hide the horrible pattern) the patches are demin from old jeans and the lining is a mixture of fun fabric left over from making a girls dress and an old bed sheet.

It’s not the best shaped bag in the world, but it does what I intended it to do, and that is holds lots of toys (it can also carry a 20 month old, as Chloe decided that she would climb in too!)


Thanks for looking

Fabric fun with the Silhouette SD

When you don’t have much time to get things made, I love any tool that can speed jobs up.

After searching the internet on how ot use the silhouette to cut fabric, I was hoping not to have to pay out for the specialist materials that the sites were recommending. Especially as I had recently found my 18 month old daughter sitting on my silhouette cutting mat - adhesive side down - on our door mat.
So I experimented using a spray mount on the cutting mat (after scraping off the dirt) making sure that I masked off the edges.
To stabilise the fabric I used a cheap iron adhesive bought from my local haberdashery. The Silhouette cut the cotton fabric beautifully, there was just a few tiny areas that needed to be snipped with scissors.

The owls I cut were then used as aplique decoration on a wall hanging for my daughters bedroom.

I hope to post more Silhouette SD applique ideas in the next few blogs...

Thanks for looking