Thursday, May 13, 2010

Some Current Projects

Still waiting on my sewing machine (one more week I believe!!).  In the meantime I've been working on some new projects.

The paper pieced hexagon cushions I mentioned last month weren't working for me... so I picked out just the brownish fabrics and decided to start making a table set - trivets and placemats.  I've hand pieced together two trivets and have them basted up ready for quilting.


The neutral colours blend in nicely with the timber and the seat fabric.  My plan is to piece together vertical strips for the placemats in varying widths.

After running across this cushion the other day, I instantly knew what I wanted to put on the dust cover for my sewing machine.  I just love the Cherish Nature charm pack I bought a couple of weeks ago... here is the start of "Cherish Nature Project No 2 - Sewing Machine Cover"!


I need to applique the pieces and stitch some beaks, eyes and legs.  Still trying to decide whether to use sewing cotton or something heavier like cross stitch thread.

The last two weeks I've been going to a quilt group.  It's great to meet some more people living locally and its also very inspirational to see their projects and flick through the different pattern books that they're using.  They are a very talented group of quilters and I'm definitely looking forward to learning more and asking their advice on my own projects as I slowly work through them :)

Sunday, May 2, 2010

New Fabrics :)

I think my sewing machine is still sitting on the docks in Melbourne... so in the meantime I've been amusing myself by buying fabrics!  I reckon I spent nearly a whole day browsing the online shops... and certainly found some beautiful fabrics to order.  They only took a few days to get here from Texas :)


I was so pleased with the fabrics... I ordered some fabric for more baby quilts which I'll post photos of later once I start making them (hurry up sewing machine!!), and I also bought a couple of charm packs.  One is Cherish Nature by Moda...


I fell in love with the colours... and decided I'll use them to make a dust cover for my sewing machine and a couple of other sewing accessories. First up I was inspired by Heather Bailey's pattern for her Square Deal Pincushion.






Can you believe I hand stitched this!!!  I thought I hated hand sewing... but I managed to get this done in one night.  It was actually quite relaxing and extremely rewarding.

The other charm pack is Tweet Tweet by Moda... I'm playing with the idea of doing a baby quilt with 4 large disappearing nine patches on the front.  I spread them out on the floor and played around with the order of the fabrics for quite a while until I was happy with them.  Then... disaster... I saw her coming... I grabbed the camera to try and capture the pattern before it was lost forever...



I managed it just in time!  Kitty is such a girl... she loves shoes, bracelets, and fabrics!!!