baby quilt

a friend of mine is having a baby any day now. i have been busy making her this baby quilt since last year. i can post this now because i finally sent it off to her last week.  i started with this tutorial found here. 

 

i had my fabric cut into squares and matched up right sides together

i drew a diagonal line and sewed on either side of it

 

i wasnt sure about this way of doing but it it was actually pretty quick and easy

 

then you cut along the line

 

voila, 2 pieces

open and press into place

 

i did that for all of them

 

i used dots and zig zags for the coloured pieces and a subtle white on white pattern for the other.

 

its important to trim extras, this makes it much easier later.

 

it looks like i could be done, but not yet

 

if you want to go the next level of pattern you cut the new 2 colour sqaures in half diagonally!

and then swap them around to make the 4 part new squares to be sewn together.

 

then the tricky part, figuring out the best layout to find the right balance of colour and repetition. in the end i went all sudoku and made sure only one of each colour was in each vertical and horizontal row. i know very OCD of me. 

i used some fabric i had already for the wadding and backing. and pinned it all in place to be quilted.

you can see on the back here the chevron quilting pattern. i used multi colour thread for that. its a bit tricky doing the quilting on my little domestic machine but the results are good enough for something that is to be used and loved.

here is the front of the finished quilt. i bound it in a light green and white stripe. although we know the sex of the baby, i wanted to make a quilt that was neither too girly or boyish and not the primary red blue yellow you see in all the kids toys. i think it is a pretty good quilt. i had fun making it and i know the new family will enjoy using it.

fabric

something about the warmer weather makes me want to sew. as a result i went fabric shopping the other week.

i bought this cotton print to make a shirt or simple shift dress out of. love the colours of this.

 

i found this velvety cat fabric in the sale rack and could not say no. the image is made from water colour paintings of cats. i might buy more if there is still some left next time i go back.

 

i bought a kizillion meters of this fabric, to make new curtains for my home. more on that project as it happens

 

and i bought these quilting bits 

 

the white has a bit of paisley print on it in an off white

 

these will go together for a new quilting project i am starting

 

more on that as it happens, but the green stripes will be the binding and the grey and white circles the backing. 

i have already used up my cat fabric. i made 2 new dog beds

 

one for otto, he loves it

and one for his pal banjo, who also seems to like his new bed.

W, 1, one

a friend if mine had a baby boy last year on Australia day Jan 26. so this year was his first birthday, and i decided to make him some customised onesies.

i bought a set of three blue onesies outfits, and then went through my fabric stash to find the right patterns. then i bought some double sided iron on adhesive paper. 

 

i printed my artwork out to scale, in this case a number 1 that has a candle flame on it, the letter W and the word one.

 

then i copied the imagery onto the transfer paper with pencil, making sure they were in reverse, so they would be the right way around at the end.

 

once i ironed a square patch of the zigzag fabric to the drawn on iron on paper, i then cut out the patter, in this case the letter W.

 

this is the back,

 

i ironed it on right side around in position

 

then using some embroidery thread i slip stitched around the edges to make sure the graphic stays in place.  this is the candle number 1.

and this is the finished collection of three, the hand stitching took the longest but i did it while watching some TV so it wasn't that bad.

new dresses

i have been busy at the sewing machine using up some of the fabric and patterns i bought in melbourne. i like sewing when things settle down and i have some quiet time by myself at home.

this is my favorite of the dresses i have made,  i just love the fabric, both the weight of it and the print.

and i made a small patch pocket on this dress too but you cant see it because i lined the pattern up. this is made using my go to dress pattern. simple 2 pieces, binding at arms and neck, and 4 darts.

this was the new pattern, and as you can see from otto jumping up on me that it is a black cheer fabric lined with a white cotton.

 

it means the black is not see through

 

this was the first time i have lined anything. the dress fits well, but it will take me a while to get used to the A-line of the dress, i am use to a more straight silhouette

this is again my go to dress pattern, this time with a blue raindrop fabric on the front, and seeing as i didnt have enough of this to make the whole dress

i matched the brown in the drops and made the back out of a plain brown quilting cotton

 

the front is also a quilting cotton so this dress is a bit thicker in weight but it works well for this simple pattern

 

and this dress i just finished the other day and wore it out yesterday to our studio christmas party. a plain black cotton with white stars. just a bit of fun. 

i have 2 more plain back cotton versions of this dress cut out, one will replace my fading older version which i can now wear at home as my house dress, and the other one will have colourful binding either blue or black, not sure yet. will post photos when they are done.

highlights from melbourne trip

a couple weeks ago i went to melbourne to take down my exhibition. i arrived a day early and went to heide museum of modern art and had a picnic in the garden. it was perfect.

i had a bit of time to walk around melbourne, this was a temporary public artwork on the stairs to the library. i really liked the grass, it really changed the vibe of the place.

 

i met up with my good pal tass, and we talked art, and checked out her studio.

 

then of course cocktails on the roof top above the city.

 

the weather was perfect.

 

and then the dangerous part of the visit, a trip to tesuti fabrics.

i bought this black floral liberty of london fabric

 

some really dark blue almost black linen (not sure i am a linen person yet)

this see through black cotton that has a lovely texture, and also some white fabric to line this fabric with.

 

and this lovely blue and purple floral cotton.

and then i bought some patterns.

this one is for the black see through lined with white fabric

these patterns are free and from the tesuti web site and for fabric i bought last time i visited the shop in melbourne

this one for the linen but i might make a black cotton one too

 this pattern will be the blue and purple one but in the shorter shirt version.

and then when i thought i could not shop anymore i ended up with this dress!

 

its called pina colada and has pineapples and a black background, so i was definitely in love with it.

i was not sure about the elastic waist but i think it looks ok, and might be a good new dress to copy a pattern from. 

i will update on the sewing madness that has begun soon.