Christening Gifts

Just finished two patchwork totes to hold the books of Bible stories I am giving as Christening presents to our neighbours' baby granddaughters, cousins Freya and Eadie who were born only a month apart.

 

 

And with the books that will be popped inside the bags:

 

 

When I bought the two books I wanted to get a different one for each baby, I didn't think about their dimensions being slightly different.  The blue book wouldn't fit into the same sized tote as the other book, so I had to make Freya's bag larger.  Hope their Mums don't think that's odd!

 

The photos were taken on a dismal grey day and the colours of the patchwork are not as bright as they are in real life.  However, they are ready for the Christening at the end of the month.

 

At last, I've made some Wonky Wishes blocks

Earlier in the year I made a few Wonky Wishes blocks as QAYG blocks for the Soy Amado Project.
I had seen them originally on Bonnie Hunter's blog (her pattern) and had watched her making them on one of her QuiltCams.

They really sang to me, hence the QAYG versions for Alison's project.

Since then I have been adding to my stash of 2.5" squares although I regularly deplete them by making patchwork totes for little girls!

Finally, yesterday I put a few Wonky Wishes blocks together.  They are intended for a 'boy' quilt, so I eliminated any 2.5" squares which included pink or mauve/purple. That immediately made a dent in the stash which says a lot about the colours I favour!

I love using scraps and find Bonnie's ideas so stimulating. Of course I also love stars!  I thought I had quite a mix of fabrics but found that really wasn't the case and struggled to get enough contrast and variety in the blocks.  So far I have completed these:

As long as you have a large supply of 2.5" squares, including a pile of neutrals for the centres and loads of small neutral scraps you an make these blocks very quickly, in a chain pattern, revolving two blocks at a time as Bonnie suggests.  I also used her 'webbing idea' which was new to me but easy to do, efficient to make as it eliminates the need to pin the rows together.

I took some photos of a block to show the method:

1.  All three rows "webbed"

2. Rows 1 & 2 sewn together:

Each of these blocks is actually a quarter of the finished block as you put 4 together to make a Wonky Wishes  block measuring 12.5" so I have a lot more to make. However this is an on-going project so when I run out of interesting and varied 2.5" squares I'll put it aside for a while until I build up my stash again.  Good fun though. I can recommend the block and the method Bonnie shows on her blog.  It's under her "Free patterns" tab.

As I said I cut, stash and use 2.5" scrap squares all the time and my stash is taking a hammering at present!

My lovely little granddaughter is forever at birthday parties so I suggested to my daughter that I could make patchwork totes for gifts, with the birthday girl's name appliqued on the front ( as long as the name was 4 or 5 letters long).  So I have made quite a few! 
The latest is for Emily - birthday coming up soon I believe:

The back:

 

Having a variety of squares already cut makes these projects so quick to make.

So another happy time sewing and a few more scraps used up!  I so enjoy using every last bit of fabric!

 

Operation Christmas Child 2014

Just wrapped my Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child Shoebox in Christmas paper. 
Quite a fiddly job but it looks alright - I think!

Always amazed how many small gifts I can squeeze into a shoebox. 
Totals 21 this year:

Little teddy and his quilt
Patchwork tote bag
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Pencil case & pack of pencil crayons, sharpener, set of erasers shaped like animals, mini gel pens
Box of chubby wax crayons
Pad of coloured drawing paper
Pretty tin with soap inside
Knitted scarf & beanie set
Lollipop
2 packets of sweets
Soft Mini Mouse ball
Pack of 3 fancy  hair  bobbles

 

 

So, all ready to be packed back into the shoebox. I know they will all fit inside as I did a trial pack before I covered the box.

 

I have aimed my box at a little 2-4 year old girl so I hope it brings some Christmas joy to whoever gets my gift.  It is sent with love. 

Recycling

I am very into recycling. I have never been comfortable with throwing anything away, probably because I was born a couple of years after the end of WWII. No one threw anything away, food scraps, veggie peelings etc were fed to the chickens, anything extra was exchanged with neighbours
(we had chickens and Dad swapped eggs with honey from bee keeping neighbours and sugar ration coupons with another neighbour who didn't have a sweet tooth). Sheets were sewn sides to middle when they were worn, worn out towels etc were used as floor cloths, our white summer shoes were used as sandals the following year when our feet had grown as Dad cut the toes out of the shoes and we had peep toe shoes instead!

I recycle as much as ever I can, using the various recycling containers our council supplies us with: for glass bottles and jars, tins and foil, most plastics ( not black), newspapers and magazines, envelopes, scrap paper, plastic containers, margarine, cream and yogurt pots, and cardboard.  Plastic carrier bags, plastic wrappings from bread or magazines are taken to the local supermarket bin. I re-use plastic carrier bags whenever I can or use cloth bags, some I have sewn myself from old fabric.

I try to take it a little further. If I can't re-use glass jars I pass them on to neighbours who can use them; I keep some margarine cartons to use for left overs in the fridge and freezer; shred any personal papers and add to the newspaper recycling; use torn up scraps of paper for grocery lists/ phone messages. I re-use wrapping paper and gift bags and cut up old greetings cards into postcard style notelets and gift tags.

I try never to throw food away. So I plan what we are going to eat a few days at a time and only buy food for those few days. If I suddenly find I have some veggies hanging around in the fridge I make a veggie based meal - soup, stir fry etc. Peelings and food scraps go into our garden recycling bin(allowed in our area). If I am making a rice or pasta dish I always cook more than we need for that meal and the remainder makes lunch for the next day or I add extra ingredients and turn it into another meal the next evening.


I use old T shirts, towels etc for cleaning rags and try to use paper towels and one-off products as little as possible.

And of course I follow the same principle in my Quilting Life, using scraps all the time and never throwing a tiny scrap away if it can be used in my projects.

I would love to hear how you approach recycling, both in everyday living and in your crafting hobbies.

Rainbow Single quilt, finished

I have been having a very busy and productive time sewing and have managed to finish several projects in the last few days.

My latest finish is a large quilt based on Emily Cier's  pattern in her Scrap Republic book.

The quilt design is called Beeline and the pattern is for a baby quilt.  I made a baby sized one last year but decided I had more than enough fabrics to enlarge it to a generous single bed size. 
The finished quilt measures 88" x 54".

I started the quilt back in February when we were in New Zealand and I managed to complete the top by the time we came home at the end of March.  I used lots of rainbow coloured scraps from my NZ stash but took out a few more and many of the neutral fabric scraps I needed for the borders.
Whilst I was there I managed to find a suitable fabric for the backing and, even better, it was on sale at a good price.

So, on and off over the past months I have hand quilted it with Perle cottons. I used cream for the borders and coloured Perles to match the colour of the rainbow stripe.

I love rainbows and this year we have seen lots, both here and in NZ so I have decided to call the quilt Remembering Rainbows.

Showing the backing:

 

I am giving it to a friend's 5 year old daughter, just in time for the winter.  It is a surprise and I shall be handing it over on Monday. Hope she likes it!

All rolled up, ready to gift.

 

 

Two little totes - all finished

I wanted to make one more gift to pop into my Operation Christmas Child shoebox - a little patchwork tote.  At the same time I made another similar tote for my little granddaughter to give as a birthday party gift for her school friend Niamh.

For both bags I used 2.5" squares from my stash and laid them out in 5 rows of 4 squares.

I lined both with the same pale pastels striped fabric and used a bright pink with turquoise dots for the handles.  Both bags had squares of both fabrics in them so it did match up.
The bags finish at 7.5" x 9.5".  I appliqued Niamh's name on the front of her bag.

Here they are:

 

 

I hope both little girls will enjoy carrying their treasures around in them.

 

It is so useful having a stash of squares on hand - an idea I got from Bonnie Hunter's blog. 

Whenever I finish a project or I am just left with a small piece of fabric after I have been cutting out I cut it into useful sizes for my scraps stash:

 

These are the sizes I always cut scraps into:

 

SQUARES:



2", 2.5", 3", 4.5"

 

STRIPS:

1.25", 1.5", 2", 2.5"

 

Small scraps are put into my Crumb blocks tin.

 

Uneven shaped strips are kept in a bag ready to be used in Strip quilts.

 

So you see, nothing is wasted!

A finished baby quilt

I know of three babies due to be born from November to January next year so I am trying to build my stash of baby quilts.  I have a few baby girl ones but no boy quilts.

When I was in New Zealand earlier in the year I was given a patchwork magazine from 2007 which included a pattern for a baby quilt.  It was by Ruth Buchanan and the quilt was called Fairy Lights.

I loved the pattern as it showcased a pretty fabric and was surrounded by HSTs which I always enjoy making.

The Pattern:

 

 

About two years ago my Patchwork Group went on an outing to a favourite Quilt Shop, The Bramble Patch in Weedon, Northamptonshire.  I bought a lovely selection of fabrics and some yellow Fat Quarters which I thought went with the fabrics I had chosen.  The quilt I had in mind didn't materialise so the bag of fabrics languished in my sewing cupboard.

 

Fast forward to a month or so ago when I was thinking of ideas for Boy Quilts and I suddenly remembered my stash of yellow, grey and blue fabrics. Perfect for a boy and perfect for the Fairy Lights pattern as I wanted to showcase the gorgeous elephants (I love elephants!), trains, cars and rows of fairy mushrooms.

 

I set to, made all the blocks without difficulty and then laid them out in a pleasing order.  That was when I discovered my mistake.  The fabric Ruth Buchanan had used was a non-directional design.  All my blocks had directional patterns!  Oh dear!  I put my thinking cap on and realised I would have to add extra strips of HSTs to the fourth side of each block.  more sewing but I am happy with the result.  I didn't have to buy any more fabric as I had enough in my stash for the extra HSTs and the border and backing fabrics were ones I had bought at the Festival Of Quilts back in August.

 

As I had added extra strips my quilt came out at 42" square, a bit larger than the pattern.  I think this is a useful size - big enough to wrap baby in, use on the Moses basket or later on the cot and is a great size for a playmat.

 

 

 

As the pattern was so busy I decided to machine quilt in the ditch.  Although I have been quilting since 1997 this is only the third quilt I have machine quilted.  It's not perfect but it's not too bad either. I'm happy with it anyway!

 

And here it is - my Boy Version of the Fairy Lights quilt:

 

 

 

And a glimpse of the backing:

 

Now I have to think of a name for the quilt.  I don't think Fairy Lights is quite right for this quilt!

Any suggestions will be very welcome.  No idea springs to mind at present.

I have already used the scraps of elephants, cars and mushrooms fabrics in another boy quilt top - strips this time.  It is now ready for sandwiching and I am going to hand quilt this one.   It will be my handwork project to take to my Patchwork Group.

Off to sandwich the quilt top.  Not my favourite part of making a quilt as it involves me crawling around on the floor in my Sewing Room!