I wish you all a lovely Xmas and a fantastic New Year, a bit in advance but that’s it for me for the next three week as we’re off to France in an hour…. I’m already missing my sewing machine! But fear not I am taking  with me some hand sewing project… phew! And obviously I’ll be thinking of new projects to create so when I come back get your needles ready!!

Love

eve

x

Just look what one of my fabulous little pupil got me as a Xmas present!

He knows me well!!! (Well his mummy does she’s my very close friend!!) A girlie girl is what I am. Those cute pencils are just indispensable to go with my Hello Kitty wellington boots!

So now, all I am missing is a pencil case to put them into!

All right, I’m a teacher and I don’t have a pencil case… let’s remedy to that and put an end to this atrocious situation.

I haven’t done a quilted tutorial in a while and I think we’re due for one. Do you remember my lovely friend got me a lovely little handcrafted bag for Xmas? Well she gave me the rest of the fabric to use!! yeah!I just love it so much! So I will use “la tour Eiffel” fabric for this little project: 2 pencil cases.

You will need thread, quilting thread, batting, outside fabric, inside fabric and a zipper:

First cut 2 rectangles measuring 8″1/2 x 5″1/2 out of the outside fabric, do the same for the inside fabric and the batting.

Sandwich in that order: inside fabric (right side down), batting and outside fabric right side up.

Quilt the sandwich how you prefer, I’m making simple straight line because I’m impatient and want to see the end result quickly! (for the second pencil case I used zigzag stitches in different directions)

Now insert the zip: take one rectangle right side up and pin the zip facing down on the long edge of your rectangle:

Sew the zip using your your zipper foot on your machine:

turn the zipper and top stitched :sew the zipper on the other side:

top stitch:

turn the fabrics right sides together and sew all the way round, don’t forget to leave the zip open to turn it inside out, and go over a few times on the zip just to secure it:

cut off the rest of zip:

turn it over and you’re done!

I made a different one using the same dimension as the one above and following the few first instructions. Once you’ve sewed on the zip on both sides, sew the long egde at the bottom:

still right side facing, bring the zip to the line you’ve just sewn pin it in place leaving the zip open. then sew on each side going over twice or more:

cut off the extra zip and fabrics, turn it over et voila! another pencil case!

I absolutely love fabrics; if I could I would buy them all. Unfortunately I haven’t won the lottery so I just have to content myself with going to my favourite fabric shop and have a good rummage through all the amazing fabrics!!

It is a little shop based in Brighton called Quilty Pleasures (I know what a cool name!). It is run by a lovely young lady who’s ever so patient with me (especially when I turn up with my two boys… ouch!!!), she’s very helpful whether it’s to help you choose fabrics or to explain how to create your projects. Her shop has got the latest modern fabrics and anything you need to make a quilt from beginning to end. Going into her shop made me really fall in love with patchwork and quilting, I just thought I needed them all and I needed to create something quick!!!

I went last Friday and bought a few fat quarters for my quilting friend who is having a birthday coming soon, I hope she will like them:

Here is a close up of my favorite one:

Each time I go, I stay at least 30 minutes if not more, I find it hard to leave and when I do I’m always thinking “I’m so coming back for more!”

So there you go that was my little “I heart Quilty Pleasures!”

I know I said I wasn’t going to make a round wreath but I just couldn’t resist! I made the simplest one ever but it looks good. And It didn’t cost much either.

You’ll need: Nice wrapping paper (lucky us it’s Xmas and they have fab wrapping papers everywhere!), a round polystyrene wreath, some dress making pins and a pair of scissors.

Cut 2 cm strips (about an inch) from your paper, and cut those long strips in 10 cm piece (about 5”).

Join the two ends together, apply to the wreath and pin it in place.

Go all the way round, I did about 5 rows, you can do as many or as little as you want depending on the size of your wreath.

Et voila! You’re all finished!

I was thinking of making a round Xmas wreath, but my eldest son is really into snowflakes at the moment (probably because it hasn’t snowed yet!) so I made a giant snow flake to hang on our door.

You will need: a big bag of lollipop sticks, hot gun glue, some metallic white paint, some PVA glue, and glitter the colour of your choice!

Start by arranging the lollipop sticks so that you know where to glue them.

Hot gun glue your lollipop sticks together, just a tiny amount is enough.

I guess you can use some PVA glue, but it takes longer to set and with my impatient boys it’s a bad combination (who am I kidding, I’m the impatient one)..

Once you’re all set you need to mix some metallic white paint with some PVA glue and some (actually a lot, I just love the stuff!) glitter.

Just apply on your snowflake everywhere, let it dry, hang it et voila!