Triangle quilt tutorial!

Hey! I’m back after a long break, but you know what it’s like! life gets in the way… So, soon to be the holidays, although it doesn’t really feels like it with that weather.

So I thought I’d come back with a triangle tutorial. My eldest chose a long time ago some really cool fabrics and wanted another quilt (greedy) (really I know how he feels!).

Cool fabrics he!?

So here it is!you will need:

8 fat quarters, a triangle template, back fabric, wadding and the usual sewing paraphernalia.

Start by cutting all your fabrics in triangle (you could use a special ruler for that but I didn’t have one so used a template which took a lot longer than if I had a triangle ruler but hey…)

Then place them on your floor in the position you want, I tried to have some patterned fabrics mixed with plain fabrics to relax the eyes a bit, usually I like a lot of white in my quilts so it’s all new to me!

Once you’re happy, start sewing the sides of the triangle together one by one:

Hhere I have two triangles sewn together: the half cassette one to the black one, I now add the turquoise triangle to the pac- man fabric. it makes a line.

Press with an iron all the seams to one side.

now pin two rows together:

Start sewing a quarter of an inch from the raw edge but make sure you sew just on the tip of the point not under:

then repeat on all the rows. press open and you are done! I added the rest of the fabrics I had as I don’t like wasting fabrics:

so there you go nice and easy! it takes a bit of time but my son loves it! all you need to do (well What I need to do really!) is quilt it and bind it! et voila!

any comments and questions please don’t hesitate!!

I had quite a bit of fabrics hanging around and I thought it would be a good idea to do something with it. I was running low on quilts anyway so I got busy sewing for the past weeks. I used up some flowery fabric I got from the Birmingham show to make one of my favorite baby girl quilt:

I think it will be the last one I do like that as I have already made three. Love it though..

I had some fabric left from a baby quilt I offered to my friend. It’s maisy fabrics and it;s just so cute!

I will add a green border to frame it when I have the time. I didn’t have a set design, I just went along and made sure I could use up all the fabrics that were left. So it looks a bit messy but I don’t mind. I like to not waste fabrics!

I bought a long time ago a half moon charm pack, I used some of it in the stitch and bitch group quilt and had some left over along with the V&co simply color charm pack, I mixed and matched them together to end up with this really colorful and fresh quilt!

I just love how simple it is and yet very striking!

I have also been going to my lovely stitch and bitch group as we are making a group quilt to show at the Birmingham Quilt Show this August. We decided to make each block using one colour. I think the result is just fab but even better when we all have our blocks layed on the floor together.

This is by far my favourite one. Not only because I think it looks good but also because it was a lot of fun to make despite it looking a bit complicated. I’m thinking of making an entire quilt using this block only with different bright colours.

I’m missing one, will post about it when it’s done. This is what it looks like all together:

I’ll be really quickly back for a quilt tutorial (with terrible pictures apologies in advance) and I’ll be sharing pictures of my newly bought fabric stash (so excited about that one!!).

Happy sewing!

 

Walk like an Egyptian

I am still alive yes! I was just hibernating and being grumpy for a while, but now the sun is daring to come out, I’m ready to get going again!

I thought I’d come back with a dress up tutorial. Matteo my eldest had to dress up as an Egyptian.

For this, you will need an old white bed sheet, fabric marker, thread, some blue and gold fabric, a little bit of Velcro.

I started by lying Matteo’s tee-shirt on the old white sheet, I traced around without the sleeves, I then measured Matteo’s height and traced on the white fabric:

I cut it and just simply sew round the marked line leaving a space for the neck and arms.I then hemmed the neck and arm wholes.

I then cut two long strip to make the belt but I measured Matteo’s waist first and added a couple more inches for safety. I folded it in half and pressed with iron to mark the middle (it will help place the shapes in place afterwards.

Using a template I made very quickly,

I cut two pieces out of the blue fabric and one piece out of the gold fabric. sew round the marked lines and turn right side out, press with an iron and if you’re fussy, top stitch!

Iinsert the (I’m not sure how to call them so we’ll say the shapes) shapes inside the belt, make sure they are nicely tucked in so that you don’t sew on them:

sew all the way round leaving a whole on the small end of the belt to turn it right side out. Press with iron and top stitch all the way round.

Add the Velcro at each ends of the belt:

I added another pleated white piece, I attached it at the back of the belt going a few times over the stitches:

Buy a hat (life’s too short) or just tie a string round the head..

I needed to do a few adjustment on the neck but all in all Matteo was really happy! Slap on some make up et voila!

 

I promise to post a bit more coming soon with the progress on our stitch and bitch group! enjoy the few days of sunshine!

 

 

 

Winter quilt (to not say xmas quilt since I’ve missed the deadline)

Oops… Never mind!

I hope you have all been spoiled and enjoyed your end of year celebrations!

Personally,  I had a good one but cannot even think of food anymore (or alcohol), I am full for a month!

So here is my belated Xmas quilt tutorial that I managed to finished just the day before Xmas!The circles remind me of baubles but since it is now a winter quilt, it reminds me of snow balls (not sure about that one !). I used fresh Xmas fabrics from Kate spain’s design called Joy and one fat quarter from Aneela Hoey.

What you will need:

several fat quarters or depending on how big you want your circles scraps of Xmas fabrics, cheap white fabric (I used an old bed sheet), white cotton fabric for the front of the quilt (as much as you want depending on how big you want your quilt to be), red fabric for the back, sewing kit, and plates of different sizes. And as you can see a cuppa too just to keep you going.

Start by marking around the circles on your fabrics:

Place the right side of your Xmas fabric onto the cheap white fabric, pin together and sew on the marked circle:

cut around a quarter of an inch from the marked circle then snip all the way round:

on the cheap white fabric cut a slit in the middle (careful not to cut the nice fabric)

turn your circle the right way round press with the iron:

repeat those steps for all your circles:

(Elliott wanted to be in the picture!)

Then, lay your white cotton fabric and lay on top your circles, decide where you want them  and pin them in place (I used quilter’s safety pin) now blind stitch all around:

At this stage you can decide whether you have enough circles or if you want to add some more. I thought mine was lacking and added a few more bigger circles.

Once you’re happy with the result, you can now sandwich your quilt. I used cherry red fabric for the backing, cheap and cheerful but still does the trick. I wanted to do free motion quilting on the circles only, using white thread:

Et voila! all you need to do is bind it together and you’re finished!

Oh and happy new year everyone, may 2013 be filled with love, health, happiness and a lot of sewing fun!

 

Countdown to Xmas!

We are all getting ready for Xmas over here and I cannot believe how quickly it is arriving. Getting a bit stressed as we are celebrating at my house this year and this means I have to cook. Which I normally really enjoy but last time I spent most of my day cooking and felt that I wasn’t really celebrating but more like slaving… So hopefully, less cooking this year.

I have made in a week (it was such a rush!) this lovely Xmas tree advent calendar. The boys really love it!

I am also working on a Xmas quilt and will share a tutorial very very soon (she says after not blogging for over a month!)

I wanted to share with you some little felt baubles I am making for my little pupils. They are really simple to make and cheap. They are a bit time consuming but are really effective.

Here is what you will need: Felt (as many colours as you want), a plate 4” or above (anything smaller is just not working as I tested before have a look:  some scissors, some thread and some matching ribbon.

Start by marking around the plate on 4 pieces of felt and cut around:

Put your 4 pieces of felt on top of each other:

Place the ribbon folded in half in between the felt at the top edge:

Now sew one straight line either with machine or by hand so that it will catch the felt and ribbon.

One the first felt circle pinch in the middle and join them with a tiny stitch:

join  the second felt pinch on the top and on the bottom  with the first felt circle and stitch them together:

Repeat on all the other felt in the same manner: middle, top/bottom, middle top/bottom.

 

Et voila! A felt bauble!

I hope my little kiddies will like it!

Will be back soon to show you my Xmas quilt!