Basket Case

Welcome 🙂

I’m still getting a little thrill every time I see my completed Daisy Chain quilt and I have to admit I’m probably spending a little longer than is necessary making my bed in the mornings just so I can look at it! After two years in the making I sort of hope this feeling will last a while 🙂

I’ve been sorting out the left over fabric from this quilt and I think that there may be just enough to squeeze a small quilt out of it if I’m creative with the fabric 🙂 I’ve had a hankering to make a basket quilt for a little while now so that’s what I’ve decided to use the left overs for.

This is what I’ve done so far

Little baskets prepped (using the starch method), glue basted onto the background and now ready to be stitched.

I’ll even get to perfect my sharp point appliqué skills I learnt from doing my Nautical baby quilt here.

The idea of this project will be to provide a hand sewing project to do when the need arises – car journeys, quiet evenings – you know the sort of thing. So not a speedy finish, but rather a leisurely journey (a bit like the original but hopefully not another two years before it’s finished!)

Until next time,

Chris x

If you’d like to comment and/or ‘like’ this post, and I hope you do! – then just click on the post title and you will be taken to the comment page – look forward to hearing from you.

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The Shirt Off His Back 2

Welcome 🙂

Anyone visiting from ‘Grow Your Blog’ can find my post here

Part one to this little shirt tale is here!

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my shirty creation. I am a bit worried about what you’ll say about the final reveal as so many people commented on how nice the little pleats were – and I’ve changed them!

As you can see I did a bit of stitching to make more of a feature of those pleats, some pleats are held back with a tiny cross stitch

and others are held back with vintage mother  of pearl buttons which I found in my button tin (all 72 of them!)

I love the softness of this mini quilt and although I know it wont last as long as one made of new fabric I do think it has a charm all of its own.

This is the second shirt quilt I’ve made, this is the other (see this post here.)

I need to collect a few more shirts now so I can make a third!

Right! Now that that little project is done I need to get back to this one!

Until next time,

Chris x

If you’d like to comment and/or ‘like’ this post, and I hope you do! – then just click on the post title and you will be taken to the comment page – look forward to hearing from you.

The Shirt off His Back

Welcome 🙂

Anyone visiting from ‘Grow Your Blog’ can find my post here.

I really enjoy shopping in Charity shops (Thrift/ Op shops) and a while back I made a point of looking for some men’s cotton shirts. I managed to get a few and then put them in a drawer and forgot about them! Last week I came across them again and so this week I’ve spent my sewing time playing with them. I love the softness of old fabric and have enjoyed cutting them up and sewing them back together to make a little quilt.

I’ve sewn in a few pleats.

and sewn the squares together

It’s ready for a border now

I’m loving the gentle colours and have an idea to do a bit of embroidery on it when it’s been quilted – watch this space!

Until next time,

Chris x

If you’d like to comment and/or ‘like’ this post, and I hope you do! – then just click on the post title and you will be taken to the comment page – look forward to hearing from you.

A Mini Makeover

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, my children brought some of their friends round and we had an Easter egg hunt – the youngest person joining in was 18 and we all had fun – never too old for that sort of thing 😉

I did insist that all the eggs were found (didn’t want to come across them in 6 months time all mouldy and melted!). That caused a bit of a problem as I couldn’t remember where I’d hidden them and the ‘hunters’ hadn’t been able to find them. It took a while but we did it 🙂

Today I’ve had the pleasure of helping a friend learn how to quilt. She took it all in her stride – rotary cutting, stitching and matching seams like a pro – way to go G! It’s very satisfying  helping someone learn a new skill.

While my friend was arranging fabrics for her project (everyone knows how long this important task takes right?)

I had time to do a mini makeover on a T-shirt I bought last week.

As you can see it’s plain and a bit boring

I needed to alter the neckline as it was a bit too plunging for my liking (you could almost see my tummy button!).

I pinned the opening where I thought would look better and made sure I tried it on to see that I could still get it on and off easily.

Then I removed the buttons and replaced them with an odd assortment of others from my button collection adding a couple more up to the new neckline position.

Et voilà a mini makeover…

That blue button ‘pops’ in the photo! Promise it’s not like that in real life!

A little less boring and bit more fun 😉

What did you get up to over Easter?

Until next time,

Chris x

The Trouser Challenge part 1

Good Morning lovely people! The sun is  shining and it’s a lovely day here at UK City Crafter, I hope your day is as bright and breezy as it is here 🙂

Back in February I was presented with a pair of trousers which were very much past their best, in fact they had a massive rip in them. I was given a challenge to use them to make nice things with and a lot of you kindly gave me some ideas on this post here.

I’ve been very slow on the uptake with this project, partly because I had a few projects on the go and didn’t want to overwhelm myself with WIPs – anyone else feel a sense of panic coming on when your WIP pile gets too big?

Anyhow I have now made a start with a couple of mini makes using the trousers.

Number 1 make is a couple of coasters using sashiko as a decoration.

I gave you a peek of this here 🙂 Ha just noticed I still need to remove some chalk lines from one of them!

Number 2 make is a little purse in the style of this pencil case I made last year. I know a lot of you liked this as much as I did as I see it on Pinterest quite a lot 🙂

I love this pretty shape and instead of a caravan my little version reminded me of an open umbrella with its arched top so that is what it became!

 

A bit of embroidery adds the details.

 

I lined the messy seams so they look pretty when you open the purse up.

 

And here they are – biggy and littley!

My daughter liked it too and has already bagged it for herself! Looking at it now I can see that the design could easily have been a cup cake – hmm an idea for another time.

That’s the trouser project for the moment but I do intend to do more – some time 😉

Enjoy your day.

Until next time,

Chris x