Summery makes - a sunny baby blanket and strawberry jam

I've just completed a commission for a lovely lady - she was given one of my baby blankets for her own wee boy and asked me to make one for a friend's new born.  Needless to say I was delighted - it is so good to know that something I made has been enjoyed enough to warrant commissioning another.
And here's the wee blanket I made  - for a wee girl gorgeously named 'Eve Tiger Mae'.  I particularly enjoyed making this one, the colours are so happy, sunny and summery.  Some of my recent makes have been quite muted, for me at least, so it was extra fun to work with such vibrant oranges, pinks and reds.

I've also been enjoying seeing the sun shine through my newly made jars of strawberry jam.  Isn't that a happy sight?  They have been, and still are, sitting on the dining room window sill waiting for me to clean up the sticky bits and label them.  I hadn't planned to make any this year as we still have some bramble jam from last autumn........but we made a visit to our local fruit farm last week, when Finn had a friend over, and they picked so many that I didn't have much choice!  I'm sure it will get eaten and I may just give a few away as presents over the winter.

Have you been enjoying any summery sights or colours recently?

Electra's Raspberries and Strawberries quilt

  For the first time ever I'm on time, with something to show, for Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.  Yay.  I have been working on this commissioned quilt for the few weeks.  My initial brief was for a quilt in reds and pinks, with blocks of colours and the little girl's name on the back.

What was special about making this quilt is that it is for, Electra, who I made a baby quilt for a couple of years ago.  I find one of the fun, and challenging, aspects of commissions is working with fabrics and combinations that I might not have picked if left entirely to my own devices......it is so satisfying  having a happy customer and making a quilt that will hopefully give many many happy years of snuggle time.

The design is a disappearing nine patch - I have wanted to try it for a while and I think it is as effective as I had hoped.  Each square started at 11 inches to give the big block effect we were going for.  The back is Robert Kaufman Wide Spot On matched with Kokka Trefle monkeys - I had used the monkeys in Electra's baby quilt so we were delighted when I was able to find some more on Etsy for this quilt too.

Hopefully Electra will enjoy moving into her big girl bed with her Raspberries and Strawberries* quilt to keep her warm and cosy.

Some details:
 - 45 inches (115cm) by 73 inches (185cm)
 - wadding is Quilters Dream Natural Request cotton
- quilted in slightly wavy lines, randomly spaced
- bound in pink, blush pink, and crimson Klona solids (I couldn't decide which to use!) and hand sewn on the back

* Name suggested by Sheila (bluepatchquilter) - thanks Sheila!

Catching up

I'm playing catch-up here and at home.  I'm not quite sure why but I guess I'll just have to go with it until things settle down.  

We treated ourselves to a new (to us, from Gumtree) cupboard for our inner hall.  It is a fairly rustic affair (expect for the drawer handles which really need changing) with a few bashes and scrapes already but that is perfect for this area which sees so much traffic from us all.  There's not much natural light so it is hard to photograph.  As soon the cupboard was in place I had an urge to make a mat for it.  The large Moroccan bowl came home with John after a work trip last year and I had struggled to find a good home for it but I think it has now found the perfect spot. 

I have joined the new British branch of do.Good Stitches bee - we'll be making quilts for various charities.  Fiona very kindly set us lovely simple blocks for the first month.

I'm just about to start cutting up this lovely lot for a quilt commission.

Lily and Charlie are enjoying the sun and warmer weather.  I do sometimes wish I could laze away the day like a cat does.  In reality I'd be twitchy within about 15 minutes, I'm not all that good at sitting still.  But it seems like such a lovely idea at times.

Little Katie is an active and busy wee soul.  She is most happy stomping around outside and she has so much fun exploring every puddle, doorway, manhole and leaf en route to wherever we are trying to get to.

 I have decided spring is in the air but am rapidly running out of space on the dining room window sill.

I hope spring has sprung with you too.  Wishing you a lovely week.

Last week

The last week has been so busy.  I guess I did lots but it didn't include much sewing.  Rather frustratingly  I have several piles of beautiful fabric hanging around my desk.  They keep catching my eye and taunting me.  I have managed a little rearranging  which is always better than nothing but not a lot else.

The piles are::
:: fabric to make a quilt for my cousin Nat
:: fabric and felt from The Village Haberdashery
:: stash fabrics and my little hoard of Maze and Vale hand printed fabric.  Destined to be another quilt for Katie
:: leftover fabrics from making a quilt for our sofa.  I'm planning to make little floor cushions like these (maybe they are pouffes rather than floor cushions but I'm never very convinced about using that word)
:: partly made bibs, always a pile of them on the go
:: chicopee corduroy for a skirt for me

I have also been planning and discussing a new quilt commission - I had an email recently from the lady who I made this quilt for (the pink and red quilt for Electra, right at the very bottom of a very very long blog post......I was very pregnant at the time!).  Her daughter is now moving up to a big girl bed and she'd like a quilt to fit it.  I am, of course, delighted to be working with her again.  I can't think of a bigger compliment than to be asked to make another quilt.

I'm hoping to accomplish a bit more sewing-wise this coming week.  I hope you have a little time for the activities you love too.  Not that I don't love looking after my family it is just that I love other things as well.

Big butt baby pants........for a big bottom baby!

Katie has a big bottom and the perfect solution to clothing it is Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants pattern.  Now I need to add at this point, so that she isn't too mortified in the future, that the size of her cute rear-end is largely (maybe not entirely) down to her cloth nappy.

Cloth nappies and girl's trousers just don't mix very well.  Unless, of course, they are made by your mummy and designed to fit over an extra wide posterior.

 Rae's pattern was perfect.  Clearly written and easy to follow.  And I love the result.  I think Katie does too.  At least she has lots of room for her rather eccentric one-legged crawling action.

 And, no, I didn't think to put her in a top on that would match either pair of trousers.  Obviously.

And I have finally finished a quilt that was thrown into a corner last summer.  I started making it as part of a commission.  Unfortunately, despite having picked out the fabrics and agreeing the design, she changed her mind about what she wanted but only after I'd made the top.  That's life I guess, and she did love the next one.  So, after that experience, I went off the quilt top for quite some time.  I'm still not hugely keen on it, and I don't think it would ever have been a favourite, but it is growing on me a little.

It had been bugging me that it wasn't finished so I got to work and it didn't take long.  In fact I really quite like the back and am a bit more relaxed about the front now too.

 Now I just need to find a little girl who loves pink, and more pink, and pink again!

 I do like that shade of green.  I think it might be my favourite bit.

We are just back from a lovely week 'up north'.  I think we actually had it drier than a lot of the rest of the UK - it wasn't exactly bone dry, or warm and sunny, but we managed to get out and about lots and enjoyed time with family.  In the next day or two I need to upload my photos and see if any are worth sharing.  I do hope so!

In the meantime I thought I'd share some of the commissions I have been working on over the last few weeks.  These two baby blankets were ordered as a gift for twins and their parents in the hope that the blankets may provide a touch of love and comfort in some desperately sad times.  The story isn't mine to share but I put my heart and soul into making these blankets as beautiful as possible and hope that some of this reaches the family they are intended for.

Next up is another baby blanket.  This one was a more 'normal' order, intended for a new little baby boy.  I do always work to make things with every care and attention possible, it is just that the first order was particularly special and I felt very honoured to be asked to make the blankets.

I always feel really delighted to be asked to sew for someone and love to try to match their particular requests.  I'm not sure I will ever get over the shock, and pleasure, of being trusted to make something.  I enjoy it so much.  I haven't had anything listed on my folksy shop since Katie was born and have just been picking up the odd bit of work here and there by word of mouth.  I'm really excited by an exciting new development which I should be able to share later in the summer.  I'm hopeful it will be a good way of testing the waters and getting more of a feel for where to go next.

One thing that I won't be in a hurry to make again is Aga lid covers.  I was asked to make a couple and, naively, believed it would be a straightforward piece of work............I won't be saying that again!

All went well until it came time to baste and quilt the layers together.  There's the top and bottom - obviously - and then insulbright plus normal wadding in between.  For some reason I just could not get the layers to hold together, they slipped and slid and generally wandered all over the place.  In the end I used huge amounts of spray starch, which I bought specially, and basting spray too.  The, now fairly rigid, layers co-operated a bit better after this rather brutal treatment and I managed to beat them into submission with some wavy line quilting.  Bindings were hand-sewn and then I breathed a huge sigh of relief!

Hopefully I'll be back soon-ish with some snippets from our holiday.  How are you getting on with the rain?  It has been pouring down here for the last few days and the river at the end of our street is extremely high.  Fingers crossed we'll all get something closer to summer soon.

Fiesta Fun quilt

I was delighted when, a few weeks ago, Claire got in touch and asked me to make another quilt for her (I made two for her last year).  This time the quilt was destined for her new nephew who is half Spanish.

We considered various options to give the quilt a Spanish feel - things like shading from red to yellow to red to mimic the flag - but couldn't quite hit on a plan that appealed to Claire.  Then she spotted some rather wonderful, and rather loud too, Alexander Henry La Fiesta fabric on ebay.

Stupidly I didn't buy it straight away as we were still reaching a final decision and by the time I did attempt to buy it it had gone.  Panic on my part.  And frantic searching of the internet where I eventually found what may be the only hot pink La Fiesta left in circulation.

Then more panic as the etsy seller didn't ship to the UK.  However Alice couldn't have been more helpful and took pity on me and agreed to do an overseas shipping.  Unfortunately I did have to buy the whole 2 yards listed, which is rather more than I needed for a baby quilt, but I wasn't really in a position to be fussy about it!

So if you ever want some hot pink fiesta fabric please just ask!

The colours in the fiesta fabric tie in really well with a lot of the fabric I already had to hand and Claire was quick to agree the selection I pulled from my stash.  To settle it all down, and bring a little more of a boy feel to it, I framed the strips with a couple of lovely klona solids, also from my stash.  The first, narrower border, is klona lime - but I would call it leaf green, I think, it is a really gorgeous fresh and bright, but not acid, spring green colour.  The second border is klona jade - and again I'm not sure the name is very helpful, to me it is more of a bluey sea green.  Both were bought for previous projects and are from Backstitch.

The back is my usual lovely snuggly, soft and thick unbleached flannel from ecoearth fabrics with a scrappy strip across it to keep it fun.

Oh, I nearly forgot, the binding is a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton (the colour is jade I think but I'm not certain, it is a deeper and more blue sea green than the klona) - bought last year, probably from Cottonpatch.