A Christmas Cushion

I'm struggling to keep up with blog posts for the things I've made recently, so here's a little cushion that I made a few weeks back, ready for our home when the festive season is upon us!  

I just love the background fabric and knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to make a snowflake cushion.  It was lovely to use a combination of techniques too; machine applique, machine quilting for the background, and some hand quilted detail.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy hand quilting!  

It was lovely to make something for the family, and I look forward to getting this cushion out every winter, hopefully for many years to come.  

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Sarah x

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A Little Dolls Quilt

A few weeks ago I was asked to make a little dolly quilt from a Moda kit using Seaside Rose fabric. 

 

This fabric was available about 5 years ago, and it's so pretty, floral and vintage.  So it really was special to use because it's now very difficult to get hold of.

 

 

The kit came with a pattern and instructions to follow; as you can see, lots of half square triangles, sashing and little yellow cornerstones. 

 

I was asked to add the letter 'L' in one of the corners, the initial of her daughter.  After some debate and fabric auditions, I opted for this yellow/green print and I outlined it in a contrasting pink. 

 

 

 

I chose to hand quilt it, with a light cross hatching that intersected the triangles. Any excuse to use my Anchor number 8 perle cotton, and even better it was pink!

 

 

 

 So I think Dolly is going to be very lucky to snuggle under this vintage Moda quilt :-) 

 

 

 

And I hope that the little girl whiles away many an afternoon playing with her dolls, in her imaginary wonderful land.

 

Sarah x

 

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Books and Binding

I haven't blogged for ages.  But I'm pleased to say I'm back!   And I've a few things to share. 

 

First up is some gorgeous fabrics that a very dear friend of mine, Heidi sent me, to cheer me up, because a few weeks ago I had all 4 wisdom teeth out - ouch! 

 

 

 

They are a bit thicker than quilting cottons, a bit canvas-y, so I am thinking what I can make with them.  Any ideas??  They are so gorgeous, and I just love those pink birds and butterflies. 

 

I've managed to get some sewing done in the evenings, this time some quick finishes, which have been wholly satisfying after a few days away from the sewing machine.  I started thinking about teacher presents for Christmas, and given that my daughter's teacher is a man, it posed a few problems as I didn't think he would appreciate a mug rug, which is what I made for the (female) nursery teachers last year.

 

Last years teacher presents

 

In fact I was very limited.  A quilt. No.  A cushion. No.  A bag.  No.  Bunting.  Definitely no!

 

Then it occurred to me that perhaps he might like a 'manly' journal, so I searched for a tutorial, and found this little gem. 

 

http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2013/07/15/quilted-composition-book-cover/

 

And I came up with this, using left overs of my gorgeous City Quilter fabrics.

 

 

 

It was soooo much fun to make, and I am thrilled with the result.  It's held together by sewing in a little hair elastic to the back, in this case a black one, which simply wraps around the button.  It's hard to tell in this picture but the whole journal is quilted, and I've just used a hardback notebook that I picked up at the local pound store in town. 

 

I also made one for the teaching assistant, this time a lady, using these gorgeous fabrics.

 

 

 

 

These journals were such a great excuse to raid my ribbon stash and also sift through my buttons of all shapes and sizes, and Cinderella style find the one that was the perfect match.   

 

In fact I got a little bit obsessed with making journals last week and also made a 'London' journal. 

 

 

 

This fabric was in the goodie bag that I received at the Fat Quarterly Retreat, so there was  just enough to make one notebook, and put my gorgeous solider ribbon to good use.  I knew I would find a home for it one day! 

 

I have plans to make lots more journal covers.  They are so fun to make and  I love how different each one looks.  My next one will feature pink, cakes and cake stands - perfect for keeping those baking recipes safe.  Watch this space.

 

But for now journal making is on hold, as I'm finishing a little doll quilt and now that I've finished hand quilting, I shall mostly be binding.

 

 

 Oh and catching up on blog reading.  I've missed it!

 

Sarah x

 

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How to make a Photo Quilt - A Tutorial

A few months back I was asked if it would be possible to make a photo quilt/wall hanging made up of family photos.  This is not something I'd done before, but I jumped at the chance to make something different and truly unique.  It was going to be going to Afghanistan as a special keepsake so it had to be perfect.  Here it is!

 

 

So if you've never made a photo quilt before, and would like to know how, this is how I did it. 

 

1) First, the photos needed to be converted to fabric.  There are two options here.  

 

a) Purchase some fabric sheets, specially designed to go through domestic printers, and print your photos that way.

 

b) Use a specialist company to convert your photos to fabric. 

I opted to go the professional route, as I was not sure that my printer would provide high enough quality fabric photos.  I used a company called Pictures to Fabric based in the UK, who were excellent throughout all stages of the process.  After some discussion it was jointly decided to have the photos printed onto faux suede, as this had a lovely feel to it, the photos came out really clearly and it was easy to stitch with. 

 

2) In order to get the  photos to the printers, I used my Dropbox account.  There were 25 photos in total, which my customer emailed to me, and I put them into my Dropbox account.  I've you've never used Dropbox before, it's a great way of sharing a large collection of photos.  You simply invite the recipient to access the folder.  So Pictures to Fabric were able to access and print them.  I had all the photos printed on one piece of fabric, with a gap in between them.  My customer chose colour photos but you could also opt for black and white or sepia. 

 

3) I cut all the photos down to 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" fussy cutting them, to capture the best part of the photo.  I then stitched them all together in the normal way.

 

4) Next, I needed a border for my quilt, and my customer chose fabrics from Tula Pink Salt Water collection for a scrappy border.  A Good choice!

 

 

Of course you can have great fun playing with layouts and fabrics and colours here, the world is your oyster :-)
 

6) I basted the quilt using quilting pins and stitched in the ditch around all of the photographs.  You don't want any fancy quilting here, as you may obscure all your lovely photos!    I put my stitch in the ditch foot to the test for the first time, and it made the job much easier.   

7) For the scrappy border, I decided to add some hand quilted detail.  I reached for my favourite Anchor no. 8 pearle cotton thread and did a loopy design all around the edge.

 

If you look closely you can see the subtle hand quilting

But of course you could quilt this any way you like. 

8) Bind the quilt in the normal way.  For this quilt I used a coordinating Salt Water fabric. 

 

9) As this quilt is going to eventually going to be a wall hanging, I created a hanging sleeve to go on the back.  I watched the this tutorial on Youtube for guidance.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NO70_ENjQk

Easy peesy!

 

Here you can see the opening. 

 

This is the back of the quilt. 

And here it is, finished!

 

I hope you like it and found this tutorial useful.  If you ever have a go at making one, I'd love to hear from you!

Finally I would like to say thank you to the family who asked me to make this quilt.  Firstly for trusting me to make it, and secondly for allowing me to share their family photos and the quilt on my blog.  I feel honoured to have made it for them, and very excited that it's going to be travelling to Afganistan.  What a wonderful way to feel close to your family and take them with you. 

Sarah x

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Blogger's Quilt Festival - Second Entry

So I found out that we are allowed 2 entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

 

If you haven't already seen my first entry, my Anchors Away quilt, for the Baby Quilt Category, you can read about it here.  

 

And for my second entry, I'm going for the Hand Quilting Category.  It's still a baby quilt, but I hand quilted it with my favourite no. 8 Pearle cotton thread, to give it a wonderful heirloom quality and to tie in with the vintage feel. 

 

Here it is from a distance.

 

 

Which isn't much good because you can't see the quilting.  So here are a few close ups.  Can you see how I stitched through the centre at intersections.

 



 

I then echo quilted around the points of the stars.  (The blue stitching on blue is there, honestly!)

 

 

And finally I did a loopy freehand design around the border.  This bit was my favourite part of all and I think it adds a really playful element to the quilt.  

 

 

For the back I used the gorgeous alphabet print from the same French General Petit Odile collection. 

 

I've put this quilt on display at the local gallery, The Harbour Gallery and you can read more about my display here.  Here are the finished quilt details. 

 

Category: Hand Quilted Quilt

Designed by: Sarah Ashford (Me!)

Size: 39" x 39"

Techniques: Machine pieced and hand quilted

Fabrics: French General Petite Odile for Moda

 

Thank you so much for stopping by! 

 

Sarah x