Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Oooo Postie brought me some goodies

I was so excited yesterday when Mr. Postie brought these goodies to my door:

Journal Bliss, By Violette is my starting point for my art journal journey. I hope through this I will unleash the creative me and be able to let go of all the doubts that keep holding me back. I can't wait to get started.
The second book is Quilts, Baby! Linda Kopp has put this together, it is a group of different designers (sillyboodilly (Victoria Gertenbach) is one of them, I love her work, as well as Malka Dubrawsky, she has some lovely bright quilts in there.) Any how.. it is full of wonderful, inspiring quilts. The one pictured below is one that I am thinking of making, it is designed by Laurraine Yuyama. You know how I wanted to make a baby quilt and the frustration had me look for a book that would help resolve my problems, well this sure did that and more. I will be making quite a few from this book (not all will be for babies, I think these quilts are really too good to be just for babies. Another I am eager to begin, I feel inspired.



 These books came from another great online bookstore: Booktopia this is an Aussie bookstore, that also provides a brilliant service.
I just love books, I like to just sit and look through them over and over again. These two I particularly like as they encourage creativity of your own. And the baby quit book could easily be used to make quilts for teens and adults, they just need to be made a little larger.

I must end now, dishes are calling, have fun sewing

Sonia

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Busy with wool

I must say sorry for such a long delay in posting. I have been sewing a little, on the doll quilt only. I received some sheeps wool and I have been totally lost in it.
First there is the cleaning of it, that isn't as bad as I expected and I find it good fun.
I pick through it to remove any weed seeds and such.
I have tried spinning, um that's not as easy as it looks. I need a lot more practice before I show anything I make. I do laugh at it though, one of the worst yarns you will ever see. Practice, practice, practice.
I have tried my hand at felting, oh now that I like and it is really fun too. The result is satisfactory for my first shot at it. I am wanting to incorporate it into a sewing project.
I am so in love with wool, it is so amazing.


I would also like to take the time to mention an online bookstore that I have come across. It is called The Book Depository I love their service and they have a great selection of books. I have also started to collect a few e-books and they also have a pretty good range of them too. I have been so happy with them I thought that I should share these thoughts. I love books and I am always looking around book sites for different craft books. Any how check them out, even if it is to just look over what they have.

Well I am off to play with some wool, happy sewing

Sonia

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Emery Pincushion

I really must tell you all about a lady who makes lovely emery pincushions. Her name is Dotty and she  has an amazing range and even supplies emery for those who wish to make their own.  Recently I have been thinking a lot about pincushions and what they are filled with. Emery is meant to clean and sharpen pins and needles. Now I have favourite needles that try as I might I can't find a suitable substitute, and yep they are old, so I need to look after these treasures as best I can. This is why it is so important to me. A bad needle that is hard to pull through fabric is a nightmare to sew with. I was so happy to come across this lovely.
It is so beautifully made. I couldn't resist the candy pink with daisy flowers. I love simple shapes so this is so perfect for me. I will be grabbing a few more of these I am that happy. Anyway I had to let you know because I think it is important to let people know when you are really happy with a product.

I have been very busy getting to know my secret swap partner for the down under doll quilt swap. I have drawn out a draft design. I am pretty happy with it. I am not sure if I can post pictures so I won't until I know for sure. I must say I was worried at first, it was like "Oh what have you done?" but now I have a drawing I am feeling really good. Just got to pick colours I think they will like but I am confident that will go good too. All in all I am feeling great about this. So I am very sorry but that is all I will say now or I will give it all away (not a good secret keeper)

Hope you are having lots of sewing fun

Sonia

Sunday, March 13, 2011

A new beginning?

As I mentioned before I am wanting to make a baby quilt for a little boy. I have had so much difficulty with it but this weekend I have been playing with fabrics and came up with this:

I quite like these colours together. I have this love of teal at the moment so I guess this will get it out of my system, maybe.
After doing the project with selvadges I wanted to try and capture that feeling. I will make a few more blocks and see if I like what I see. It is quite bright but I am hoping it will form a nice pattern. So far it looks quite promising.
So what do you think is better for baby bright colours or more pastel? Do you do different for boys and girls?
It will be interesting to see the Michael Miller competition at Spoonflower results. For that you have to design a fabric for a baby boy. I don't think I would be too good at that as I have had enough trouble making one quilt. I also need to do one for a little girl, I have a massive supply of pink fabric so that shouldn't pose any fabric problems, the design could be a problem. I will deal with that after this.

Have fun sewing

Sonia



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Pincushion finish and a Question???



Yay I finished my pincushion today, before the weekend. I think I did well. Actually I really have enjoyed making this. I loved doing the hand stitching, I sure need practice at that. The little hexies are 5/8th of an inch, so cute. Hexies are my most favourite shape.I used my favourite fabric hopevalley on the back. Oh and the little label is one I had made by Mommie made it on etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/MommieMadeIt?ref=pr_shop
 I had a browse over the net and Flickr, I came across a group that was doing a pincushion swap..(pretty cool) and noticed on the discussions a topic about filling. That got me wondering...What is the perfect filling for a pincushion?
Now I just used cotton on this and some scrap bits around, that makes a pretty hard pincushion, it can also be difficult to get thin needles into it. Once (very long time ago, can't remember the source or if there is any truth in it) I read that polyester attracts moisture and causes rusting?? Could that be true? I find polyester to be a bit on the light side, I like a heavier pincushion.

Please I would love to know what do you stuff your pincushion with. Do you use walnuts, and if you do is it all walnut shell or is it a mixture? Oh and if you know of a good web site for information please I would love to know.

Oh I also joined the down under doll quilt swap so if you are in Australia or New Zealand go here to join up and have some fun. http://www.oneflewover-oneflewover.com/2011/03/down-under-doll-quilt-swap-round-2.html

Have a great day

Sonia

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

When in Doubt, make a Pincushion!

OK I don't have a baby quilt to show you. I put a few blocks together then froze up. It just isn't working for me and I have too much self doubt to go forward, so the baby quilt is on hold. I am unsure if or when I will make it.
So what have I been working on? Well I had some fun with scraps and put this together:

My daughter and I had fun together making this. It has loose threads because I just had to wash it. So I have more to do but I am sure that you get the idea. My inspiration came from this little fella:
This is my best buddy. We are very rarely apart. He means so much to me. He is wonderful.

I also have a pincushion thing going on at the moment. I decided that I want to make one using hexagons. This is what I have so far:

Now I must admit I have frozen with every thing and I just feel so unsure of myself and I am feeling a bit lost. I am sure that this feeling will pass and all will be back soon. I hope to show you the completed pincushion by the weekend and the picture will become a mini quilt soonish I hope. (there are a lot more details to be sewn)

Hope you are all having sewing fun

Sonia

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Just an update

Ok I just had to show the changes that I made to my robot friend. I think he looks a little more friendly now and I do feel a lot happier with him.
Baby boys are quite hard to make for, I don't really know where to begin.
I want to do a lot more work on this over the weekend.

See you later

Sonia

What happened?

I lost time this week. I haven't been doing a lot of sewing but I have been trying to design instead. I have made a little robot, not sure what to think yet...I need to play a bit. This will hopefully be for a baby quilt, I will need to see how it will all come together first, I am not too sure. (he looks shocked, don't you think?)

Did you see that my encouragement pillow made it into the top 20 of the Sew Mama Sew Pillow month, wow that was something special. There were so many lovely pillows. I am so happy to be in the 20.

I still have a lot of quilting to finish but it has continued to be way too hot for quilting, so all of that is on hold for now, I am very over the hot weather, I need a good nights sleep.
I will hopefully be getting time to sew over the weekend (we have a long weekend here) so I will post something on Tuesday all going well.
Oh and if you don't know...Heather Ross has some fabrics for sale on spoonflower...I love the horsey fabric.
Have a great day

Sonia