June 2019 Finishes and WIPs

I feel like I haven't stopped this month - I've been crazy busy starting up my Etsy shop, trying to improve engagement on social media and in between all of that creating things to sell. Some have purely been prototypes so potential customers can see what their finished product would look like and some are ready to ship.

So what exactly have I been making. First the finished items...

I finished this absolutely stunning crochet blanket. The pattern is called the 'virus' blanket and I can totally imagine a little girl snuggled under this soft and cosy blanket when they're feeling under the weather.  The change in purple hues works really well and I have to admit I am really pleased with how it came out. You can't really tell from the photos, but in the middle purple, there is an added sparkle as it's a Twinkle yarn by James C Brett. This blanket is currently available for sale on Etsy

AS you'll have seen from a previous post, I went to my cousins baby shower this month and gave her the quilt I made for her new baby. I also made her a card...

... and speaking of card making with it being fathers day this month as well as my nephew's birthday I made a three other cards:

I made some place mats and coasters for our dining room using a tablecloth that we just never used and a fat quarter of Liberty fabric that I had found in the 'off cuts' basket at my local fabric shop. They cam out brilliantly and I'm excited to make some more for customers - those ones will all be made to order. Incidentally, I mentioned I wanted to re-purpose the tablecloth to my husband and then when I went to get it I couldn't find it anywhere it would normally have been so I assumed I must have taken it to the charity shop.  I was SO pleased to find it as it was the perfect colour for our dining room.

I've made a couple of sets of bunting to add to the Etsy shop. There is this cotton 'Bambi' themed one which is currently listed in the shop:

as well as this crochet heart one which hasn't yet been listed in the shop but is ready to go.

I've also been working out some designs for crocheted coasters which I've listed in the shop - these will be made to order using the customers' desired colours and combinations of patterns.

Well I did say I'd been busy!!

Current works in progress are my Lake Baikal cross stitch and another quilt (which I'm actually hoping to finish over the weekend). I'm please to report that I'm well over half way with my cross stitch and am actually starting to think about what I  might do next. I'm fortunate enough to have received some money for my birthday so I'm thinking I can put that towards another large-ish project. The quilt I'm working on is going to be put up for sale once it's finished, but here's a peak of the fabrics for the top:

So that's me.  If you haven't already I'd really appreciate it if you followed me on Facebook and/or Instagram if you're into social media. There's a giveaway happening on the Facebook page at the moment (ends 29th July 2019) which is completely free to enter - I just wanted to celebrate it being my birthday this month 😀

Until next time,

M x

Making mistakes - its a way of learning

Check out the 'to sew' pile I had going on earlier this week 😱

I had a conversation with a friend the other day over Messenger that made me (and her) giggle so I thought I'd share the story I told her with you too.

Basically the chat started with her telling me about her cross stitch she'd started and gone wrong with and how she - very cleverly - was going to rectify it and make something completely different. She thought that it would make me chuckle, which it did but as I said to her everyone has to start somewhere and we all make mistakes. Ultimately, that's how we learn.

Picture credit: Freshbooks.com

So I went on to tell her about when I first started to cross stitch. I've mentioned previously that it was my wonderful Nanna who got me into crafting and taught me a large amount of what I know. Well after a visit to see my Nanna, my dad, brothers and Grandad I was on the train merrily doing a cross stitch of Winnie the Pooh. I'll admit I was getting a bit overly confident with it and was happily stitching away when I realised that we were coming to my station. Bear in mind that this train journey was around 4 hours and I'd been stitching for most of that...

So we're coming to my stop and I start to pack all my cross stitch stuff up; you know, scissors, threads, aida. Except I can't because I've only gone and stitched the aida to my trousers!!! Well and truly stitched it mind you.  I had to cut it off 😂😂😂

I wasn't laughing at the time - I had visions of me walking through Reading station with this cross stitch of Winnie the Pooh attached to my leg which would have been OK(ish) if it wasn't upside down! Sadly I don't have any photos as this was before the days of smart phones and I'll be honest, it wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind.

Picture credit: lifehacker.com

So, when you're having one of those days where you keep making a mistake, be that misthreading your sewing machine, having to frog your knitting or crochet over and over again, remember that every mistake helps us to learn and get better at our craft and even those who seemingly make no errors will have made a multitude of them.

Next week I'll update you on all the finishes I've managed this month, so until next time,

M x

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, I did manage to finish the Winnie the Pooh corss stitch. It was a card and I believe I gifted it to my Nanna although I never told her about my little train incident as I was too embarrassed. I'm sure she would have found it hilarious though.

An English paper pieced quilt

Some of you have been eagerly awaiting pictures of the finished baby quilt I have made for my beautiful cousin and her first baby who we are all patiently awaiting the arrival of. Well, today was her baby shower so I can now share those pictures with you.

It's been a labour of love, with all the 2 and 1/2 inch hexagons being hand cut, hand basted around the paper templates and then hand stitched together - the English paper piecing method. Incidentally, I hand cut all the individual paper hexagons out too so it has certainly taken some time. I certainly think it was worth it though.

I bought the material back in February, not long after finding out my cousin was expecting. I fell in love with it and just knew it was the right colour palette - suitable for either gender and so soft and peaceful. Bambi is such a gorgeous film with wonderful characters and the 'sweet dreams' message just seemed perfect.



I had a good old look on Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration before deciding on the type of project I was going to make although I was fairly certain I was going to go with a quilt of some description. I'd only tried one other English paper piecing (EPP) project before which was pretty small, so I decided that I'd give a bigger project a go as I had the time before the baby was due. So off I went, printing off and cutting out paper templates and cutting out the fabric hexagons - it was only afterwards that I discovered 'fussy cutting' and there's a part of me that wishes I had known about it before, but I still love how the quilt has turned out. Perhaps I'll do that somewhere down the line.

Then it was time for 'basting' all the fabric hexagons around the paper templates, allowing for a clean edge to hand sew together. I thread basted rather than glued - it worked well and used up some old thread that I didn't have a use for or that I got cheaply as I knew I would be removing it once all the hexagons were stitched together.

Copious amounts of tea were drunk at this point 😂

Followers of my Instagram and Facebook page will have seen a number of progress photos where I was hand stitching each of the hexagons together, but these stopped as I got nearer to completing as (barring the hubby and the kids who share the dining room where I was making the quilt) I wanted my cousin to be the first to see her finished quilt. 

The hubby was fitting some worktop in the kitchen whilst I
was stitching - I don't typically use a saw when I'm sewing 😂

But I don't believe I shared my planned layout:

Once the hexagons were all stitched together, I popped to one of my local fabric shops with the completed quilt top,and selected a gorgeous pale grey cotton fabric for the backing and border of the quilt top - I didn't want to lose any of the pattern from the hexagons. I machine stitched the quilt top to the borders and removed all the thread I had used for basting (what a time consuming job THAT was!).

Reverse of the completed quilt top with
borders prior to adding wadding and
backing fabric

Once the quilt top was completed, I cut out and added some wadding and the backing fabric before sewing together using the same technique you would use for completing a mug rug - cheating perhaps and not traditional quilting style, but I am yet to perfect the art of adding bias binding and I wanted the quilt to look beautifully finished as I had spent so long completing it.

Once that was done, I machine quilted and voila, one completed new baby quilt...

With my cousins permission, here she is opening her gift:

I hope you have enjoyed today's blog post and agree that the quilt has turned out fantastically.

Until next time,

M x