One Hour Basket

I happily stumbled across a fabulous tutorial on Instagram the other day ... I followed the links home to @kelbysews and found her blog where she's published the 1 Hour Basket tutorial ... and I'm so glad she did!

Most examples I've seen on IG for the use of this basket is to hold a mountain of FQ's ... and yes, I'll be making more for me for that exact reason ... but I needed this one to hold wool!

It fits 6 x 100g balls of wool perfectly

This basket has been made for my MIL - aka Nanny London - to send along with her latest wool order from Australia.  She is a fan of Patons and can't seem to find it locally in London ... and well, to be honest, I'm starting to find it hard to locate in Australia ... Spotlight used to have the full range.  Where are you Patons?  Your Big Baby Brand of wool has been clothing my daughters since they were newborns!  

A Nanny London cardigan is a must in our house when the weather turns cool ... for rolling on quilts when mummy is checking her quilting ...

and if it's cold enough to have a baby cino, then it's cold enough to wear a Nanny London cardi :)

So this basket, along with a bounty of wool, will be winging it's way to London very shortly.  My girls have grown out of the last instalment of cardigans and Autumn is upon us!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Serena xx

Mystery Project

I recently attended a very relaxing sewing retreat with the Perth MQG and joined in on the Mystery Sewing Project.

Turns out it was a mystery to all of us as the lady taking the lead had such a busy week at work that she hadn't had a chance to try the pattern for herself!

Here's what we made ...

I chose a Liberty Print for the outside fabric and quilted it to the interfacing with Aurifil col. 3817 12wt 

It's a little jewellery keep for our bedside tables whilst on retreat.  What a sweet idea!

It's supposed to be sewn on all for sides to form a little box ... but I got lazy!

The lining fabric is from Quilting Treasures - Chicken Wire

This little jewellery keep didn't stay in my possession very long as when I got back from retreat I gifted it to my mum who was off on a mini break herself.  

I used a bag magnetic clasp from Spotlight as the fastener

I must make another one for myself now! It's the perfect way to use up a tid-bit of Liberty.  I'm also in a few swaps at the moment so I'm thinking that one of these would make a lovely little extra gift.

If you have a special someone's birthday coming up it's also just the right size to pop a gift card in ... here's the link to the pattern if you would like to make one too.

Happy Tuesday!

Serena xx

Joining in with the following linky parties: Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday and Let's Be Social

Possum Magic - Round 5

So before I start ... I'd just like to say that this border was a real b!tch to photograph ... I tried photographing it in morning light, afternoon light, indoors, outdoors, up against walls, on decking and even hubby had a go at holding it up for me (ahem) ... but I still couldn't capture on the camera what my eyes could see ... you just have to trust me when I say that the colours are are to die for and really beautiful in real life!

I got all nostalgic and soppy doing this quilt ... whenever I see Rebecca's online name "One Wee Bird" I just want to hug her (wierdo moment).  She may be a Wee Bird, but I reckon she could hold her own and I also reckon that wherever she flew in the world there would be a gaggle of geese or birds or potty-mouthed Sheila's ready and willing to pop a bottle of bubbles on her arrival and have a good ol' laugh ... so that was my inspiration for creating this compass type border.

I chose a mix of LV and plain fabrics to offset the aquas and greens

A simple layout of paper pieced letters for North, South, East, West (Never, Eat, Soggy Weetbix) ...

I used Just My Type Pattern by Quietplay to create the letters

... geese flying to all corners of the globe quilt.

I added some of my favourite bird fabric from Lush Uptown to the mix

... and diamonds as cornerstones ... a girl can never have too many diamonds!

As you can see, I reintroduced aquas and greens to the quilt ... and also added a flare of red and orange to the border for a bit of added interest.

On a Wall ...

On the Deck ...

Hubby Holding it Up ...

Delicately draped on the pool fence for an arty-farty pic ...

I give up photographing this border ... I hope you get the gist of the softness and story behind my efforts.

Rebecca's quilt is now in the very capable hands of Carla to work her Possum Magic :)

Serena xx

Sunday Stash - Online Fabric Colour Guessing Game

Lots of lovely fabric arrived this week!

I've been shopping on IG again ...

Rainbow Bundle of Cotton Couture from @polkadotteafabrics on Instagram

5" strips of rainbow lovliness

Destined for Hubby's Half Hexie Quilt

I also visited one of my favourite online shops too ..

A selection of AMH Honor Roll and Pretty Potent from Fifi's Fabricology

I love buying fabrics from my LQS as well ... but they don't always have the pre-cuts I'm after and my three year old with sticky fingers would rather be at a park.  So online shops do come in handy - especially if you don't need the fabric right away.  Although the service I've had this week in regards to quick postage has been amazing!

The only thing that bugs me about shopping online is that I really wish that more online shops would show a picture of the fabrics they are offering in natural light.

Am I the only one that finds it difficult to determine the exact shade/colour when shopping online? 

Why does that pastel mint green fabric on one site look aqua on another site?  A photo of the fabric taken in natural light would help me determine the colour better, especially when the name of the colour in the description is something arty-farty like "Misty Cloud".

So here's a little plea to the online shops out there ... I know you're flat out like a lizard drinking ... but please. oh. please ... display a picture of the fabric photographed in natural light, instead of (or as well as) the usual digital fabric swatch.  It would really help!

Serena xx

PS I have no affiliation with the stores mentioned in this post ... I just like shopping there :)

Benji's Quilt

My eldest is in Pre-Primary this year ... she did Kindy last year so I thought I had this school thing pretty much sussed out.  Ah nope.

Usually in these early years of school, the children have a mascot or class teddy bear to share.  They all get to take a turn bringing him home.  Last year, in Kindy, we got to keep the bear for the whole weekend.  The bear travels around with you for the weekend for zoo visits, a ride on a train/ferry/bus etc and you take a few pics with the bear and pop them in a scrapbook.  The scrapbook makes for an interesting read!  I love reading kids accounts of things :)

Anyway ... this year when my daughter realised there was a bear to bring home we had a little dialogue that went like this:

Daughter: Mum!  Can we make a special quilt for Benji (the teddy bear) so he will be comfy in my bed?
Me: Sure! (thinking we'll have him all weekend and it would be a nice mother/daughter thing to do).
Daughter:  Great Mum!  You're the best!
Me: I know
Husband: Rolls his eyes

Is this story sounding familiar to any of my regular visitors?

So .... it's our turn to have Benji.

Daughter:  Mum! It's my turn with Benji!!!!!!! (she was super excited)
Me: That's awesome sweetheart!  (thinking ... hang on it's Thursday?  Last year we got the bear on a Friday and brought him back on Monday - alarm bells ringing)
Me asking the Teacher: So we document in the scrapbook and bring Benji back on Monday?
Teacher: No, bring him back tomorrow.
Me: Sorry, did you say tomorrow?
Teacher: Yup, just take a picture of him having dinner with you or something, you don't have to do anything fancy.
Daughter: I can't wait to make him his quilt!
Me: Gulp.

Here we go again ... 

Bringing Benji Home from School

After scrummaging through my meagre excuse for a scraps bin, it was decided that Benji shall have a blue quilt "because he's a boy mum" ... alrighty then.

I, luckily, had recently purchased some alphabet fabric called Potluck by American Jane Patterns for Moda from @cotton_factory_destash (Instagram account) so we used the letters to spell out his name ... see?  Quilting is educational for kids!

The letters are 3" square so I chopped up the blue scraps into 3" squares to match.  Then left it to my daughter to lay out in a grid  of 7x7 (maths education - tick!).

I didn't worry about fabric placement or layout ... this was supposed to be her "thing" after-all.

I did all the sewing, quilting, binding, yawning and swearing myself though.  

My daughter hasn't had a turn on my sewing machine yet and well, by the time she sorted all the squares it was time for DBBB (dinner, bath, book, bed).  

So  we popped some pics in the scrapbook of her laying out the squares and I told her that I would tuck Benji in with his new quilt after she went to sleep.

True to my word ....

Guess what happened when she woke up the next morning?

Daughter:  Mum I feel sick, my ear is sore and my throat is burning ...
Me: Oh ... no school for you today bub.  Looks like Benji is staying with us for the whole weekend after-all ...

Backing fabric is "A is For ..." purchased for Textile Traders Australia

Next time, before pulling an all-nighter sewing a teddy's quilt,  I'll remember to check my crystal ball.

... and yes, my husband did laugh at me again ...

Serena xx

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Let's Be Social and TGIFF.

Sew Together Bag

I may be a little late to the party, but that's cool right?  Oh and did I mention that I brought my maternity pants with me?   What? 

I really should be calling this my Bum Bag as that's the part of the maternity pants I used to make this little AMH vs Maternity Pants Sew Together (with friends) Bag. <---- Did you see what I did there?  

Have any of you made this bag by yourself or did you nut it out with lashings of wine and friends?

I chose to use the zipper tab ends option

My bag had a good dose of both ... and I love it.  I love it so much I want to make another one stat!

I started with cutting the bum out of my pants so that I could have a built-in pocket on the outside of my bag.  

Perfect spot for my Merchant Mills Baby Bow scissors

Quilted some hexies in place and that was my outer fabric all sorted.

AMH - True Colours

The insides took a bit of planning with friends.  Carla and Jo were over for morning tea, so I bounced some AMH fabric combos off them and came up with this ...

Carla was already ahead of me in her bag planning stage, in fact she had already tackled all of the zips into submission ... Jo looked at us both like we were crazy ladies (I'm not saying she is wrong) but I have it on good authority that she might be joining us ... in the bag making that is, not the crazy lady bit.

I joined Carla at her house for the zip bit ... strength in numbers and all that.  

I decided it was time to go home when this happened - oops! - I had top stitched my zips in a fancy-smancy-12wt-Aurifil-rainbow-thread. 

Looks awesome but it was stitched in that tight that it took about an hour to unpick ... Not. Happy. Jan! (non-Aussies will have to click here and here to understand the "Jan!" reference).

I ended up finishing the rest of the Bum Bag (see, it's stuck with that name now) on Retreat with the Perth Modern Quilt Guild.  Such a lovely bunch of ladies and a wealth of sewing knowledge to answer all my questions on construction ... and a lovely spot to sew I might add.

Hand Sewing the binding down

All finished!!

So that's 4 projects made from these pants now!  

Here's how they are looking ...

Front

Rear (lol)

... yup I reckon I could squeeze another Bum Bag out of them!

Maybe this time I'll pair them up with some Liberty ...

Bum Bag
Pattern:  Sew Together Bag
Tip: Make sure you check out the Quilt Barn for extra explanatory notes and pictures
Fabric: Anna Maria Horner - True Colours and my old Linen Maternity Pants
Zips: Purchased from Spotlight Australia

Thanks for stopping by!

Serena xx

Linking up to TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday