Tissue paper pom-poms

For our friends Liz and Dilly's wedding, I made about fifty tissue paper pom-poms.  Some were hung inside the marquee from chandeliers strung with bunting, and the rest were hung in the branches of the tree-lined avenue outside, along with jars of candles.  The instructions for how to make them are best explained on the Martha Stewart website.

 

 

Liz's wedding quilt

My friend Liz is getting married, and at her hen weekend in Bath we each made a square for a patchwork wedding quilt for her.  Her maid of honour Anna contacted lots of family all over the world who also made squares.  I then had the job of sewing them all together to create this quilt.  It's full of stories and memories and hopefully is an heirloom itself now!

Lizzie's quilt

I recently spent a weekend at my mum's house where I slept under a quilt I'd completely forgotten having made years ago for my sister Lizzie.  It's a scrap quilt made of lots of snuggly textures - flannel, corduroy, velvet, suede.

Griff's baby quilt

My friend Rhys and his partner Nia recently had a beautiful baby boy called Gruffyd.  I made them this baby quilt using scraps of shirting fabric, and simple quilted lines on every other strip block.

Design choices - log cabin quilt layout

I've made some more blocks for my pastel scraps log cabin quilt and they're all now cut to size (7 inch squares) - but the next bit is trying to decide the layout and design.  The log cabin blocks have whites and pale strips on two sides, and colours on the other two, giving me a load of layout options that give the quilt different effects.  Here they are side by side to try and make deciding between them easier:

1. Straight setting;  2. Pinwheels;  3. Straight furrows; 

        

4. Chevron;  5. Barn raising;  6. Streak of Lightning;

          

7. Log cabin star;  8. Sunshine and shadows;  9. Shadows and lightning.

        

Suggestions on a postcard please!


Large images here...

In progress - pastel scraps log cabin quilt

I woke up really early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep for thinking about my sewing Sunday ahead - so I got up and started playing in my studio. I hadn't planned to start a new quilt (I was intending to actually finish some of the several nearly-finished ones that need backing) but began rummaging through some scraps and before I knew it I'd made a couple of these log cabin blocks. I was on a roll, so just kept going! I'm not sure where this will end up - either I'll make a load more and sew them into this light/dark diagonal colourway, or I might mix them up with some half square triangles (I spotted this quilt by April Two Eighty on Pinterest and am quite inspired to do something similar...) I'll keep you posted!

Wreath of tiny fabric scraps

Every time I make a quilt, I hate to throw away all the scraps that are made when I've straightened edges and trimmed blocks. For my colourful pinwheel quilt, the fabric scraps were all such fantastic colours I decided to salvage them and turn them into this wreath! All I used was a wire coat hanger, straightened out and curled into a circle, then the ends taped together with some strong white electrical tape. I spent a happy hour idling on the sofa in front of the fire tying the scraps on while we watched a film, and then finished it by tying a piece of ribbon on to hang it from my studio door.

In progress - colourful pinwheel quilt

As I've mentioned, I recently discovered how easy it is to make quarter-square triangles and half-square triangles. This quilt was the result - I used a charm pack of 5inch square shot cotton plains, and some scrap pieces of Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripes from my fabric stash. The colours are just wonderful I think! Just need to quilt it now - I'm hoping to spend a happy afternoon soon with my mum using her amazing long armed quilting frame. I'll post the results once it's finished...

In progress - Indigo baby quilt

I bought a stash of Indigo patterned fat quarters and white-on-white printed fabrics last time I went to a big quilt show. I cut some of it up into 2inch and 2.5inch squares, and then ran out of steam. But I've recently discovered how to make quarter-square-triangle blocks, and so I used up some of the larger squares to for this, and turned it into Ohio Stars. I still need to back it, but I'm planning to sew buttons on as laid out here to quilt it simply.

Another baby-sized quilt, but as I (stupidly, as always!) didn't wash the fabric before I got carried away starting, and as it's indigo it will inevitably run, this of course won't be suitable for a baby as I don't think you'd ever be able to wash it without it ruining! So it will have to become a wall quilt instead. Ah well...

In progress - purple stripes quilt

I'm in the middle of making this quilt using lots of purply Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripey fabrics - the first time I've ever made something to 'match our sofa', a phrase I used to scoff at when I heard people choosing to buy paintings when I worked in an art gallery. A sign of growing up or selling out?

In progress - pink baby quilt

This is another quilt that needs backing - a baby quilt made of some old cushion covers I'd originally made from a charm pack of pink patterned fabrics. I cut the cushion covers up into random width diagonal strips and then sewed them together to make one higgledy-piggledy log cabin.

In progress - shirting scraps baby quilt

This is the front of a baby quilt I still need to finish. It's made with scraps left over from the wedding quilt I made for my friends Adam and Bex - vintage shirt fabrics from Worn and Washed.

Printer's tray cotton reel display

I love this old printer's tray drawer from an antiques shop - it's hung pride of place in my studio full of all my cotton reels.

Vintage tin candles

I love vintage tins and have amassed quite a collection - our house is full of them, in the kitchen full of flour and sugar, in my studio full of buttons, as money boxes collecting pennies - and on our mantlepiece as candle holders!

Teacup pin cushion

For our wedding I collected dozens of old teacups from car boot sales and charity shops to make into teacup candles. This one was too small but it's a lovely souvenir cup from the Blacksmith's shop at Gretna Green - I like to think some young couple decades ago bought it after they'd eloped there to get married. I made it into a pin cushion by covering a ball of wadding in some fabric I'd got left over from our wedding bunting.

Patchwork draught excluder

When we bought our house, we discovered there was an inch gap at the bottom of the front door. Nearly two years later and it's still there as we've not been able to afford a new front door! My solution? A patchwork draught excluder.  I used strips left over from when I made our wedding bunting, appliqued them onto two long pieces of calico, sewn together into a tube and filled with old plastic carrier bags.  It's pictured here with my muddy pink wellies after a lovely day out walking Doug the Pug.

1st anniversary - map confetti picture

For our wedding, I made little organza bags full of homemade confetti that I'd cut out of old maps with a heart-shaped cutter. This picture used a bag I'd saved as a keepsake to make a first anniversary present for my amazing wife Lu, as the first anniversary is 'paper'!

Stamp collecting

I foudn myself having bought a bag of used stamps in an Oxfam shop (as you do) - not really knowing why or what for, this was the end result - a rainbow collection of stamps.

Cut-out picture

This was made messing around with a scalpel and a bit of brown paper.  I liked the end result so much I decided to frame it!

Vasarely quilt

This quilt is based on a Victor Vasarely artwork called 'Tlinko'.  I made it as a present for my mum, who hung it on her wall in her government office! It uses the same basic applique technique that I've used before (see my easy baby quilt and Steve and Ali's rainbow quilt), this time with a few other not-quite-square polygon shapes to add to the optical illusion.