A hot mat for the kitchen

For a quick, quilty fix, I made a new mat for the kitchen last week.


This fish was inspired by the lovely drawings on Syko's blog.  (And by the way, the long gap since my last post is due to all my spare time being spent working on a quilt which will hopefully appear in a magazine later this year!)



I pieced together some scraps of leftover quilt batting for this mat, enough to make two layers. Then I sewed the fish onto a piece of linen layered onto one piece of batting, and quilted the backing fabric onto the second piece.



After, I cut both to the same size and sewed them right sides together. To finish, turn right side out, stitch opening closed, and topstitch. One mat, ready for a hot pan or dish in the kitchen - and washable!



These look like they would make good little presents - Mother's Day is coming up, and I have friends moving into a new house they're building soon, so I think I'll be making more.

P.S. If you use Instagram, I'm now on there - frosterleybazaar.

Happy 2014!

Wishing you lots of luck for 2014!

Just before Christmas I finished a present for some friends who adopted a baby girl in December.


 This is an applique made with machine embroidery, a small picture to frame for the wall. I sewed onto ordinary white quilting fabric which I starched multiple times to make it stiff. Another way would be to use fusible stiffener such as Vilene, but I didn't have any nearby.


(Apologies for the dark-ish photos, it's midwinter!)
Each piece of coloured fabric was stuck down with Bondaweb and sewn into place, then beads and buttons added last.


I was really happy with how this looked when I'd finished, and the new parents were delighted with it too. I'm planning ways to adapt the design for different occasions, so there may be a bespoke option available in my Etsy shop soon.

What's your first sewing project of 2014?

Velvety velvet

I love velvet - smooth one way, slightly rough the other way; soft, elegant and lovely. That said, it can be tricky to sew because the 'nap' means when the pieces are right sides together they want to move in opposite directions. Velvet is not a slidey fabric!

This week I've been busy making more velvet purses. I designed the pattern and applique for these over a year ago, but still have lots of un-used purse frames. These might make last-minute Christmas presents, and some are going into my Etsy shop. As well as for coins, I think these would make a lovely jewellery case - for a necklace, bracelet or rings, for example.



The machine embroidery on these is done with the feed dogs down, so I can trace around these flower petals by moving the fabric in any direction under the needle. It takes a bit of getting used to, but for designs like this it's essential - this would be so difficult to sew using straight stitching!



In the centre of this flower (and the one on the blue purse) I've added a small shell button and tiny seed beads, by hand. All of this embellishment is done before I stitch the two pieces of velvet together to make the purse outer.



Once the lining is made I press the seams, place the lining inside the outer, press the top edges inwards and oversew them together. Then it's time to glue the purse into its frame, which takes a bit of patience! I like to glue the front in first, because it's usually slightly easier to get a neat and tidy glue-free finish on the first side you do. And if there's going to be glue on the velvet, I'd rather it was on the back (although you can remove tiny bits with nail polish remover).

If you like these, please do look in the shop!

Covered journal notebook

I've been working on some new notebooks, this time with some wonderful woven felt from RayStitch, and machine applique.

I first stitched this design for a New Home card for a friend, and liked it so much I made another one to keep straight away. And I still like it, so I'm using it again! I found these tiny key charms to tie on the end of a ribbon bookmark.



The garden, made with free machine embroidery, buttons and beads.



The garden and the bunting wrap around to the back of the journal, for extra interest.





Now for sale in my shop, if you would like your own!

New shop!

I've taken the plunge and listed a couple of things in a new Etsy shop! Have a look here (new shop) or on the Shop tab above and leave me a comment below if you like. I'll add more things very soon.

So far, there's this quilt, and this bag.

Bag	Quilt

Hoping to add some more in the next week x

Hexagonal work in progress

I've been working on some hexagons, inspired by this quilt, using up fabric I already had in some muted, modern colours. I don't have a pattern, but I do have a ruler with a 60 degree angle marked on it, so I studied how other people had created hexagons and off I went.



For each segment of a hexagon, I'm sewing a 60 degree triangle to a strip of fabric, then trimming the joined pieces into a large 60 degree triangle. Then I sew three of those together to make a half hexagon.  Eventually I'll lay out all of those how I want them in the quilt, and join them into vertical strips; then when the strips are joined, the full hexagons will appear without me having to sew complicated Y seams.

And to finish here's a trial quilt layout, with some sage green chambray fabric from Village Haberdashery (London)

Orange peel

Just a quick post with picture of Not Orange Peel finally finished.  There was only just enough sunlight to get these pics...

First the whole quilt, showing how the stems (of varying lengths) and leaves are laid out:
 

Some quilting detail: the lines were machine quilted in expanding curves - marked out in washable pen


Along one side of the back, a rainbow stripe which uses one piece of every "leaf" fabric used on the front:


More quilting action:


And another part of the rainbow strip


I have to say it turned out looking really nice, and I'm very pleased with it.
Next quilt has hexagons on....