goodnight from blogger

I have filled up my blog with photos and can currently no longer put anything more on here - thanks to my regular viewers, but I now have a page on facebook called guess what ? COTTON CONFETTI,  would be pleased to welcome you to  'Like' my page.

New Fabric - from the other side of the Atlantic.....

Have just bought these fat quarters

Well they are really lovely and I have made them into little hexies and am going to make a mat with 19 of them, and I will have to show you them another time, because this is not letting me upload any photos!

2 squirrels have just landed with a thud and fallen out of the tree right in front of me! And there is something making a noise in the bushes nearby!

An Apple a Day ...... a Tutorial

Here is a little tutorial for an apple to dangle from your lunch bag, or to use as a pincushion.

Requirements:

Small pieces of cotton fabric - apple coloured, or printed
tiny piece of fabric for leaf
tiny piece of heat n bond for leaf
14inch length of quarter inch wide ribbon
stuffing
sewing machine - or can be hand sewn
Thread

Draw your pattern using these measurements, the apple pattern needs to be more pointy than rounded! Add quarter inch seam allowance to apple pattern

Put fabric with right sides together, pin ribbon to end of apple.

Stitch around, with 1/4 inch seam.  sew backward and forwards over ribbon.

Turn right side out.  Turn top under 1/4 inch.  Run gathering stitches with double thread around the top, keep needle attached.

Stuff firmly, keeping ribbon in centre of apple.  Pull up gathering stitches tightly.........

..........pull on ribbon to pull up base of apple.

Push top of apple in and fasten off (bind off) thread and stitch through ribbon to keep in place (Don't cut it off yet, keep needle attached)

 

 

 

 

 

Make leaf.  Draw leaf shape onto heat n bond.   Iron heat n bond to wrong side of leaf fabric, then fold with right sides together

Stitch around leaf twice then trim away excess fabric.

Cut off ends and snip seam allowance, take care not to cut the stitches.

Make cut in fabric that does not have heat n bond attached.  Remove backing fabric from heat n bond.

Turn right sides out, then iron flat.  The cut is the back of the leaf.

Stitch leaf veins on side that didn't have cut - you could do this by hand

Attach leaf to top of apple with gathering thread, then cut off thread.

Dangle  your apple from your lunch bag - a great way to remind everyone to get their 5 a day!

Apple print fabric is lovely.  You could just cut a leaf from felt to the size of the pattern

Angel Policy:  you can make as many as you like for gifts or to sell for charity, but please don't sell them or the pattern.  Thank you.  Cottonconfetti.co.uk

But I don't do alterations.....

... until I bought a pair of cropped trousers in the bad weather and didn't try them on until I wanted to wear them, and they were far too BIG.... I chopped this much off the waist band.

And here they are fitting perfectly!

Busy weekend, finished off this pouch that I started at Jackies - thanks for the fabric, Jackie

And here it is with the ends sewn!

Free motion quilting on the half square triangle practice piece

close up

ditto

ditto

MUG RUG - Made for me - I only started it in March!

Fabulous workshop....

Had a super day last weekend, with Hazel from Cotton Cocktails - she taught our quilting group a free motion quilting workshop, lots of lovely samples and lots of encouragement to try the patterns, and lovely calm demonstrations.  A very lovely day - thanks Hazel.

Free motion quilting patterns

I had done FMQ before, but I learned lots of new patterns with Hazel.

more complicated designs

and more

H had a go when I got home.  Orange is her favourite colour!

Trying out some embroidery stitches for the little crazy quilt I am making.

Fabric from the City Quilter New York... Love the New York themed fabrics - washed and ready to sew!

Fabric from Embsay Crafts, washed and ready to sew - love the postcard collections

ta daaaaa......

Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt Top finished!

Traditional crazy quilting - pieces ready tacked on to backing - needs embellishment with embroidery

We interrupt your quilting with an urgent request.....

Boston Modern Quilt Guild are requesting blocks to make into quilts for those affected by recent events.   A link to their site is here

H and I have made a block each for them.  Their requirements are quite exact, so please go to their website before starting your block.

Hannah chose a blue background

and I chose a white background

H hadn't done any modern liberated piecing before, and it was too random for her - she likes order and neatness in her blocks (shame it isn't in her bedroom, too, says her mother!).  Anyway I'll get them put in an envelope and taken to the post office one day this week.

Four Journal quilts ready for the CQ group website

I signed up to make journal quilts with the Contemporary Quilt Group - in short, think up a theme for the year.  Make one journal quilt per month size 12 inch x 8 inch in landscape format and post on their website at the latest 4 times a year.  My theme is GARDEN

January title Bird.  Thermofaxed bird, free machine pieced branches and lettering.  Free machine quilted.

February title Grandmother's Garden - machine embroidered crinoline lady (to remind me of my granny's embroideries) and traditional hexagons, but using seed catalogues for the papers (to signify planning your garden in February and being reminded of granny)

March title Madison Square (Garden) - which is neither a garden, nor is it square!  To remind me of the view from my hotel window on my 60th birthday 'trip of a lifetime'.  Map printed on cotton fabric, appliqued onto New York Subway fabric, Madison Square free machine stitched.

April title Snow - in April the cat was still up to her knees in snow!  Small pieces of white on white fabric, stitched together and free machine quilted, applique cat,, which I drew from a photo of the cat in the snow.

Just Teasing ......

Here is my basket (a gift from a friend with mini workshop to make the fabric cover) which I have had for a year (or is it two?)  There's a lot to finish off...... WHOOPS it was 28 May 2011 that I posted a photo of the basket my friend made!!

Block of the month for March from little H. 

 Thanks, H for helping me to eat my belated birthday cake... you can have a look at it over on More Apple Tree Crafts

My block of the month

On Sunday I visited my friend for a Sunday Sewing Session and I laid out my HST quilt - but then decided I need to lay it out at home and leave it there until it's all sewn up, so I put it away!  And we mainly chatted and drank coffee!  But J very kindly gave me some scraps to start making a zippered pouch.... photo?  No!

Here is the finished basked cover

Detail of the pockets and ribbon ends

The stripy cover will keeps all my goodies from falling out

Fabric purchases in NYC

Bought this from Purl Soho - I have something with chairs at a different angle in the same colours that I bought in Atlanta a couple of years ago.

Here's a great idea - inside the doorway of this PS they have embroidery hoops with nice fabric in them....