Friday 12 December 2014

Bertie's Printed Christmas Cards




Bertie, my seven year old son, is autistic.  He finds holding a pen a bit tricky, so he loved printing lots and lots of copies quickly!

Bertie's printing equipment.
Bertie drew a picture of a Christmas tree on a piece of paper and I traced over it onto the polystyrene disc that came with a pizza.  Once the image was scored into the polystyrene Bertie used a roller to coat the 'plate' with red acrylic paint.  

Each print came out slightly different, but all of them have made lovely Christmas cards for his family and friends!
'Christmas Tree with Present' by Bertie, aged 7



Friday 5 December 2014

Soul Blossoms Quilt



It all started with a charm pack...

I live round the corner from The Cotton Patch and went in for a perv at all the seductive fabric they have just lying around, wantonly purring 'buy me! Buy me!"  

Now I don't have much in common with Oscar Wilde but I can't resist temptation and I just had to have Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms range in its entirety right that very second.  A charm pack seemed the only way.

I'd never made a quilt before so it seemed an impossible task to turn those sweet little squares into a usable object.  To be honest there was zero planning involved - I just started sewing. 

Right from the off the effervescence of the prints and the bright pink tones made me think of my best buddy.  

It was a big rush and I was sewing the last piece of binding just as he walked up the path, but I made it.  I was worried he'd think 'What the hell is this?' but he was so touched he burst into tears!  

Bound with Amy Butler's Sari Blooms

He signed the letter
"All yours, 
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!"



Linking up with TGIFFLink-a-Finish FridayCan I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday.



Wednesday 26 November 2014

The Crumbly Cottage Quilt - Work in Progress

This is my first foray into English Paper Piecing.  






My parents' live in a gorgeous little cottage in Worcestershire and I want to make a traditional looking quilt that will fit right in.

My Mom is a huge Jane Austen fan so I started collecting fabric I thought looked a bit Regency and added prints I thought looked like they might find their way into a quilt over the years.


At some point in the next 10 - 15 years I hope to finish it!



Linking up with WIP Wednesday at freshlypieced.com.

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Jelly Roll Race (or 'if I were a race horse they'd have me shot')

I've been watching The Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorials on youtube.  I now have several quilts I NEED to make.  Immediately.

Luckily, one of the tutorials was for a quilt top you can make in - wait for it - one hour!!  I know.  Brilliant, or what?

I doubted I'd be that fast, but I had a sewing itch to scratch.  Cup of tea at the ready I entered the Jelly Roll Race.

After an hour and a half it looked like this: 
Aaaargh!

Poor Joan, my trusty vintage Alfa, decided I was taking the Michael and I spent more time fiddling with my bobbin than actually sewing.  Then unpicking and re-sewing because the strips weren't lining up.

It was at this stage I decided I'd rather end up with a decent finished quilt top than race on regardless.

If this had been the Grand National I'd have fallen long before Becher's Brook. Having said that, after a mere five and a half hours I had a quilt top and that's a first for me!


It's approximately 155cm x 138cm and will probably become a throw quilt in my newly blue lounge.  All I need to do now is finish it!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced

Monday 10 November 2014

Jelly Roll Up

Put your hands together for my first ever jelly roll.
Ain't she purdy?

Friday 7 November 2014

Cot Quilt - for Amos



I can't stand the idea of throwing away even the tiniest scrap of fabric.




I'm also impatient and prone to give in to the impulse to get stuck in without planning (pah! Bor-ing!).



As such this crazy-scrappy quilt was incredibly satisfying to make. It used up left over fabric from a full sized quilt I made a couple of years ago for a male friend and I think that month old Amos will appreciate it's gender-neutral colour scheme of cream, brown, blue and grey. Even the pink in there is manly.








The fabric mix includes some pieces of the V&A's Liberty fabric copied from historic patchwork coverlets and some traditionally block printed Indian cotton.








I started my first ever attempt at free motion quilting on this project, but soon decided it wasn't working out. It took an age to unpick! 



I don't think the stitch holes are too noticeable. She says. Confidently.

Linking up Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it up Friday.

Monday 3 November 2014

A Christmas Cake (of soap)

Making soap is much like making a Christmas cake. 

You get the satisfaction of mixing exciting stuff together and you end up creating something that smells amazing. 

You also have to wait a few weeks before you can try it!

A couple of days ago I made a batch of Christmas soap. I know it's still early November but it takes 4-6 weeks to cure and, just like a Christmas cake, it gets better with age.

soap moulds and cutter
I started making proper Cold Process soap about ten years ago when I went on a course at The Natural Soap Company in glorious Wells-next-the-Sea. 

The 'Cold Process' method is the hardcore, chemistry-in-action way of creating pure, skin-kind soap out of oils and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).  The irony is that you have to heat your oils and that until it has properly cured it is extremely irritant!  
Professor Snape would know how this magic potion made from drain cleaner turns into something so mild you can wash your kids with it, but I'll just have to ask you to trust me.  

Over the years I've bought a few soap making books but my hands down favourite 'recipe' was the basic one they provided on the day.

As well as the 1kg of oils (palm, coconut and olive) it allows for three tablespoons of essential oil(s). I've got a shot glass that holds exactly that amount so I sloshed in a mix of cinnamon, clove, mandarin and lemon essential oils until it was full. All very scientific. I'd had the bottles knocking around for a while and wanted them used up. Turns out I had exactly three tablespoons of oil combined. 
The God of Soap was with me and I hadn't even had to sacrifice a goat. 

I decided to improvise a 'decorative' swirl. I mixed a few spoons of Cadbury's Bournville cocoa powder with a spoon of soap to dissolve it, then put about a quarter of the soap in a jug and mixed the cocoa paste in. Then I got over excited and raided the kitchen cupboard again – I poured in a random amount of pure vanilla extract. There was just no stopping me.

It was about then that The God of Soap decided I'd gone far enough and went off for a nap. I lost confidence in my ability to attractively swirl the two batches of soap in my mould so I just poured them in willy nilly and hoped for the best. 

I also added a light dusting of cosmetic grade bronze mica. Usually I like my soaps to be as natural as possible but if you can't have a bit of sparkle at Christmas, when can you, eh?






After two days snuggled up in a duvet (the soap, not me) I cut it into bars. 

I think the chocolate vanilla swirl turned out quite well after all. Now all I've got to do is spend the rest of the month working out how I'm going to wrap it.