Making cards using fabric and a touch of spotty bunting!

As well as getting stuck into knitting my cushion cover and starting my top secret project, I got stuck into making a few cards to try something a bit different…Spurred on by the fact that I couldn't find cards that I liked, I decided to make my own! On my commute to work I found the ideal time to plan out in my head my ideas for each card, I wanted each to be personal and special for those who were going to receive them.

Early this week the cards safely arrived at their destinations so I can now share them with you! I made two cards to celebrate two big milestones. My friends were celebrating the birth of their baby girl and another friend celebrating her 30th birthday. Having procrastinated over the draft designs I finally sat down and had a play with my paper stash!

The new baby card was created to match the colours of the nursery, green and yellow. I created the card with a dual purpose to say congratulations and as something simple that could be framed and added to the nursery wall if they wanted.

 So here it is....

I bought a set of alphabet clear stamps recently and used these to stamp a letter on each part of bunting. I knew that the colours would fit with the nursery so I added a birth date to the card too to make it even more personal. I love using confetti in cards so using a craft punch of two feet I created confetti in a range of pretty pastels.

My ideas for the 30th birthday card were a little different! I wanted to try and use fabric rather than paper. Purely for the fact that I had much nicer fabric in the colour I wanted rather than in my paper collection. I traced a '3' '0' and created templates to help me cut out the fabric. I used some iron on webbing to make the fabric stiffer so that I could easily cut out and stitch the fabric. I cut a rectangle of fabric to mount the 30 on and cut the edges with pinking shears.

I used hand applique to attach the '30' to the background fabric, using metallic blue thread. I then machine stitched using straight stitch the rectangle onto a white card. I loved adding fabric and paper together on a card so I will definitely try this again with other projects!

Here's the final card...

I was so pleased with both cards...I love adding a little bit of matching ribbon to cards I make to finish them off and make them look pretty. I just need to start making them earlier next time as I was a little late getting them in the post!

What cards are you making at the moment? Do you like using fabric to create cards?

Quilted Sewing Machine Cover

On Friday I managed to get stuck in and complete a quilting project that I had started at the beginning of March. The project I had in mind was small to help me gain a bit of confidence and try out some basic quilting techniques. Since buying my own sewing machine I knew that it wasn't long before I needed to pass my Mum’s Frister Rossmann sewing machine back to her. With my parents visiting over Easter I had a deadline to meet. I knew I wanted to get the machine serviced before giving it back but also I wanted to make a special thank you present using my new machine. I decided to make a new sewing machine cover as the current soft cover for the sewing machine was starting to fall to bits.

In a post I wrote in March, Quilting and patchwork update, you may have spotted that I had started to put together some 9 square patches using blue fabrics, these were going to be the basis of the cover and I had ambitions of elaborately quilting it! Well time got the better of me and I managed to add a few more patchwork pieces to the collection so I had enough to complete the cover. On Friday I pieced the patchwork squares together with a blue border, or sashing using the technical term! I tried to square off the sections of fabric as I went to make sure all the edges were neat. I added in the blue backing (the same as the sashing) and cut a piece of wadding to to fit.

In the end as I didn't have lots of time to practice some different quilting techniques so I just did a simple 'quilt in the ditch' of the four rectangular sections. I was quite shocked at what I had managed to achieve for my first attempt! Here it is laid out in full, I just used a rectangle shape that would match the height (to cover both sides of the sewing machine) and length of the sewing machine.

You can see a bit of the 'in the ditch' quilting I did and see the pink piggy in the fabric I used. Plus some lovely blue ribbon to secure the cover onto the sewing machine.

Here is the front of the cover....when you put the wrong sides together and tie the bows it almost looks like a cushion cover...

Here is the cover on the machine from the front.

and a side view too...can you see the pink piggy?

To make it a bit of a surprise I packaged up the cover in brown paper and ribbon and gave it to my Mum.

A simple parcel that contained my first quilting project!

I pleased to say that my Mum was overjoyed at the surprise present and impressed with my first attempt at quilting.

I was really proud of what I had managed in a short time frame and I enjoyed seeing the project come together. With a bit of careful planning, and a lot more practice, I hope that I can one day make a larger scale quilt project. But for now maybe I'll try the basics and make sampler quilt pieces so I can practice different quilting styles.

Quilting and patchwork update

I’m excited to tell you that I did indeed get the quilting bug after the day I spent in January (see The glorious world of fabrics and quilt making for details) learning some quilting basics. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I could make, from quilted cushions, to a kindle holder, to gifts for friends expecting arrivals of little people this year.

The one thing holding me back initially was the lack of equipment to make it work. After a long stretch of thinking and researching I decided to take the plunge and invest in some new things to help me. I bought a new sewing machine and went for a Janome DXL 603 with a free quilting kit. It was a sad moment when I decided that I really needed a new machine to replace the Frister Rossman Beaver 4 sewing machine. It is my Mum’s sewing machine and I learnt to sew on it during school so it’s the only machine I know. It’s a lovely machine but at 35 years old it doesn’t have the accessories that I need to quilt. Plus I should really return it to my Mum as I’ve had it on a long term long for quite some time!

Investing in a new machine was something that I had been thinking about for a while. This was always going to be a very big purchase, but luckily I found a great machine with a quilting set (an extension table and various feet to help me do free machine embroidery) which had all the features I wanted.

So since I bought the machine I’ve been collecting fabrics…These are from an Aladdin’s cave material shop in Bath called Country Threads that a fellow blogger, Jenny, featured on her blog The Button Jar, when she went on an embroidery class there. I wouldn’t have known that it existed as it is tucked away down a cobbled street in Bath. So I picked up some material…

Bought a big cutting mat, cutting ruler and rotary cutter from Creative Grids in a starter kit...

 

Spent time reading some books so I knew what to do to accurately cut up fabrics…

and put together some squares to start a project…

I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet with the squares that I’ve made. What I do know is that I had a great afternoon of selecting the fabrics to work together, playing on my new sewing machine and practising cutting the material. As easy as cutting sounds it was a challenge to ensure that I accurately measured the right size for the strips ready for the squares I created. I’ll keep you posted on my progress over the next few weeks. I think I'm hooked on quilting already!