WIP Wednesday

colourful plus cushion

Happy Leap Day!

I could swear the more WIP I have, the faster Wednesdays come round!

This week I've finished my Colourful Plus cushion and some wonky star sewing cases (click here for tutorial). 

But my main work in progress over the weekend has been an attempt at the Colour Palette Challenge. I know I said last Wednesday 'I may just have to let the Color Palette Challenge go by this month' but then I decided to find all the purple/green/orange I had and try some x and + blocks. Then I thought I'd add a bit of appliqué...

I'm going as fast as I can but I don't think I'll be finished by tomorrow so maybe I'll have to link that up as a WIP too.

What have you been working on this week?

Here's my WIP report for this week:

No progress:
Unicorn Stars

Flora Quilt
Ruby + cushion
Purple Wonky Star cushion

Started:
Wonky Star Sewing Cases
February Color Palette Challenge

Finished:
Colourful plus cushion 

Wonky Star Sewing Cases

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2
New projects - 2
Currently in progress - 7


I'm linking up with:

small wonky star sewing case tutorial

This really has been a week of starting lots of projects and getting nothing finished!

But today I made 2 small wonky star sewing cases with coordinating pincushions. I took photos as I went so I thought I'd include them in case anyone would like to make something similar. The sewing cases are 5 inches square and I used 5 inch square wonky star blocks and 10 inch layercake squares but it would be very easy to make one from charm squares and a length of jelly roll.

For one sewing case you will need:

6x 5 inch squares top fabric for inside, outside and pockets
2x 5 inch squares backing fabric (this won't be seen)
2x 5 inch squares batting
1x 4 inch square felt
2x 5x4 inch rectangles of interfacing (optional)
1x length of 2.5 inches by about 40 inches fabric for binding

Step 1 - outside front
Take your 5 inch block/front fabric and make a quilt sandwich with one piece of batting and one 5 inch piece of backing fabric.

(I made wonky star blocks using tutorial by Victoria at The Silly Boo Dilly and scaling down the stars).

Step 2 - outside front ctd

Quilt as desired.

(I tried to do a wonky shadow quilting but I'd offer a warning - less is more -

And I added a little hand stitching, mostly to try to make my white star stand out because I, foolishly, hadn't thought about it disappearing into the background fabric!)

Step 3 - outside back

Make a quilt sandwich using one piece of top fabric (this will be the outside back of your sewing case), one 5 inch piece of batting and one 5 inch piece of backing fabric.

Quilt as desired.

Step 4 - inside

Take your inside fabric pieces. This step requires four 5 inch square pieces of fabric but I used a 10x5 inch piece and made the vertical cut after the next step.

Step 5 - pockets

Take two 5x5 pieces (or one 10x5 piece) of your inside fabric from step 4 (above). Iron a 3.5 inch wide piece of interfacing onto the wrong side of your pocket fabric(s) aligning the interfacing with the bottom edge.

Fold down the top 1.5 inch of your pocket fabric(s) over the interfacing. Press and finish this edge as desired.

Step 6 - pockets ctd

Assemble as in picture below: Place one 5x5 inch square of inside fabric face up. Place pocket face up on top of it aligning bottom edges. Secure with pins.

Step 7 - binding

Make sandwiches of your inside/pocket units from step 6 (above) right side facing downwards and your front and back units (steps 2 and 3 above) facing upwards. Pin and bind as shown below. I used Jenna's Quilt Binding Tutorial which you can find at Sew Happy Geek although I found the doubled binding fabric quite bulky on such a small piece and I will try binding with a single thickness of fabric if I make these again.

Step 8

Lay the back of your sewing case with the inside facing upwards, as shown below, and position your 4x4 square of felt as shown.

Step 9

Lay the front of your sewing case on top of the back + felt (step 8 above) as shown below. Pin and machine sew securely along the unbound edge. Begin and end your stitching line about an eighth of an inch from the top and bottom.

Step 10

Take a strip of your binding fabric and sew on to cover the machine stitching line you sewed in step 9 (above). Now the outside of your sewing case should look like this...

And the inside should look like this...

I made coordinating pincushions using 2 inch squares which you can probably work out how to make from the picture.

If you have any questions, please email me. 

Happy Sewing!

I'm linking this post to TGIFF

Today it's being hosted by Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap and, apparantly there are a record number of links so do go and check them out!

wipping out of control

I've been having a bit of an 'I was going to sew but life happens' kind of week. I started a new quilt with a Flora Jelly Roll...

I've made some progress on this but I don't have more photos at the minute.

Then I realized how close we are getting to the end of the month and, having signed up to various challenges that, for some reason, all have linky parties on the first or last day of each month I started panic sewing in any scraps of spare time! I don't think I've ever had a week of getting so many things started and nothing finished!

It mostly came about through being colour challenged. I discovered about a week ago I had somehow missed M R's Colour my World Challenge at Quilt Matters. January was red and February is purple and I wanted to make something red to catch up. Having thought about 'red' for a few days without any inspiration, I decided to make a plus cushion with some reds I had left over from the Ruby Butterfly quilt.

ruby + cushion

Once I'd got this far I felt I really would have preferred it to be more colourful so I decided this pattern would be perfect for the charm pack that  Katie  sent me when I was lucky enough to win her giveaway at Unconventional Katie  

I love the way these charms look in the + shapes.

Then I realized I hadn't started this month's Colour Palette Challenge, which is using oranges greens and purples so I thought I'd try a dresden as I've never made one before. I used oranges but when I'd sewn it together and put it against any purple or green background it just looked terrible :( What it did seem to go with, however is this - so I sewed it on here instead. I'm thinking maybe a dark turquoise flower centre and binding but I'd appreciate your suggestions.

And now what will I do for the Color Palette Challenge?

Well I don't know because - another fab giveaway win - just as I was wondering about this I received a package containing some wonderful scraps from Hadley at Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle. Hadley's giveaway was part of Lucy's Fugly Fabric Party but these scraps are no way fugly! Thank you Hadley. I love them :) I haven't taken a photo of all the scraps yet but some were purple...

So, I put them together with some Kona Charms and started making another cushion cover. Wonky Stars are another thing I've been meaning to try for ages and I used a wonderful tutorial by Victoria at The Silly Boo Dilly. This is going to be my Purple  Colour my World Challenge.

So I've got a few things started - all of which I hadn't planned to make and I think I may just have to let the Color Palette Challenge go by this month.

Do you ever set out to do something and end up making something else instead?

Here's my WIP report for this week:

No progress:
Unicorn Stars
FMQ QAL 

February Color Palette Challenge

Started:
Pay it Forward gifts
Flora Quilt
Ruby + cushion
Colour + cushion
Purple Wonky Star cushion

Finished:
Nothing - maybe something soon :-(

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 5
Currently in progress - 7

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday and going to see what everyone else has been up to!

Happy Sewing!

Scrap Attack Finish!

I've finished my first scrap quilt! I made this Fugly Scrap quilt for the The Scrap Attack Quilt-Along at Stitched in Colour. It finishes at 42 inches square and apart from a couple of Jelly Roll strips this was made entirely from scraps and this was all that I had left over...

For the binding I used all of a 10 inch long x width of fabric piece of red polka dot fabric, which wasn't really a scrap but I think I bought it as a remnant. This wasn't enough to mitre the corners but I think it turned out ok. But the backing is a new piece of sheeting and the wadding is new. I suppose, technically, that only makes it a half scrap quilt. I'm not in love with this quilt but it certainly turned out better than I expected and I think I may have been bitten by the scrapping bug! Now I just need some more scraps - or maybe a new definition that would let me use bigger pieces of fabric. How do you define a scrap?

I'm linking up with TGIFF 

which is being hosted by Marsha at Marsha's Spot this week. 

Little Things

Do you ever find there are little things that continually annoy you but that you somehow never get around to dealing with?

I don't mean things that are really irritating or things that would take a lot of time, money or energy to deal with - just small things that are irksome and that you could fix in about 10 minutes but that that you never see to get around to?

When I first came back to sewing and started this blog the first thing I made (apart from a few blocks) was this little pin cushion based on Mary's Tiny Cottage Tutorial at Molly Flanders.

At the time I was quite pleased with it but, every time I use it - which is a lot! - I find it really irritating because it ends up like this...

 I don't expect this happens to Mary, but my little house just will not stay upright!

I have been thinking I'll make myself another one since forever but I always end up doing something else instead. Until now. I have finally stopped thinking about it and done it...

This is simply two hexies, left over from Lily's Hex-a-long, stitched together, stuffed with scraps of wadding and decorated with a button. And the best thing is it's flat. It doesn't wobbly about, it can't fall over, it has made sewing a delight!

In the background you can see a sneak peak of something else I've finished this week but I'm going to save that for TGIFF tomorrow.

What have you been thinking about this week?

I'm linking this post to:

Why not come and see what everyone else has been doing and link up and too?

As a special extra incentive this week MRL is hosting a giveaway, together with Kelli from Seriously..I think it needs stitches.

TTT - on being wrong

Well, this isn't directly to do with sewing or quilting - although I'm sure we can all think of times when we've thought we knew how to do something and didn't realize we were making about 50 hsts the wrong size or...well I could make a long list!

But this is a talk on being wrong, which I really recommend.

I was certainly wrong this week when I linked up to Lucy's Fugly Fabric Party! I was convinced no one would want to swap anything with me. I was so certain I almost didn't join in at all. But now now my fuglies are on their way to new homes where they'll be appreciated and I'm getting some fab new fabric in return. I took a chance on being seen to wrong and now everyone's happy. Who would have guessed?


"Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we’re wrong about that? “Wrongologist” Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility"

On being wrong: Kathryn Schulz on TED.com

This talk has given me a lot of food for thought this week so I'm linking this up with Rebecca Lynne for Thursday Think Tank

Fugly Fabric Party!

THIS SWAP IS NOW CLOSED
Please click on this button to go to the fugly fabric party and find other people swapping and giving away fuglies. Thank you for visiting my blog and have fun at the party! 
Janine x

Today is the day of the Fugly Fabric Party, hosted by Lucy at Charm About You. 

I'm offering to swap some fugly fabrics today but I'm sorry to say they are truly fugly :(

On the one hand I'm entering the Fugly Party spirit but on the other hand, if no one wants these I won't be too surprised and I can use them for fmq practice so there's nothing to lose!

If you have fuglies of your own do come and link up. Someone might like them - who knows?

So here are the fabrics:

LOT 1

3 fqs of chicken fabric GONE TO RACHEL

LOT 2

Top fabric - half a yard with approx 10x6 inch rectangle cut out at one corner + 2 fqs.GONE TO JODI

LOT 3

Half a yard with a few small hexagons cut out.  GONE TO PAT

LOT 4

Half a yard. GONE TO ELLA

In the remote chance of anyone wanting any of these, please let me know which lots you'd like and what you would swap for them. I will happily swap for anything except novelty prints or browns.

Ruby Butterfly

ruby butterfly front

ruby butterfly back

Finished!


I'm linking this post to:
Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations
Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
TGIFF, which is being hosted by MR at Quilt Matters thisweek
Why not come and see what everyone else has been making this week!

Everything on one day!

1. maybe it's a modern?, 2. first scrap top, 3. Sasanka: Marked with the Hare, 4. pj block test 1, 5. pj block test 26. Not available

Welcome to a January round up!

It seems that, this year, linky parties are going to be like buses. None for ages then they all come at once!

This is my small Fresh Sewing Day mosaic. I got off to a very late start this month and haven't got too much done. If you've come from Lynne's at Lily's Quilts, welcome! If not, do pay her a visit and see and see what everyone else has been making.

All of these were new projects this month so I'm also linking up with the Cat Patches for the NewFO Challenge 2012. The linky is open for the rest of the week and you can you can link anything you've started this month - it doesn't need to be finished!

The only things I've actually finished are two mini quilts 1 and 3 in the mosaic. The Hare has been my favourite project this month and has a separate post here. I'm counting these two as my January Monthly Makes with the Felt Fairy. I noticed there are over 150 link ups already so that's definitely a great place to visit for inspiration.

Finally, I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday 

So here's my WIP report for this week:

No progress:

Ruby Butterfly
Pay it Forward gifts
FMQ QAL
Fugly Scrap Quilt


Started:

Finished:
Color Palette Challenge

Monthly Make (decided to bind it after all).

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2
New projects - 2
Currently in progress - 2

I hope you've had a good sewing week:)

Now I'm off to link up at:

Fresh Sewing Day 

WIP Wednesday

The Monthly Make

and

The New FO Challenge