HippyDeep: February 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Gnome-y teeshirt

This is painted for a friend, for a personal craft swap. Its on the back and was just freehanded onto the fabric..and of course it got a spray of glitter once it was done!

Baby quilt..about 45'' square...for a friend's baby, who's arrival is imminent

My friend has about a week to go in her pregnancy, she doesn't yet know the gender of the child and I wanted to make a quilt as a gift for the new baby.

I am a member of the yahoo group stashbusters and got a great gift of fabric from a wonderful new friend in the US..it had 5'' charm squares in the package so they were perfect for this...precut is wonderful!

getting the colour balance right for this quilt was a PITA...I had the cute ducks for the centre, added the next section and then the random charm square border..these started as squares, but I simply couldn't match up anything from my stash to go as the next piece..I really needed a dark yellow or green. I finally solved it by cutting down those pieces significantly, as they were totally dominating the quilt at this point

..once they were cut down, the played with the rest of the quilt a lot better...and so a pale striped fabric worked for the next section... Then the dark squares at the corners and a blue border to pull it together..

I am not 100% happy with it..the colour balance is a long way from perfect... but I learned a lot from getting the colours sorted on this one. I Learned how useful it is to look at the layout and the fabrics on a camera phone..both in colour and black and white..it really helped me to 'read' the fabrics..

I also experimented with some free motion quilting. Much easier on a small quilt like this. And some quilt in the ditch to emphasise the different areas.

the back is a really nice print from IKEA, I like the childish nature of the print.

Faux log cabin quilt, for a friends birthday

I like this pattern, its not made in the usual log cabin way, but ends up looking like it. This is done in a barn raising arrangement....its from this pattern

http://www.angelfire.com/va3/jclane/FauxLogCabin/FauxLogCabin.html

This was made using all fabrics from my stash..I wanted a big bold all prints and no blenders type quilt and I actually really like how it turned out..

This is it folded up in my little reading nook, but it is destined for my BFF for her birthday. its a large lap quilt size, mostly quilted in the ditch as my little machine doesn't like large quilts!

I even used up a couple of the left over blocks for the back.

earrings, just a little pair for a swap

In some fit of madness I bought a load of these pandora clone beads on ebay..OK they were very cheap..and since I don't have, or particularly want, a pandora bracelet, I have been wondering what to do with them..the solution

earrings

they are sitting on a pin cushion made from a piece of crosstitch fabric that I found in a little warren of an antique shop in bosnia..It had my inital on it, so I couldn't leave it behind.

A wrap and cloth for my tarot cards

I do a lot of crafting for other people, but I wanted to make something small for myself. I made this sorta pouch for my tarot deck. The outside is red velvet and it is lined with green..colours that represent love. There is a pocket on the inside to take the cards and a pocket beside that will take candles/incense if I need them. The whole thing unfolds to make a cloth that I can set down to look at the cards...

and of course like all of the best things, it is tied up with red ribbon. I am still experimenting with free motion embroidery on my machine..not good at it yet..but I added this little heart.