two quilts and a moral

The first of these two quilts, the log cabin, was a top that I had started to piece over twenty years ago, Some of the scraps came from a friend who was then working at a couture house in London, (the queens dressmaker!) and some were just bits and pieces that have been added over the years. In the end I started to really dislike the top, the fabrics were just too scrappy, there was no over all theme, it wasn't well made. But as a result of a craftster challenge I decided to get it finished...Now that it is finished, I don't hate it, but would never part with it as it represents a huge chunk of my life, marriage, divorce, daughter, living in 3 countries, countless house moves etc etc...

the next quilt was much more recent and has a moral. it started life as a coin stack quilt and was intended for a colleauge that had a baby boy, but I realised that they wouldn't really appreciate it and so bought them something instead. So I added to the top intending to make it into a full size one, Not huge, just enough to sit on the top of a double bed...Which I did, but at that stage I was seeing a guy...who loved it, so I gave it to him as part of his christmas present....we broke up about a month later...

the moral is, never give quilts to new boyfriends!...it can be such a waste... lol

oh and I made a bag for my craft partner too.

she likes bright colours and creepy stuff...I am not sure I like this, but i think she will

and I made her a pair of earrings too..yes I over crafted again.

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.

raggy quilt

I have been promising my daughter a quilt for ages. This quilt became therapy for me when I got dumped by my love. The recovery from the dumping segued into recovery from flu, so a speedy piece of craft therapy took weeks and weeks! but it is now finally finished. The fabrics used in the quilt date over about 10 years and were bought in south africa, australia, ireland and sent to me from the US, so it is a truly international quilt.
This method is very simple, you cut squares of backing and top (plus interlining, I used an old wollen blanket) all of the seams are sewn with wrong sides of the fabric together, and the excess folded to the front. Once the whole quilt has been sewn together seam allowances are clipped to give a raggy finish.

This quilt is made of (mostly) polar fleece fabric and so its toasty warm and very very cosy. This was a stash busting quilt and so I have tried to balance out the colours as best I could, given the ones that I have. I think it worked ok. She loves it!

travel bag

I needed a bag for overnight trips, I had a small remnant of this fabric, I adore fabric generally and pounce like a demon on anything that is unusual, I also enjoy the technical challenge of making the most out of a small piece.



This bag is fully lined, piped seams, zipper on top and a sturdy webbing handle, from webbing from the always fantastic Frankles trimmings in the east end of London.





I made the beaded tassle to add interest.

sock monkeys

I adore sock monkeys as does my daughter, so I had to have a go at making some, these are the boys, one of them is already on the way to the US (charlie), one is hanging around on the ceiling (harry) the other two are currently waiting on new hairdos and will be in my daughters stocking for christmas.

halloween swap

I have been mostly focusing on craft swaps for the last few months, its currently keeping me sane during building work! These are some of the items that I have sent for a 13 days of halloween swap recently, I find my partners through the wonderful wonderful http://www.craftster.org/
For this swap I sent painted and printed t-shirts, embroidered hats, purses, bags and lots of appliqued items. And of course tons of jewellery. I love the imagry of skulls and the whole iconography of dios de los muertos

Medieval re-enactment, my other obsession

I have been a member of the society for medieval re-enactment (SCA) for quite a few years now. I have to confess to knowing bugger all about history but I do love sewing, I particularly love making lots of elaborate garb. I made this tabard for a friend of mine, its mostly made in velvet with the images appliqued on. It took more time than I care to remember but it looks fab on him!

cheats wristlets

A swap partner wanted a pair of knitted wristlets, but since the nuns at school, beat all the love of knitting out of me, I wasnt game to pick up a pair of pointy objects again, so I cheated, an old cable knit sweater was chopped up. stitched to stabilise the knitting and voila!

sewing

I have also been working a lot with fabric lately, lots of swaps, lots of bags, lots of sewing.

here are some of the random bags that I have made for swaps for other people in the last few months.

This bag was made from vintage fabric and has a winged heart on the front.

I went a little mad on the embellishment of this one, the dragon fly is hand embroidered and beaded onto an iridescent fabric, to try and capture the beauty of the wings of dragonflies,

The back of the bag has two smaller dragonflies, also embroidered and beaded in the same way, the fabric is also vintage.

recent random craft projects, cushion covers, needle roll, etc

More recent projects, all of these were made for craft swaps, I really enjoy the process of craft swapping as it sets limits on what can be done, defines a theme and sets a time limit, which gets me off my ass and working! Has to be a good thing. This is a crochet needle roll and craft apron for a swap (I really should start making stuff to keep!)
And some cushion covers, the recipient of these had a thing for crows and also wanted some little stone from Ireland, the crow cover is obvious, I really wanted crow feathers for the top cover, but I couldnt find any, went wandering about old churches and tall trees looking for a rookery but no joy, all the crows were hanging on tightly to their feathers. For the last pillow case, I sewed in some little stones and shells into pockets created by the gauze ribbon (not very comfortable admittedly! but its her favourite)