Needlecase with Heart Pincushion

Finally the last of the sewing for the bride to be and best of all it's not in green and orange.

The heart pincushion was something I added myself. The pattern and tutorial for this needle case can be found at Liz's blog here.

It looked too plain in just red so I picked out the white from the heart and did a couple of rows of running stitch around the edge.

I left the inside plain.

I love the little heart.

I was supposed to be visiting my daughter during this past week but I've been ill so couldn't make it. I was pretty bad for 5 days with sickness and diarrhea, the smell of food made me even worse so hubby had to order food from out for him and my son. One good thing came out of it though and that is that I was able to kick the smoking habit. I'm now on my 8th smoke free day. YAYYYY.

As you can imagine I wasn't able to sew for a few days but eventually made a start on a test bag that I'm testing for Katy Cameron over at The Littlest Thistle. Katy was looking for bag testers as a couple have had to drop out. I'm a bit behind on checking blogs so I don't know if she's found the testers she needs but if you're interested you could drop Katy an email. It's a gorgeous bag design and mine was coming along just fine when my new industrial sewing machine packed in on me. I carried on as much as I could with my ordinary sewing machine but reached the part of constructing the outer bag and because I used upholstery fabrics it wouldn't go through so I'm still waiting for the engineer to come and fix my machine.

I had a clutch waiting to be tested also by Gary Fletcher so got to that straight away and finished it yesterday. As soon as Gary's pattern is ready I'll post photos of mine for you to see.

Now I'm feeling better I'll be visiting my daughter in a few days and by the time I come back I'll be making another test bag plus hopefully finishing Katy's.

~ Maria ~

Fit for a Bride, the final show.

It was back in January that I started making this custom order for a bride to be. I've been making other things in between for a break and today I've just about finished everything. Just one last thing to make and that's a needle case.

This is what I've been making since my last post about the chef's hat.

Fabric flowers.

 A couple of fabric trees.

and a set of fabric baskets.

and here is the complete set of everything I'll be handing over to her.

I posted each project as I completed it and added links to the tutorials but to make it easier to find them I've posted them all here again.

Diamond Table Topper

Fabric Flowers and Stems  the stems link is different to the fabric flowers link.

Fabric Bread Baskets the tutorial is for a very small one so I enlarged mine.

Napkins

Square Potholders

Heart Potholders

Round Potholders

Oven Gloves

Chef's Hat

Thanks for baring with me through all this green and orange fabric. I'm really pleased how everything turned out and I sure hope the bride does too.

I'm now off to make the needle case and then I'm off to chase the dust bunnies before I go to visit my daughter for a few days.

~ Maria ~

A Chef's Hat

Gordon Ramsay eat ya heart out!!!!!!
I left this project to near the end as I wasn't looking forward to tackling it. I thought the hat would be all floppy and look a mess but I'm absolutely delighted with the result.
I'm finally coming to the end of this order. Just some flowers to make and a couple of fabric trees.

I tried my best to get my son to model this hat for me but he wasn't having it. He's normally a good sport but when he found out it was going on my blog it was a straight NO!!!!! LOLL.  Stuck for a model I eventually found one. Isn't he the cutest. Beats Gordon Ramsay, at least this one doesn't swear at you. LOLL

Another reason I put off making the hat was because of the gathers, I'm not keen on doing gathers at all.

The back is fastened with velcro. The first tutorial I found had no fastening. I couldn't get in touch with the lady to find out her head size so came across this tutorial. It was very well written and illustrated and of all the tutorials I came across on the web this was the one I liked the most.

Hubby said it could pass as a graduation hat. LOLL

If you'd like to have a go at making one you can find the tutorial here and there are four sizes to choose from.
Oh and just in case you're wondering who Gordon Ramsay is, this is him.

                                                                    image link


~ Maria ~

Metal Skewer Carrier

I was asked to make a skewer carrier and I automatically though of a pencil roll.

When people go out for picnics here they usually make a bbq so that's where the Skewer Carrier comes in.
This one carries 12 skewers in all. Six wide and six narrow but there's enough space to double up.

Much safer than wrapping them in newspaper or a carrier bag where someone could get poked.

The outside is again embellished with fabric flowers to match the rest of the kitchen set.

Once rolled up it's safe and doesn't take much space.

I'm too tired to do any more sewing today so that will be it until tomorrow when I plan on making a chef's hat.
Before I go I'd love to know if any of you have seen or have any ideas for storing skewers. I have followers from all parts of the world so I'm sure there must be other ways to store these kind of skewers.

~ Maria ~

Apron, Potholders & Glove Set

If you follow my blog then this fabric and flowers may look familiar to you. It's part of a set that I'm making for a bride to be. The fabric pan lid steamers were made in the same fabric. I've also finished a fabric skewer carrier that needs flowers sewing on so that will be another post.
The bottom looks crocked in the photo but that's the angle that I took the photo.

The bride requested I embellish it with the same flowers as I used on the other things I've made.

The back of the apron has been lined in the orange fabric so it can be used both sides.

These oven gloves were made using Skip To My Lou's tutorial.

and these pot holders I used the tutorial over at Oh, Fransson.

Now I'm off to make a chef's hat in the same fabrics. I've never made one of these so I'm looking forward to trying it out.

~ Maria ~

Greenbacks Wallet Trio

Sara of Sew Sweetness designed this beautiful wallet and I was delighted to be able to test it out. Even better is that the pattern has three wallets to choose from for different sewing levels. Check out Sara's blog to see her wallet and also all the other wallets made by the other testers.

Wallet #1 features 4 credit card slots on the front, and a back zippered enclosure.

Wallet #2 is the one I chose to make.
Here's mine. One side of the wallet has a pocket secured in place with a snap that will fit many cell phone sizes. The pattern used an ordinary snap but I chose to use a magnetic button.

Inside is a divider space with room for cash, receipts and credit cards.

I've been using this wallet since I made it nearly 2 weeks ago and it's so handy. I can even put my keys onto the wrist band. My friends saw me with it and wanted one also so I now have another two to add to my to do list. I'd also like to make another one for myself and next time choose my fabrics a little more wisely.

Finally Wallet #3 has a zip closure, and bias binding on the outer edges of the wallet. It has an accordion divider on the inside which has a zippered pouch divider, credit card and cash slots on each end.

Sara's pattern was easy to follow with lots of photos and instructions. If you'd like to buy a copy of the Greenbacks Wallet Trio go over to Sara's Pattern Shop and remember you're getting three for the price of one. 

~ Maria ~

Disappearing Four Patch Cot Quilt and Pillow

The night before last we went over to our friends house to see the new baby girl that I have been sewing for. Remember the posts I did on New Beginnings and Babies Cot Bumper, well in between making those I managed to make a cot quilt and pillow as a gift, the Scottie Patchwork Dog which I also made for her was a real hit, she absolutely adored it.

This is the disappearing four patch quilt and pillow

I don't normally wash things after making them but as this was for a baby I threw everything in the washing machine and it came out nice and soft. I love the crinkle effect.

This was my first proper attempt at hand applique. I was in such a rush that I just did it as I though it should be.
 

I don't know if I'm a slow sewer or not but the stitch in the ditch quilting took me 15 hours which I did all in one day. Phew!!!!!!!!! And that didn't include the pillow.

The back of the pillow is an envelope style.

And here are a some photos of the cute baby girl. She's 5 days old here. I've put my watermark on these photos but she certainly isn't my creation. LOLL

Babies grandpa made her crib, cot and wardrobe. Well done grandpa. He also made a changing unit with draws but I didn't get a photo of that.

This little girl has more shoes than I do and she can't even walk yet. LOL

Sorry about the heavy photo post and thanks for stopping by.

~ Maria ~