Another Two

Last day of March and I managed to finish these two wallets for the lady that bought the last three HERE. No she's not a wallet fanatic LOLL she gives them as gifts to family and friends.

I have yet another two cut out on my table. One is from some left over fabric from my paisley blouse. It's satin so I don't know how it will sew up into a wallet. If I make a mess of it I'll still show you.

~ Maria ~

I Have My Very Own Personal Designer

Not many people can claim to have their own personal fabric designer but I'm thrilled to be able to say I'm one of the luck few.
Some of you will know that my daughter was studying Fashion and Textile Design at uni, well she finished a couple of months ago and graduated with excellent marks in fact she got full  marks for her designs. I'm so proud of her and now she'll be able to design fabric for me YAYYY. I'll be her number one customer. Everything she designs I like and want to own LOLL

Here are just a couple of designs she brought home for me. They were just sample squares that I put a border on to make them measure 50cm x 50cm and then quilted them.
These would make nice table toppers or even wall hangings. I've already found her a couple of customers for her designs. One wants fabric to make into clothes and the other wants a runner. I want a runner and a topper.

I love the colours.  The design has been printed on a thick satin.

This is the back which is the same for both designs.
 

This is the second design.

I can't wait for her to print out my fabric so I can make myself a runner and topper. It's great knowing that no one else will have that design anywhere. Something unique to me.

~ Maria ~

Wallets Again

I won't bore you with loads of pictures of these three wallets I made because I've already shown you loads in the past. A customer asked me to make a couple for her. I made three so she could choose which ones she wanted and she ended up taking the three of them plus ordering another two.

If you want to know what the inside of these wallets looks like then go HERE.

~ Maria ~

Satin Paisley Blouse

So much for taking a break from sewing. Since giving up smoking on 1st Jan I've put on so much weight that when I had to go out one evening I didn't have a thing to wear. Luckily my black trousers still fit but I needed a top. I knwe what I wanted but after searching for three days and not being able to find either the style I wanted or the size I decided the only solution was to make one.

I started it the day before the evening I needed it. I avoid making clothes like the plague becasue it's something I really don't like doing but I must admit I was happy with how it turned out and it cost me a third of a ready made one.

I'm a bit of a plain Jane and wouldn't normally go for a print and definitely not a satin but I couldn't resist this one.

This is the other fabric I chose which I liked better but it didn't match the trousers so this will be for another time. This one has silk in it and feels beautiful on the skin.

This would also make a beautiful evening bag LOLL.

At the moment I have a couple of wallets on my cutting table that I hope to finish in the next couple of days.



~ Maria ~

Pattern Give~Away

My friend Karen from 'laugh yourself into Stitches' is a very talented longarm quilter and pattern designer.

Here is one of Karen's beautiful designs 'Lattice Stars'. Isn't it just gorgeous and although it's perfect in these colours I can also visualize it in many other colour combinations too.

 

Karen is having a giveaway over on her blog for the pattern so make sure you drop by for your chance to win. The giveaway ends Sunday March 30th, midnight PST. While you're over there also check out all the great tutorials that Karen has on her blog along the right hand side bar and also check out her Craftsy Store where you will also find some free patterns.

Best of luck to you.

~ Maria ~

Look What I Won!!!!

Just recently I've been entering giveaways but never really expected to win, I've never won anything in my life, so when I got an email from Jane saying I'd won her giveaway I thought it was spam LOLLL. I quickly went over to check her blog, projectsbyjane, and there it was I'd won. You have no idea how happy I was, anyone who had seen me would have thought I'd won the lottery.

Be sure to pop over to Jane's blog HERE and also checkout the tutorials HERE, there's a great variety and if you'd like to make a reversible pouch like mine you can buy the pattern HERE amongst other lovely patterns by Jane.

Here's mine, isn't it just the cutest pouch you've seen. It came all the way from Singapore and took just over a month to get to me. Jane and myself thought it had gone traveling for good.

This is the other side of it.

I love the lining fabric.

And it's reversible.

Just look at the cute hand stitching. Not only is it a cute pouch but it's so well made.

This is the bottom which is the same inside and out.

Jane also slipped in a little brooch as a surprise. Look at the hand stitching on this. Gorgeous.

Thank you so much Jane for my lovely prize. At the moment I have it on my shelf in my sewing room where I can see it every day. I'm frightened to use it in case I get it dirty.

~ Maria ~

Time For A Break

This is the last of the orders I have. All necessary sewing is done so now I can concentrate on Spring cleaning. My daughter will be coming in a couple of days so I don't expect to get any sewing done. I'll use this time to take a break so I can start back up again soon. I doubt whether I'll be able to stay away for long.

I still have the Jan and Feb bag of the month to make. If I could get those done in March it would be great. I've still got some sew alongs to catch up on too so a busy time ahead but for now it's time to take a rest.

These three chair seat cushions are for a customer, can't think why they ordered just three, seems a bit of an odd number. Love the colour though. Hey Liz.... don't you just love these LOLLL

I really don't like making all these ties.

I have another two sets of four to make but there's no rush for those.

Although I'm not planning on sewing for a few days at least I do have a couple of posts I'd like to share with you so keep an eye out for those. One involves some restoration.

Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~

Something For Me

I spend so much time making things to sell or give to people that I never have the time to make anything for myself. The topper I have on my coffee table was one of the very first attempts I did at making a patchwork topper. So this one is for me.

It measures approximately 54" x 54"
Some of the cotton fabrics were very floppy and flimsy so I ironed on interfacing to make them easier to work with.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out and love the cool colours.

When I get some more time I'd like to make some matching coasters and also a runner for my dining table to match this one. At the moment it's in the shop where I sell my runners. My friend who runs the shop asked if I'd leave it there for a while. I told her only on the condition that she didn't sell it no matter what the price was. I'm too tired to make another one right now.
The following day someone wanted to buy it but she told them it wasn't for sale.

I'm going to be bringing it home in a couple of days time. Maybe then I'll make the coasters.

~ Maria ~

Crazy Windows Table Topper & Runner

Finally I finished this custom order last Monday I think it was. The lady came round and we chose fabrics jointly but some of them I was short of so she told me to add what I thought. She hasn't seen the brown dividing strips so I'm not sure what she'll make of it. Hope she likes it.

The lighting has been really bad for taking photos so I took them to the furniture shop where I sell some of my runners.

This runner measures 50.5" x 27.5" (128cm x 70cm).

This is the back.

The table topper measures 31" x 19.5" (79cm x 49.5cm) and each of the square blocks on both the runner and topper measure 5" x 5".

I kept a note of the times I actually sat down to sew these two and over the course of about 8 days when I added up all the hours it came to approximately 24 hours. It felt like more than that.

I make my runners and toppers slightly different to the conventional way of making them which I'll show you in another post as this one is already a bit photo heavy.

~ Maria ~

Crochet Dishcloths

For ages now I've been seeing beautiful dishcloths on the internet but to be honest with you was a bit revolted at the thought of washing dishes with them. Then while in town a few days ago came across a lady selling some in beautiful wool that looked like grass but in different colours. I bought one to test out and was hooked. These dishcloths are really good!!!! So I decided to go and buy some of the same wool in the colour that I wanted and here they are.

It's very rare you'll find me sitting doing nothing, even watching the tv I have to be doing something else so this was the perfect project. I was so surprised at how quick they came together.

 I love this colour green. Don't you think it looks just like grass?

I washed some dishes with the purple one today and it was perfect but the green ones wash better.
They lather up more.

 I already had the flowers made. You can find the tutorial for them HERE.



I'm going to be making loads more of these once I get some free time. They had some beautiful colours in the shop. The wool I used for the grassy ones is 100% Polyester. I'm not sure what the purple one is as I already had it at home and had thrown away the label.

For the round one I used the tutorial HERE. Where with bag patterns I follow them and rarely change them, crochet is a different matter. I don't use the wool suggested or the crochet hook size so when I made mine I only needed to make 5 or 6 rounds and the beauty of this green grass wool is that all mistakes are well disguised. For the purple one I used this tutorial HERE, again I didn't use the hook or wool suggested but just by chance it came out the size I wanted using the tutorial exactly as it was written except I did two rounds around the four edges instead of once.

Ok, back to sewing again.

~ Maria ~