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 ~

New Pyjamas for Hubby

Woke up this morning and decided that enough was enough. I bought hubby a couple of pj's when I was on holiday three years ago. They were Calvin Klein and cost me an arm and a leg. Hubby loved the quality of the fabric and were a perfect fit but unfortunately they ripped at the knees and I patched them up so many times that it gives a new meaning to patchwork.
I'm always making stuff to sell or give as gifts to friends so felt sorry for him. He bought two pieces of fabric to make pj's for him but just didn't have the time and truth be told I had to make the pattern myself like the ones he already had which I hate doing, so I cheated. Off I went to the tailors with hubbies patchwork pj's and asked if he could draw up the pattern just like them. It took him minutes and now that they're sewn I measured them to see if they were the same size and they're not a millimeter out.

One and a half hours later and here they are. That should keep him going until I get the chance to make another pair for him.

Notice the front is shorter than the back. That's why I didn't want to do the pattern myself. I thought I'd make a mess of it and then have to use the fabric for something else.

~ Maria ~

Scottie the Patchwork Dog

I just couldn't wait to show you my Scottie dog. I'm giving it to my friend as a gift for her baby with the quilt I made for her. I figured she's too busy taking care of her new baby daughter to be looking at my blog to see what I'm up to.

Meet Scottie

Patchwork on both sides. I had so much fun making him I don't want to give him away.
If you'd like to make one for yourself or someone else here is the link to the tutorial.

Now I'd best go check on lunch before hubby comes. Don't want burnt offerings or I'll be in the dog house. LOLL

~ Maria ~

Spring in the Garden

I'm back. You don't hear from me for a while and then I bombard you with posts. After posting my last dresden I took one look out of the window this morning and just had to stop sewing and go out into the garden. These photos were taken at 8.30am. Glorious sunshine and lovely and warm.

These are some of the flowers in the garden. Notice I've taken close ups because I don't want to show you the surrounding weeds. LOLL

In this next photo you may recognize some plants. Top left hand corner is Rosemary. I adore my rosemary bush, below that is a grape vine, center is an Avocado tree which has never given any fruit yet, maybe this year, top right hand corner is a Bay Leaf  which is growing out of the center of the Rosemary bush and lastly is one of my favourites, the orange blossom. We have a few orange trees in the garden and at this time of the year they are full of blossom. The smell in the morning fills the air and even comes into the house. Gorgeous.

I don't know the names of a couple of these so if anyone know what they are I'd be interested to hear from you. The two on the top left is a delicious fruit that isn't ready to eat yet. They swell up a little more and become and orangy yellow in colour. The two bottom left hand photos are my Olive tree which will probably never give me olives as we don't have the right climate and next to that is the Gladioli growing in an old tire.
I've got quite a few tires scattered around the garden with different things growing.
Top right hand corner is cucumbers that have just appeared and a herb next to it which has a beautiful smell and taste but I don't know the name of it. Bottom right hand corner is Mint.

One of the other reasons I was out this morning was to quickly plant some runner bean seeds into four tires filled with beautiful compost that I made from kitchen scraps. I think it's amazing that so much rubbish could turn into compost.

Well that's my dose of fresh air for today. Now back to the sewing.

~ Maria ~

Addicted to Dresdens

Yes another Dresden. I'm addicted to making these. This one came together really quickly because I already had the Dresden plate cut out and stitched together. All that was needed was to sew it onto the backing and stitch away to my hearts content.

I made this one as a gift for my doctors receptionist. She's a wonderful lady so every time I visit I try to make her something.

This one is slightly different to the others I've made in the past. The center is larger and the Dresden blades are larger too.

I didn't stick to quilting cottons, there are three different kinds of fabric in this one.

When I finished it last night you could hardly see the echo stitching and kind of wished I'd done it in another colour to make it show up better but this morning with the natural light coming in it showed up perfectly.

Oh look, some wonky stitching in the bottom right hand corner. That should keep Christine and Samantha happy. LOLLL

This is the back. I love how it turned out.

Off to my next project that I've already started. It's a patchwork Scottie dog. If it turns out ok it's going to look so cute.

~ Maria ~

Another Dresden Plate Topper

Another custom order for a Dresden Plate Topper. I love making these. This was ordered as a gift for teacher appreciation day. I finished it a few days ago but just haven't had the time to blog about it until now.

I'm working on another one this morning in completely different colours that I will be giving as a gift to my doctors receptionist.

~ Maria ~

My Fabric Flowers Featured

A while ago I came across a new blog, Arty and Crafty Little Things. Alicia is the owner of the blog and I was so impressed by the beautiful creations that I started following straight away. Alicia crochet's and has the cutest little crochet coin purses amongst other creations.

 This month she is dedicating her blog to flowers and yesterday she featured my fabric flowers.
 She has also featured some other flowers by other bloggers and I can't wait to see more during the month.
Make sure you pop over and take a look at her blog. This lady shows a lot of promise and I'm really looking forward to her future creations.

~ Maria ~

Babies Cot Bumper

Yessssssssss it's finally finished. This project took me so long. I have a very short attention span so it was tough going on this one. There were so many little ties to sew, 48 in all. Then the binding had to be finished off by hand because I didn't want any machine stitching showing as both sides are visible.

My friends baby finally arrived on the 2nd May in the afternoon. I've only seen a photo of the baby girl taken a few minutes after her birth but now that nearly all the sewing for her is finished I'll be over to visit this week.
My friend chose the fabrics and asked me to make it in four pieces.

I was able to post about these as my friend knows what she's getting but I've made a little present for her that she hasn't seen yet so as soon as I've given that to her I'll let you all see what I've been up to.

~ Maria ~