A little bit of amy butler!

A little while ago, I had 10 minutes to pop into John Lewis (for the first time ever!!) whilst we were passing through cardiff for a football match. I head straight to the craft/haberdashery/fabric section and proceeded to buy 10cm increments of the new Amy Butler range. I was pushed for time so literally selected the ones which caught my eye!

I wasn't sure what to do with them all, so chose three and cut them into 2 and half inch strips and made this!

And I have also finally mastered mitered binding!!! Woo! So so much easier :-) and it looks better don't you think?

Kellye xxx  

Bags and black magic!

I recently attended a class with the lovely Ineke Berlyn again, it was entitled black magic. Basically using black cotton fabric as a base we used thermofax screens to discharge the colour out, and print colour on!

Then backing it with wadding we free motion quilted with the intention of making a bag out the best bits! I was really pleased with mine so as of yet I haven't cut up any of it, it is just a large piece of work!

 It's not very easy to see the quilting on the front unless you look at closely but you can see it on the back better!

 The back, little quilted birds!

Using a spare piece I also made a little wall hanging for my best friends birthday, it was disharged again, then printed over and quilted.

And Bound! Hope she liked it! 

Lastly a little bag I made using one of keyka lou's wonderful patterns that I had bought. I cannot recommend her patterns enough, they are easy to understand and use. Just great :-)

Ooohh actually lastly (hehe) I printed some fabric one afternoon with mum, this was my favorite piece, using thermofax screens purchased from Ineke on hand dyed fabric that mum and I made on a previous messy afternoon a few years ago!

Enjoy Kellye xxx

Just a quick one..

So I haven't managed to do a great deal of sewing lately. Been so so busy, however I have made the following..

A very quick half an hour ipod case, as I realised I was going on a 3 hour bus journey and didn't want my ipod to just be jostling around in my handbag..

Some strip blocks for a round robin, my last one! I should have photographed all of them in sequence but I forgot unfortunately!

 And finally... All the blocks that form my round robin, everyone has done such lovely pieces I am so pleased! The colours are definitely not my usual choice, but I love them all.

Kellye xxx

A wall hanging :-)

Recently (well sort of, it was last year) We had a talk given by the wonderful Ineke Berlyn about her work, and her use of thermofax screens, and so after said talk, she also had things to buy (bad for me, good for her) so I bought another couple of her screens, I already had one, and another of her books, I already had two, and some paint. I didn't already have the paint haha. I also bought a strip of beautiful hand dyed fabric that was dyed by Ineke herself.

So I used the screens, and the fabric and inspired by Ineke I made this!

I quilted around the houses and windows. Then free-motion quilted the trees, then the moon, the sky and the cobbles and lanes were all free-motion quilted too. I also did a small amount of hand embroidery of some small purple flowers, and added some markal oil stick to give the moon a little sparkle!

Kellye xxx

I've got it covered!

A very quick post, for a very quick bit of something.

I had this pouffe/box/footrest type of thing given to me by a lovely chap (along with a sewing machine and lots of goodies, but I digress) when his wife passed away. He was just going to throw them away, so I responded to his advert in the local shop and picked it all up.

I have had it sitting about being used as a footstool for a good year or more, when I decided that it would be perfect for storage and a extra seat in my campervan, but didn't really match.. so I used some leftover fabric from making curtains and covering the fridge and also some faux leather type stuff and voila!

Before:

After:

It's amazing what you can do in half and hour with a staple gun!

Kellye xxx

Scraps, glorious scraps!

So I treated myself to some new FQ's and some scraps from the fabulous Fabricshoppe, I know they are based in america, but there isn't many places in the uk that supply such modern and fresh fabrics at an affordable price so occasionally I do tend to splurge a little!

Does anyone else enjoy sorting out their scraps into colour ways? I adore sorting out my fabric and matching it together into different combinations. I think if my SO knew how much I enjoyed doing it he would probably have me sectioned! Hehe!

I am hopeless at using scraps, or strips that aren't 2 1\2" or the such like, so one night I got my rotary cutter out and cut strips that weren't equal!! 

I then stitched a pretty easy wonky log cabin block, which I love and am now quite addicted to using scraps and making wonky blocks!

 I think next time I will use a fussy cut piece for the centre, so it has a sort of focal point. It will eventually be a cushion, I like cushions.

My new design wall in my workroom at mums (where I run my business from) I have it half divided for work, half for sewing. I say workroom lightly because actually it is just a converted garage!

Also last summer I bought myself something I have always, always wanted. A VW campervan. She is my pride and joy, and although we didn't stay anywhere in her as she wasn't ready I did use her a fair bit for general driving. At the moment I have my v-dub off the road and Im doing up the interior and getting everything I need for camping. And obviously I need some patchwork cushions, see I told you I like cushions!

I made two wonky star blocks, using some scraps of pinks, and some plain and some special fabric that I bought for my camper! (you will see why)

When I finally get some feather cushions to go in them I will take a better picture of them in my camper, with my newly covered seats ;-)

That's all for now! Kellye xxx

Long time no blog!

Is it too late to say happy new year? I mean it is february after all.. Well anyways happy new year, hope it's a good one!
So I made up a few presents in time for christmas, but actually forgot to take photo's of most of them! Silly me!

Some of the things made included
- A fake fur zebra print pouffe/beanbag for my bestie
- A pin cushion made with a little screenprint and fabric made by Laura and Linda Kemshall for my lovely mumma.
- And two quilts of sorts..... (Pictured below)

Firstly, this was a quilt I made for my SO and his two boys. My SO has a habit of throwing out a t-shirt when he buys a new one, and he always gives them to me to dispose of, so I have been collecting them in preparation to make a t-shirt quilt. I backed the pieces of t-shirt with a lightweight fusible vilene to make them stronger and less stretchy, so I didn't get any movement when quilting.

I had a small remnant of this fighter jet material which I used for the backing. I know its not in the same direction as the patchwork, but my SO and the boys love it all the same.
I also didn't quilt it too much as I didn't want to quilt through all the logo's/motifs and blur them in any way.

I made this simple, neutral coloured quilt for mum for christmas. I used simple four patches with sashing around them. I quilted it on our large quilting frame which was tricky because it is at mums so she had to be banished from the sewing room for the afternoon whilst I did it, as I wanted it to be a semi-surprise!

Oh, and meet Holly our lovely labrador, she gets a fair amount of use of the quilt too, she is 13, a bit fragile and gets a little cold and Dad has a habit of covering her at night with whichever quilt is closest, spoilt pooch hehe!

My new years resolution ( I know, I know its february, bear with me) is to blog more, so here's hoping!

(sorry about the squiffy pictures, they were taken on my new phone)

Kellye xxx