Hexys, knitting and some WIPs!

Well autumn has well and truly arrived, it is wet and dull and generally a bit ick! And its christmas in less than 7 weeks!!

I haven't had a chance to do a lot lately, mainly catch up with sleeping! There is a quilt on my desk that is 3/4 quilted, which I need to finish and photo, and blog about, but in the mean time here are a few bits I am working on...

Knitting, well attempting to learn to knit, this will, hopefully be a scarf one day..

 Paper pieced hexagons, I always thought this was a long drawn out project, but I find them pretty quick to make, and I really really enjoy making them too!

 I sit on the sofa, with my box of scraps, needle, thread and scissors and away to go!!

 A small flannel quilt in progress for the baby :-) 

 Another quilt in progress for the baby should he be a he! In fact I have a few in progress quilts for the baby, oops!

That is all that I have pictures of for now, also working on some felt and leather brooches which I will show off soon!

Kellye xxx

A few things..

These are few things I have recently finished/are a work in progress... I am attempting to finish my UFO's before starting anything new, however, it's harder than I thought..

Thermofax screenprinted cushion, I printed the fabric a few weeks ago and made this up on my birthday, when I had a day off!

 Wonky close up of the print!

 My discharged and screen printed peice made at a workshop with the lovely Ineke Berlyn, complete and bound. Im not sure what purpose this has now, but I couldn't bear to cut it up to make it into something!

 A close up of some detailed thread sketching/quilting!

And a sneak of what Im working on currently..

A small wallhanging all hand applique. Im just putting off binding it as the binding is soo narrow :-S

A little christmas wallhanging, all hand quilted, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this, again just the binding to finish..bah binding.

 And another small printed peice, with machine and hand stitching. This is bound already but I decided it needs more stitching before it's finished, and perhaps some beads, who knows!

That's all for now, Enjoy, Kellye xxx

I'm back!!! Briefly...

There is a reason why I have been absent for so long... And a reason why I haven't been sewing lately....

IM PREGNANT! My first baby is due 3rd march 2012 :-D I am so incredibly excited!!!

Between feeling sick and being so tired nothing very creative has happened, however I am feeling great now, and things are getting made so keep checking back for new posts!

Kellye xxx

Flowers flowers!

Im quite enjoying taking photo's at the moment, I am only using my blackberry torch mobile phone, but I think it is good enough for me! I do have a camera, but it is big and bulky and I don't want to carry it around everywhere on the off chance I will want to take a picture! These flowers are in my nans garden, and the poppies are down in suffolk, where I will be heading again in a week!

Oh and so there is something fabric related...

These were made from scraps of fabric leftover from doing out my campervan! I had re-uphosltered some of the camper when I was feeling under the weather, these are to hide some imperfections, and look pretty of course!

Thanks kellye xxxx

A lazy me...

The weather lately has been so hot and muggy that I hardly feel like doing anything sewing-y. A hot iron and 26 degrees, no thanks!

However I have made this..

 A book cover! I have this 'problem', I enjoy love buying stationary, particularly sketchbooks, so I decided I ought to prettify them (read-justify having so many) So I covered this one with some hand dyed and screenprinted fabric! Im really pleased :-)

Kellye x

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