Little Red

I've been hacking away at my sewing to do list this week. I fancied a change from quilts so yesterday I started and finished a snazzy Little Red Riding Hood cape! Get me ;) It's a pattern from an Oliver and S book. This is the most complex clothing pattern that I have tried to date. I was slightly disturbed as it was marked as one of the easiest patterns in the book, that just shows what a rookie I am when it comes to clothes. Anyway, I pulled up the big girl panties and got on with it. I traced the pattern pieces onto Freezer paper so I could dispense with some of the pins. I hate pinning patterns to fabric, I always manage to shift the layers, luckily the freezer paper stuck well enough that I could rotary cut around most of them without pins :)  

 I used a lovely red, stiff linen/cotton blend fabric from Ikea for the outer cape...

  and a red cross-hatch print from Summersville for the lining. I'm mightily pleased with the end result.

 The detailing in this pattern is gorgeous. Look at these cute little arm holes.

I didn't really know how to take photos of it to show you how cute it is in use. This is for my 3 year old cousin and we won't be seeing her to get photos so Jess very kindly offered to model it for me :) So funny!! I'm sure you'll love her work!

 See how well it works with the leather jacket and the red skinny jeans ;)

 Jess looks like she's stood in the naughty corner here :)

 Finally, my all time favourite picture of the cape, I have actual tears from this one :) Thanks to Jess for allowing me to post these very silly photos of her for our amusement xx

Normal service shall be resumed soon. Hope you all have a good (bank holiday) weekend. Catch you soon xx

It might be messy!!!

(Coughs nervously)  Hello folks. It's me, Yvonne.  I know. It's been a long time hasn't it?
Too long! There's a 'me' shaped dent in the mattress to prove it. Apparently, they can't fix me so I'm
learning to adapt. It may take a while, but I'll get there. :)

Anyway, more interestingly, at least I hope you think so! I'm trying flying solo here.  In my previous posts, I wrote them in Word and sent it to Correne and she did all the clever bits.  This time it's just me, hopefully. Although, it might get messy and Correne will have to clear up after me. Yikes, the responsibility!!

I was an untidy writer at school, the last in the class to use a nib pen and ink. (No, I'm not quite old enough to have used a quill pen.) How could such a tidy little girl write so badly? I've no idea. I'd start with a lovely, pristine, white page and without any effort I'd blob and scratch and rub and scrawl and smudge before a sentence was completed. I'm a little better now, thanks to biros...

...and keypads.  Although, I'm not very technical and am never convinced that I won't press a button and  it will all end in tears.  Jess is forever sorting me out with my mobile or iPad.  I love the skit that Eddie Izzard did about computers, it totally summed up my relationship with them.  You should 'Google' it and see what I'm talking about, it's hilarious!

Now then, no post is complete without a photo. So that's my next challenge. you'll have to forgive me if I lose you or something. I promise it wasn't intentional and whatever you do, don't blame Correne for letting me loose on you! She'll never let me forget it! In the words of Mackinlay, the latest little addition to our family 'Nag nag nag nag nag'!! :) 

Quilt for Jade and Oliver's Wedding Anniversary

Hopefully you'll see a photo of a quilt I made recently. The first one on the sewing machine for longer than I care to remember. 3 Sisters Simplicity fabrics in a disappearing nine patch block. I loved and wanted these fabrics the minute  saw them. Unfortunately, they were on Correne's shelf and it took me quite some time (years) to persuade her that they should be on my shelf instead! :)  I'm not easily parted from my fabric!

Hmmm, *puzzled face*. I seem to have put the photo on the page but can't write anything after it!!
I'm off then to phone Correne and see what happens next. :)) Well done Mum, I've moved the picture for you, better luck next time ;) 

Thank you so much for dropping by and 'listening' to me.

Happy sewing folks. Take care of yourselves. Yvonne. Xxx

Blogger's quilt festival - Heather Ross baby quilt

I've got another entry for Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. This time it's in the Baby quilt category. If you're a new visitor to the blog you can find the back story for my Heather Ross baby quilt here. If you like what you see we'd love you to come back soon :) If you're a regular reader it's not been too long since I started this little quilt for our new nephew so I'm sure you'll be impressed that I got it done so quickly! 

I didn't have a firm plan in mind for this quilt other than wanting it to be a kind of eye-spy quilt but if I did have a plan it would have looked exactly as it does ;) Our nephew's parents don't own a tv and they are a very musical family so I'm sure they will find plenty of things to sing about when this quilt is in use.

Starting point for the quilt

These prints by Heather Ross are perfect for fussy cutting! I framed a few little pieces with solids but really the prints sing all on their own.

When it came to quilting I didn't want anything too fussy so I just did some organic(otherwise known as wonky) straight lines in a neutral Aurifil thread. I used this chirpy print from Ikea for the back. It's a home decor weight fabric that will stand up to outdoor picnics much more readily than the quilting cotton.

This juicy orange pezzy print from American Jane made the perfect choice for binding.

So there we have it, one very cute (even if I say so myself) baby quilt measuring approximately 43"x 45".  I'm really hoping the recipients will love it as much as I do! Thanks for taking a look, don't forget to check out all the other quilts in the baby quilt category. Catch you soon x

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Larking Around

I'm joining in with Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival after a friendly poke from Susan. If you're visiting our blog from the Festival for the first time then I hope you'll find something you like here enough to stop by again :) If you're a regular visitor you will already have seen some of the progress of the quilt I'm entering in the Throw Quilt Category. I'll quickly recap for you. I started this quilt in November 2011 but only finished it yesterday (hangs head in shame). I was so excited when I got the full fat quarter set of Lark by Amy Butler that I started cutting into it pretty much straight away. I had a thing for equilateral triangles at the time so it was a no-brainer that I would use them in this quilt which I named Larking Around.

For one reason or another I shelved it, after only constructing 2 rows of triangles, until July 2012 when I added 4 more rows of triangles. Then life got busy and it made it's way back into my rather large WIP box. Finally, last weekend I rescued it from the box and got the top finished and basted to the backing! When Susan told me that Blogger's Quilt Festival started today I cussed quite a bit (nothing new!) but was determined to get it finished so I could join in. So now for the details. I used Kona black solid for the background fabric and strips cut from fat quarters of Lark for the triangles and the border, then backed with one of the black and white prints from Lark. I pieced and machine quilted an echo around the central hexagon panel and the strippy border with Aurifil. 

I hand quilted the diamond shapes in between the hexagons with a vivid yellow perle cotton that doesn't show up very well in photos but looks gorgeous against the black in real life. 

I bound with a nice black and white print from Cocoon.

And that's it, after almost 2 years of procrastinating, a finished lap/throw quilt.

I love it! I hope you've enjoyed looking at it too :) 

The finished quilt is approx. 43" by 49" so the perfect size for keeping my legs warm while sewing in front of the telly. Right there I sound about 80 and I'm really not ;) Don't forget to check out all the other lovely quilts! Thanks for stopping by, catch you soon x

Baby boy quilt in progress

There's a new member of the Witchard clan thanks to hubby's middle brother and his wife so I've been playing with these rather scrummy Heather Ross prints. 

 As usual I had no set plan for the quilt so I've been cutting, sewing and hoping for the best :) I started with these wonky stars.

 Then I couldn't resist using this little bit of selvedge...

 and the guitar print is perfect for our musical relatives :)

I'm doing my usual trick of throwing in some co-ordinating solids and making it up as I go along. I'm pleased with how it's looking so far :)

I'm hoping to finish this off tomorrow. There might also be another finish to show you...Catch you soon x

Busy, busy, busy

The silence here on the blog belies the amount of activity that has been going on in the sewing room. I thought it was about time I pulled my finger out and showed you some of the things I've been working on. It would be really rude of me not to introduce you to Jinny the Janome first though ;) She's a real beauty!

There are a gazillion stitches and new fangled presser feet to get my head around but it will be a lot of fun experimenting. I suspect I wont actually use her to the full extent of her capacity but I'm likely to have a more consistent seam allowance and much less cussing when quilting ;)

I've already tested that theory on my Larking Around quilt. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I started this quilt in 2011!! It's well on the way to being finished now though :)

I did some very light machine quilting using Jinny and had to take a shot of all that extra space to the right of the needle just to show off ;) I've started hand quilting in perle thread and hope to have a finished quilt to show you by the end of the week.

 I've joined yet another bee over on flickr. Each month we will make 4 Japanese x and + blocks from our stash to be sent out in pairs to 2 other bee members.

 I'm hoping this month's queen bees will be happy with my choices!

I've done this month's block for the Simply Solids Bee too. This one was also from stash. There's lots of Oakshotts in this so I'm hoping the May queen will love it!

I just need to find time to do a block for Sarah in the HipBees and then my bee commitments are behind me for the month. If you could see the length of my sewing to-do list you'd be sweating just as much as me! Lots of deadlines approaching, it would be so lovely not to need as much sleep as I do to function. Speaking of which, it is M.E awareness week again. Our lovely Jess has written another fabulous post to mark the occasion this year, please do pop by and read it if you haven't already. Catch you soon xx