Pretty little mermaid

Last year this pretty little mermaid cross stitch kit was a free gift with a magazine. It was a fun little project to stitch in the car. I then left it unfinished til today. I added some pink felt on the reverse and used DMC threads (E316 & 48) to stitch around the outside of the mermaid. I then trimmed both fabric layers to the same size. 

This is one of my finish-a-long projects and I’m so happy I finished it. It looks so cute, especially in its gifting card, that was supplied in the kit.

To see my other finish-a-long projects click here!

Mx

bambi in meadowland

 I made a bambi quilt last year as a christening gift and had some fabric left over. Since the little girl was turning one this month, I thought I’d make a cushion to match. I couldn’t decide what patchwork design to make, but after a bit of thought, I decided the meadowland was a great choice.  Although the blocks are normally done a bit more scrappy or random, I thought the simple colour palette would work and the bambi images were perfectly sized for the blocks too. 

 

I made up the block and backed with fusible batting. I quilted with diagonal lines to follow the block and blend with the original quilt. I found a cushion pad the perfect size to fit the block, but it would work well to add a border if you had a larger cushion. I simply made the back with a zip inserted into the white bambi fabric cut to size. For a nicer finish, I made binding from the pink print to edge the cushion. Binding takes extra time to hand stitch around, but I think it is worthwhile.   

If you like this pattern, you can purchase from then came june and join the sew along on instagram with #meadowlandqal . I'll be joining the fun making myself a quilt, so you can follow my progress with it over on instagram.

Mx

My first blocks

 These were the first patchwork blocks I ever made and am so happy to see them finally made into something. I went to a patchwork class at a local shop, where every class you made a new block with the goal of having a sampler quilt at the end. I let my sister choose the fabrics with the intention of her having the quilt as a gift. Sadly though, the shop closed when we only had 7 blocks made. We didn’t have enough blocks to make a quilt and I wasn’t too thrilled with the designs to just make repeats. Without much experience the blocks just got shoved in a cupboard while I did other projects, until a few months ago. My plan was to make them into cushions for Christmas, however, I had lots of other gifts to make and these got pushed to the bottom of the list with the promise that I’d do them as soon as I had time.

She had a couple of large cushions that had covers which really didn’t match the décor. We had a discussion and I came up with this solution. I used 2 full blocks and split the 3rd in half, once joined together they made just the right sized cushion fronts. I added some batting to the back of the patchwork and did some straight line quilting about an inch apart. I backed the cushions with some plain grey fabric that I got from IKEA and did an envelope back to make them super simple. The blocks worked out to be enough to do both large cushions, one in each colour way.

Since I had one block left over, I made one more smaller cushion. The block was slightly too small for the cushion she had, so I simply added a border to the block. I used some of the blue fabric I had left over to tie the cushions together a little more. I also finished this cushion with an envelope back in the same grey fabric.

These cushions were simple to make and I’m so happy with them. It’s a shame they weren’t finished earlier, however, they probably wouldn’t have been made the same or turned out as nice. They are quite a quirky design but fit both my sisters personality and room perfectly.

Mx

Micky quilt

Since I made a quilt for Annie’s christening (read about this quilt here) I thought it was only right that I made a quilt for another friends baby who was born at similar time. I knew he wasn’t going to have a christening, so his first birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

For Finlay’s quilt, I wanted fabric that would also be quite timeless so he wouldn’t grow out of it too fast. I was lucky to find this Micky material on sale at a local shop and it seemed like fate... After all what is more timeless than Disney's Micky mouse!

As I had left it a little late to start, I chose to do a simple square patchwork design. I did however choose to combine 3 of the fabrics, using the layout to make a pattern. I think this makes quite a striking design and am very pleased I decided to make it this way. I was quite surprised how quickly it came together, made easier by a lot of chain piecing. My mum was also very helpful and did quite a lot of pressing the seams for me.

 

I chose the grey fabric for the backing since it was darker than the other prints but included all of the colours. I also made the quilt to the width of the fabric to save me piecing the back. I chose to do simple straight line quilting, going diagonally across the squares. I only quilted every other square too to give the quilt a softer feel. I used the red print as the binding to frame both the front and back nicely.
 

 

 

The measurements I used to make this quilt are below if you would like to make your own:

 

finished quilt size is 40.5" x 58.5"

 

fabric A (white) cut 35 @  5"x5"

fabric B (blue) cut 58 @  5"x5"

fabrc C (red) cut 24 @ 5"x5" plus 2.5" strips for binding

 

I cut the binding strips first, taking advantage of using the full length of the fabric. Then cut the squares from the remaining fabric. I cut and joined at least 230" of binding just to be safe.
I used 1/4" seam allowances throughout my quilt.

 

 

It was a very dull and windy January day so the pictures aren’t great, but the quilt was happily received and that’s the thing that matters the most.

 

This quilt was a project for my Q1 finish-a-long, you can read more about this here!

 

Mx

Epp on the go

 

 As part of the #100hexies100days Instagram challenge hosted by @sewfoxymama, I was encouraged to baste 100 hexies. I chose to do all cotton and steel fabrics, although it was hard to find fabric to fit the weekly themes I just managed to do it. I was so pleased I completed all 100 days and on time! I was determined to make them into a project for me to keep and use. I originally thought of a bag but decided on this 2 in 1 pouch designed by aneela hoey. I actually had too many to just make this one pouch so I chose which hexies I wanted and gave the other half to my sister, for her to make a pouch too.

 

 

I decided on this layout and set to hand stitching them all together. Once stitched, I added batting to the reverse and did some straight line quilting going diagonally through the hexies. I chose my favourite girl with balloons fabric and used a medium/heavy interfacing on the reverse to line. Sparkle vinyl was an obvious choice for my pouch. I found a couple of bits from my scrap bag for the fastening tab and decided on a bright pink kam snap. I picked pink zips and the wonderful teal sprinkles fabric from cotton and steels basic range as my binding.

 

 

I must admit that I didn’t follow the book instructions completely. After making this pouch as part of the sewalong last year, I had a few little adjustments that made things a bit easier this time.

I am so happy with this pouch, all of my fabric choices and the cute fussy cut hexies makes it perfect. It is also super handy and has been used to hold my supplies for my ice cream soda EPP quilt I’m making. I will be doing most of the sewing on the go so it’s great to be able to pick this up in a rush and know I have everything ready to see, well apart from my glasses!

Mx

GU cheesecake pincushion

I have made a few of these pin cushions now and personally I love them. They recycle a gu cheesecake jar (old style with straight sides), they are a really nice size and because it's also a little heavy, it can double as a pattern weight.

I choose to trim mine with some lace and thin ribbon, but you could use whatever you prefer. I think pom Pom trim would be so fun!

To make your own, you will need:

the pattern and instructions sheet

fabric

thread and needle

hot glue gun

trims

I sew mine on my machine, but you could use a small back stitch to hand sew yours.

 

If you share your pincushion online please make reference to this blog and if you use Instagram, don’t forget to share your pincushions with the #craftylilmousepatterns

Happy stitching 

Mx

2019 finish-a-long Q1

It’s a new year and a new quarter of the finish-a-long. I was so pleased to find this planner on studios sew of course blog... it makes it so much easier to plan and see what stage my projects are at. I didn’t however put them in any reasonable order, so we will see how it goes and possibly make an edited list next quarter. 
 

 

There is simply too many projects to list, you’d fall asleep before you got to the end, instead I have picked out my top 16 (8 shown above): 

• Finish the pouch made from my 100 hexies 
• A patchwork for my nana’s 80th birthday 
• The unicorn pouch I didn’t finish last quarter 
• Bambi gifts
• Mermaid cross stitch 
• Micky quilt 
• 2 Easter projects 
• Continue making my advent calendar
• Pin badge banners
• The blocks for abbie
• Car acsessiories
• Birthday stitchers swap project 1
• send a little love swap

Plus I’d love to make a start on my ice cream soda Epp, postage stamp quilt and my liberty quilt.
 

I know this list is unrealistic but you can dream and aim high, if all else fails there is always next quarter!

 If you fancy joining in too, click link here to the blog and find a host, alternatively, go check out their account and hashtag over on Instagram.

Best get sewing!!
Mx