More Knitting...this time a strawberry tea cosy

 Strawberry Tea Cosy

I've always loved the tea cosy. I've just never had one. So after a Google search of free tea cosy patterns I came across this one which is a strawberry. I just loved it, and got busy knitting away like mad!

Okay, so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve also caught the knitting bug. It’s just too hard not to fall in love with knitting. Spending nights relaxing on the lounge after a crazy day while watching various seasons of a favourite TV series and still creating something is addictive.

This free strawberry tea cosy pattern comes from Katya Frankel. The pattern was excellent, as I’ve never knitted anything in the round before and had no trouble completing this project.

First I knitted the first side of the berry, in a red which I used 100% Australian wool from a ball that was 50 grams, with size 4 knitting needles. For the seeds of the berry, I used a beige acrylic wool 25 gram ball that I already had about the house.

For the stalk I used a small amount of 100 gram acrylic green wool. (This was as I couldn’t find the colour of green that I wanted in pure wool).

                                                                                                                                     

Once I had completed both sides of the berry, the fun really began with my first attempt at knitting in the round. I was nervous about how it would turn out, however I’m very happy with the result. I used size 4 Bamboo double ended knitting needles to complete the ‘in the round’ process of the project.

 

Apparently Bamboo knitting needles are better for working the wool. I just like the fact that they are made from a renewable resource and are not wildly expensive.

I searched around at my favourite crafty supply store for a packet of 4 double ended knitting needles and ended up getting a set of 5. (So I can only deduct that the 5^th is to use as the working needle).

 

 

 

I ended up making the stalk a little longer that what was stated in the pattern, as I thought that it would look better. If I made the same tea cosy again I’d be more careful with the seed stitches, as in some sections I think that I may have made them too tight.

While knitting for a couple of hours a day I was able to complete the tea cosy in just over a week. The tea cosy is the perfect size for my 4-6 cup teapot. I highly recommend Katya Frankel               knitting patterns. Hmm... I think that I’ll make another tea cosy for when this one is in the wash!

Baby batik quilt as you go...

Baby batik quilt as you go...

Is it a boy? Or is it a girl? A simple enough question one would have thought in this day and age. But, believe it or not, there are still parents who don’t want to shout this tidbit of information out to the world. Well not until the moment bub is here and everyone can see for themselves.  And rightly so! A little mystery never hurt anyone, and half of the fun is in the guessing!

Bets have been made, and though we’ve all been trying our hardest, the parents still won’t even let a clue slip.

 

Mum to be has come up with a clever idea while we all place our bets and take our guesses. Why not make a quilt that could go either way? After all, there is a 50/50 chance. So I’ve designed a quilt that’s half suited for a boy, or half suited for a girl. How clever of the mum to be to keep us all guessing!

I’ve designed this quilt with bright batik fabrics. One side is strips of pinks framed in a yellow floral batik. The other side is strips of blue batiks. The quilt is then bound in a delightful green batik fabric. Before starting this project I washed all of the batik fabrics used.

 

First I pieced together the pink side. I sewed the 20cm strips of pink batiks together and then decided that I needed to frame them to make that quilt side measure up. So I used the yellow floral batik to make a boarder around the pink strips.

 

I then basted this pink quilt top to the cotton batting (which I purchased from Lindcraft and was originally 50x60 inches). Then after trimming the excess batting from the basted top I used the quilt as you go method of both quilting the quilt and sewing the blue strip side simultaneously.

 

The pink striped side goes one direction, while the blue side goes another. This is so that there isn’t too much resistance when trying to ‘quilt as you go’. As I’d never used the ‘quilt as you go’ method before, I watched a few tutorials on YouTube before attempting this. The one that I found to be the most helpful was from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. How did we ever get by before we could YouTube or Google things that we didn’t know?

As an extra bit of security, and also as this is a quilt intended for a baby and likely to get washed more, I decided to also quilt through half of the blue strip.

 

As always when a project is a gift that needs to be finished by a deadline, almost everything that can go awry will…

At one stage of the quilting my thread kept breaking even after checking my sewing machine manual. After using some very colourful language and fighting the urge to run over the sewing machine with my car, I checked a few online noticeboards to see what others had done in the same situation and hoped that my machine wouldn’t need a service (well not until I’d completed  this project). As per my research I changed the needle and re threaded again (even though I’d done so recently, I discovered that sewing with batiks needed a larger sized needle) I  hoped that it would work and stop the constant thread breakage, and it did.

 

The thread that I originally purchased with this project in mind was also completely unsuitable, so back to the sewing supply store I went. For the quilt as you go method I ended up reusing the same blue variegated thread that I used in my Hectic Eclectic quilt. The pink variegated thread (which I’d purchased from Spotlight) was too thick and kept coming through on the blue side of the work (and I suspect also played its part in the whole thread breaking debacle). So a new thinner pink variegated thread was purchased last minute from Stumer's Sewing Centre. The variegated pink thread blends in with the batiks instead of standing out like it would on a different quilt.

For the binding the green thread that I’d originally wanted to use was ridiculously bright, so I quickly unpicked this and decided to also use the same green variegated thread that I used for the Hectic Eclectic quilt.

The seam that I had to unpick left some needle marks in the delicate batik fabric, so I’m glad that I didn’t make more mistakes!

 

I ended up buying two more blue panels of batik fabric than what I originally anticipated. These were the darker two panels that are at each end of the blue side. Which I thought helped to balance out the blue side, as before it looked like it was all the same colour (instead of different panels) when I laid out the fabrics and looked at them from a distance. These were purchased from the Patchwork Tree at Alderley. The rest of the batik fabrics were purchased from Quilt Essentials at Eaton’s Hill. The 20cm strips are the minimum cut from these quilting stores and suited my purpose completely as I didn’t want strips that were too thin and would make the work difficult to quilt through.

 

When I make my binding I always refer back to a book I bought when I wanted to get some ideas on how to use up some of the scrap fabrics that I’d begun to accumulate in my quilting adventures.
 
For me there are a lot of firsts wrapped up in this quilt. This quilt is the first that I’ve made for a baby, the first I’ve made for my godchild, the first that I’ve made entirely from batik fabrics, the first that I’ve machine sewn the entire binding on and the first quilt that I’ve ‘quilted as I went’.

 

The end result is a stunning bright baby quilt that I’m glad that I made myself finish before bub arrived. (Otherwise like most of my quilt projects it may lay half-finished in my pile of UFOs for who knows how long?).

I’m now tempted to make myself a bright double sided quilt in beautiful batik fabric strips. I will be strong and hold off on that idea for the moment, well at least until I have fully quilted some of the quilts that I’ve already started.

Now my part is done…all that’s needed now is a newborn to wrap up in the quilt!

The first quilt that I ever started is no longer a UFO!

Hectic Eclectic Quilt

This is the quilt that started all of the madness back in February 2008. This is the reason that I now have three large plastic tubs of different fabrics stashed away for a rainy day. This is the first quilt that I started and the one that I have most recently completed, making it my sixth completed quilt. (Although I now have at least another ten quilt tops in various states waiting their turn). The pattern for this quilt is from the Australian Better Homes and Gardens Magazine February 2008, pages 22, 162-163. The quilt is called Hectic Eclectic.

 

 I actually purchased the magazine for gardening tips, as at the time I was trying to design and landscape the yard of my first home. I fell in love with this quilt and thought to myself... ‘Well I could do that, lots of women have done it before, all the instructions are here…why not?’ The next day I went out and purchased a sewing machine from Kmart and some fat quarters from the quilting supply store.

 

I didn’t expect that cutting up all of the fabrics would take so long, so I got a bit discouraged and distracted by other quilts and projects that I’ve already posted about (such as my son’s quilt, which I wanted to finish and which at the time took priority). I also began to detest the cutting up process and berated myself for choosing a quilt with some many different pieces for my first attempt at quilting.
Since it stated in the pattern that this was a scrap quilt I wanted to stick to that ideal as much as possible. Only problem was it was my first quilt, and previously I wasn’t into sewing and hence not a ‘hoarder’ of fabric. So I had no scraps. Well not in the beginning…
I asked around and before I knew it my mum, nanna, aunt and a friend who worked in a dress making store had all given me a little something to get me started and help me stick to the scrap quilting process.

 There are batiks, cotton and even some blended fabrics in this quilt. Some of the fabrics are probably over twenty years old, so good luck to anyone that ever has to ‘date’ this quilt sometime in the future.

 

There is a pixie style print is actually from clothing that my mum made for me when I was a baby. There’s also a patch of fabric from a dress which she made for me when I was a child. There are fabrics that I have used for other quilts such as my French Braid quilt, and also some fabric that my mum used to make me my first quilt which was a sea themed quilt. There is even fabric that was left over from my mum making a wall hanging heart shaped quilt.  So for me this has become a very special quilt, not just because it is the first one that I have completed and finished entirely on my own (I even quilted this one myself on the machine). But also as it now holds fabric memories from my childhood.

 
The backing of the quilt is a navy homespun fabric. The backing I’ve sewn from two rolls of fabric to make it the size that I required.  I’ve quilted this quilt with two different shades of variegated thread. The top thread is a yellow, green and blue and the bottom thread is a variegated thread of three different shades of blue. Both were $15.00 for 100mts from a quilting shop, and I still have about half left of both; so I can use them for quilting another quilt later on.

 For the binding I’ve used purple homespun fabric (purely as I already had plenty of it and decided that I needed a ‘block’ colour for the binding). I am very impressed with the effect it has against the cream borders on the top and bottom of the quilt, I think that it really makes it ‘pop’. The batting was purchased from Lindcraft and is bamboo.

 The quilt is constructed of 104 blocks.  I’ve made it to be 188x198cms and 13x8 blocks. The original pattern called for 13x7 or a total of 91 blocks and would have made a quilt 138x184cms. I originally planned to have this quilt on my queen sized bed (though it’s more the size of a double bed quilt).

The blocks are meant to measure 5x8in. But this was my first quilt and I know that it isn’t perfect (though I’ve been assured that it looks great). The dividing white strips measure 9.5x 1.5in and 6x1.5in. All in all there are 514 (1.5x1.5 inch) post squares in this quilt. Some of the post squares are left over from my first French Braid quilt and would have otherwise been used as the scrap bit of fabric used when started to sew to keep the ‘tails’ of sewing off of the work.

I found it very relaxing to get out my cutting mat, rotary cutter, ruler and some fabric and sit in front of the TV after a day at work and cut up some fabrics while watching some mind numbing show. It is like I was trying to justify to myself that I was still doing something productive with my time, even when I wasn’t doing too much. So I guess, as much as I started out impatient to start sewing (or piecing, as I now know it’s called) I am now able to trick myself into enjoying the cutting process.

 

I started to piece this quilt before I had finished cutting out all of the pieces of fabric, as I was itching to start sewing and watch the blocks form.

 

I’ve attempted to quilt in the classic ‘stippling’ style. I found quilting this quilt very enjoyable, though it took hours and after wrestling with so much fabric under the machine my shoulders and back ached.  I’ve read somewhere that it feels like wrestling an angry octopus, and I can say that I believe that analogy is spot on.  I would be hesitant to quilt a bigger quilt by myself without a long arm quilting machine.

 This would be the perfect quilt to make if you have been quilting for some time and have various sizes of fabric scraps to use up. In hindsight I’ve really started this whole quilting caper a bit back to front!

It’s strange to think that this is my first quilt, but only the sixth that I have completed. I have so much fabric left over from other quilts that I’ve started to cut up and piece a second Hectic Eclectic quilt, this time the same size as the original pattern which will make it perfect for a single bed. Hopefully the next Hectic Eclectic quilt doesn’t take me five years to complete.  I already have too many projects that I’ve started that I need to complete!

Green Child's Scarf

Not a great deal that I can write about this.
I've knitted a Green scarf for my son.

I cast on approx 40 stitches. I used 100grams of 8ply green acrylic wool and size 4 knitting needles.

I used green as it's my son's favourite colour. He kept asking me to check to see how long the scarf was on him (knitting needles and all!) as I progressed.

All in all the scarf is 47.5 inches or 121cms long and is just over 9 inches or 24cms wide.

I did consider making tassels, but decided
against it, as it is for a rough and tumble little guy.

I enjoyed settling back with a warm drink and watching DVDs while I knitted away. The perfect activity for winter.

Quilted Place mats

                                                                 Quilted Place mats

These are a set of four place mats that I've made for my Grandmother's birthday.
To construct these I've sewn six strips of batik fabric (approx 2 inches wide) together and framed them with the purple printed batik fabric.
The binding is left over fabric from the quilt that I've done for my brother. It's a light blue print with small lighter blue dots.
The place mats were quilted with a purple thread on top and a blue thread on the back in a random fashion.
The backing is purple homespun fabric.


Making place mats is great practise for quilting on the machine and also for perfecting the art of binding.
I've sewn the binding on to the place mat with the machine and tacked it on by hand at the back.
Finishing the binding by hand is a fantastic project to do when watching TV at night.

This set of four place mats I made for my friend Dan's birthday. Again there are six strips of batik fabric sewn together framed in the purple batik print.
Being a gift for a male, I tried to select more masculine batik fabrics.
I have quilted these with purple thread on the top and red thread on the back.
The binding is navy blue homespun fabric.
The backing is a red swirl fabric which was part of a bulk lot of fabric that I purchased from eBay.

 These are a set of six place mats that I've made for myself. For the centre I've sewn together 12 different strips of green fabric and framed it with a red and black swirl print. For the binding I've actually used all different types of material that I have left over from other projects.

One of the bindings is yellow, another orange, one is a red floral print,one is a brown floral print,  two are a black and white daisy print that I have also bound my own quilt with.

I used a red, blue and white variegated thread to quilt these and the backing is plain navy fabric.

The second lot of place mats that I’ve made for myself consist of seven strips of batik fabric (approx. 2 inches wide by 8.5 inches long) with edges top and bottom in the cream and silver fabric I used as the background fabric in my Man Sized French Braid Quilt for my brother.  The back of these is a pink swirl fabric that I got for a bargain price off of eBay (that at the time I didn’t have a project in mind for, but I got caught up in a bidding war and won!). The binding is aqua blue with a birds, butterflies and branches pattern. For the quilting I’ve used aqua embroidery thread and quilted in a random style going from one side to another. These place mats measure 12 by 11.5 inches.

 The best thing about these place mats is that they can be put in the washing machine as often as needed. I have put mine in with the regular washing after washing them separately the first couple of times.

         Batik Quilted Purses/Makeup Bags/Pencil Cases

Here's a photo of four of the finished cases. Two made with a black zipper and two made with a white zipper. The cases measure 8x7 inches or 21x 18cms.

To construct the cases I've sewn together 9 strips of batik fabric approx 2 inches wide. Then I've quilted the fabric with a plain print fabric on one side (with the batting in between). I've done some random quilting with purple thread which is actually a lot of fun to do.

I've then folded over the edges by ironing them (which are going to be the seams which I sew the zipper along) and sewn them down neatly.

I've used a 25cm zip on these, and the extra little bit just tucks into the case.

Before I attempted this project I had never sewn in a zipper. To work out how to do it, I watched a few being done on YouTube before I went ahead and did it myself.

Like most things, I would recommend pinning everything! I would also suggest that you sew on the zipper before sewing up the sides of the bag, just to make it easier to line up the metal edges of where the zip will go and also to allow for being able to manoeuvre the case around the sewing machine.
Try to work out where the seam will go for the sides of the case and then allow for the metal stoppers of the zip to finish just where you finish the seam for the side. This way when the case is complete the zip will close completely.

I've also made myself a camera case out of the same strips of fabric, for that I just added a draw string instead of a zip.

Papillion Quilt

Papillon Quilt

This is a quilt that I finished in March 2010 and it was my second finished quilt.

When I saw this quilt in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, I couldn't wait for an excuse to make it. Then a girlfriend of mine told me that she was about to have a baby girl...

The pattern for this quilt is from Australian Better Homes and Gardens Magazine February 2008, Pages 26, 165-166. The quilt pattern is called Papillon.

The butterfly and birds are temporarily secured to the quilt with Vliesofix before they are quilted on. I did each one at a time, as I have been told that it can come off and make a mess if it's not sewn.

Some of the fabrics in this quilt are vintage Australian flora prints. Note the Sturt Desert Pea in two of the different fabrics.

Note the original border that I had for the quilt. It was a mix of cotton and poly cotton and I found that it stretched too much as I was working with it, so I removed it and added the plain homespun purple fabric instead. I think that comparing the two, in the end I made the best choice. The plain purple 'frames' the quilt nicely, whereas the purple patterned fabric is too busy.

This is actually the best photo that I have of the butterflies close up, the rest were too blurry or the light wasn't right. (Note to self, take better photos of my quilts and lots of them!)

It's hard to see, but with the butterflies I haven't just sewn them on in any of the standard applique styles. I've actually sewn all over the butterfly as if to mimic the veins of the insect.

Again this photo shows the original border that I had on the quilt.

 I had this quilt professionally quilted by the same lady who did my first quilt (and a few more later on). The quilted pattern is flowers with hearts as the leaves. On the top the quilt the thread used was variegated green, yellow, blue and red and on the bottom side of the quilt the thread was pink to blend in with the backing fabric.

The binding is pink homespun fabric which I thought would contrast with the purple borders on the front and the light pink butterfly fabric I've used as the backing.

The back of the quilt. Thought I'd be a bit quirky and add an extra butterfly so it didn't look too boring.